Mother's Day at the Horseshoe Market

My gift for Mother's Day was exactly what I wanted--I got to spend the whole day prior doing whatever my little heart desired while The Mister took care of the kids! Of course, my heart's desires usually include junking. I'd heard of a new craft/vintage market where one of my favorite antique sellers would be a vendor, so I decided to check it out. It was a bit of a drive and took me to a neighborhood of Denver I've never before visited, but the weather was gorgeous and I'm so glad I made the effort because it was such fun!

The market was just the right size, with around 100 vendors, all who sold either vintage/antique goods or handmade items. There was a really good variety of items--kind of like searching Etsy, only in person! Everyone had decorated their booths and created cute banners and things and it was so fun to soak up all of the creativity, eye candy and sheer prettiness all around me.

I picked up this darling pair of cherry earrings not long after I got to the fair. I've already gotten several compliments on them and they're fun to wear!

The seller has an Etsy shop called Sweet & Precious. She makes really pretty beaded necklaces and earrings using bright colored glass beads in a vintage fruit salad-style.

At one booth, I spied a pair of sweet vintage dresses that looked to be close to my size. Because we were outside in a parking lot there was no fitting room, so the booth owner suggested that I could try to slip them on over my clothes. Both dresses had side zippers which are always trickier to get on anyway, let alone over shorts and a t-shirt and I was nervous about straining the old fabric and stitches too much. One dress (actually my favorite of the two) was immediately a no-go, but the second actually went on and fit nicely, though it was a little snug in the bodice because of my shirt underneath. The booth owners were delighted, and even took a picture of me wearing it and joked that I should just wear it out!

I just about ended up having to do exactly that, because when I tried to get it off, the darn old metal zipper got stuck! I and two very nervous booth owners struggled for a good 10 minutes trying to get it to budge, before one of the girls finally produced a pair of scissors and was able to free the zipper with one well-placed snip. They say sometimes the dress chooses you, and I guess this must have been one of those occasions!

The dress is really fun--I'd guess it is 1940s vintage, but I could be wrong. It's ankle-length, which seems really long to me for that era for a dress that isn't a formal gown. In fact, I'm tempted to take it to the tailor and have it hemmed to just below my knee. With all that fabric in the skirt, it's really kind of hot for summer wear and I think a shorter hemline would make it a little less costume-y. I do love the skirt--it has a light blue panel in the front and then alternating triangles of light blue and royal blue all around the back.

The skirt is seriously voluminous--it feels like about six yards of fabric in that thing! I wore it with bright red shoes:

my new vintage petticoat:

and one of my favorite vintage brooches on the collar:

Fun outfit, and the best Mother's Day gift!

My new vintage dress: June Cleaver edition

I adore vintage clothing but I've always had a difficult time finding pieces that fit me, so I don't have much of it in my closet. I'm of average weight and only slightly taller than average height (at least for a 2010 woman) but whenever I find vintage clothing or shoes at estate sales it seems to all be for short ladies with teeny-tiny waists and little bitty feet. I suspect the tiny waist issue is girdle-related, but the length and shoe size is frustrating.

I was so excited when I found this great dress with a "tall" label because I thought it might actually have a chance of fitting me, and even more thrilled when it actually did! The sleeves were long enough and I didn't even have to wear a girdle for the waist to fit. And the best part--it was only $12! The one drawback was that it was missing all of the buttons.

Replacing the buttons? Probably not going to be an issue.

I used some pretty red glass vintage buttons down the front and a pair of large decorative red plastic buttons on the sleeve detail. The dress was missing its original belt or sash, so I found a cute skinny red belt to match the buttons. I wore it with bright red lipstick, a pair of red patent leather peep-toe pumps, and a foofy underskirt. Add a string of pearls and one of my vintage apron collection, and I'm all ready to welcome The Beav home from school with a plate of freshly baked cookies.

I do need to find a bigger crinoline; the skirt has yards of fabric and could definitely support an extra layer of poof. I'm not sure if I can buy one locally--do any of my vintage-wearing readers know of a good online source?

Skirting the issue: vintage edition

At the same store where I bought the skirt I showed you last week, I also found a really great vintage skirt.

It would fit a whole lot better if I weighed about 10 lbs less, but it was so pretty that I couldn't leave it behind. And hopefully, I'll drop that darn 10 lbs and it will fit like a dream!

 It looks very 1950s to me. Full skirt, very twirly. There are long ties that wrap around the back and tie in front.

Great black and white pattern (reminds me of Mayan petroglyphs) and it has bright gold, fuchsia, and green sequins sewn along the black stripes.

It's a fun, bright skirt for summer and I can't wait to wear it! Now, to get crackin' on that diet...

Vintage black and white dress

Of all the places on the earth, the dinky farming town of Spanish Fork, Utah is the last place you'd expect to find a store full of really great vintage clothing, but that's what I found when we visited family there last Christmas! I love vintage clothing but I'll admit I don't buy much because it usually doesn't fit me. People were smaller 50-60 years ago and although I'm average size for an American woman now, I'm also 5'8" and unwilling to wear a girdle, so that takes me out of the running for much of the vintage clothing I find.I loved this 1950s-era black and white dress from the minute I saw it, but there was no tag so I couldn't immediately tell the size. A quick trip to the dressing room showed that, wonder of wonders--it FIT! And not only did it fit, but it was very flattering (and inexpensive!). I was so excited for spring to come so that I could wear it with some fun bright colored heels.
I love the fabric! What a fun print. (The photo is not upside down, the pattern runs both ways)
The black detail on the collar and bow is actually thick black velvet. LOVE the shape of the neckline.And then a few short weeks later, I found out I was pregnant! I knew there was no way this dress would fit for much longer--there would be no waiting for Springtime for this dress, so a few weeks ago I poured myself into it and wore it to church. Oh man, it was a tight squeeze! I could hardly breathe (that was a LONG three hours) and I'm surprised that I didn't pop the 50-year old stitches on the zipper. But I wore it, and now it has been retired to the closet until next Spring, when I will hopefully have my body back and be able to wear it again!

Pret-a-Porter Poodle

A local thrift chain is having a 99¢ sweater sale this weekend so this morning while Maren was in preschool I stopped to have a look. My mom gifted me with a darling handbag made out of a felted sweater and I think it's easy enough that even my meager sewing skills can recreate it, so I was looking primarily for wool or cashmere sweaters. I was also looking for anything vintage or anything that I could harvest buttons from. Further down on the list was sweaters I could sell and last, sweaters I could wear.

I had no idea how few 100% wool sweaters are out there! Even the ones that felt like wool were often made with a blend of a synthetic fiber as well. I don't have much experience felting sweaters, so can anyone in blogland tell me--do they have to be 100% wool for them to felt properly, or will 80% wool/20% synthetic work? I bought a few that were wool blends and figured for 99¢ it was worth the gamble.
In the button category, I did find one that had these cute flower buttons. They were definitely worth 99¢!
I scored in the vintage category as well! I almost passed this one by because it wasn't wool but at the last second the vintage tag inside caught my eye. There was no size on the tag but it looked small, so I figured I would just resell it.Once I got it home, on a whim I decided to try it on and to my extreme surprise, it fits! Thank goodness for a nice stretchy knit. I can fasten the belt, as long as I don't plan on doing any breathing or moving while wearing the sweater so that's going to have to be fixed. It really is tiny--I could barely fasten it around my size 6 dress form for the photo.Here's a close-up of the poodle detail. The leash and mouth are made of red rattail satin cord, the knots feel like wool and the eye is a faceted metal bead. There are also vintage metal buttons to fasten the neck in back, although they look very tarnished so they may be replaced. I'm picturing this with a black pencil skirt, and maybe a pair of Laurie's fab glasses--what do you think?