Thrifted Thursday

    It all began with this pile of thrifted goodness in the spring- a length of Swiss Dot, a piece of tatting, some embroidery. My mom and dad were visiting us and my mom came up with the brilliant idea to leave the kids with my dad for a few hours while we hit the antique stores near our apartment- well you didn't need to ask me twice! Of course once we had sifted through the main bits of the antique stores we started in on a box of random fabric bits- old curtains and throws- which is where I came across all these lovely treasures!

  I always knew the Swiss Dot would end up on a dress or skirt for Miss Lo- in it's previous life the fabric had been a window valance - perfectly pleated with finished edges. This week I finished a full fall skirt for the little miss and used the Swiss Dot as an accent - obviously it goes super well with sparkly stripped tights! I didn't use any pattern as such and just sort of made it up as I went - we are both happy with the outcome and Miss Lo has declared this is her new twirling skirt!

 Another bit of fabric seemed to obviously be perfect for a bib like accent on a tunic for me- I believe at one time this piece was a doily of sorts but I thought it went perfectly well with this grey linen that I have been hoarding!  The pattern came from Simple Modern Sewing and is pattern 2a- the Short Raglan- Sleeve Top- I have made several things out of this book this past summer and love the overall simplicity as well as the beautiful images.

   When one starts to think outside of the proverbial box a person can achieve a much more interesting life- this holds true for many things including my wardrobe- never will I have that awkward moment when walking into a room and spotting someone else wearing the same thing!

p.s.- thanks to Caro for taking my picture- I have no idea why I always squint when getting my picture taken but there you go!

Thrifted Thursday

    I am a lover of all things vintage AKA old, furniture that is seen better days, clothing long out of style,old bits of paper and other ephemera- chances are if no one else wants it I do! So many lovely ladies I know are passionate about the past- perhaps as so many of our relatives suggest we were born in the wrong decade or increasingly in the wrong century!

   My mom started me off on my thrift store path when I was in high school, she pointed out that my allowance would go quite a bit farther shopping the local church basement. Our parents bought us the basics at back to school but any thing else we wanted my sister and I had to pay for ourselves.So I was that girl sporting a giant vintage men's tweed sports jacket (50 cents) with a pair of totally rad harem pants  sewn in Mrs. Edstrom's Advanced sewing 9 class and Doc Martens- for our small town I was ahead of my time fashion wise and may have caused more than a few head turns.  My mom always told me I looked great and my outfits were interesting.

   Fast forward through years of vintage clothing passing through my hands, at one time I once planned to open a vintage clothing store, and to the present day. My love of thrifting obviously has endured the years, Thrift stores, Consignment stores, Antique Market,Hand me Downs, Back Alley, Side of the Road, Free- all these words get me excited! The trill of the hunt and the anticipation of what you may unearth make this an exciting way to beautify our life.

   That brings us to the introduction of Thrifted Thursday's a place where I can share some of the goodies I have rescued from the land fill and given a home. Stories to be told when I know them, other items- well their history will have to start where I found them.

   
   This is the usual situation in our front hall closet, it is getting increasingly worse the bigger the kids get as they are responsible for putting their own shoes on and taking them off- usually they just get stuffed under the desk. So I felt a little re-aranging was the order of the day, the desk found a new home in our bed room.

    This little cabinet was holding DVDs and Games in the living room, it has tonnes of shelves which make it perfect for shoes! The cabinet used to belong to my parents who rescued it from a neighbour who was throwing it away, I think my mom used to store her painting supplies in it, at any rate I needed furniture when I went to University and so my dad painted it this dark navy. During our last move the glass panel that sat in front of the blue lattice broke and so I just lined a piece of foam core with linen.

     My amazing turquoise type writer came from the Hospital Auxiliary Thrift store in Kelowna and cost me a dollar( it makes a great place to display photos), the change bowl my Grandpa turned on the lathe and the vintage globe came from Step Back in Kitsilano.

    The real super star of the front hall is this beautiful vintage window that my lovely cousin Laura scored in a back alley. The window was leaning against a garage in the alley for weeks, lovely cousin Laura decided to put a note with her phone number on it- the owner called and said she could have it! This was our house warming gift- I love it!

These kids- they are growing like weeds!

     My babies are growing up- figuratively and literally. I know this is what everyone one wants is for growing healthy kids, but all this growing does come with a modicum of sadness for me as I see my little ones growing out of wee little baby clothing into massive big kid clothing. I pack away their cute little clothes, I remember when I bought them and sigh, I give them a final sniff and put them into the box of things I can not bear to part with.

   These babes of mine are no longer babies hey are full on kids, something my 2 year old has been telling me since she started talking; " I no baby, I big kid" was and still is Lo's favourite saying. This one in particular is growing like a weed, clothes that I bought too big last year in anticipation of getting more than one season out of have gone into that box. That brings me to my decision to garb these babes of mine(for really they will always be wee babes to me) in as many home sewn garments as I possibly can.

   






















    It just makes sense economically, at this size a pair of shorts is half a meter of fabric and an hours worth of time. At this age is makes sense to take advantage of dressing them in home sewn goodness as they are not remotely aware of the mega giant retail industry who is out there lurking waiting to convince some hormonal mother to spend $78 on baby jeans- yes I briefly considered them, they were very cute!

    I love Oliver + S patterns, once figured out they are very straight forward and easy, plus insanely cute! I have made the Puppet Show Tunic only once but am planning a few more for the fall. There are a heck of a lot of steps and tailors tacks but it all comes together beautifully. Plus the length is perfect for a gal on the go!

   The bottoms that go with the Puppet Show Tunic are the easiest shorts I have ever made! They have cute little gathered pockets and are really more bloomer than short. Lo paired them here with a vintage chemise that I found at Community Thrift and Vintage. Her hat was found on sale at the Gap- some things are necessarily a justified purchase!

ps- the benefits of home sewing are enormous and political, I could go into depth all my reasons behind home sewing but I chose to focus for the moment on the pretty details like my Grandmother's vintage buttons that grace the back of the Puppet Show Tunic