Fantasy fabric shopping

After last week's unintended addition to the stash, I am going for a far safer method of fabric shopping - virtually, via the pages of my 1950s/60s (?) pattern catalogue. All of the illustrations are in colour, and the artists have created a wide range of different prints in the 'dresses' section.

A few of my favourites

Some are particularly bold.

Even I would think twice about these two

In a lot of cases, a colour theme links the two or three dresses on the page.

But I would happily take a dress length of each of these

Cherry prints are almost a cliché of 1950s dresses now, but these illustrations suggest that such fabrics did exist.

Cherries on a black background

Cherries on a white background

Along with other fruit-related prints.

Oranges and lemons

The entire fruit bowl

In some cases, even the line drawing of another view is patterned.

Showing the effect of material cut crosswise

While bright colours could be acceptable for daywear, evening dresses are mostly black or pastel shades.

Pastels. For evening. Groundbreaking.

Of course, in fantasy fabric shopping land, everything is perfect. The ideal contrast fabric is always available.

The same print in the reverse colourway

Finding buttons which exactly match a colour in the print is a breeze.

No button-matching angst here

And so is finding accessories which tie in with not just one but two colours in your new dress.

Match the green and the pink? Easy

Oh, to visit fantasy fabric shopping land! But if I did, my stash would be even bigger.