I made a promise to myself when I embarked upon costume countdown week to limit my use of clowns -- believe me, I could feature vintage clown patterns all week. Each one has a little something special to make it just not right in that way clowns are. Take, for example, Butterick 3169, a 1964 pattern I found in Midvale Cottage's etsy shop:
Oh, you may think this is just a tableau of frolicking kids -- but take a closer look at the one in the upper right hand corner. WHY IS THE APPLE FLOATING?!
My personal fave, though, is Advance 701, which appears to be either from the 1940s or early 1950s. Interestingly, it seems to have been issued with two different illustrations -- perhaps one version one year and one the next? The illustration style and price suggest too close a date for this to be a case of pattern re-numbering.
Here's illustration one, from the pattern's page on the Vintage Sewing Wiki. Our happy Halloween couple traises down the block for a Halloween party:
Next, look at the pattern listing over at Spessarite Sole. I think someone spiked the Pink Zombie Punch with truth serum, because a scene of Who's Afraid of VIrginia Woolf? proportions took place between this illustration and the last one:
Advance consistently had such gorgeous illustrations, and these are both worth framing -- although I think you'd have to give it a title like "From Revelry to the Death of Love."