Random Cool Sewing Item

Any of you sewers ever use these? I originally bought some at a sale because they are aluminum, and pretty. I found more recently in a grab bag of sewing stuff at an estate sale Then I used them a few months ago, and I just love them! They are very handy, and they grip really well. I noticed that my hems on the last few things I have made turned out much better. I would highly recommend the little suckers! Plus, they are from the 50s and are colored aluminum, like the tumblers.

Sewing Circle!

So, yesterday I got a wild hair and decided to set a date for the Sewing Circle idea that has been floating around my head for a long time! I have always loved the image of women sitting around, sewing or doing other creative things together, like they did back in the day. I am hoping that it will be fun and we can all learn from each other. I know how Pollyanna that sounds, but in my not-so-secret heart there is a lot of June Cleaver and Betty Crocker dying to manifest!

I can be raunchy and all that, but I truly love the whole 1950s mom ideal. Dancing around the kitchen in heels, pearls and a spotless apron cleaning with Glass Wax and all that. It's funny-I joke around in chagrin that I always end up being the mom or the goody-goody when I really want to be the vamp or glamour girl. I would love to be a mankiller, but I always get back to the 1950s mom-type. Or the 1940s we-have-to-be-strong, woman-on-the-home-front. (I suppose I could just be the very sexy housewife-it's been done!) Maybe it's because I grew up a latch key kid in the 70s and TV in the afternoon was heavy on the 50s sitcoms. My 40s/50s magazine collection is one of my favorite things to read. One of the best ones is Ladies Home Journal-they had a feature called "How Young America Lives", and they profiled young families of the time. Fascinating how things have changed AND stayed the same. People certainly did more with less back then-I admire the hell out of that.

Anyway! Tangent there, sorry.....I am excited about the sewing circle, and I plan to make those days set aside for it strictly sewing days, no matter who shows up. If nobody does, then I'll sew alone! I am so thankful that I have a good place to work in, and notions and such I can share with my friends. I am so curious to see everyone's projects and see them grow! I hope this is a success! I plan to do one weekend day and one weekday so lots of people have a chance to come. The first one is Monday, December 14th and the next one is Saturday, December 19th. 9am both days, but it is a drop in thing. I will space it out better in January.

I hope this works out! :-)

Pink Glider!

I did this about a month ago-it's done! I now own a flamingo-pink metal glider! I love the color so much. I want to make everything pink. Well, not really, but you understand. This took 2 coats of primer and 2 and a half cans of spray paint. If you page down a bit here on the ol' blog, you can see what it used to look like. LOVE IT!

New stuff I made...and catch up!

I guess I went on a bit of a hiatus there...just to briefly catch up, the Mad Men Fashion Show on September 18th went swimmingly! Everyone was amazing and we got tons of great feedback for it. It took me about 8 weeks to get it together, and it really showed. This was the best one we've done. I had a lot of last minute help, thank goodness. And my friends as models were incredible-I am so blessed!

Our Halloween Housewarming party on October 30th was fabulous fun too! I had a wild hair and dressed up as Lolita Haze...no one outside our circle of friends would have known who I was because of all the in-jokes in my costume, though, so it was good that I did it at our own party! We had some out of town guests too-Karen (and her husband) of the blog Bobbins and Bombshells had come in the shop during the day, and on a lark I invited them to the party. I was very pleased that they came, and we had a great time! Goodness, I drank a lot...the next day my mom came into town from central Oregon for a visit. She surprised my son with her visit, and he was stoked! We did the Halloween trick or treating thing and had fun. We spent the week doing a lot of thrifting and messing around. Fun!

Last night, Saturday, Charles Phoenix and his slide show came into town, courtesy of my friend Marshall. If you don't know who he is, go see his site: www.charlesphoenix.com. It is like nothing I have ever seen. HILARIOUS!!!! I made a couple new things for the event, too. The bolero is a 50s pattern, made of vintage light wale red corduroy and lined with red satin. The skirt is also a 50s pattern made of vintage atomic print cotton. I am really rather proud of this outfit, actually! The bolero is going to be made again, I can assure you-it was SO easy!!

So now we are heading into Thanksgiving. I have so many sewing things I want to do and I need to get back on the dreaded eBay. I miss the old eBay so much this time of year-it was pretty magical back about 10 years ago. I used to get so excited for the Christmas selling season. Now....eh. But I am thinking about Etsy and the possibilities there. All things must change, I guess. ;-)

Hollywood Regency Fashion Show!

That's right, this is coming up in less than two weeks! I am very excited and becoming a little nervous...I still have to write the text and make the dress CC is going to wear....it is my interpretation of the polka dot dress that Betty Draper wore in season 2 where she has her meltdown. Everyone's outfits are picked out and tried on and I finally found shoes to fit one of our girls, thank god. She wears size 10+ so that was fun....! Have to pick up a Playboy Bunny costume for Lolita to wear, find a pipe for my Hef, and get a pair of pants shortened, figure out what the heck Louis will wear. It's coming together. If it works like it should, this will be the best one we've done.

Just cross me some fingers out there in blog land, ok?

A few goodies

So I have been trying to get this new house together, and I decided to get out a collection I have that I have not seen for a long time. There was a time there when I was really into Gilner Pottery pixies, and every other elf/pixie thing I could find. They are a little harder to find now, but I am happy with what I have. It's nice seeing these fellows again!





I was at Big Lots not too long ago, and spotted this cute retro clock in mint green and baby pink, and once my old alarm clock died I decided to blow $15 and get the pink one. I love it! It sure has a clanging alarm, though, but it does get me awake!




I went over to the Goodwill recently and found a few little doodads...the red belt is patent and I have been looking for a wide red belt forEVER, so I was quite happy to find this! The pattern is from 1998 and I was very pleased to pick it up in my size for 99¢! I saw it on eBay for $32.99 BIN, which is just crazy expensive. The skirt looks a little long so I will shorten it, but I have this lovely piece of emerald green rayon that will be just perfect for this. I plan to do the 40s style dress first. The party book is a scream from 1932 and even has the complete plans for a real minstrel show! It also has ideas for just about any kind of theme party you could think of. The copper set is on eBay now because I can't wear that color at all.

So, there is a little bit from here-more to come as I unpack boxes and hopefully hit some estate sales soon!

Glider project

I bought this fabulous vintage metal glider about 10 years ago in a suburb of Phoenix called Maryvale-which for you non-Arizona folks, is a place I would call our own version of Levittown. Built in the 50s, it was an all-inclusive community full of cookie-cutter houses, shopping centers and schools. It used to be a great place to live, and the houses are huge! Now, unfortunately, it is full of undesirables, renters who don't care about where they live and has acquired a reputation for being dangerous. I used to go to some amazing estate sales out there. I still love going to look at the houses because you can still get a sense of what it was supposed to be. But I digress! :-)

I bought this from a house where it had sat for about 40 years on its own little concrete slab. It had been painted to match the trim on the house! Its original color was dark green, which I would have liked to save, but there is lots of rust, so i will have to use Kilz on the entire thing. I wanted a dark raspberry pink, and so I selected "Watermelon" from the Krylon line of colors. I LOVE it! I need to get this done because I am dying to see the finished look. I plan to make some vintage fabric pillows to go on it as well. It will look good with my repro yellow and turquoise metal motel chairs. What do you think?

Argh!

Well, we just moved three weeks ago into our new-to-us-house and I have been busy getting it set up and DONE, which of course when you have ninety million boxes of STUFF like I do, that is a distant dream. It is nice to see my stuff again, though-it's been a year and it's almost like Christmas. :-) I am sorry that I haven't updated recently, but I have a couple projects I am working on and would like to share, hopefully get to posting about that this week. I've also made a couple of things for me that are fun. So, pictures and all this week, I hope! Moving in, sewing, working, mom-ing....someday it'll all run smooth. I'm so darn busy living my life I have no time to write about it! More to come soon, complete with eye candy. :-)

Some new goodies

One of my jobs is working with my friend who runs estate sales-and the one this week is huge! I restrained myself a bit, though, and only got a few things. (There is a giant church sale Thursday morning that I have been waiting for for a month, so I am trying to save to be able to go to that one.) Anyway, here is what I brought home today!

I have a thing for those plastic covered fabric sewing boxes-my mom had one. I LOVE that this one is pink. I now have three-oh NO, it's a new collection! The leopard thing is HARD TO FIND cinch belt elastic-a couple YARDS of it, and oh YES some of it will be adorning my waist very soon. The velvet pincushion is a lovely faded aqua blue-usually these are red but I LOVE that this is blue instead-it's rare. The Mother poem picture is for yet another collection of mine-I love motto pictures, especially the sappy Mother ones. They are just so sweet. Double daisy flower hook is Italian tole and destined for my workroom at the new house. And how can you go wrong with vintage thread in colors like that? I never buy new thread, ever-I don't need to. Plus the colors are better working with vintage fabrics. Any readers need thread, let me know-I 'll pick some up for you. We sell the large ziploc bags of thread for about 3-4 bucks at the sales. You can get pretty much anything you need sewing-wise, sometimes, at these sales, for next to nothing. Why do y'all think I have ended up with a big ol' stash of notions?!

Now, think good thoughts for me at the church sale-I'm getting up stupid early to go to it. I am excited-I haven't been to a proper sale in months and I'm ready to score some stuff!

A fun project I did!

My daughter turned 21 whole years old yesterday! She had asked me beforehand to make her an apron for her day, and so I turned to one of my handy 194os era Sewing books, and found this neat idea, cobbled it together with some cute dragonfly fabric that my son picked out for his sister, and here we have an apron, vintage inspired but totally modern for my new-things-only-loving daughter! I am quite pleased with it! I hope she likes it!! This is one of the first times I have taken an idea out of a book and made an actual garment-I am a total slave to patterns (it's a comfort thing, I guess) but this was easy enough to figure out. I liked working with the bias tape and even made two matching potholders and a bib for my grandson, just because I could. :-)

Back on the 'Bay today!

Just wanted to say that I have some lovely vintage textiles and other fun stuff listed on eBay tonight..go check me out, if you'd like. Sorry, I don't know how to link properly...

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewListedItems&include=0&since=-1&rdir=0&sort=12&rows=50&userid=bettys-vintage-house

New stuff and ramblings

Sorry it's been awhile-I really had great intentions to blog at least every other day when I started this but real life gets in the way! I work the equivalent to 3 jobs so it's hard to find time to just sit here and indulge in blogging. But, here I am now, and here are a few fun things that I have found recently!

I love the cigar box covered in vintage shelf paper-I don't know what its fate shall be but I sure like it! The tissue box is a metal Ransburg one with glued on rhinestones. The darling cocktail party invitations are SO CUTE-and will be used when we have a get together at the NEW HOUSE I will talk about in a moment. And the vintage printed bias tape is something I am always chasing-they haven't made this for YEARS and the patterns are hard to find unused. I have a nice little stash I want to use someday.You just can't go wrong with vintage thermoset plastic. Especially a set! It was 40% off at one of my favorite thrifts. I love that it is black-it goes with a lot of different things!I have always had a thing for Scrabble tiles, and this set HAD to come home with me! There are 180 tiles in RED, and I want to make something really fun with them.

Oh no! Tacky 60s plastic mushrooms are growing out of my sofa! I love anything with red and white polka dot mushrooms on it.
This marvelous fruity hat walked into Hollywood Regency, never hit the floor, and came home with me. I don't do that very often, believe it or not, but this time there was no question.
And finally, this cool 50s BoontonWare heavy Melmac covered casserole was waiting for me at the Goodwill. I used to have a serious Melmac problem about 12 years ago, and can usually resist, but this was just too good to pass up. Boonton is the STUFF-it is probably the best Melmac ever made. It is HEAVY!

We are moving in July, to a new-to-us house not far from my current location...and I will at long last have my own WORKROOM! With built in cabinets! I will take lots of pictures and share in the decoration process...it will truly be a labor of love. Finally, a house big enough for all my stuff. Finally, room to yodel!!!

Imperial Court of AZ Vendor space!

Heidi and I did some vending at the Imperial Court of AZ coronation-it's kind of this huge organization consisting of drag queens and other assorted folks that do a ton of service things for the gay/lesbian/etc community. It was so fun-and for once I was not the most overdressed person there!!! Met some neat boys who are a million times more girly than I....which is saying something. One of the other vendors had this gorgeous black mink coat....for only $700....and I HAD to put it on even though it was hot. Le Sigh. So soft and lovely!
My good friend Sister Felicity stopped by and blessed me with her wand; out of makeup she is my buddy Frankie, who I just love. He's the happiest person I have ever met. He makes me smile!

Falling behind!

Soory, I am so darn busy that things get past me...but I promise to post more after this week is over. Heidi and I are doing a show on Friday night and Saturday morning in Mesa in conjunction with Domestic Bliss, this wonderful pretty store in downtown Mesa at the corner of Robson and Main. If anyone is in Mesa Saturday morning, come by and see us! I promise pictures because this do is all about the pretty and creative and stuff. I am wearing hats all weekend! It will be hot but that's just the way it is.

New/Old Dresses Score!

Did a little thrifting after work tonight...while I did not have my car for 11 weeks I didn't get to hit my regular places. I am righting that wrong right now! I love this particular store because it's not a chain, it's a little grungy, and I found a 1930s black seal coat there once for $3.95. The furniture area smells funny, which is kind of quaint. Nothing like a treasure-laden grungy thrift! I like a little funkiness to my haunts.

Anyway! They have dollar tags almost every day, and I found three dresses for me and three for the store, plus a GREAT 50s men's suit for $18.50. Too big for Doc and too small for Louis, sadly, so it is off to Hollywood Regency to be rediscovered! This store had tons of 80s rayon dresses, some good, some I wanted to buy to re-style, some I wondered why they existed at all. For a buck each, how could I go wrong?!

This pink dress fooled me at first. It is fuschia pink (not at all so neon in person as in the picture, thank goodness) rayon and the styling is SO 40s I really thought I had the real thing. It's from the 80s, but it is a DEAD-ON repro. It also fits me like a screamin' dream and it's about the only pink I can wear so....it's home for awhile!
This cute little polyester dress was a hard one for me to buy, because I just don't like polyester. That is, until I saw the label inside! It's so cute on me and looks alot more 40s on a body than it does just by itself. It's a good little dress to wear to work and also dancing. I usually don't do poly but it really has a rayon-like texture and it's nice and light for summer. Plus, how can you go wrong with polky dots and piping?

This one is probably newer, because it is a stretchy cotton, but the label looks really 80s to me. It's a very good 50s repro, and again, a good work dress for summer. I have a light crinnie on under it and it makes the skirt poof just enough. It also fits like a dream!
I am going back soon...like I need more dresses, right? But it was so fun to bring these girls home!!!

Randomness!

So Zefram had Hawaii Day last Friday, and we togged him out with a semi-vintage Hawaiian shirt from the shop-he was very self conscious as you can see when I took his picture!

Been doing a little thrifting now that I HAVE MY CAR BACK OH YES THANK YOU GODS OF KARMA. (Sorry....it's been almost 3 months without my van and I missed it VERY MUCH.) I found the girls at Value Village, and the one on the left is Lefton (giggle). She's perfect, which is amazing considering the road she has probably traveled to get to my clutches. I might release her back to the masses, but I'm keeping her for a minute. The other girl is MINE, however, because she is a California Pottery girl, probably Yona, Kaye of Hollywood, or DeLee Art. Maybe even a Weil girl, which would make me smile. I collect the Weil girl figures, but only when I find them randomly-I don't search them out. They are sadly packed away at the moment, but will be let out again tp play soon.

I am quite pleased with the fabric-it is cotton and 35" wide, which makes it probably 50s! I love the stylized candelabra at the bottom, but the music notes are the best! This is going to be a gathered skirt as soon as I can get it washed and gathered onto a waistband! It was $4! Woo-hoo!

And then poor forgotten Polly Bergen, All Alone By The Telephone...this is how I feel tonight, I miss my fella. I can hardly wait to live with him again. Polly knows how I feel, though. She was such a pretty lady, wasn't she? She was still really pretty in "CryBaby". She could sing, too!

Cookies, just for fun

Last Thursday, we had a special open-late shopping night at Hollywood Regency, and I got silly and made some special cookies! I made a rare purchase on eBay and bought a vintage Mirro Aluminum cookie cutter set called Fairy Tale, which included a Fleur de Lis, Crown, Lion, Tree and Maltese cross. I also had some fun with the decorator tip set I had to buy because all my own vintage sets are in storage at the moment! It was a fun night!

Hollywood Regency in Mesa May 15th and 16th!

Heidi and I will be here:

http://www.bohemianblissmarket.blogspot.com/

On May 15th and 16th.....should be a fun, girly, creative good time! Come and see us if you are in the East Valley!

MEOW!

Went to Goodwill tonight with the Man because I needed some retail therapy, walked in at 8:37pm, right before they closed at 9, and this is what greeted me! For $8.00!!!!!!!!!
It is missing two of the buttons but I DON'T CARE. It hits me at the knees and it is that really nice, smooth, good-quality faux fur. I LOOOOOOOOOOVE the shawl collar. No label, but it's a really good one! MINEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Of course, I can't wear it much more this spring but it will be so fun to play with next winter!!!

CC's dress turned out so nice, and it looks amazing on her! I can't post pictures yet because she hasn't worn it, but as soon as I can, I'll show some. I just didn't want to steal her thunder!

I have another sewing job lined up...it's going to be an ongoing thing. Little nervous about that one, but I think it's going to be ok. Not mention all the little sewing things for the store that I have to do! I have to hem (for a customer) this huge 50s Mexican circle skirt that won't be hard, just time-consuming. I need to send out eBay invoices too. Get that stuff packed up and gone. I want to spend a little of what I made recently on a new/new to me sewing machine that does buttonholes by itself...I love my old machine and it works fine, but it doesn't do buttonholes. I have the attachment to do them but it is clumsy and weird and doesn't work that well. I just don't know if I want to go the electronic route because I have heard they are harder to fix. I see a trip to 35th Avenue Sew and Vac in my future to look at machines....and oh, that's right, they have a fabric section in the back, gee, I'll just have to mosey on back there and take a wee peek at fabric. :-D

I also need a new iron. I want a really good Rowenta or the Oreck steam iron. I want the burlesque girl fabric at eQuilter.com, and I want a whole week where I don't have to do anything but sew. I am feeling the need to create on a large scale!

But, I have the rest of the April weekends all worked out with Dan so on the 24th we can go see the Jump Back Brothers and the 25th to see Bad News Blues. That will be a great weekend! I am so happy that my Daddy is free to do things again. I didn't realize until this weekend in Jerome truly how much I have missed that the last 8 months.

I have plans for a Chippie Reunion lunch and the Hotel San Carlos Slumber Party. This WILL happen this year. I am determined!

Just the cute and nothing but

Just because he is so darn cute, this is my Boo, my little peanut, my lovely little redheaded grandson! The first picture is his mama, my sweet daughter, cutting my own son's hair today.

Ohhhhhhhhhh my gingham skirt worked so well, and I got lots of lovely comments on it! It spun PERFECTLY, and considering how many times Louis turned me when we were dancing Saturday afternoon, I think he agreed! What a wonderful day. I love Jerome. I love good music and good friends and Miller High Life beer. I think it was the BEST Jump Back Brothers show EVER. The energy was so good and by the third set lots of people were dancing. The Spirit Room is such a magical place. It was just a perfect day, now that all the legal ugliness is behind Louis and me. Such fun!