Vintage Notions

A shadowbox for my mom and all the rest of you sewers out there.

Happy sewing!

Mod and Feminine

These old Butterick patterns I recently bought are speaking to me.  

I'm still feeling the mod vibe... don't you just love that attached belt that goes around back criss-crossing and buttoning?  I think when I make it, I'll scoop the neck just a little more... maybe.  What do you think?  Solid color or all over floral?  Texture?  Two fabrics?

At the same time, I'm also feeling a bit of the wistful femininity of the crinoline puffed and fluffed skirts and dresses of the early 60s.  Love that midriff that gets wider at the side seams.  I want to make this in a crisp white cotton with orange border print flowers - maybe an exposed orange metal zipper going right down the back.  I'd also choose the diagonal overlapped front and put three jeweled buttons for closure?  Or maybe three funky orange shaped buttons...  Hmmm... thinking... thinking...

The good news is I'm almost ready to crank the sewing machines up... in their new location - my bedroom - for the summer.  Just a last bit of organizing and set up yet to finish.  Can't wait!

Shelf of the Week - Cream

Well, I've certainly been busy lately with the four grown kids coming home for the summer.  The sewing room has seen a metamorphosis from messy to clean to sparse to half moved to my bedroom.  Yes, my bedroom will be the sewing center for the summer.  The sewing room will host Lars and Spring until August 15th when they fly to Nanjing China for a year.

Because the kids were scheduled to arrive, the 'shelves of the week' got put on speed folding and photos were taken ahead of schedule.  I am happy to say that all fabric has been re-folded and mostly all of it, except a couple of bins in the closet, have been sorted and organized.  I'll get to that at the end of the summer.

This week's shelf?  The cream background fabrics.  There were a lot of them.  So many, that I didn't photograph so much - especially since I decided to take pictures after they were already folded and wedged onto their shelf and removing one piece would have caused undue pushing, compressing and shoving to get them back in line.  So if you're really curious (which, I wonder if you are...), look at the folds.  Sorry - I've been under pressure to finish.

I was able to get some of my chenille bedspreads under the shelf after the folding.  Yes!

There were many cool barkcloths, but this is my favorite.

With loads of summer water scenes.

My wonderful friend, Brenda, found seven of these classic barkcloth drapery panels in the attic of her 1860s farm house and sold them at a rummage for $1 per panel!  Guess who bought them?

Here's a lovely barkcloth border print.

I made a slim skirt out of this once for my friend, Penny.

 

A cute cotton animal print.  Isn't that called "anthropomorphic" when human characteristics are attributed to non-human things?  Sometime I'll have to share my anthropomorphic salt shaker collection.

Here's a great mid-century barkcloth.

Kitchenware and laboratory supplies all in one print.

A beautiful canvas with HUGE flowers.

I have three or four western prints from the 50s.

Lots of yardage in this one.

A great Eames era barkcloth with gold lurex and abstract shapes.

One last barkcloth.  

Stay tuned.  I still have white, green, grey and brown shelves left.

I'll bet you can't wait.  OK,  I need to cut the sarcasm. 

Happy Mother's Day

Yes, this is me going to bed in the wee hours on Mother's Day having just finished moving, cleaning, organizing, sneezing, dusting, hauling, sorting my sewing room so that it's ready for my son and his wife who are 30 minutes away driving home from Utah.  Writing run-on sentences.   Exhausted.  Good night.

My big sister Barb, my mom and I in our driveway in Texas a long time ago.

Happy Mother's Day!

Stop and Smell the Lilacs

Oh my gosh!  If my sister thinks I have an obsession with fabric, my daughter KNOWS I have an obsession with lilacs.  I can't go on a drive this time of year without breaking out in raptures every time I see a bank of lilacs in bloom.  "Oh look at those!  You could bring in a huge bouquet every day and never put a dent in them!!!"  That, of course, is my dream.  A fresh armful of lilacs every day for the duration of their way too short blooming period.   Sigh... I love spring.   I LOVE lilacs - their gorgeous color and incredibly perfect scent!   It's a stab in the heart when I start to see the brown tinge creep in as they start fading away.

When we moved into this old house there was one mangy white lilac plop in the middle of the back yard.  All by itself dead center.  It had probably been there for decades.   I worked on improving it for years.   I put flagstones around it.  I mulched it.   The poor white lilac looked better but was still spindly and the leaves got dusty and black on the edges. The blooms were weak.  I tried spraying it.  I pruned carefully.  Nothing helped.  Finally, my oldest son removed it one day with a shovel and an axe.  It was a sad but necessary day.  I couldn't watch.

 Eventually I planted a new lilac.  

I fell in love with it's tiny purple petals trimmed in white when I saw it in the nursery: "Sensation" lilac - a French hybrid.

 Now it's grown enough that I can bring some bouquets into the house... 

but not every day.

And every year, it never fails that there is one rebellious sprig on the bush that insists on being white.  Probably the exception to the hybridization - the recessive sprig...  or maybe it's the ghost of white lilacs past.

Shelf of the Week - Yellow

My yellow shelf wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be.  How's that for an enticing beginning?  Let's see if I can do better...  My yellow shelf held exciting treasures from baseball players to cherries and feather plumes.  Better?  

I guess what I mean is, my yellow shelf didn't harbor any unexpected delights.  I pretty much remember all the pieces that I found there and many were solids... yet there were some that are worth mentioning.

How about this early barkcloth with graceful plumes of mauve and teal feathers?

I have loads.  I'm thinking it's from the late 30s.

I only have about a yard of this cotton canvas - but I wish I had more.

I love the late 60s early 70s look and colors.  Those flowers are 3-6" across.

OK, I had forgotten about these.  Mary Engelbreit would love this never used but old cotton tablecloth and four napkins.  So cute.  I can't and won't cut it up.

Love this happy little 36" width calico.

This is an old cotton bedspread and these

St. Louis Cardinal little leaguers are about a foot tall!

A beautiful late 30s early 40s barkcloth.

Another rose covered cotton tablecloth.

I also have this same cloth in pink and blue.

Next week I tackle the double shelf of off whites.

There are a TON of barkcloths. 

Mad about the 60s

I sold this set of vintage jelly jar glasses the other day from my Etsy shop.  The recipient asked that they be sent as soon as possible Fed Ex overnight air.  Checking the location, the buyer was from L.A. - the Property Master of the AMC drama, Mad Men.  That was interesting.  In my email conversations with Ellen, the property master, she said these glasses might appear in the third episode of the new season (4).  How fun!

Mad Men is a TV drama set in the early 1960s about the competitive life of Madison Avenue advertising.  Look at those clothes!  Look at that set!  I missed my calling in life - I should have been a set decorator!

I will be producing clothes much like these (with a contemporary twist) from Mad Men when I convert my Etsy shop over to hand sewn clothes using my vintage fabric this summer.  L-O-V-E them!!!

I swear I have this very fabric and pattern!  I want to watch the show just to LOOK at everything.  The early 60s is my favorite period right now.  The new season will be starting up sometime in July.  Hopefully we'll see my glasses on a home bar in the third episode!

P.S.  I Mad Men'd myself on their website.