Vintage Monday...Vintage Dresses...

It's seems like forever since I did a Vintage Monday post...

so I thought today that I would!

Today I'm going to share a link to vintage style dresses...

if you happen to have a crush on vintage like me...

you will appreciate it:)

A few weeks ago when I showed you my finished row along quilt...

I had several emails asking me about the dress in my front room.

I have a dress form that I like to keep vintage dresses

 on and change them out from time to time.

This one is my current choice.

It's made from my Millie's Closet fabric collection...

and yes it is made from a vintage vogue pattern:)

I have been collecting vintage patterns for a long time....

I can never pass these beauties up

 when I see them in the thrift shops...

so I have quite a few that

 I've picked up over time...

and these are just a few!

Of course you know that I love everything vintage ...

and I love all of the colors and the 

feminine details of vintage clothing too.

It seems those kind of things 

are left out of modern styles somehow.

My daughter Kassidy loves vintage too.

She has such a hard time finding dresses and skirts

 because the styles are all way too short for her long legs.

But there is one place that she can always count on...

it's a favorite of ours... 

 Shabby Apple

LOVE IT!!!

They sell all kinds of vintage style clothing.

YaY!

Just look at the white tulle skirt above.

 Kassidy loves this one...

she is a dancer and want's it in her closet ASAP!

Along with this vintage green gingham skirt...

so perfect for summer.

 We love this dark plum dress too.

It would be perfect to show off some vintage jewelry ...

don't you think?

And look at this polka dotty one..

it would be sooo cute for school!

Kassidy has this mint green one in her closet.

There are so many other vintage styles to choose from ...

I just showed you a few of them.

Here is a link to the 

vintage clothing

 if you want to look for yourself:)

I am so happy there is a place 

that produces clothing in 

the vintage style that we both love so much...

 pretty...feminine and modest:)

How about you?

Do you love vintage dresses and skirts like I do?

Did you already know about Shabby Apple?

And do you have a hard time passing up old patterns like me?

I'd love to know:)

xx

Lori

Inside Millie's Closet...and a Vintage Monday!

Hi Cute people!...

Just a quick post to let you know that I'm still here...

 and having a great time playing with 

Millie's Closet!

This is the gray/yellow/green

 color way in the line.

There are 8 prints in this color way...

And 2 solids.

One is my very favorite Apple Green 

and the other I'm so excited about!!  

It's a light gray that I picked

 to go in this line....

I chose it because I wanted 

a gray that looks like vintage linen...

and it looks so fabulous with

 all 28 pieces in the line!!!

For this photo shoot I added one of my vintage purses and a sweet vintage pair of long white gloves with pearl buttons.

 I'm sure they were worn to at least

 one prom...

 a ladies luncheon...

 and also on several Easter Sundays:)

Along with this adorable vintage hat...

one of my very favorites in my collection.

I think they go very well with the gray/yellow/green 

color way of Millie's Closet.

What do you think?

The release of Millie's Closet in all 3 color ways is now just a few short weeks away...

and then I can begin to show you some of the things that I am working on.

Click Here 

if you would like to play with some 

of your very own:)

One of the projects includes a tutorial scheduled for next week!

But in the meantime...

have a quilty kind of week my friends!

xx

Lori

Vintage Monday - Vintage Potholders...

Quite a while back when I first started posting my
"Vintage Monday's" ... showing you some of my favorite vintage things that I have in my collections....I posted about crochet hot pads.
If you didn't see them...you can read about them here.

I've recently added more to my collection thanks to a fabulous find at one of my favorite thrift shops.

I came across four bags that looked like they were full of vintage crocheted doilies and hotpads.

They were marked at 1.99 each...which is a fantastic deal already but as luck would have it...it was 50% off all yellow tags day, making them 1.00 for each bag!

I couldn't wait to get them home to see everything that was in there...

Here are some of my favorites...

My heart thrilled with each and every one as I pulled them out of the bag.

I think that they probably came from the same kitchen...being all together like that....and whoever made them must have loved red and white just like me because most of them are those colors.

I imagine that she lovingly crocheted each potholder in the evenings after the kids were asleep and she finally had some time to herself for handwork and listening to her favorite programs....or maybe she took them along in her sewing bag to a Ladies Aid meeting to keep her hands busy?

What do you think?

It's when I find things such as this that keeps me out going through bins at my local thrift shops....I don't find treasures every time I go...but the times that I do make it totally worthwhile!

How about you?...do you like thrifting?

What kinds of vintage finds make your heart skip a beat?

Vintage Monday - Embroidery

I have always loved to do embroidery.
Have you?
When I was about 6 - 7 years old.... my Grandma Crane taught me how to do a few basic stitches.
As time went on and I was ready to learn more stitches...I would ask my mother and she would show me how.
I remember how skilled I felt when I learned to do the lazy daisy stitch...it became my favorite stitch to work.

I embroidered all kinds of things like little gifts for my friends and family but most of all I remember making things to decorate my bedroom.
As I got older and went to High School...the principal gave me permission to make and sell embroidered pillows in the gift shop.
I used Blue and White gingham fabric (our school colors) and embroidered a big letter "B" (for Bingham) using the chicken scratch or hopscotch stitch in white.
Then I used more gingham in a smaller scale and sewed a ruffle around the edges of the pillow and finished it off with a bow in the top corner out of blue satin ribbon....I sold alot of those pillows....lol...and I guess that was the seed planted for my designing and selling career:)

I loved having the freedom of just a needle, scissors, colorful floss, hoop, fabric and a drawing to create a work of art.
I usually had my current project with me wherever I went..I even took my stitching to school with me...and I often took my embroidery along on Saturday afternoons when it was my turn to herd the sheep!
Please tell me I wasn't the only crafty/sew-ey geek in grade school!...any of you?


At home, we always had an abudance of patterns that I could choose from.
My mother had several, both of my grandmothers along with all of my great aunts had several...and all of them lived nearby.
Some of them were Aunt Martha's patterns and several of the same ones are still available today. You can find them here.
Today for Vintage Monday I thought I would show you a set of Days of the Week kitty's that I finished (a long time ago...making them purrfect for vintage monday...haha) and are waiting to be put into a quilt....you know that I just love embroidery and quilt blocks together...so vintagey cute.

Well...little Miss Kitty certainly was busy every day of the week...(except Sunday:) What do you think? Did she bring back any memories for you?

I still have an embroidery project of some kind going...and my favorite patterns to work are the old ones.

I buy yardage of good cotton fabric for the background and cut it into squares (always about 3" larger than my frames)...zig-zag the edges to stop fraying while I'm working on them and then I always have a piece ready to trace a pattern on to!

As a girl...I learned by using a hoop but years ago when these Q-snap frames came out...I bought a set and have used them for embroidering ever since. I love them!

I love the way that they help my work stay nice and neat.

They don't pull, tug or distort my embroidery...and the sides easily snap on to hold my work in place.

The edges are larger than a hoop making them easier to grip while working the stitches.

If you havn't tried them...I promise you'll love them when you do!

Just in case you are wondering... You can purchase them online here. Pictured is the 11" ... but I also use the 6" and 8".

I keep all of my supplies for my current project together along with a little notebook to jot down color changes and such that I might need to remember.

I'm a sucker for cute little bags and currently I am using this adorable one to hold my embroidery supplies.

My friend Sherri (A Quilting Life ) made it for me. Thanks Sherri! It's sew cute...just like you:)

Because I grew up with embroidery and tons of patterns...over the years while out thrifting...I have come across a stack or even a single pattern...I buy it.

They are getting harder to find now but I must say that I do have quite a collection!

If I had to guess I would say maybe 200 or so.
I have been collecting for a long time!

The ones that I am especially fond of are the ones that have come from my grandmothers collections.

I have several I am showing you here from my Grandma, Ida Marie Ewell (my dad's mother)...above you can see some of the envelopes addressed to her as she would often order patterns from the newspaper or needlework companies.

Among them I have found special treasures like notes about the pattern...recipes... or crochet patterns...written in my grandmothers hand.

My Grandma Ewell is still with us today (she is 97) and so is my Gramdma Crane (she is 95).

What a lucky girl I am!

Among my grandma's things I also found this old pattern for working "chicken scratch" on gingham.

She had drawn it out on graph paper and I am using it for a pattern on my gingham fabric in my "Sew Cherry" line.

I'm excited about that...and will share it with you when I am able to show it!

There is so much one can do with embroidery...such a creative way to express yourself with simply a needle and thread.

Tell me your embroidery love story. I just told you mine:)

Have a lovely Vintage Monday everyone!