All Good Things...

As the old saying goes, "All good things come to those who wait."

It must have been Breaking Dawn part I.  Yes - the timing would be right - November 2011.  A group of us had made it a date to go to the midnight premieres of the Twilight saga movies.   A fun girl thing.  

On this particular premiere night, we had a little time to kill and met at my house where the group gained access to my sewing room whereupon was spied some of the clothing I was trying to create and accumulate for the opening of my clothing-made-from-vintage-fabric Etsy shop.  

Those of you who have been readers of this blog (both of you - you know who you are... ha ha), know that I have struggled with time/focus/perfectionism to get it all going in my Etsy endeavors.  Anyway, at that time, I had decided to repeat what I did with my 90s business, Vintage Generations - only online.  So, it was ever-present in my mind that I HAD to get a dozen or so garments ready in order for my shop to have enough inventory, right?

And this was taking me for-ev-ver!

Enter my friend, Karen, on premiere night.  When she laid eyes on a little yellow eyelet shirt, apparently she was smitten.  With me, I always think people are just being nice and complimentary, so I wasn't sure.  For both you past readers, you may remember me blogging about the history and creation of said shirt and the post about how I would wear it.

Well, Karen - a woman of action, grabbed the hanger, disappeared for a moment, and returned wearing the shirt and belt much to the oohs and ahhs of all.  She looked great in it and it looked great on her.  Much better than it would have looked on 16-year-old Kathy in the 70s!  She wanted to buy it on the spot and asked me to name my price, any price.

Oh how I regret hemming and hawing and hawing and hemming.  Yes, it went on for awhile... in fact years!  I needed inventory to start my stupid shop!  Karen got pregnant.  I hemmed and hawed.  (What is hawing, by the way?)  Karen got pregnant again.  I hemmed and hawed.  By this time, I had decided to just GIVE her the shirt since my aforementioned time/focus/perfectionism was starting to steer me in another direction for the shop, but Karen got pregnant yet again!  Holy moly!  She was building a dynasty of beautiful little girls!

Well, as I said before, all good things come to those who wait and for those who have waited for this blog post to end, you will soon be rewarded as Karen FINALLY was about two weeks ago when I actually let her pry that shirt from my cold dead hands.  Ha - no I'm not Charleton Heston, I just finally gave it to her!

(Cue Hallelujah Chorus)

And she looks mighty fine in it.  Meant to be.

Sorry I was such a slug about it, Karen.

And thanks for the gorgeous DLB Gemstone necklace!

(You didn't have to, but I'm glad you did!)

Just Being Childish!

Maybe it has something to do with me becoming a new grandma,

but my last four vintage fabric finds have been juvenile prints!

I think this first one is the oldest - the look, the feel, the faded fold.

For some reason, I want to say 1930s.  Could it be?

 Cupid bear is holding a 30's-green bow and arrow.

The girl's eyes seem Betty Boopish to me.

Look at the stockings and shoes.

36" width - four yards - cotton

Next is the kitty, sheep, goats, bunnies, ducks...

...but mostly kitties print.  I'd say early 70s on this one.

36" wide - 5 1/2 yards - cotton

 

This one is the mystical Marco Polo fabric!

How do I know it's the great Italian explorer of China - Marco Polo?

 Not because the drawings look like Marco sporting his favorite Tartar outfit...

 

It's all because of the wonderful information found on the selvage!
And you know how I love selvage information!

There are about nine yards of this 36" Little Golden Book Fabric.

Love the robin's egg blue.  

Maybe my Mandarin-speaking,

China-dwelling son would like this fabric for my new grand-daughter's nursery...

 

And if you're as curious as me, you would google the selvage-mentioned 

Marco Polo Little Golden Book and find out it was published in 1954.

So this fabric is from 1954 and the book is for sale on the internet.

And finally, we have this sweet yarn ball playing kitty,

hat-wearing, butterfly eating, ducky marching print. 

Seems kind of 40s-50s to me.  Maybe I'm wrong.

I have only a couple yards of this 36" width cotton.

 Lots of room for imagination in these sweet prints.

A Sham for Sharon

I finished a project last week that I've been working on for a while.  My friend Sharon asked if I would make a pillow sham for her.  She's an occupational therapist and has taken on a new kind of job traveling all over the country for temporary assignments in hospitals.  She's been in the south, Washington D.C. area, and New York among other places.  It's the perfect thing for her at this time.  What an adventure - seeing the sights and making friends all over the country! 

Sharon asked me to make a sham so she could have a piece of home with her no matter where she finds herself.  She gave me carte blanche, which can be a dangerous thing... if you're like me.  When pressed, she said she liked birds and thought perhaps a two sided sham could be seasonal.  

Birds?  Seasons?  Complete creative freedom?  I said yes.

I am obsessed with homey Granny Chic these days 

and my 70s fabrics were calling my name.

Add a few doilies, embroideries, birds...

plenty of ingredients for a two-sided pillow sham.

I wanted a patchwork and needed to lay it out

on the computer to get the right balance.

(I'm visual on top of visual.)

Any good Granny Chic piece is going to have embroidered words.

Finding the perfect poem by Victor Hugo for Sharon and her current situation, 

I stitched it onto a piece of vintage linen.

"Be like the bird in flight... pausing a while on boughs too slight,

feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings,

knowing that she had wings."

I moved and moved the lace, the bird, the swatches,

the doilies, the embroidery around for the longest time

until I was satisfied with the layouts for both sides.

I had to pack it up for Christmas, so this is when the computer layout

became the key with stapled corners of the fabrics.

Yes, I am sloooow at these things, but the sham is now finally finished.

It is lined in cotton and opens on either end with 16 matching

mother-of-pearl buttons I was lucky enough to find in my collection.

After considering big mismatched 70s buttons of blues and yellows,

I decided to let the shell buttons calm down the overall design instead.

The warm side.  Summer and fall?

A beautiful old piece of embroidery.

A bird applique cut from a vintage tablecloth. 

It was fun to create this sham.

I hope you like it, Sharon.

And I hope you enjoy pausing

on your latest 'slight bough'

in Rapid City, South Dakota.

See you the next time you wing your way home!

Resistance is Futile

If you execute a Google image search on the word, "Borg," you're going to see a lot of this: rigid and not very aerodynamic, the space ship of the drone-like, assimilating, arch enemy of Captain Picard and his Next Generation crew, the Godzilla of the galaxy, the Borg.

But this isn't my Trekkie husband's blog.  It's mine and as you all know, I like to talk fabric.  Did you know there is Borg fabric?  Made by Borg Textiles.  It's vintage, too! 

Here's a woman in a cube -- but not a Borg cube.  An ice cube!

And she isn't cold at all because she's wearing a Borg fur coat.

Apparently it was easier to find a needle in a haystack

than a coat made out of this soft, luxurious fabric - mostly sold out of NYC.

Enjoying it's heyday in the 1950s-70s, Borg Fabrics was said to be the largest producer of "deep pile" textiles in the world with manufacturing plants in England, Canada, Belgium, Connecticut, Georgia and whaddya know - their headquarters right here in my back yard in Delavan, Wisconsin!  I consider them the pioneers of fake fur - soft and yummy fake fur.  Or should I say "faux?"  If you believe this ad for their high quality coats, it's "soft and shimmery, pours like cream, light as a whisper, warm as the Golf Stream, and scoffs at moths."  And of course, "looks more like fur than fur itself."

According to this ad that probably wouldn't fly in our PC world of today, you shouldn't "blame the hunter" for mistaking this chic woman (see mounted head) wearing a Borgana coat for a prized hunting trophy.

Do you think turbans will come back any time soon?

 Not quite Zoolander's trademark "blue steel" look.

"You'd think it was born in the jungle."  Among the names Borg used for their fur lines were, "Borgana, Borgazia, and Borglura which was a short-lived longer pile fur which was not popular because it made women "look too fat" according to a 1957 Milwaukee Journal article.

Borg for the whole family.

Borg fabric coats are still popular with the vintage crowd because they have held up well.  You can find cozy coats of all kinds on sites like eBay and Etsy.  Here's a recent offering from Goodwill's online store.

This 1966 moss green (some might say "avocado") green bath set spills the beans that Borg Fabrics might be branching out from their lux coats roots.  Remember toilet tanks wrapped in fur?  I do.  But let's not stop there when we can also cover the scale, the waste basket, the tissue box, and the TOILET BRUSH HOLDER!!! In addition to apparel and home furnishings, Borg fabrics were also used for industrial applications including car shammies, paint rollers, work mitts and gun case linings.

The reason I researched Borg Fabrics?  While trolling around my local thrift store a few months ago, I noticed a large box (which I bought) of fake fur samples all with Borg tags.

And I didn't accept my husband's suggestion

that they had something to do with the Star Trek Borg...

...even if the Borg Fabric logo is surprisingly similar to the Star Trek Insignia.

Assimilate that.

The Din From My Fabrics

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  Vintage fabric talks to me.  Yes it does.  When I come across a three yard piece of vintage 60s daisy covered cotton, it shouts, "Make me into an A-line dress!"  Or a piece of 70s decorator fabric might say, "I want to be a granny chic pillow."  A piece of vintage bonded gold velour recently suggested, "Isn't it time you made your husband that replica of Captain Kirk's uniform - original series, of course?"

And well, you know... once the fabric starts talking to me... I have to buy it.  Thus explains the gajillion yards of vintage fabric in my house (I can no longer limit that statement to just, 'in my sewing room').  It's almost a problem.  My family might say it already is.   But I digress.

Back to the fabric.  It talks to me.

These next pictures represent recent conversations.

This 38" rayon wants to be made into this dress,

but maybe the sleeves will be cut off into a short bell

with a contrasting black yoke and belt.

I call this the "Luck fabric" with it's ladybugs, horseshoes, elephants,

shamrocks, #13, and palm reading.  It's a 40" wide rayon and

told me it wanted to be this little number.

This sweet 28" wide striped cotton wants to be a

waisted 50's dress with an accent belt of... red?

Oh yes I do.  I definitely listen to polyester double knit, too.

I don't discriminate much when it comes to cute vintage fabric.

This quaint flocked gingham print knit fabric

knew it would be perfect for this early 70s Butterick dress.

Maybe with red topstitching.

It was a recent conversation with this feminine 30" wide cotton.

I think it wants a contrasting rose colored collar.

This sheer dotted swiss and early 70s decorator fabric teamed up

and have been thinking about this 1970 dress

but maybe with short sleeves.

This 36" cotton plaid wants to be that 1967

A-line dress but with a lace collar please.

And last for today's conversations, this liquid and fluid

1940s or earlier 40 inch wide rayon with strange Qs on it longs

to be a flowing dress like this one... but maybe a bit shorter.

Yes, everywhere I go vintage fabric talks to me.

Do you agree with my vintage fabric and what it wants?