Latest Thrifting Score

I've been insanely busy, and feeling repeatedly under the weather to top things off, so I have not been able to get out thrifting as much as I would like to lately.  However, the other morning my darling husband left the house and forgot his wallet and begged me to drive it out to him.  On my way over, I stopped by one of my favorite thrift stores, and discovered this gorgeous pale pink 1950s Emma Domb dress and pinkish-tan elbow length gloves for $24 and $2, respectively.  

If there's one hue I'm a sucker for, it's pink.  Just look at my cat.  *grin*  You can't see it, but the pink satin waist band actually criss-crosses in back - a detail that I just adored!

The nice thing about being a milliner is that I can make hats to match my outfits.  Though I love 1950s dresses, I'm not an enormous fan of the hats of the era.  I recently purchased a fabulous vintage hat block, and happened to have some pink felt and pink veiling at my disposal, so I decided to make a hat to match. 

Yes, it's more 1940s-era, but the nice thing about wearing vintage is that I don't have to match my eras if I don't want to.  And in Southern Oregon, it's not as though anyone is going to notice.  

Of course I'm putting a bird on it.  I decided to incorporate my beautiful antique goura feathers (a thoughtful gift from a friend) into the faux bird too.  The blue-purple of the goura feathers matches the color of the center stones of my treasured Juliana book piece necklace & earrings set.

Recent Vintage Scores

After a long summer of no real vintage finds, I struck gold last month.  A peacock blue silk 1960s wiggle dress (with matching bolero jacket) for $10, and a $40 so soft 1950s squirrel fur bolero jacket made by "The Harris Company."

I also grabbed a $10 WWII wool nurse's cape at the thrifty a couple of weeks ago.

And I also finally finished repairing this lovely 1950s feathered Caspar-Davis hat (gift from friends, found at the thrift store in Portland).

I purchased this $35 1957 purple lace prom dress from the daughter of the original owner.  She wore it to her Talent high school prom!

I bought 21 vintage sewing patterns (1930s-1950s) for $1/pattern at a yard sale.  One of my favorites is a 1940s beret and matching purse pattern!

(Even More) Thrift Store Scores

I've been terrible about updating this blog lately, as well as sharing my (now rather long) backlog of thrift store scores!  So here's a sampling of some of the lovely vintage items I've found recently (and plan on keeping)...

Gorgeous 1950s New Look "Rosenhoff's Shop" label navy blue dress. ($8.99)

1950s/1960s Silver Fox Fur Collar ($9.99)

1950s Silky Soft Chocolate Brown Mink Fur Swing Coat by La Pointe's Furs ($19.99)

Sunday Date & An Outfit

Yesterday, my husband and I decided that we needed to get out of the house and have a fun little date together!  I dragged him to the local thrift stores, and then we went antique-store-hopping.  I wore the cutest little 1950s ribbon/circle skirt that I found at a local antiques store on Saturday.  I need to take it in a bit at the waist, and the shirt I was wearing was much too large (unfortunately, I had nothing else in my closet that would work), but I liked the color combo.  I need to find a vintage sweater to match the skirt!

In any event, it was a VERY profitable day!  I found a gorgeous blue felt for my millinery endeavors at the first thrift store,  and an amazing late 1930s or early 1940s wide-brimmed vintage hat at the second!  Then, we went to one of my favorite antiques store, and I discovered this GORGEOUS vintage 1940s dress hidden in the back of the clothing rack.  It was in serious need of TLC (mostly lots of seam separation, but there were definitely a few large tears that needed fixing), but I love a challenge!  I spent about 30 minutes on Sunday afternoon repairing it, and now it is wearable again (though I may need to re-do my front tear repair...I'm not 100% happy with how that turned out).  The dress is a gorgeous blue-ish/lavender rayon crepe (I'm not good with identifying materials, but that is what I would make my guess).

Ironically, the dress and the hat go really well together!  And I purchased the AMAZING 1930s beaded Degas heels for $25 on Saturday (at the same place I bought the ribbon skirt).  They match my outfit pretty darn well!

And look at the beading on them!  If that isn't enough to give you a shoe fetish, I don't know what is...yummy...

Rub My Feet & Call Me "Bunny!"

My thrifting mojo was in FULL SWING today!  I scored some fab items - it was so nice, after an entire summer of nothing (with the exception of that amazing monkey fur coat!).

 

 

For $2.99, I picked up this gorgeous vintage 1930s wide-brimmed "Clifford Dale Original" hat with roses and a velvet bow.  Perfect color for my light skin and red hair!  The crown and flowers need reshaping (they are a little flat), but that is easy to do with some balled up newspaper and a tea kettle.

For $16, I scored this fun 'n' funky 1940s vintage coat!  This particular big, boxy style of coat with those classic padded shoulders is referred to as a "chubby" jacket.  The 1980s tried to copy the 1940s in this respect, but just didn't quite make the cut (har de har har).  Anywho, the coat is definitely a little beat up, but nothing I can't fix, namely: two small tears, and I need to reattach the lining to a section of the bottom of the coat and the pocket.

Finally, some funky vintage ties for Ryan!

Mid-Week Thrifting!

Oh, how I do love the late summer/early fall thrifting season.  I pretty much think that this is the most wonderful time of the year!  I found two lovely vintage hats - one an adorable yellow rose cocktail hat, the other a black straw from the 1940s.  

I also picked up an adorable 1950s cotton dress!  

Unfortunately, the dress had been abused at some point, and had two enormous tears in the back.  One had been decently patched, the other (the larger of the two) had just been left.  The tear was too big to dart without it looking odd, so I closed it up with some matching thread, and used an iron-on interfacing for the other side.  Now, good as new!  

My final score was a gorgeous 1950s grey fox fur wrap by Michael Henri.  

The fur is in pristine condition, with no tears or shedding, and it is so luxuriously soft!  It was originally priced at $30, but since I happened to be with my grandmother that day, I was able to get the 20% senior discount.  Yay!

Nifty Thrifty

The other week I stopped off at the thrift store, and was heartbroken to discover that some lady the day before (right at closing time!) had bought up all of the remaining vintage magazines! Basically, this particular thrift store had received a donation of about 20 vintage magazines (McCalls, Delineator, Pictorial Review, etc.) dating from the 1920s-1940s. At $5/magazine, they were a bit ambitiously priced for a thrift store. However, every time I stopped in, I snagged 1 or 2 copies - whichever had the best hat pictures in them! Well, I had finally decided to just bite the bullet and go ahead and purchase the remaining stack. Of course, this is when they all sold (story of my life). On the bright side, I managed to buy 10 copies, so I totally have some awesome pictures to drool over!

I think my two favorite magazines are the ones dated August 1929 (just before the Great Depression) and 1930 (post-stock market crash) - they really give you a good idea of how life started to change as a result! Fascinating!!

One of the reasons I adore vintage magazines oh so much is because I feel that they give a better idea of how people thought/felt/acted at a certain time than any history book could ever provide! It's like putting your finger on the pulse of a culture at a given moment in time.

Anywho, here are my favorite hats:

To console myself at the loss of the remaining vintage magazines, I scored this fabulous 1940s checkered dress for $5! Lately, the thrift stores (this one in particular) have been catching on to the vintage trend: holding back the good items, and pricing them astoundingly high. It's a source of irritation and upset for me, but every now and then something slips through the cracks (like this dress!). The dress label reads, "Mode O'Day," and on the bottom, ""Styled in California." The dress is composed of a swishy, synthetic fabric. It has a metal side zipper, padded shoulders, short sleeves, a button-front blouse with mock pockets, and velvet-covered buttons. VERY cute, and very much the WWII/post-WWII look!

During WWII, women's fashions became very masculine as a way of showing military support - thus (for example) the padded shoulders of dresses at the time.