It's hot.

When your air conditioning breaks in the summer it sucks. When your A.C. breaks in Georgia it really sucks. 

Let me tell you how my day went. My parents were visiting from New York this weekend. It was about 10pm or so. We were all sitting around chatting and generally enjoying our last evening together before they headed down to Mississippi to visit my Grandmother Bixler. 

As we're talking I hear something dripping. Thinking it was a facet that had been left on I went in search of the sound. As I walked up the stairs to the second story the sound became louder and louder. At the top of the stairs I noticed that our light fixture was leaking. What ensued next was a frantic search for buckets and towels. With that disaster under control my Father and Fiancé braved the attic to see what was amiss. 

The air conditioning unit's condensation overflow drip pan was overflowing with water. The men folk probably removed about three gallons (at least!) of liquid which we poured down the bathtub drain. Fun times. 

No one ever warns you about certain parts of homeownership. Certainly no one ever warned us that our attic might flood in the middle of a drought. Go figure. So we're without A.C. until Thursday when the HVAC people are coming to dismantle, clean, and flush out our A.C. unit's condensation drainage system. 

The whole incident got me thinking though. How did the folks in the the first half of the 20th century keep cool down here in the south? They certainly must have had some way or you wouldn't be able to live here year round. So I did a little research and found some neat things; specially designed houses, massive attic fans, hallways and of course vintage electric fans! 

Wouldn't you rather have one of these lying around your home instead of those ugly white plastic things we all have? 

Vintage Eskimo Fan - $24.95

Vintage GE Table Top Fan - $9.99. Display only, not functional. 

Now finding vintage fans for under $25 takes a bit of searching. There is a very large contingent of vintage fan collectors out there that you're going to need to compete with. Still, there are a lot of vintage fans out there and you're bound to find one that fits within your budget. 

1920's "Jack-Frost" Art Deco Desk Fan - Ebay Currently $5.00

Vintage Brown Art Deco Westinghouse Fan - Ebay Currently $9.95

I also picked up a few things while investigating vintage fans. As with all vintage appliances check to see if the fan actually works. If the listing says something like "great condition" or "looks like new!" but does not expressly mention that the fan works properly it's a good idea to contact the seller. Most likely the fan doesn't work or rattles and shakes so much that it's virtually unusable. A good seller will give you the lowdown on your fan.

What do you do to cool off in the summer heat? Would you buy a vintage fan? Do you collect vintage fans? Let me know!

Vintage Etsy Wedding Finds under $25.00

I feel like this blog is taking a turn towards a wedding blog, so I solemnly swear to cut back on the wedding stuff after the new camera comes. Lucky for all of you it should be waiting for me at the P.O. box today.

Mostly life around here has been the continued hustle and bustle of engagement announcements and venue searching. I think we may have settled on a date. We've definitely found our dream location for the reception. I don't want to give it away until we secure the location, but I will say restored art-deco ballroom.

So after looking at that venue and after looking at the vintage wedding gown photos I've got a vintage inspired wedding on the brain. I looked for a few 1940s dress patterns, but saw little point in purchasing any. It is after all very bad luck to sew your own wedding dress. Still out of curiosity I went through some of my vintage patterns to see if I already had any wedding gown patterns. I have a few, but they are very 80s and way over the top. I keep them mostly for the pure enjoyment of owning them, not because I plan to ever reconstruct them. In fact one of my patterns showed up over at Male Pattern Boldness' Ugliest Pattern Contest. She lost to a much uglier and much more deserving ensemble.

Anyone want to wear this to your special event? Yikes. The 1980s were a bit of scary time for fashion, but they certainly had their own style. It's hard to look at an 80s dress and not know exactly what decade it came from.

After the pattern search I went on to search for some wedding accessories. Here's a few wedding themed vintage accessories that you can add to your vintage wardrobe. All for under $25.00 of course.

Beautiful Sheer 1950s Ladies Tea Gloves with lace cuff. Wow! If one of you doesn't snap these up I will. They're going for $8.00!

1960's Proxy Floral Pumps. Love love love! Waaaaaaay cute, and a great deal at $13.00. Very tempting for my own big day, but I think I should find the dress before I start picking up the matching accessories.

Gorgous Rhinestone Orchid Blossom Earrings. So cute. I just love these, but I have pierced ears so clip ons are not very comfortable for me to wear.

1980s Glass Pearl and Rhinestone necklace. I'm so in love with this. Sure it's a bit tacky 80s, but it's fun and very kitschy. It's selling for $17.00.

Great pair of 1940s Leather strap peep-toe pumps. Sure wish I was still looking for vintage white shoes to go with my Ruby short outfit. They're currently selling for $20.00, a great price for a pair of vintage shoes.

And to top it all off a Lovely White 1960s Hat with Bows. This is going for $7.99 which is an excellent deal for a hat. Someone better snatch this baby up. I'm trying so hard to resist from buying this. It does need a good dry cleaning and reshaping though, so take that into account if you're thinking of taking this baby home.

Have a good weekend! See you on Monday!

Memorial Day sale items

So... this weekend turned out to be not so good for my creative side. To give everyone a heads up I may be lack-luster on posting this week as well. My Beau and I will be attending a wake sometime later this week, so the urge to sew really isn't there for me right now.

I did pick up the Ruby's last night and did some basting to check the fit. I'm going to have to take in my seams a bit when I'm ready for the final sew. Looks like the waist is just a little big for me, I can probably attribute this to taking my measurements during that time of the month. T.M.I. warning: I bloat like you wouldn't believe. Every month around the last week I gain about 5 pounds in water weight... bleh. I'm also worried about the fabric stretching out and giving me saggy butt after a few wears, so I figured it can't hurt to take the waist in. 

Forgot to take pictures of the endeavor, but there wasn't much to see. I need to get my pockets done. I'm thinking of using one of Husqvarna 118's fancy stitches for the top stitching around the pockets. She came home Friday so now I have one fully functioning machine at my disposal. Finally. I'm very glad to have my automatic button hole attachment back. I hate hand sewing buttonholes, unless I have a good movie to watch with it. Preferably something with Patrick Swayze. To note, Road House and Red Dawn are great movies to sew and/or knit by. 

I did manage to stop by JoAnn's Memorial Day Sale like I said I would. Didn't buy too much in the way of fabric, since JoAnns stuff can be a little blah sometimes. They were having a great sale on fashion knits though so I HAD to pick up some great striped earth-tone Jersey knit for a steal. $3.95 per yard! It has alternating brown and green stripes, but is overall very neutral colored and would be great with some brightly colored bias taping around the edges. I picked up two and a half yarns and I'm hoping to make something like this out of it.  

Something like this I would make knee length of course. I'm a shorty and anything below the knee tends to look horrid on me.

And with the leftovers I'd love to make some sleeves like these on something!

I also picked up a great floral print in cotton from the kids apparel section. Pretty similar to this one, but not quite identical.

I plan to use it to make with one of my 1940s blouse patterns. I'm thinking I'll make it from my vintage 1941-1942 Advance 2963.

Picked her up for $0.99 on ebay. Best deal I ever made. I ended up deciding that I loved the fabric so much that I ended up buying 3 and a half yards. I was thinking I'd make a dress or skirt out of it as well. Don't blame me, I got the fabric for, get this... $3.00 per yard. Awesome. 

Some $25 Dollar Vintage Shoes for you

Well. My back is still out of whack. Darn roller coasters...mutter mutter mutter....


And the magenta dress still remains unfinished. This is about to become my longest sewing project ever. I did manage to finish cutting out all the pieces last night except the detachable collar. I'm holding off on that until I see how the actual collar of the dress itself looks and whether it's really necessary. 

So far I've managed to do the whole dress in under two yards of fabric and the collar would put me over. Why is this important to me you say? Well this jersey came in at $3.99 a yard and I can use a more expensive zipper if I stay under $10 for fabric! Yay!


Alrighty. So in apology for no dress updates here are some real Vintage things for under $25  to add to your own wardrobes!  All in lovely shades of pink for spring!

Shoes! Glorious shoes! These are some very nice vintage 1930s SILK mauve Peau De Soie pumps. I think these are the Cat's Pajamas! I wanted to snatch them up and hoard them all to myself... but then I decided it's always best to share vintage love. These glorious glorious shoes are only $25.00! 

1950s Pink Paradise kitten heel sling backs. Very very cute and only $15.00! 

Vintage cotton apron in Lavender, Lime and Pink. This lady found this lovely piece of history in an abandoned house. She's parting with it for $16.00. As I've said before, one cannot have too many aprons. It's literally impossible.

Hat! Glorious hat!  Cute little vintage cloche for $18.00. This would be cute with a spring day dress. Simplicity 1426 maybe?

And this cute little 1970's cocktail dress for $24.50. 

And then finally something that is not vintage, but very important for that vintage look. 

Some reproduction 1950s fully fashioned nylon stockings. The proper foundation is important to any vintage look. That includes hosiery and unmentionables. What Katie Did has a great selection of vintage unmentionables, shapers and hosiery. Check them out. These stockings sell for 17.50 GBP or 25.85 USD. Yes yes, they are over 25 dollars but they're so close to cost and I just had to sneak these in. I bought a pair of these about a year ago now and they really hold up. You could run a marathon in these things, trip, fall down, get back up and finish. Their longevity is amazing, especially for someone like me who gets runs the first time she wears a pair of stockings. So far I've worn mine probably 12-15 times and they're still going strong. That's under $2.50 a wear, not a bad deal for stockings. Not to mention their amazingly authentic look.