Sew Grateful Giveaway!!

If you haven't checked out Debi's blog My Happy Sewing Place... you must. This women is BEYOND amazing in her dedication to and interpretation of vintage patterns. To top it off, her styling of her creations is inspiring. She's one of my sewing heroes. Seriously. She's amazing.

She's also the brain behind The Sew Grateful Week. Basically, we're celebrating what we're thankful for in regards to sewing and the sewing community. Now, I'm a newbie to the sewing community, but I am a long time (and habitual) lurker. A number of the blogs I follow, I started following in 2010 while living abroad in India. It was an incredibly awesome but frequently isolating experience to live in a country so vastly different from my own native place (central New York) and to not have the language skills to communicate with the people around me. Friends, despite what everyone thinks about the rest of the world speaking English, this is not, in fact, the case. Furthermore, when one doesn't know the language (and sticks out Gulliver in the land of the Lilliputs), one spends a lot of time feeling very self-conscious. So, long story short, these blogs became sort of a lifeline. I yearned for my sewing machine and wallowed in my inability to be creative. When I returned in February 2010, I had grand plans of not buying any clothing and only making my clothing. Inspired by people like Debi, Gertie, Casey, and Mena I wanted my own lovely handmade wardrobe! Best laid plans and all got way-laid by the stress of no job (I still don't have a "real" job but am starting--ever so slowly!--to pick up freelance writing jobs). Then, this past year I got serious. I made a New Years Intention (I despise the word "resolution"... it just sets one up for failure from the get go!), I decided to make the leap to a fully home sewn wardrobe. If you'd like, you can read more about it here.

So here's what I'm grateful for at this juncture.

• I'm so very grateful that I have a supportive Mr. Retro who puts up with my (abundant) frustrated swearing, my sprawling projects, me insessently asking "does this look okay?"(to his credit, he's always honest), my micro-managing his picture taking skills, and the little bits of string and fabric tracked from one end of the apartment to the other. He's wonderful. AND LEARNING, friends! He tries to throw out a new sewing term he's heard me use every once in awhile. This, of course, is met with mixed results (he used the word "bustle" to describe my backside once). And he's keenly interested in the darts section of the Adele P. Margolis book I recently bought. I swear, they broke the mold with this one (and no, you can't have him! He's mine! All mine! Mwahahahah!.... er....right). 
• I am so very grateful for a supportive family who has indulged my new hobby. My mother generously gifted me some purple fabric and my beyond wonderful aunt (find here here) sent me a fabulous care package with the most delightful pincushion and matching pins. My grandmother frequently answers questions about the machine that I own as it was once hers. They, and a cousin as well, all FREQUENTLY answer boneheaded construction questions. Without them, I probably couldn't sew a straight line. 
• I am grateful that I have the time to cultivate this hobby. I don't have a full-time job and mostly work from home on freelance projects. This sometimes makes it hard to get to sewing with deadlines looming and all. It also sometimes makes it hard to get AWAY from sewing and to work. But, honestly? It's pretty awesome to be able to do both. And in my pajamas nonetheless! 
• I am grateful for a community of relative strangers who feel like life-long friends. You all are amazingly kind and patient and frequently answer my (frequently) asinine questions (really, I just need a lot of reassurance!) when I post them to various forums.

So, to thank the sewing community for being so damn awesome, giving, and supportive of new blood like me, I'd like to pass along this pattern to a new home:

I love multiple things about this pattern: the big swishy skirt, the bateau neckline, the V-back! I think there's so many different ways you could interpret this pattern--a vintage floral design sans sleeves, a sleek modern look with 3/4 sleeves, throw some lace around the neck, insert pockets in the skirt... endless possibilities I tell you! It's just not my size (it's a 8-10-12-14) and I'm too lazy to be bothered to grade up AND do a FBA.

I'll open this up to international participants and I'm not asking you to follow me (but if you'd like to that's awesome! I talk sewing, books, movies, and sometimes my cats). Just make sure to leave an EMAIL in the comments so that I can reach you for your mailing details. Giveaway is open until midnight (Eastern Time) Sunday, February 12th.

Good luck and seriously, thank you all for being so damn awesomesauce!

ETA: Folks! DO NOT FORGET TO INCLUDE AN EMAIL ADDRESS!