Yards and yards
I'm currently home for Christmas, and a couple of days ago we popped across to the next town over where there's a massive antiques centre. It's my favourite place to shop and I enjoy going as often as I can. There are several separate shops, each huge and containing a variety of different dealers so you're guaranteed to find something for your tastes and due to it being a small country town it's very casual and fairly priced. I particularly like it as there's a few dealers that specialise in 1960s and '70s clothing and home wares, so I make sure to save up my pennies! And this visit was no different, I picked up so many exciting goodies!
I was really excited to try and add some clothing to my wardrobe, like I mentioned before it's difficult for me to find vintage clothing where I now live unless I buy online. And as you can see, I wasn't let down! I saw a few wonderful crimplene maxi dresses all grouped together, but settled for this lovely blue number as I adore the bright flower pattern and it fit me the best. I've really enjoyed switching my usual mini length for maxi this winter, so I imagine I'll be getting a lot of wear out of this.
I was also on the hunt for a vintage dressing gown as my apartment gets very cold, I was imagining something bright and quilted. However the warm aspect quickly got disregarded when I spotted this perfect orange set! Its a '60s maxi nightgown and negligee, I'll feel oh so glamorous lazing around the house in this beauty. Although it's in perfect sturdy condition, I don't plan on wearing it to bed as I toss and turn far too much and would be knotted up in seconds! But I often like to change into something more comfortable for the evening and this is absolutely perfect for that.
This crimplene shirt was hiding on a hanger underneath a wool suit, I only noticed it by the collar peeking out and grabbed it immediately. I've been wanting more tops to wear with my skirts and this was perfect and I knew it would go well with my collection of scarves (of which I also bought another, as you see below!) I actually thought this was a mens shirt when I bought it until I tried it on after I got home and noticed the darts on the bust. It makes no difference to me either way!
All of the other things I got were lengths of fabric which has me missing my sewing machine desperately, it's going to be very busy as soon as I'm home! The first length on the left was the most expensive length, £24 which is far more than I would ever usually spend on fabric but it's possibly the most beautiful length of fabric I've ever seen and there's about 3 metres of it. It's certainly not something I'm likely to see anywhere else. It's groovy pattern reminds me of Peter Max. I'm not yet sure what to create out if it, it has to be something spectacular! I'm thinking of scanning it into the computer to create a repeatable background of it it's so lovely.
The rest of the fabric was all crimplene, and all super cheap. I'm a crimplene fiend and love to hoard it up whenever I see it available and I've really hit the jackpot this visit. There's about a metre of this stripy floral, and I'm envisioning a summer shift dress.
The quilted length is another huge piece of fabric (I'm not sure I'll even be able to fit it all in my suitcase, ha!) I've often admired vintage quilted maxi skirts, but never seen one in the flesh nor for a good price online. I imagine this would make a beautiful maxi skirt!
There's quite a lot of this patterned crimplene on the right, at the moment I'm thinking of creating it into a bell sleeved maxi dress. My favourite aspect of buying vintage fabric is that there's no desperately hoping something you love will fit, nor seeing something in a beautiful fabric in an ugly garment. Everything is exactly to your measurements and your design.
These were the non clothing items I got. I couldn't resist the cheese board, it'll brighten my kitchen right up! I'm always a magpie for nice pieces of jewellery and these Indian bangles were just a few pounds each. The Encyclopedia of Pop/Rock is an original from 1973 and only 50p. I don't rate it as much of an encyclopedia as there's several artists who'd made it very big at this time who are missing, but it's thorough enough and I enjoy having things from the time my favourite bands were around and seeing what was written about them then compared to what we know now. Plus how fab is that cover!
These 5 pieces weren't found in the antiques centre at all, but the local charity shop. I don't normally have much luck in charity shops, but it's always worth checking as every so often I strike gold and usually when I least expect it. All five of these pieces were 50p each, all thrown together in a huge basket with a variety of other off cuts. It's actually my mum I have to thank, I was busy digging through the pile of vintage patterns when I suddenly heard her call over to me "hey, is this crimplene?" I ran over, and we found another bit, and then another bit, and another until I had my arms completely full. I couldn't believe my luck! They're all fairly sizable pieces of about a metre, except for the green plaid pattern piece which is two metres and I thought would make a nice summer dress (I even found matching vintage buttons in the notions box, as you can see!) I have no idea what I'll do with the other pieces, but I like to have lengths of plainer fabrics in my stash to pair with busier fabrics as contrasting details like collars and sleeves.
I'm going to be a busy bee when I get home, that's for sure! I haven't had my sewing mojo for a while, so it feels wonderful to be excited about it again.
I was really excited to try and add some clothing to my wardrobe, like I mentioned before it's difficult for me to find vintage clothing where I now live unless I buy online. And as you can see, I wasn't let down! I saw a few wonderful crimplene maxi dresses all grouped together, but settled for this lovely blue number as I adore the bright flower pattern and it fit me the best. I've really enjoyed switching my usual mini length for maxi this winter, so I imagine I'll be getting a lot of wear out of this.
I was also on the hunt for a vintage dressing gown as my apartment gets very cold, I was imagining something bright and quilted. However the warm aspect quickly got disregarded when I spotted this perfect orange set! Its a '60s maxi nightgown and negligee, I'll feel oh so glamorous lazing around the house in this beauty. Although it's in perfect sturdy condition, I don't plan on wearing it to bed as I toss and turn far too much and would be knotted up in seconds! But I often like to change into something more comfortable for the evening and this is absolutely perfect for that.
This crimplene shirt was hiding on a hanger underneath a wool suit, I only noticed it by the collar peeking out and grabbed it immediately. I've been wanting more tops to wear with my skirts and this was perfect and I knew it would go well with my collection of scarves (of which I also bought another, as you see below!) I actually thought this was a mens shirt when I bought it until I tried it on after I got home and noticed the darts on the bust. It makes no difference to me either way!
All of the other things I got were lengths of fabric which has me missing my sewing machine desperately, it's going to be very busy as soon as I'm home! The first length on the left was the most expensive length, £24 which is far more than I would ever usually spend on fabric but it's possibly the most beautiful length of fabric I've ever seen and there's about 3 metres of it. It's certainly not something I'm likely to see anywhere else. It's groovy pattern reminds me of Peter Max. I'm not yet sure what to create out if it, it has to be something spectacular! I'm thinking of scanning it into the computer to create a repeatable background of it it's so lovely.
The rest of the fabric was all crimplene, and all super cheap. I'm a crimplene fiend and love to hoard it up whenever I see it available and I've really hit the jackpot this visit. There's about a metre of this stripy floral, and I'm envisioning a summer shift dress.
The quilted length is another huge piece of fabric (I'm not sure I'll even be able to fit it all in my suitcase, ha!) I've often admired vintage quilted maxi skirts, but never seen one in the flesh nor for a good price online. I imagine this would make a beautiful maxi skirt!
There's quite a lot of this patterned crimplene on the right, at the moment I'm thinking of creating it into a bell sleeved maxi dress. My favourite aspect of buying vintage fabric is that there's no desperately hoping something you love will fit, nor seeing something in a beautiful fabric in an ugly garment. Everything is exactly to your measurements and your design.
These were the non clothing items I got. I couldn't resist the cheese board, it'll brighten my kitchen right up! I'm always a magpie for nice pieces of jewellery and these Indian bangles were just a few pounds each. The Encyclopedia of Pop/Rock is an original from 1973 and only 50p. I don't rate it as much of an encyclopedia as there's several artists who'd made it very big at this time who are missing, but it's thorough enough and I enjoy having things from the time my favourite bands were around and seeing what was written about them then compared to what we know now. Plus how fab is that cover!
These 5 pieces weren't found in the antiques centre at all, but the local charity shop. I don't normally have much luck in charity shops, but it's always worth checking as every so often I strike gold and usually when I least expect it. All five of these pieces were 50p each, all thrown together in a huge basket with a variety of other off cuts. It's actually my mum I have to thank, I was busy digging through the pile of vintage patterns when I suddenly heard her call over to me "hey, is this crimplene?" I ran over, and we found another bit, and then another bit, and another until I had my arms completely full. I couldn't believe my luck! They're all fairly sizable pieces of about a metre, except for the green plaid pattern piece which is two metres and I thought would make a nice summer dress (I even found matching vintage buttons in the notions box, as you can see!) I have no idea what I'll do with the other pieces, but I like to have lengths of plainer fabrics in my stash to pair with busier fabrics as contrasting details like collars and sleeves.
I'm going to be a busy bee when I get home, that's for sure! I haven't had my sewing mojo for a while, so it feels wonderful to be excited about it again.
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