Antique Sale Treasures

Last weekend I attended an antique sale in Port Perry. It was much larger than I was expecting and I barely had time to see everything. It was one of the better antique sales I had been to in a while. Of course I might be biased since my purchase of the day was so amazing.

I have long drooled over 1920`s dresses online that I couldn't even dream of affording. One of the vendors at the sale had a rack with two dresses and a jacket on it. None of the garments where in amazing shape but a black lace 1920`s dress caught my eye. Other than a small tear in the lace near the shoulder, it was in perfect condition. I looked around for a price. I finally asked the sweet older woman running the booth. She looked me up and down. She told me the dresses were in very delicate condition. I smiled and told her I understood that. She paused for a moment and said "Well I bought them all ten years ago for $50, but I would be willing to sell them for a little less. I just loved them so much I've held onto them all this time. How about $25 for the three?" I think my jaw hit the floor before I almost yelled "I'll take them!!!". She was very sweet and gently wrapped them up for me. I think she wanted them to go to a good home and wouldn't have sold them to someone she didn't feel would appreciate them. Anyways, I suppose by now you are dying to see some pictures!

The pictures really don't do this dress justice. It is simply stunning.

The jacket is in rather poor condition but is fascinating to look at. It has boning (possibly metal?) on the inside and lots of dark sequins sewn into the trim.

This dress is actually my favourite now. The faux pearls and lace are very captivating. It's a shame it is too delicate to even think about wearing (the lace straps have almost completely disintegrated).

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My Favourite Item

A couple posts ago I asked if anyone had any questions about me (since I couldn't come up with 7 random facts). The only respond I got was from Jennie. She asked "Out of all your clothing, shoes, bags etc, what is your favourite item, and why?"

My favourite item is a late 1950s/early 1960's dress my grandmother gave me. It is one of the few pieces of old clothing she has kept. She has always had a deep love of clothing and held onto this dress as it was a favourite of hers. She gave to it me last year and it fits me perfectly. The soft green netting (which hangs over a rich brown lining) is quite worn and starting to disintegrate so unfortunately this dress spends most of it's time carefully folded in it's box. 

Here is a (slightly blurry) picture of it from last year when I went to see Swan Lake at the National Ballet in Toronto. 

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Thrifting Finds and Giveaway Winner

I don't often shop at thrift stores for the simple reason all the thrift stores where I live are extremely over priced and never have interesting things. However I was dropping off a resume at a nearby store and thought I would pop in to see if there was any vintage to save.  I didn't find much but I did end up buying this dress:

It may not be very old, but it is handmade. For $6 I thought it was worth a shot. I plan on styling (and possibly altering it) to make it more 1920's style.

Also, to my great surprise, amid the 1980's  sewing patterns were lurking these sweet 1960's ones! I still haven't decided whether to keep them or sell them. Anyone want to make me an offer? haha

Today, while property hunting in the country, my parents and I stopped at a little store that was for sale. It was basically a junk shop but the building was rather interesting. I had a bit of a hunt around and managed to find two little treasures. First was this Baby Ben Westclox. I have another Westclox and want to start a collection. It was a steal at $1.50

The second item I found was this cow creamer. I have wanted a cow creamer for ages! It was only $2.50 so I snapped it up and am currently giving it a VERY good wash...

And now for the giveaway winners! Drumroll please...
Winner of first prize is: #5, Perdita!   
Winner of the second prize is: #2, adarhysenthe! 

Thank you to everyone for entering! If the winners could email me at purlsofthepast@live.ca so I can send you your prizes.

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Weekend photoshoot

I've reached over 200 followers!!! 

Thank you everyone who takes the time to read my blog. It really means a lot to me :) I've already begun gathering items for a giveaway but I want to add a couple more things before I officially announce it, so stay tuned!

I've been quite busy sewing myself some new clothes for fall (including a cape/skirt set and a pair of wide-leg trousers!!) and organizing my room. I did however manage to squeeze in a photo-shoot with my best friend on the weekend. Technically the shoot was for me to take pictures of her and a certain boy, but I did hand the camera over to him for a little bit to grab a few snaps of us. My friend and I don't have nearly enough pictures together since I'm always the one behind the camera!

The photos I took turned out great. I might share some later if I get permission from the two of them, but for now here are some of the ones the boy took. Unfortunately he wasn't used to my camera (she is rather temperamental...) so quite a few of them didn't turn out, but nevertheless I am quite pleased with the pictures we did manage to get.

We took the pictures at what was once Cullen Gardens and Miniature Village. It is now a rather rundown, very overgrown park run by the town. There are lovely historical buildings but they have been left empty and are in need of repair . It makes me really sad that the town doesn't utilize such a wonderful space :(

Most of the pictures of Britt and I ended up like the above picture. Can you tell who is the affectionate one?

Here is a colour photo of my outfit. The dresses Britt and I wore are actually new dresses (both from Winners I think) that have a vintage style, as I didn't want to ruin any real vintage dresses. My hat is a 1940's piece, and Britt's hat is a modern one from Icings. Our gloves are also vintage, and the faux fur stole was made made by me (tutorial here)

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I'm back!

I'm back after a week at my grandmother's cottage. It was a lot of fun, but we had to leave a few days earlier then expected (since my parents decided to go off to PEI for a last minute holiday).

I wore this 1920's inspired outfit for the car ride to the cottage:

Dress: Made by me using this method

Sweater: Thrifted

Shoes: The Bay

Necklace: Gift 

On the way there, I made everyone stop in Bobcaygeon since there was an antique fair going on. The fair was alright but very overpriced. I did however managed to pick up two new "friends". Aren't they lovely? Normally I tend to buy only women, but I thought I needed to add a guy to my cabinet card collection to balance the genders a bit more.

Despite rather chilly weather I did go swimming quite a lot (I'm nuts though. I've been known to go swimming about 2 weeks after the ice melts of the lake, which is not a smart idea by the way...). I was excited to wear my "new" bathing suit. I actually bought this suit in elementary school. I wore it to a pool party and everyone made fun of my "grandma" bathing suit, so it was buried at the back of my closet for years! I am so glad I never got rid of it, because I simply adore it now (and no longer care about being considered "grandmotherly" haha).  

One thing we always do a lot of when we go to the cottage is shopping. We have gotten in the habit of driving to Bracebridge for an afternoon (despite it is about 2 hours away!). It gave me a chance to get dressed up and wear my latest sewing project. The top of the dress is from a 1960's pattern and the bottom is from a 1950's pattern. I love the vintage lace I hand-stitched along the bottom, although it took nearly 4 hours to sew it on.

Dress and Necklace: Made by me

Shoes: The Bay

Belt: Vintage

I bought a few little things, but my major purchase of the week are the shoes in the below picture. I have never spent so much money on shoes in my life, but I just fell completely in love with them. They are very comfortable and fit perfectly <3

I'm now home and working on reorganizing my entire room, as well as sewing some new clothes for fall. I will however miss the few lazy days I managed to have at the cottage. I will never get tired of looking at this view:

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It's been a rough couple of weeks....

Thank goodness for retail therapy! Pretty things may not solve life's problems but they sure help ;)

(I should add this shopping trip was my first time out of the house, other than to campus, in almost 3 weeks! How is it that I can do so much work and still not get enough done?!)

Anyone know anything about "topper" dresses? I couldn't find any info about this lovely "new" dress I bought.   My best guess would be it's late 40s/ early 50s. 

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Summer Inspiration

I hadn't planned on posting again so soon, but I'm avoiding school work at the moment so I thought I might as well. There seems to be a lack of inspiration in the blogging community lately. I suppose it's partly due to summer, and I know I've been feeling it too. 

As such, I have been looking at some of my magazines I managed to digitalize before I left home (I had planned on scanning images from my entire collection but only had time to do 3 magazines unfortunately). Luckily one of the magazines I scanned includes lots of pretty dresses for spring and summer. Here are some of my favourite images to bring a bit of summer inspiration:

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PS: It looks like I'm going to be all alone on my birthday. Anyone have any suggestions for something special I can do? I really wanted a teaparty but that seems a little pathetic to do all by myself. 

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! I've never been a big Easter person, but this year I felt like getting all dressed up, including an Easter Hat and some white gloves. In the last few days the temperature has gone from being -1C to about 15C which means I can finally wear spring clothing! Yay!

     

Outfit Details:
1950's Dress: Christmas gift
Sweater: Reitmans
Gloves: From an antique store
Hat: Made by me (same hat as I wore for Halloween but with some flowers attached to the silk scarf)
Shoes: Bigleys




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DIY 1920's Inspired Dress

Spring weather is almost here and summer is just around the corner. It is time to start wardrobe planning for the warmer months ahead. Here is a (hopefully!) simple tutorial for a 1920's inspired dress.

I love the 1920's but clothing from the 1920's comes with a hefty price tag and if often too delicate to wear. This dress is very basic but gives a 1920's look using a minimum of fabric. It looks best when done in a light sheer or silky material. (The pink version of this dress was created with a sheer fabric that already had a ruffle along the bottom)

1920's Inspired Dress

You will need:

-a couple meters of fabric (2 meters should do it but you may need more or less depending on your measurements)

-thread

-pattern pieces for armhole facings (you could make your own but using some from an existing pattern is easiest. I used some from a 1960’s dress pattern)

-about 1 meter of trim for the bottom of the dress (if desired)

Note: All seam allowances are 5/8” unless otherwise stated. Most of my seams were also finished with pinking sheers.

1) Cut out two armhole facings and two large rectangles. The rectangles should be half the width of the widest part of your body plus 2 inches (I made mine 22” wide since my hips are about a 40”) and the length should be 2 or 3 inches longer then the desired length of your dress.

2) Decide what type of neckline you would like (I did a square neckline for my dress). Cut out a facing for the neckline (as shown in the diagram below) and sew right sides together to the top-center of one of the rectangles. 3) Cut out the excess material on the top of the rectangle. Turn the facing inside the dress then stitch in place to finish the neck of the dress. You should stitch very close to the edge of the neckline.

4) With right sides together, stitch the top of the two rectangles together. Press the seam open and stitch along the back part of the neck opening. Stitch very close to the edge like you did for the front of the neckline.

5) With right sides together, sew the sides of the rectangles together leaving a 2 inch gap at the top.

6) Sew your armhole facings according to the original patterns instructions (this will likely be only one seam joining the short edges to make a circle). With dress right side out, pin the armhole facings to the dress. It may take a bit of time to correctly position them on the rectangle.

7) Cut out some of the extra fabric on the inside of the armhole and sew the facings to the dress. The stitch line is shown in red in the below picture. Turn facings to the inside of the dress and stitch in place (as was done for the neckline).

8) Hem the bottom of the dress as required. Attach the trim if you are using any. This dress would look great with some beaded trim around the bottom (I looked everywhere for some but I couldn't find any in my price range!).

9) Cut strip of fabric about 3 ½ “ wide and 5 inches longer than your hip measurement. Use a zigzag stitch to finish the edges. This will be your waist tie. When wearing your dress, simply tie this around your hips to give the effect of a 20's style dropped waist.

And voila! You know have your very own 1920's style dress. Here are some more pictures of my two dresses:

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for tutorials you would like to see!

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