The Clothes Off My Back (5)

Greetings from the frozen tundra of formerly sunny Tennessee! Owing to the ice planet like conditions of the streets near my house, I've done without driving to the parking area in favor of making one half mile trek to the bus stop on foot this week, followed by the usual four block hike from the bus depot to the library. By the end of this snow business, I will doubtless have legs like Angie Dickinson. Or pneumonia. But in any case, last week, before flurries, I dimly remember a time when I left my house in less than eighteen layers of life-preserving wool wrappings (this would have been a good week to rewatch Altman's Quintet). And we have the pictures to prove it!

The jacket above is from a sleeveless-dress-and-jacket set I bought in college at some waaaaay- far-out-from-campus thrift store. I bought two such Jackie Kennedy ensembles, knit, bold pastels, and memorably eschewed the purchase of an enormous, complete-with-picture-light, copy of the Last Supper because it was too big to fit in the car. Everything at that place was so-o-o-o-o che-e-e-e-e-ap. I think the two dress sets were four dollars apiece, and the Jesus painting I am actually feeling a little rueful about, five years down the road, was like five.

The matching dress to this jacket is sized unbelievably small... much more suited to someone of 1950's-Jane-Wyman-stature than my own tailleur. The top is a pale, matchy green silk with two false pockets, and the skirt portion is made from the same dreamy mintish green/blue as the jacket. To make the jacket look less like a petite-sized piece and more me-wearable, I covered the jacket's collar with the cowl neck of a sweater Matthew's grandmother gave me for Christmas (best sweater! Still needs to be thank you note'd!), added my own black skirt, and just for a little extra oomph, a little gold pin circlet of rhinestones from an estate sale ($1). The belt came with the dress, and I love the thumb's-width belt loops built into the waist to accomodate it. All in all, this may be my top favorite outfit. Last worn to karaoke out at my favorite local bar. I can't wait til temperatures become, well, more temperate, and I can wear it again without the encumbrance of layers of outerwear.



Overlook the weird presidential face I'm making in this-- that's what happens when you take a cursory look at the photos when Bab's taking them and go "Ah, that'll work" before double checking for usuable ones :) . The skirt is seventies A-line sort of deal with hip pockets and a matching pleather belt with gold buckle-- it's from the last estate sale I attended pre-holidays. The location featured a roof slanted attic completely stuffed with vintage clothes... which, initially, sounded like the best news I'd heard that morning. However, as I got closer, I was super put off by cotton-batting-like cobwebs covering some of the items, not to mention a pair of bargain hunters who had found that the paneling in the attic was removable and there were yet more, albeit musty and somewhat water damaged, estate goods to be had behind them. "Get my phone out of the car! We can use it for a light!" a disembodied voice shouted from the darkness. While I can be as junk-crazed as anybody on one of these occasions, the feeding frenzy seemed weirdly unwarranted, as the items they brought out looked, well, a little less than worth the effort. Not to mention they were running up and down the stairs in a very, very confined space with no regard for the other sale goer's (read: MY) shopping comfort and safety.

In spite of the lousy circumstances, I hunched myself into one corner over a wheeled clothing rack, out of the packrats' respective ways, and found a few items that were both vintage size 12's and relatively free of signs of spider habitation, past or present. YES. Three pieces of clothes (a polka dotted maxi dress, a black, fitted sheath, and this skirt, all dutifully hand laundered and hung to dry): $1. Total. YESSSSSSSS. Last worn to Christmas day at my family's house and Matthew's mother's house, and then recycled to wear to Alex Norris's art show (wait a minute, one of my favorite people is doing an art show in a vintage clothing store? Um, don't throw me in the briar patch?). I love how trim the lines are.



Last but not least, this dress came from the vintage rack of the East Nashville location of Southern Thrift-- love that store for bric-a-brac (great records, ceramics, board games, handbags), but the clothing selection can be dicey. The aforementioned section is sparsely feathered, and many of the clothes bearing the label "vintage" are more mid 90's school teacher than 60's housewife (I know, technically those jumpers are vintage...they're just not the vintage I'm looking for). Ditto on stained 70's plus size business casual pant suits, faded, oversized Mickey Mouse t-shirts, etc, etc. Their pricing staff might not be the arbiters of style you and I aspire to be, but I've found tenacity DEFINITELY pays off in matters of skimpily stocked clothing racks. LO! Behold! This dress boasts Persian rug style mod flowers in textured polyester, using a palette of browns, beiges, and whites. If the fit weren't enough to make me flip my lid (it looked small on the hanger, but suits me to a tee), how about the fact that the skirt is hemmed in a two-inch wide band of yarn fringe? I feel like a really great lamp in this dress. Wore this to Matthew's birthday dinner at his mom's house (I'm noticing that I spend a lot of quality fashion time at Deb's house!).

So! I hope the snow isn't too deadly wherever you are, reader-- we'll pull out of this nasty weather sooner or later. This highstepper looks forward to bigger and better, warmer and wilder things in the days to come.

Pressed Flower Collages (and other ideas) (1971)

Who would have thought! The wonderful world of pressed flower collage!

A large portion of a day in the life of a librarian assistant is consumed with book traffic-- from the time a book is requested until the time it reaches the patron, I would say it manages to pass through at least ten different people's hands. When this number came across my desk, I was instantly suckered in by the Eugene Pallette-like owl on the cover, and the pin-neat author pictured on the back of the jacket. Is not her hair perfectly done? Is not her outfit stylish, yet demure? I took a cursory flip through the pages, saw some really weird and wonderful stuff, and decided to place a hold on it so that the next person to read it would be M-E. And O-M-G did I get a kick out of it.




The flower above is like "Hurray! Hurray for my creation! I am a lithe, daisyheaded ball of optimism!" ("A Daisy's Stretch at Dawn", clematis and daisy). To the right, "Cosmos in Collage", mostly comprised of Cosmos flowers and a few other goodies. I love that while the medium reminds me of needlepoint, it must be so much more fresh looking, more vibrant than its threaded counterpart in real life. I was going to say how neat it would be to find this in a thrift store, but after the experience I had with an ancient display of butterfly mountings, I'm just not sure. I can never understand why the employees don't take better care of fragile donations-- the aforementioned butterfly display was priced seven dollars, but due to some shakeup in transit, was comprised of a number of mangled, destroyed specimens, half hanging, half twisted...ugh! Nightmare fuel. As if butterfly mountings weren't morbid enough. Still, maybe one of these beauties could survive the trip from donation bin to shelf intact, and go out to pasture in my panelled room of kitsch paintings and doo-dads...

To the left, "Miss Gaillardia Ash", the second of Miss MacDowall's "collage cartoons". What really drew me to the book in the first place was the idea of these cartoons, little people paintings made of flowers. Like hand painting tea cups, flower pressing always seemed to me such a dainty, serious, lady-like way to occupy one's time, but seeing these showed me it can really be out there and whimsical too, depending on the crafter. See Miss Ash's umbrella and handbag. Love it.

To the right, "Be My Doll, Mop-Top", Miss MacDowall's interpretation of a "hippie" couple (reinforcing the fact of the book's 1971 copyright date) is done in Clematis tangutica. Note what the author refers to as the boyfriend's "'flower power' medallion" (nestled atop his leafy ribcage)... I didn't see it until she pointed it out!

"Three Little Maids From School" (nice G & S nod there), "Rabbits", and "Two Little Fish" make up the grouping to the left, while the right hand image is succinctly titled 'The Gossips". I think the "Maids" composition might be my favorite in the book. Something about the facelessness of girls and the weird, psychedelicness of them having flowers for heads. I just like it. The fish picutre is more conventionally attractive, but if I had to choose, in a thrift store situation, I could go for the "Maids" picture in a big way.

Last but not least, a simple matchbox decoration. This is more the type pressed flower arrangements we're used to seeing, and the author provides several other uses for your newfound pressed flower talent-- making greeting cards, decorative panels (see the very first images at the top of this post). The text of the book is very specific as to how to work with these designs yourself, and if you're the crafty sort, you should buy the 2001 reprint of her book at amazon.com. Just a little harmless endorsement from your tiny handwork impaired blogger. :) I know a lot of the vintage bloggers out there are pretty great with a sewing machine... do any of you guys do pressed flowers? Collect them? Let me know if you see any of these designs floating around the second hand stores when you're out and about-- they're really too great a treasure to miss.

Weekend Finds (1)

Slim pickin's, as said before, with regard to thrift stores in this after-Christmas, but I still managed to rustle up a few finds at not one but TWO Goodwills last weekend. As soon as I walked in the door at the Hendersonville GW, these little mugs said, "Please, please take us home. Four of us match! And the fifth of us is blue! No reason! We all have different patterns! You need us!" Forty nine cents each, with my student discount, that's even less than forty nine cents each. BAM.



Above, just in time for my New Year's party, I found an intact fleur-de-lis patterned chip and dip, which touched my little francophone heart. I love the gilt and brown and silver and white color palette. I love the fact that it was only $5.99. I love that, when I took it to the register to check out, the employee went into raptures about how she'd only seen two of them in her ten year career at that store. It gave me a brief moment of in-line celebrity, as the people behind me put away their "Is she really using a gift card AND a student ID? AND she bought all breakables so they're going to have to wrap them for entirely too long?" looks and uptraded them for a brief flicker of admiration at the practicality and stylish whimsy of my purchase. Or so I would like to think. I was very happy lugging this guy out to the car.

Wooden bowls! Something I needed! Shaped like a pineapple and a bean! YES, sir.

I'm not sure how this works because I haven't listened to it yet, but this appears to be a Magic Party record. However, if Edgar Bergen could achieve blockbuster success with a radio show about his ventriloquism, maybe "Sanford the Great" will make good on his claim that his record contains "a tickling treat of tricks". Cover alone, I wanted this, but the record inside is in great shape. Listening party, coming up.

Last but not least, Babu spotted with his eagle-eye the above large tumbler sized glass, which, as you can see, is labeled "Texas Jigger". Because in Texas, the shots, like everything else, come BIG. The fact that it was novelty barware with a kind of cute premise was enough to make me buy it, but when I saw the labeling to one side of the glass, I was caught hook line and sinker. Yankees need not apply. Tenderfoots, ditto. Cowgirls, cowpokes....you miiiiight be able to handle half a shot. ASTRONAUTS?! Then Texans. I busted a little tiny, very delicate gut at this item.

There's a Native American motif/psychedelic maxi-dress I picked up as well, but I'm saving it for an art show we're going to Thursday and the ensuing outfit post. Have you guys been having any luck in these picked over, post holiday shopping days? Lemme know what you found!!

The Clothes Off My Back (4)

Back to the blog, people!! It's hard to believe we're already four days into 2011. The holiday season has put a kibosh on estate sale and thrift store hunting (as, well, who wants to have an estate sale on a holiday, and getting out to the thrift stores in last minute Christmas traffic is a H-A-S-S-L-E), so I was forced back into the depths of my costume closet for some creative seasonal outfits. I have also learned, over the course of the last two days, that taking even semi-decent outfit photos with a self-timer is well nigh impossible. How do you people do it?! I managed to improvise with a stack of old National Geographics and a TV dinner table balanced on top of my coffee table, but I now know to ask for a tripod of some kind for my birthday. Or to stop being so vain. Whichever comes first. But please, if you have any photo tips, pass them along to a pitiful first time blogger who would very much appreciate them.

In the pictures above I'm wearing a forest green cocktail dress I've had since high school, that came to me from the half price Goodwill when it had just opened up at its old location behind the Dollar General at Farmer's Market. Miss that place. Made of feather light chiffon, I think this "Miss Lili's of Dallas" creation ended up being something like seventy five cents? No tears, no stains, no nothin'. It's far and away the best dress I've found in terms of quality at a Goodwill... when I first pulled it off the rack, it seemed short and squat, but when I put it on, the pretty draping at the front, the nipped waist, and the elbow length sleeves were love at first bite. I remember specifically wearing this in the eleventh grade, possibly making me the most overdressed person to ever sit in sixth period Chemistry. This year, the dress made a much more occasion-appropriate appearance at the Corner Bar Christmas Party.

The red dress (left) is recently from Goodwill, $7.99, from the Sears Fashion Place line, some time in the mid 70's. I added my black belt to balance out the tights and cover an elastic waist (one of my least favorite features on many otherwise great dresses...to wear this beltless wouldn't be half as much fun) and I really love the vibrant sort of color to which the material lends itself. Also, the dress's skirt is extreeeeeemely swishy... just walking around in it is kind of fun. Also, cowl neck. I've never owned a cowl neck top or dress and this year I've come up with like three. It's like they multiply in your closet.

This sweater (right) came as a skirt and sweater set, with a a skirt of the same material, from the Western Avenue DAV in Knoxville (best...store...ever...). I think it was less than five dollars for the pair. The skirt I've never worn, and have actually lost track of, but the top is a favorite of mine (in spite of the slightly poufy, 80's sleeves), due to the wow factor of the glitter encrusted bow. I've seen similar motifs on newer shirts, but there's something about the fact that they're actually pieces of glitter somehow permanently affixed to the front that put THIS top heads and shoulders above others of its kind. It always reminds me of something someone (yet thinner than me) would have worn on the television show Solid Gold. I wore it on the last day of work before Christmas break, with a pair of gold poinsetta and pearl earrings from an estate sale (couldn't find them for the pic, but $2 for a pin and earring set) and a bag of homemade cookie for my coworkers, pre-divided into tiny ziplock bags and affixed with gift labels reading "Happy Holidays, From Lisa". Yes, I am that ridiculous about holidays. If there's a reason to be seasonal, then by God I'm going to be seasonal.

Last but not least, through the magic of photo editing, I present a photo of your host and hostess from New Years Eve at my house. Yes, we're both standing in front of the Fleetwood Mac poster...I think it's my new favorite back drop. I'm wearing a Ruby Rox dress with a crinolined skirt that also comes from the back of the closet and high school homecoming circa 2002. The earrings, though, are new...a present from Bab and Pangea, the body is made up of an anchoring large rhinestone, two strings of smaller rhinestones, and a huge black stone at the bottom. Bab's wearing a yellow gingham, mid 60's collared shirt (new with tags at Goodwill! $2.50!), a woefully wilted bowtie (it looked better or worse, depending on which part of the evening), a black blazer and cummerbund (Salvation Army, $2 and 25 cents, respectively). Doesn't he look like a doll. And very kind to let his fiancee dress him, to boot!

Above, just for kicks, our New Year's spread... amongst the peanuts, the Zodiac sign chip and dip, the canteloupe, the antipasto platter and palm tree candlesticks, a T-Rex and a rhino vie for dominance...!! I thought of these at the last minute as the table looked so bare without the Christmas tree! Don't ask me why I happen to have oversized figurines of rexes and rhinos scattered about the house, but hey, why not. Halfway through the party, I thought what a good idea it would have been to have added little paper saddles to the two of them, labeling one as "2010" and the other as "2011", but there's always next year. :)

Happy New Year, everbody! Let's make 2011 a keeper.

Merry (Late) Xmas

Item one: One last look at my Christmas tree. Like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree, except in brilliant Technicolor pink and blue! Anyone else have decorations of improbably colored aluminum instead of white this year?

Item two: I scored this cardboard promotional Tusk poster/blowup of the album at the Great Escape 30% off sale. Merry Christmas to me! HUUUGE selection of late 70's, same-size, promo poster items just like this, probably from a record store. After I foolishly missed out on ones for Steve Martin's Let's Get Small and Macca's Wings Across America, the good folks at the best used record store in Nashville saw fit to restock with even more record tiles...!! I spotted Linda Ronstadt, America, Seals and Croft, Rare Earth, and TWO Leo Sayers, but owing to my crazy crush on Fleetwood Mac right now, I chose this one. Every morning on the way to my coffee, it's "Hello, Lindsey Buckingham! Hello, Stevie Nicks!". Now, I just need to find a new place to hang the Pam Grier posters that were in its place, and I'll be happy again.

Christmas has had me running pretty much all day, everyday since the last post-- but rest assured, I'll be back to my regular, far-too-often posting schedule in the New Year. Get ready for some belated, red and green themed Christmas outfits that were too good not to document, but that I've been too busy to upload!

Have a happy New Year, everybody!!

A Hundred Things A Girl Can Make (1922)

The book scan posts just keep rollin' in!


Just in time for exasperated, cash strapped holiday gift givers, the bounty of the Internet Archive has provided us with the splendid, entirely useful book, A Hundred Things a Girl Can Make. Despite the gender specific title, you will find inside ONE HUNDRED crafts from the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and twenty two. Have a like-minded vintage enthusiast on your list? Think of the oohs and aahs your original-but-antique gift could garner on Christmas day. I wish I'd found these patterns before the Bataan death march of last minute holiday shopping I endured Monday... we'd be whistling a different, distinctly dixieland tune today. But that doesn't mean I'm not hitting my kitchen table with a equal parts felt, hotglue, and determination very soon, holiday or no! These little crafts are too inspiring.


As always, please click on any picture for an enlargement of the scan...I'd hate to make you squint for these delicious design how-to's. :)

First up, a small button bag shaped like elephant... Does "heck" go with "yes"? This guy is made of grey felt, with darker grey ears and orange felt for the blanket on his back. The length of the saddle along the elephant's back is the opening for this small purse, held closed with a clasp you can see sewn at the top. Brass bells are at either corner of the blanket, and the tusk and tail are added with white felt and shoe string, respectively. You could even stitch a name on the blanket if you wanted to, like "Jumbo" or "Betty" or...my favorite, probably... "Packy".

Though I know first hand that tea kettle handles can get very hot, this tea kettle handle cozy is great to me in its sheer frivolity. "You needed one of these, right? I thought you said you needed a tea kettle handle cozy?!" you may say to the recipient of this gift. He's also made of felt, and just cute as a button. I love the way he seems to be perching next to the painted flower branches on the kettle.








There are a number of Japanese inspired projects in the book, my favorties of which are posted below: a palmleaf fan, a clothespin geisha-ish doll, and a large paper fish kite. I really want to try some of the op art decoration tricks done with pasting and cutting paper, and then painting around the pattern, in the neat little shapes they use in the fan project. Whether or not I affix them to a fan, it seems like a good effect.






These clothespin dolls remind me of a great decoration project the art department did for Homecoming my freshman year. The theme was "Alice in Wonderland" (I know, I know...reeeeal original, guys), and all the tables had handpainted little dolls like this with playing cards for their fronts and backs. Little themed clothespin dolls would make good party favors for any occasion, really... Note the detail given to their hat design.

Your basic Japanese fish kite-- yet I'd never think to make one myself! How simple.

Creepy, fawnish looking animal shade also seems simple as starch to execute, but with a great artistic return when you finish. Color palettes for the figures include violet and yellow, strong blue and orange, and vermilion and turquoise to compare with the white shade and black lining stripes.

Paper flowers in a painted vase, sure!

I chose to include the flowers and the next four crafts because the designs are so impressive. Each text gives specific instructions for the colors, too, so you don't have to guess on color combination.

The original, full text is online HERE , including eighty-nine additional crafts. A lot involved using a jig saw to shape wood into toys, or heavy duty sewing, or other things I'm not too adept at yet, but if you are, give 'em a shot, and let me know how they turn out!