Vintage Yellow Floral Dress

I love to go thrifting and I am always on patrol for nice vintage fabric. When I saw this sheet set I squealed (quietly) and threw it in my cart. The sheets are in perfect condition, as if they sat in some sweet grandmother's linen closet for the last 40-50 years. Vintage sheets are great sources of fabric. If the sheet isn't the most beautiful design, you can use it to line dresses, or as fabric for making a muslin. If the print is fantastic, like this, the world is your oyster! I will be able to get 3-4 more dresses out of this fabric.

I embellished it with little yellow flowers and vintage buttons because we all know by now how obsessed I am with vintage notions. Seriously. Wait til you see the next project I made.....you'll laugh, and hopefully love it as much as I do.

I love using a contrasting lining in this style of dress as it adds a fun pop of color to the ties and some personality to the dress overall.

I also think this would make adorable bias tape or a great bag lining! Oh, now I'm full of ideas. Now who wants to come over and clean my house so I can sew? ;)

Thrift Store Find! Vintage Sheath Dress

 A few weeks ago I stumbled upon this dress at the thrift store. I fell in love with it upon first sight, but I was sure it would either not fit, or be more than I wanted to spend. My experience with thrift store vintage is that it is easy to find splendiferous 80's and 90's stuff, replete with shoulder pads and synthetic lace and plastic pearls at overpriced 'vintage prices'. I for one hold to the school of thought that the 80's should not be relived, and the 90's aren't much better. :) I am not good at dating fabric yet, but I am guessing 60's? 50's? Any guesses? The background is hard to see from the pictures, but it is silver velvet and the flowers are sort of satiny. The dress is handmade with a handpicked zipper and full lining. I tried it on, and it was too big. But! Too big is a much easier fix than too small. I mean, you can only squeeze so much into a dress before you start to look like an overstuffed sausage. And the best part....drum roll please....it cost me $3.50!! Now to decide whether I want to keep it long or cut it off at the knees. What do you think?

Wild and Crazy 60's Bark Cloth Dress

 A while back, I was at the thrift store with some friends and we were amusing ourselves by browsing through the 'retro' rack. Most of it was delights from the 80's and 90's, and when I say 'delights' I actually mean 'frights'. Such as silk jumpsuits. In pink. Ugh. But this dress. So I saw it and in my head I had a little argument: Oooh! I love that dress! So bright and funky! What?! You actually think that is nice? Its hideous. But I love it. In the meantime, someone said out loud: that dress looks like Megan. Megan, you should buy that. Which caused me to have another mental session with myself, specifically 'what on earth have I worn in the past that would make anyone think I would wear this?'

So I finally settled on the fact that a) it appears I have made myself a reputation as a funky, artist type who just might wear a 60's bark cloth dress, and b) I just like it! I tried it on, it fit perfectly and the only thing that frightened me was the bell sleeves. Holy wings, batman! So you can see in the second picture they are tucked in. I plan on ripping them off and making it sleeveless. Stay tuned, and get your sunglasses ready! ;)