Hitting the Jackpot

I had an unbelievably lucky weekend when it came to scoring some great vintage finds. It was almost one of those weekends where I had to believe that I kept ending up in just the right places at just the right time. After all, I would take amazing vintage finds at these prices over winning a lottery jackpot any day! I only had time to stop at 3 estate sales and a Goodwill, but it was more than enough time to find some forgotten treasures.

The first estate sale was actually fairly picked over as it was their last day and items were an extra 50% off. But I was absolutely thrilled as I dug through a closet of mostly 80s sweaters and discovered these two hidden treasures.

An original 1950's petticoat by Hoops My Dear! It is a beautiful pale blue with white lace in the middle. 

It has definitely seen a lot of wear and tear in it's over 60 years. There is some sticker residue on one hip and torn binding on the crinoline. I will have to get creative in repairing the torn areas. But I hope to focus my attention on repairing these once I catch up on a few projects in progress.

The stitching also shows signs of it's age. 

Next is a luxuriously soft petticoat in a pale pink by Charmode.

This one was also needing some special attention with tears in the seams, as well as some runs in the fabric itself. Hopefully I will be able to find a creative way to fix up the fabric.

I cannot wait to fix these up so I can use them as foundation pieces under the dresses I hope to actually make this year. 

Finding these 2 almost made me regret purchasing one a month ago at the vintage shop for over 4 times the price of these 2 combined.

Though this unique slip will be absolutely wonderful under a wiggle dress or pencil skirt! 

The estate sale also had just a few hats left that hadn't been scooped up. I absolutely had to get this pill box hat!

It was made by Junia Hats for Carson Pirie Scott. I am guessing it was made late 50's/early 60's. 

The body was made in Italy and there is a gold label in the hat that says Brigitte. Could this be named after the beautiful Brigitte Bardot?! 

Another hat that I will definitely be using come fall/winter!

From this estate sale we headed to the same estate sale from before. Apparently this woman had had storage lockers full of goodies (in fact, there will be one more estate sale at the same house again this month with even more things added)! But this visit had them offering everything at 75% off to make room for the next batch. I am so kicking myself for not picking up a few more things. 

My questionable find from there was a simple white dress, still brand new from Loehman's in 1981. 

So what is so questionable about it? Horrible age spots (I hope). The belt was very yellowed and upon trying to clean it up it began developing some immediate rust. So that has already been tossed. Let's hope the dress fares much better.

And of course, you need some summer gloves for with a summer dress! Just look at these drool worthy pleats!!!!

But, my absolute favorite find from this house was a housecoat! My mother was quite surprised at my attachment to this find but I just couldn't leave it there. 

There was something wonderful about the deep reds and the cute ruffles around the sleeves and collar.

And of course, it was brand new! I am not sure the date but I can say that it was $14.95 and the price tags were sewn in.

This will just be so cozy on those super chilly winter nights. 

Between the 3 estate sales I also managed to pick up quite a few miscellaneous vintage sewing goodies. 

I have not had the luck of finding any vintage patterns as those seem to be scooped up by re-sellers almost immediately. So I was pretty pleased to find some I could sew up. 

A Merry Hull Pattern

Simplicity 1366

And how do you like the disclaimer?!

Simplicity 3777

Butterick 4262

Simplicity 4520

Not vintage but a beautiful Victoria Jones Collection Pattern - 309

A Modern Miss - missing it's cover but just as fun to look through!

A McCall's Easy Sewing Book from 1958 

A nice collection of vintage trims and notions! 

But my favorite of the sewing finds, two things I have actually been looking to buy new. A chalk skirt marker and a tailor board! I will be one very happy sewer now! 

Well that was a lot to share. It is rare that I have such great finds all in one trip out but I sure do love the times that this happens! Now to make some time to repair those petticoats and sew up some of these wonderful patterns . . . 

The Hunt For Vintage: Some Lucky Finds

A few weekends ago I got to spend a day hunting for vintage treasure. I love the rare weekend where I am able to spend my day digging for treasures at unique estate sales and thrift stores. I was lucky enough to enter an estate sale that seemed to be a time capsule. It was like stepping into a department store in the 60's/70's. Everything was brand new with tags and there were clothes everywhere! There were items from every decade too! It actually was almost too overwhelming, especially when trying to be thrifty. So here are the goodies that followed me home.

The very first thing I grabbed. I just had to have this hat. It is just too beautiful and will be a wonderful statement piece next winter!

Unfortunately, there is no brand tag inside and no way for me to figure out when this might be from. The hats were one of the few used items that were at this sale.

Pretty sure this dress is from the 70's from what I can tell. 

A simple but cute dress. I just love the details on the belt. 

This is an Anjac dress by Marc Needleman.

Still unworn and bought at Lord & Taylor.

I wasn't totally in love with this one but I bought it in order to get a lower price on all of the items (the more you bought, the more they were willing to take off on prices). But I do like the polka dots and with a good petticoat/crinoline it might look more vintage.

Pretty sure this Taurus II Petite dress is from the 80's, it definitely has an 80's waistline.

The final items I couldn't get enough of looking through were the collection of aprons in the house. There were so many beautiful hostess aprons. It took a lot of restraint to not scoop up a ton but I settled for just 2!

This was definitely one of my better thrift days. I also ended up purchasing a pair of pajamas, and some vintage lace for sewing but I did not photograph those items. I am hopeful that there will be more vintage finds in my future!

Ooh La La: Some Retro Sewing

I have finally gotten back to sewing and decided to tackle a project that I had started during the 50's housewife experiment. No, it is not the dress that I should be finally finishing. Instead it is a waist cincher to be worn under the dress, and most vintage dresses that accentuate the waist. Unfortunately, I did not have a pattern for a waist cincher and I did not really want a pattern for a girdle either. So instead, I took Simplicity's 1183 (a corset pattern) and got to work adjusting the pattern.

Once I had the pattern pieced on the form I chopped where I wanted to adjust and then proceeded to make a muslin sample. Unfortunately, work on the sample was done during my 3 weeks of feeling miserable so I never did get a picture but I made a few more adjustments and then got to work with the real fabric. 

This project was my first under garment project and seemed a little bit daunting when I got to using the spiral steel boning and some of hubby's tools. But to be honest, it also made this project so much more fun!

It also came together pretty quickly once I started with the fabric. I figured I spent about 12 hours on it, start to finish, including the hand sewing of the binding.

The final product is beautiful and fits like a glove, just as it should!

I just need to find some cream ribbon for the lacing.

This dress form closes the corset too tightly but when on there is a nice 1" inch gap between both sides on the back.

The best part of sewing your own garments is the fun little touches you get to add to each piece. One of my favorites is making the inside, just as pretty as the outside. While the outside of this garment is covered in a beautiful nude satin covered in delicate lace the inside is bright and playful!

I think another one of these will definitely be made in the near future! And I am definitely going to need to attempt some other under garments as well.