Give yourself a gift this year!

The 2021 Lee & Pearl Holiday Mystery Bags arrive in our Etsy store today at 12 noon, central time.

You've been SO good this year, and it's time to put your own specially-wrapped Lee & Pearl mystery gift under your tree.

CLICK HERE at 12 noon central time on Monday December 6, 2021 to go to the Fabric & Trim section of our Etsy shop to find the 2021 Mystery Bag listing.

This year, we've tucked something new and exciting into each bag!

Last month, "Pearl" received notice through our costuming friends that a custom necktie and men's formal accessories manufacturer in Baltimore, Maryland was moving to a new location and selling off their remaining inventory of vintage and specially-ordered 100% silk brocades and twills.

"Lee" jumped in the van and drove right over — with Pearl on videochat. As soon as we got a look at the bolts and bolts of elegantly woven silk, we knew that these were materials we HAD to share with our friends.

So we made an offer for the entire collection on the spot.

We'll be selling these silks, which come in both doll scale and historical costumer scale, in our Etsy store starting next year. But we wanted to give our Mystery Bag fans a special holiday treat, so Lee went through the collection, pulled the choicest doll-scale silks and shipped them off to Pearl in Texas for inclusion in this year's bags.

You won't believe how beautiful these materials are. There are printed silks and jacquard-woven silks, heavy weight silks and light-as-air silks, subtle masculine silks and exuberant feminine silks, Art Deco silks and outdoorsy silks.

And all of the silks in this grouping are doll-scaled and perfect for tiny jackets, collars, cuffs, cummerbunds, itty-bitty neckties, silken dressing gowns, formal bodices, petticoat fronts, gentlemen's waistcoats and any other doll garment or accessory that cries out for the perfect piece of scrumptious silk.

Here's a fun piece of fashion history —

Though these silks were created by specialty manufacturers from all around the world, a significant fraction come from a group of historic silk mills in Sudbury, England. Check out the Stephen Walters & Son Ltd. label on this gorgeous raspberry brocade.

The Stephen Walters company has been weaving silk in England since 1720. Originally located in the famous silk-weaving district of Spitalfields, the company pioneered the industry's move to Sudbury in the mid-19th century, where they are still among the premier English weavers of custom-designed and bespoke silk fabrics right up to today.

Here's one more piece of fashion history — according to the Sudbury Museum Trust website, the Stephen Walters mills "were commissioned to make silk for the wedding dresses of both the Princess Royal and Princess Diana."

We can't say for sure that any of the silks in our Mystery Bag collection were made on the same loom that gave us Princess Di's dress... but at least this raspberry silk might have been.

Of course, this year's bags will ALSO be full of all the materials that Pearl lovingly collected for fun doll sewing over the last 12 months.

Along with the silk tie brocades and twills, you'll find generous cuts of pretty cottons, soft jerseys, glittering specialty fabrics, luxurious faux leathers and furs, and easy-to-coordinate cotton and linen shirtings and corduroys. We're not taking anything out — we're just putting a piece of super-glam silk IN.

Set your timer or phone alarm and be ready to head over to our Etsy shop right at noon, central time, today. This is a very LIMITED limited edition as we can only pack as many Mystery Bags as we have pieces of silk.

CLICK HERE at 12 noon central time on Monday December 6, 2021 to go to the Fabric & Trim section of our Etsy shop to find the 2021 Mystery Bag listing.

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See you next time!