The Kat's Litter Box

Wedding coming soon...dresses going well.

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:57:15 -0500

Two weeks to the wedding. So far everything is going well with only a few minor problems and one massive double face-palm moment that's now no longer an issue. And no, I won't explain any further. Dave has the best attitude about the day: "If at the end of the day the result is Dan and Heather are married and no one is dead, then it was a good day. Nothing else matters." I think I will turn that into a poster than everyone can place on the wall. He's right, no one remembers bows on the back of the chair or if the hall walls clash with the centerpieces, all people want is the ability to say the next day "that was nice! A good time was had by all."

And I won't be anymore specific so stop asking.

My own dress is going well. I'm adding the embellishments now. I have to hand sew everything, glass beads and sewing machine needle don't get along with each other very well. Some of the beaded trims are quite heavy. I tried backing them with organdy, but the starched and stiffened fibers snagged the delicate silk. I tried interfacing but even heavyweight didn't offer enough support. I settled on using the fleece that is used to make pot holders and placemats. It's light, not too thick and it holds the beading in place. I dug out all my hot fix crystals and the hot fix tool and I have some large sew on stones to accent the lace and trims. I think the dress will be very special when it is done.

So we are now feeling so confident about the wedding we are starting to make plans for AFTER the wedding and all the way into September. That one day in August has been such a focus of everything that it seems like life just stopped on that day. There's lots of days after that and it's time to start thinking about them, too.

We are planning a holiday and how we will spend Labor day weekend, and what we want to do when the weather cools off in September, and soon it will be glorious Autumn with trees of gold and orange and what needs to be done before winter and I need to search for boots to replace the ones with the hole in the soles... lots of plans to make for events that happen after the wedding.

And always remember the words of Vince. Vince Klortho:He will come in one of the pre-chosen forms. During the rectification of the Vuldrini, the traveler came as a large and moving Torg! Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the McKetrick supplicants, they chose a new form for him: that of a giant Slor! Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day...I can tell you

Why do I watch Ghostbusters EVERYTIME that movie is on AMC?

Pictures from our weekend!

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:19:33 -0500

So I finally dumped all the pics from the camera onto the computer and re-sized them so they don't break everyone's browser. Let's begin at the beginning:

This, needless to say, is the beach. This is the view from the bench in front of our car. Arriving at 11 in the morning means that we got the best parking spot on the beach, close to the beach, the harbour, the change-rooms and it was in the shade all day.

Could the day be anymore perfect? This is looking south over Lake Huron. It had been stormy recently, you can tell by all the thousands of small flat pebbles washed on shore in waves. The pebbles rattled and sang as the waves broke over them.

Dave and I went for a hike along the harbour and railway trail. This is looking over the harbour. I tried to add a sense of linear perspective to many of my pictures, this one captures the effect I wanted.

Giant grain elevator along the harbour trail. It rose up beside the trail like a cathedral, or a freight train.

This is a view of the Maitland River from the big train bridge. The water is very high, normally at this time or year the river trickles over gravel washes on the banks, there are wide expanses of pebbles and little vegetation other than a few chicories and goldenrod. This is nearly up to spring levels.

Looking toward Lake Huron from the bridge. Salt mine, grain elevator, evaporator, and boats.

The Train bridge at Goderich. It was once the main CP rail bridge, built back in the early 1900's to cross the wide expanse of The Maitland River. the river and the harbour were once the main port of entry on Lake Huron where grains, salt, and other goods loaded on and off the many ships and were transported across the great lakes and beyond. Now it's a pleasant summer afternoon walk. The bridge still smells like coal tar and trains.

The Hike is over. Both Dave and I are quite hot. The sun is relentless and we both got a little overheated. Dave Dave and I cool off with a dip in the lake. The water is warm as bathwater and it cools us off quickly. We both agree that so far the day is perfect and the only thing that would make it better is if one of the big great lake freighters came into the harbour. We look out over the lake and see a tugboat right at the outer breakwater Could it be?

Yes, our ship has come in, accompanied by three tugboats, who will soon be earning their paycheques. It's the "Algosteel" run by the Algoma Central Railway. It is here for a load of road salt which will ultimately end up in Toronto -according to the guys on the ship who talked to the crowds of people these ships inevitably attract. It is a highlight for more than just my bunch. .

Now let's put this into perspective shall we? the ship is HUUUUGE and long.

The crowd of people stood and stared. Long ship is long!

Here's where the tugs earn their pay. They pivot the entire ship around, stem to stern, in the harbour. I wish there was someway to let everyone hear this snapshot...Oh yeah! I can! Like so:

If that doesn't show up here's the direct link to You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN-EFPXlSv4 and here's the link to my channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRealLincatz#p/a

And now we near the end of the day. It's six-thrirty and everyone has packed up and gone away for dinner. The ship is loading up on salt, Dave Ben and I are all quite red, fed and almost dead! We spend a bit more time staring over the water, enjoying the last bit of our picnic food and soaking up the sun and fresh lake breeze. We don't bother changing out of our still wet swimwear before packing up the car and heading home. The drive takes a little over an hour and bit.

All in all as close to perfect as a day can be

If anyone had trouble getting to my...

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:03:38 -0500

If anyone had trouble getting to my blog or website for the past five days, I apologize. I messed up a setting while setting up and linking a few hidden files on the site. I was doing monthly maintenance of all the stuff that needs it, like robots, htpaccess, cookies, and such and I accidentally pointed the main domain to my blog and turned off access to the blog by entering the slash-litterbox url. Oops! You think I would know by now not to touch that line of code.

We went to Goderich on Sunday. Dave and I had a brain fart, we took along lots of sunscreen but completely forgot to use it. Now all three of us have sunburns. Dave has it worse, he was wearing sunglasses and a hat so only the lower half of his face in burnt. When it turn to a tan he's going to look really weird! The day was perfect, it wasn't too hot, the sun shone all day, the water was warm as bath water...around three we were saying that the only thing that would make the day perfect was if a big ship arrived at the harbour. A few minutes later a big ship appeared and sailed into the harbour.

I finally used the movie feature of my camera. When I bought it I thought it was great because it combined all the best of an automatic point and shoot digital with the manual special effect features of a SLR. It was an absolute bonus to discover i could use it as a video camera too. So while at the beach I was taking pictures of the surf on the pebbles...thinking it would be perfect if I could capture the sound of the waves on the shore...then it hit me! I can take stereo sound videos! So I did a couple to capture the sound of the waves, a couple because I could, an a few to capture the size of the ship, the roar of it's propeller and another to capture the roar of the tugboats pushing the ship around. It's like taking sound and action snapshots!

This means that tomorrow will be a picture day, a possibly a video day. I'm trying to upload a few to you tube. and I'm moving all to a special video folder so we can watch them at home. Good thing I got a huge memory card. Videos take a lot of space.

So that's all for now, back to watching little status bars and videos go from one place to another...

I now have a very nice MOG...

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:09:29 -0500

I now have a very nice MOG dress with serged and pressed seams, a nice long skirt with a slight fishtail in the back, bias bound armholes and a fully faced neckline. Now I am adding some metal and satin woven decorative tape to ouline the diamond and to give a little extra shape to the deep V in the midriff. Once the trims are added I can then hand sew the lace skirt overlay. Then the dress will ned to hang on the dress form for a while so the seams can sag and then I can hem it. After the wedding i can take off the lace overlay and have a nice bias cut satin evening gown.

So that's a picture of the perfect shoe for my dress. I found them yesterday atthe mall, but sadly they were too narrow for me. If it wasn't going to be suich a long day, I might be willing to suffer, but the last thing I want is sore pinched toes from 12 noon to2 in the morning. Here's the shoe in its natural habitat, the shoe store website Maybe I'll buy the size nine. Which is worse flippy floppy too big shoes or too tight shoes?

The only thing I did buy for myself was some really boring cotton everyday undies from Zellers. Every once in a while everyone needs to replace the boring cotton everyday undies. And when Zeller's sells ten pairs for for a dollar there's no way I can make them as cheaply. And no way I'm spending three times as much at LaSenza. I also got a card for digital tracks and ringtones to put on my phone. I hate buying digital music and ringtones. I feel like I'm not buying anything of substance. Zeros and ones are not things of substance.

This next ring, however; is not a tone and has a lot of real substance:

All it lacks is the etching of a gold ring on the left hand. It's being sold as a "Modern Claddagh Ring" by someone who has never ever seen goatse. Don't look it up unless you wish to scarred for life. Confession: I think I goatse'd the aardvark man. It was at the time he followed my blog on the computers at the local library while doing those Q's and A's about the furry grey guy, and I knew he loved the "something awful" photoshopped comic book covers link I had earlier, (according to my source he just about burst his spleen) so I put a link to collection two in an entry. Only it wasn't to collection two, it was to goatse. The real link to SA was in the next sentence. Most experienced surfers know to look at the bottom left hand corner of the browser before clicking links, but he still innocent. I corrupted his innocence. The only unfortunate part of that was I also goatse'd a bunch of others, like my hubby, my Mother in Law, and my brother.

Back to the ring: What the hell were they thinking?!? And why does mr goatse no longer disgust me? Have I become that jaded? Or has my over ten years on the web merely numbed me to the horrors life can contain? Although the first time I saw it I was quite shocked. Since then I've seen much, much worse, even worse that tub girl, SWAP.AVI (that's what SA called two girls when I first saw it) in fact a few things that makes the merry old gentlemen of lemon party seem quite tame.

And that's all for today.

Here's a picture of the Mother of...

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:48:33 -0500

Here's a picture of the Mother of the Groom dress. I've been calling it my MOG dress, or the "moggie." In some countries "moggie" is slang for kitty cat. It's fitted, altered and tacked together. Everything is fine, I have one more minor adjustment to make at the bottom of the bodice, then I can work on the finish sewing.

It hasn't been pressed and it shows all the wrinkles and fold from construction and fitting. I need to serge all the raw edges. I need to add facings, stay tapes to the neck and armhole and I need to add some structure to the midriff band to emphasize the V shape. I have yet to decide between lining the dress or leaving it unlined. Then I can add some trims and embellishments.

I won't be sewing the lace skirt overlay into the waist seam. If I sew it to an organza band and then tack that to the midriff band then I can remover the lace after the wedding and have myself a gorgeous bias cut satin evening gown.

The fabric itself is sewing up like a dream. In spite of the fact that is is a very fine pure silk satin, it isn't sewing like microfiber "silkies" It isn't slipping and sliding as I sew, it didn't creep and shift while I was cutting. and it isn't fraying as I work with it. It's worthwhile giving a fine fabric like this the extra care and attention to detail that it deserves. I think it will be worth it.

The biggest challenge so far is that Trixie loves the fabric, especially for sleeping purposes. She tried to help me while I cut the fabric by being a great big living pattern weight. When I was cutting large pieces, like the skirt side panel this wasn't a problem. When I was cutting smaller facings and midriff pieces, she was sort of in the way. I sometimes think she would love to be able to wear clothes, she's always laying on my fabrics, laying on my clothes, and if there's a pile of laundry she tries to find mine so she can lay on mine. Or she just likes me 'cause I'm special.

So that's what been taking up much of my time and attention these days. that and altering some other dresses. Now I have to get back to work on my dress.

A Blog Entry with No Content.

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:19:22 -0500

Weekend went well. Dave and I took a trip to the big craft store in Paris. He got a couple cross stitch kits with bears and I got some tatting stuff. They had a nice array of shuttle tatting supplies including threads in bright colours and some in high fashion colours including several variegated blues that would look great with denims. No wonder my little tatting page has been getting attention. I got a book for intermediate tatters that's full of unique edgings and insertions and next I'm getting a book that has some advanced techniques including "cluny weaving" "split rings," Josephne knots and dangle drops. That should be fun!

For fall I want to make some denim fashions for myself and include some tatted accents. Tatting always get a reaction when people see it on clothing. I have a couple shirts with tatted accents and the lace is exactly as the Victorian women described it, durable and it stands up to repeated washings. I'm trying several of the new edgings in the book.

Sunday was the big "Ribs and Craft Beer" festival in the Park in Kitchener. There were eight places selling ribs and one place selling fire roasted corn on the cob. It was not a place for vegetarians. The food however, was quite good. I didn't have any beer, Celiac prevents me from ever having a beer or "malt beverage" ever again. Ben made up for it by sampling EVERYTHING and then walking in that strange sideways shuffle he gets when he's had way too much. by eight in the evening he had a headache.

Know what I hate? Thunderstorms in the middle of the night. And I hate waking up to the weather network headline "tornado warning has ended" Tornadoes should only be permitted in the day when people are awake and able to see or hear the tornado warnings.

So I checked out the "I Write Like" website. I entered in the Big Game section of my novel and I write like "Stephen King" I entered a different novel, a big old unfinished tome I have on my hard drive and i got Chuck Palahniuk, the guy who wrote The Fight Club I suppose i could do worse. I could write like whoever wrote the Twilight series. Or "the dark and stormy night" guy. A few blog entries came up as "I write Like Charles Dickens. That can only mean one thing: Time for a good editing of adverbs, adjectives and excess punctuation. Too bad I didn't write like Neil Gaiman...that would be cool.

Now it's off to work on my dress. I have my serger set up with some woolly nylon on pale aqua so i do a nice soft seam finish on the inside and then I can start sewing on the braid trims, the beads and apply the hotfix crystals. It's going well, so far.

And that's all for today. Maybe tomorrow I will have some real content for my blog.

The Kat Who Tats. With pictures of real tatted lace

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:48:41 -0500

I spent last night tatting. Tatting has a steep learning curve, the beginner stuff isn't difficult but if you want stuff that looks good it takes time and effort to learn how to do it well. Every time I bring it out I find it has become easier to do that the previous time. Yesterday I had to dig out some knitting needles and a fine crochet hook. They are in a box labeled "Lace supplies: Not bobbin" I decided to take the box to the living room and indulge in a little tatting in the evening.

One of my favourite hobbies when I have extra time is making laces of various types. My favourite lace is bobbin lace, especially Honiton bobbin lace. I can also make needle lace, tape lace, crochet lace and knitted lace, but the one that has always fascinated me since I was very young is tatted lace. I saw someone making it long ago and the intricate dance of the shuttle, the fingers and thread was quite enthralling. I decided that one day I would learn to tat. And I did.

Tatted lace is the one we in modern times associate most with fine delicate lace. Surprisingly a Victorian woman would have considered tatted lace anything BUT fine delicate lace. It was considered coarse and suitable only for underwear and children's wear. Lace that was Meant To Be Seen and make an impression was almost always needle lace or bobbin lace. What tatted lace did have going for it was the it was faster to execute than the other laces, took few tools and took up far less space to work. It required only a small shuttle filled with thread and small bag to store the thread and shuttle. Other laces required large work areas or lots of tools.

Another modern misconception is that tatted lace is a very ancient art. it isn't. Tatted lace makes its first appearance in France during the French revolution, when finery and frippery was banned. It was decidedly un-aristocratic and therefore far more suitable for the french people. It crossed to England in the 1830's. All tatted lace was worked with a single shuttle and most tatted laces were simple ring, loop and scallop designs until the late 1860's when the second shuttle was introduced -again by a french woman. Then the lace became more complex and it became a favourite for doilies and small table protectors. It was sturdier than needle and bobbin lace and it would withstand frequent washing. That sturdiness made it the preferred lace for childrens clothes and underwear, both which required frequent laundering.

In spite of its reputation in the Victorian era of being easy to work, it does have a very steep learning curve and in modern times it is a difficult skill to learn and master. The modern adaptation of Needle tatting isn't really an improvement, if anything needle tatted lace looks coarser and chunkier and it makes complex patterns impossible. I admit it, I am a tatting snob -if anyone wants to learn tatting I feel shuttle tatting is best. It offers the most design possibilities and shuttle tatted lace looks better.

There's only one stitch to learn, which takes a mere two hand motions. Everything else is a variation. The little loops are merely spaces between the stitch. The lace gets structure when the picot from one ring is joined to the next ring. Stitches can be either worked as rings or in chains. The most complicated tatting uses two shuttles and combines rings, picot loops and chains into elaborate patterns. The basic stitch is called the Double Stitch, because to the two hand motions required to work it. The loops are called picots. pronounced PEE-co

This is a really simple one shuttle edging. It is worked thus: first ring 4DS Picot 2DS picot 4DS picot 4DS picot 2DS picot 4DS close, next and all following 4DS join with first picot, 2DS and joined with second picot, 4DS picot, 4DS picot 2DS picot, 4DS and close. Keep a bit of space between rings if you wan the edging to lay flat, less space if you wan the edging to look frilled.

This is how a simple one shuttle motif, the four, leaf clover, can be turned into an insertion or braid. Each four leaf clover is attached to the previous motif and the 4 lobes are cut and tied together to make a square. You keep making the squares and attach them to the previous square and you have a braid. The bottom is a sample worked in fine 40 thread while the top is worked in 5 pearl cotton. For one shuttle projects i use a vintage metal shuttle with the coarse metal hook on one end.

These are two different edgings. The top is made with two shuttles and it's a series of chains and rings. The bottom is a whole bunch of trefoil motifs joined to make a braid. You can either thread a think ribbon through the large square spaces or you can applique the tatting over a wide ribbon. Getting all the picots the same size is a matter of practice.

And what is tatting without a doily? This is a simple one shuttle doily suitable for use as a drink coaster. Simply sew the doily onto a piece of felt and you have a not very stable place to put your drinks.

This is a really complex edging that has yet to be blocked into shape. This is worked with two shuttles and is a series of rings, loops and chains. It worked in number 50 variegated tatting thread. After tatting most edgings need to be steam blocked into shape. When applying to clothes I usually spray-starch the tatting before stitching it in place. The starch helps the piece hold its shape. After the first washing the starch is gone.

And this is a work in progress. This is a two shuttle edging and you can see the type of shuttle used for this. This is the most modern shuttle available and it's my favourite. The shuttle has a bobbin in the middle, it's easy to change bobbins when i want to work on something different. There is a small hook on one end to assist in joining picots. Tye plastic is easy on the hands and warmer to the touch than a metal shuttle and it's lighter weight. I am using number 30 Opera crochet cotton by Coats and Clark. The softer, looser spin of crochet cotton makes it easier to work with. Fine tightly spun tatting threads can be little wiry to work with and the thread feels -for lack of a better word -hard.

My really old web page on learning to tat can be found here: http://lincatz.tripod.com/tattingpage.html If you've been out looking at other tatting instruction pages, some of the images might look familiar. They are my original illustrations, the page is actually very old, I wrote it up in 2003-2004 and it was on different hosts. ( text on geocities, pics on delphiusers) There are couple dead links and missing pictures, for which I apologize and I will try to find them in the depths of my old picture files and make working links.

So that's all for today. I have to continue working on my mother of the groom dress and when I get completely vexed by whatever I will switch to tatting for a while, then return to the dress.

Picture day! A Giant Blue Heron.

Fri, 9 Jul 2010 10:36:33 -0500

The heat wave has broken this morning in gallons of rain falling from the sky. And just in time, the heat was starting to make my poor hubby sick. And far too soon, I was just getting acclimatized to the heat and it wasn't bothering me as much. The hottest day by far was monday while we were on the road. We drove through miles of farm land and the dust and the sweet smell of hay hung suspended in the dirty air. By yesterday I was feeling like doing more than sitting in front of the air conditioner and tried to finish the last of the unpacking.

So here are a couple pictures of our time in Haliburton. We don't stay in the town, we stay in out camping trailer on my brother's property. We have a kitchen tent, a barbecue, table, chairs, cooking utensils and we can use their fridge and freezer. It's quite a nice set up. We sleep outdoors with nothing but some thin tent canvas between us and the critters so we have to strictly adhere to the rules of proper bear-proofing. No food in the tent, no garbage laying out, no food where it's easily reached by bears. Get the idea that bears are a problem? Coyotes and wolves are also a real threat. Smaller critters such as possums, raccoons, skunks and porcupines are more of a nuisance than a threat.

Let us start with this magnificent Blue Heron. This was taken at the West Guillford beach. West Guillford is a tiny little village with a tiny little beach, a tiny little grocery store that sells the the best fresh local meat EVAR and a tiny little french fry/ice cream stand that sells the BEST. ICE CREAM. EVAR. Why is it that those tacky little wooden food stands with the rickety picnic table serve such good stuff? Is the quality of food inversely proportional to the prettiness of the place it is cooked in?

This is more of the beach. It's small, surrounded by green and quite natural and unspoiled. There are thousands of tiny minnows swimming in the shallow water and there are thousands of fresh water clam shells. We founda few living clams. The clams bury themselves and stick out a breathing feeding tube from their shell. Look for the tiny bubbles to find living clams.

This looking the opposite way to the creek that feeds the lake. Those are sedges and reeds. There were larger fish in the deeper colder water.

This is a forest road. Much of the terrain looks identical to this, only without the wheel ruts. The area was extensively logged, but you can still see evidence of the old gian trees if you know how to look. The stumps are almost all rotted, but you can see the contours of fallen trees on the ground covered in moss. That strange soft spongy ridge is probably a tee that fell over a hundred years ago.,

The road took us to this old abandoned sugar shack where Amy was filming a creepy artsy movie for a contest.

The next day Steve and Dave also came to the beach. Here they are relaxing and watching the kids.

These are the footprints that greeted us one morning. They are dog-like and way too big to be Luna. Wolf? Coyote? Bear? Sasquatch? One last picture:

The view outside or camper door. The land rises steeply upward as we are parked on the side of a rather large granite ridge. Everything is on a series of forested granite ridges. You can see why were were visited by so many forest critters, what with being right in the middle of their habitat.

Tonight we have a full slate: Cruising On King Street" is tonight: the parade with all the old cars, grocery shopping (fun? wow.) and hopefully getting Dan and Heather's air conditioner installed. We'll have to jury rig it somehow, and it won't be pretty...but it will make their apartment livable on hot summer days.

And that's all. Later.

Animal-free sleeptime!

Tue, 6 Jul 2010 09:30:57 -0500

We are back from Haliburton. I wish we were still there. It's hot and steamy and I would LOVE to be able to jump in the lake, even though I can't swim. Next time the girls are going to teach their aunt how to swim...or at least stay afloat. We slept in out camp trailer, which was cold two night and hot two nights. How could it go from a low of 6 Celsius one night to low of 20 the next night? There's lots of wildlife up there and much of it had to check out our campsite at night while we tried to sleep. We heard Loons, Wolves, Coyotes, unidentifiable small mammal, deer, and possibly a bear. And of course we were visited by the official bird of the Canadian Wilderness: The Mosquito. Additionally, I had terrible trouble with the Deer flies. These are triangle shaped flies that don't sting, they actually take a bite of your flesh. They seemed to love me, I have about eight bites on my neck and a few elsewhere.

Last night I slept well, even though it was hot and steamy. The only animal sniffing around was Trixie the kitty cat, and she's mostly harmless. She missed us terribly and spent the night sitting on our windowsill watching us sleep. She tried to wake up right at sunrise, but quickly gave up.

The drive there was quick and relatively painless. The weather was good, we stopped a few times and didn't make any massive wrong turns. The drive back was different. It started off hot and steamy, continued to get hotter and steamier, and ended hot, steamy and smoggy. In Newmarket on Time and temp sign read 36C humidex 45. That's inhuman. it almost made me miss the deer flies.

Now I'm catching up on emails and crap. And slathering lanacaine all over my bug bites. Later I'll go to the train tracks and collect some jewel-weed and crush the juicy stems and leaves all over the bites. I'll also steep some in cold water to make a lotion. Jewel-weed is ten times more effective against bug bites and irritation than calamine lotion, which really doesn't do anything. And if you get hit with poison ivy or oak or nettles, not even doctor's prescriptions are as effective at curing the rash as common jewel-weed. Knowing a bit of herb lore can be a good thing.

Now it's off to the basement to get some fans and then upstairs to hook up the AC. We got a small window AC unit that we're giving to Dan and Heather. If it doesn't fit their window we'll use it here and we will have house guests for a few days, until the heatwave breaks. I should be fine as long as I follow two rules: stay out of the sun and don't cook at the hottest part of the day.

So off to catch up on things. My least favourite part of vacations is all the stuff that is waiting to be done when i get home.

Sewing FAQ: How do I Preserve and Use Vintage Sewing Patterns?

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 09:14:13 -0500

Today's question come from Yahoo answers and is worth exploring in more detail than is allowed by the Yahoo Answers format.

I have vintage clothes patterns from the 20s through the 70s, and would like to know the best way to preserve them and still be able to use them?

I also have an extensive collection of sewing patterns from the 1800's to now and there are several things you can do to keep them from turning to paper dust.The biggest enemies of paper sewing patterns are moisture, air and the acid based papers they were made from. Acid based papers will turn brown around the edges from oxidization and then crumble to dust. You must keep them in acid free environments and keep the dry and keep them out of the air

The older the pattern the less likely it is to made from acid based papers. The ones from the 1920's and earlier are likely non acid, that is alkali papers. They will be greenish grey or grey, the paper will feel crisp and not like tissue, more like tracing paper; and the pattern pieces will be in surprisingly good condition. The instruction sheet will have only minimal discoloring. These will need to be stored in a simple acid free envelopes in simple archival quality storage units. Keep them dry, moisture is their biggest enemy. Keep them sealed unless you are using them.

1920's to the middle of the depression: while the patterns are now made of tissue, it's still much firmer than modern paper patterns. The paper is still alkali for the pattern pieces, but now the envelops and the instruction sheets are made of very cheap acid based papers and they will be discolored with brown brittle edges. The instruction sheets from the mid 20's to the mid 60's are made from some of the poorest quality acid pulp papers ever made. Separate the instructions and envelope from the pattern pieces, scan or photocopy the instruction sheet and envelope and store in acid free archival quality Mylar envelopes. They should no longer ever be taken out as exposure to air will hasten the inevitable deterioration of the poor quality paper. Store the pattern pieces in another archival quality acid free envelope with a photocopy of the original envelope on the new envelope.

After WWII the quality of pattern papers varies depending on the pattern company. As you have noticed, some companies used clear white tissue perforated with holes while other companies used printed patterns. The printed patterns are on acid based papers if the paper is brown or beige, while green paper is neutral. The envelopes and the instruction sheets are on acid based papers and are likely already heavily discolored and falling apart. Again, photocopy the instruction sheet and the envelope and seal away in a Mylar envelope to keep air away from the acid paper. Store the pattern pieces separate layered with acid free paper. Try not to crease or squish the paper flat, patterns can weaken on crease lines. As nice as it would be to store them rolled on acid free tubes, it isn't realistic. The white perforated patterns are acid free and only need to be stored in an archival acid free envelope. Try to keep everything in sealed container to prevent excess oxidization and keep in a dry place so they don't get damp and mildewed.

In the 1960's and 70's pattern paper quality improves greatly. You can store these in acid free envelopes and keep them in an acid free container. Keep them dry and keep them at a steady temperature. Don't keep them in a cold damp place, or a place subjected to temperature and moisture fluctuations. The patterns of the seventies will stay in good condition for a long time as long as they are protected from moisture and kept in a dry place with good air circulation. In fifteen years if they begin to turn brown around the edges switch them to sealed containers where they won't oxidize.

Using vintage patterns: Try to trace the patterns before using. You will need to alter the patterns, the basic block patterns used to draft fashion patterns has changed greatly over the past 90 years. In the 20's it was assumed you were 5ft2, and slight of build with no shoulders, arm muscles or boobs. The patterns of the fifties are made for someone with sloping shoulders and a girdled up torso shaped like a cone. the patterns of the sixties are made for a straight up and down shape with few curves, by the seventies patterns were designed for a more modern athletic, curvy, ungirdled body. By tracing the patterns you can also make note construction details that are different from modern details, such as "regulation plackets" and bias stiffening, among others.

With perforated patterns trace all the holes, don't leave any out. Check measurements carefully, older pattern sizes bear no resemblance to modern pattern sizes, and even less resemblance to modern store sizes. A modern store size 2 will take modern pattern size of 6 or eight and would take a 12 or 14 in older patterns. If the pattern is a size 6 and you are a 16, then refer to these articles from threads on how to enlarge and reduce patterns:
http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/4368/making-sense-of-pattern-grading
http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/4424/quick-reference-for-cut-and-spread-pattern-grading

Make a test muslin of the dress and adjust the fit in the test phase. Refer to a good fitting book such as "Fabulous fit for Every Body" By Gail Grigg Hazen to understand where and how to fit. As a general guideline fitting issues can be reduced down to two issue, bags where there's too much fabric, and pulls where there's too little fabric. If you have a bag, you need to remove excess fabric, if you have a pull you need to add fabric to where the piece is pulling. Do not over-fit, you still need room to move.

Vintage notions and techniques or modern? Honestly, use modern methods, tools, and notions. Many vintage notions are impossible to find, and some have changed their name. "metal slide fastener" in now known as a zipper, and you would never put a metal zipper in a dress, not when a lighter plastic nylon zipper looks and works better. You can change "regulation plackets" to zippers, sew in organdy to fusible interfacing, bias bound seam allowances to serged seam allowances. Vintage sewing patterns used the most modern tools and techniques available in their day for convenience, so you can use today's modern tools and techniques. Some notions will be impossible to find anyways, when was the last time you saw eight fold organdy backed glue sized bias neck facing in your local store? Some old instruction sheets are very un-helpful as they assume that the dressmaker has been sewing all her life and already has a repertoire of sewing techniques and tools. They don't tell you what to do, they assume you already know how to make a dress.

If you do want to go all out and use vintage techniques here's a collection of vintage sewing books, all scanned and available for free: http://vintagesewing.info/index.html You should also have some modern books to help with other aspects of sewing, especially if the instructions are of poor quality. The Vogue Sewing Book and Reader's digest Complete Book of Sewing are two comprehensive sewing books that have almost everything anyone would need.

And that's the basics of storing and using vintage patterns. I hope that helps a bit. The key point is to try and reduce the natural tendency of the acidic papers to deteriorate by keeping them out of air, moisture, and by storing them in as neutral an environment as possible to mitigate the effects of the acid. Only use Mylar, don't use baggies, ziplocks or any other plastic. Only real Mylar will halt acid damage. Make copies of the pattern before you use them, then you can alter the pattern without damaging the original.

BTW: you can de-acidify paper, but it is not an at home process and it is very expensive. It's done by art galleries, libraries and university archives. There is a spray you can use, but again it is expensive at 10$ a page. Here'a few links about de-acidifying paper especially high acid pulp newsprint which is used to make the instruction sheets:
http://americanhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_preserve_historical_newspapers
http://www.fauxgrain.com/paperpreservation.htm