Get My Thrills Thrifting #11: Sewing Attachment Jackpot

Day 290: Thrift store treasures have been few and far between lately, but that is how it is when you are searching feast or famine.  Yesterday it was definitely a good day with a box full of little feet that I have to do some more ID research on, a Singer ZigZag and a Singer Blind Stitch Hemmer attachment.  Then at another store a box full of WWII brass jacket buttons.

Things have been so incredibly busy around here lately and while I miss blogging I am very blessed to be able to be this busy with  my sewing.  If you follow me on Facebook you can see some of the things I am working on, I can only show pictures of some of it but some stuff you have to wait to see until after a photo shoot or the fashion show coming up!

What will you create today?

Sunday Best #6: Thrifted Vintage to Modern Teen Dress

Day 286:  When my girls have to get dressed up they have never been ones to want to just go out and get a dress off the rack.  They usually come to me with a few drawings or colors and ideas and we see what we can put together.  While I don't mind making them an outfit from scratch I prefer to upcycle vintage clothing, plus its more of a challenge for my skills.  So off we went to the thrift store and this was the first dress my teen found in the color she wanted~plus bonus is she can use it as one of her cosplay costumes.

Here is the front of the finished version of this mini dress, paired with the thrifted tall boots.

 I am thinking this dress is from the 60s or 70s and it was homemade.  Most likely a ball or bridesmade or prom dress as it was very long and flowing.  The best part of this was the trim and the sparkle in the red fabric.

She wanted it short so we trimmed it to mid-thigh.  I hand sewed the hem and cut the lining to just above the hem so it would swing loose underneath.

The back finished version of the dress. Here you can see where the ribbons on the bow hang down. Each part of the back detail were sewn on separately and really stood up to a night of dancing and sitting.

Close-up of the trim that is at the waist and neckline.

One detail my daughter wanted was a big bow on the back.  She also loves steampunk and bustle details on historical dresses.  We drew up a simple design and using all the portion we cut off the dress were able to come up with a bow that has the top corners handstitched to the dress and a simple draped bustle that is sewn in loops and gathers all meeting at the center point under the bow.

Another shot of the vintage trim that runs along the neckline, bust and waist.

This dress will be worn many times and was a huge hit for being so unique.  It was an extremely simple upcycle for the end result.  

What will you create today?

I get my thrills thrifting #9: Rad Plaid Suitcase among other things

Day 277  Found the perfect little plaid suitcase to take with me to store my traveling sewing projects.

Its so cute. And in perfect condition just needed a good wipe down.  Now I can lay the suitcase flat and unzip for an easy peasy little work station.

Also found more variety of vintage DMC threads.  Got some samplings to try out before going back and picking up more.  Here the samples are laying in the inside of the suitcase.

And FINALLY I get a mannequin~you know me, I find the cheap but quality goods here and with a lot of patience I found one!  Gonna have to give her a name before the mole guy gets too uh attached to her, doesn't he look pervy and I SWEAR to you I did move him there, it wasn't until I pulled up the image that I saw him checking her out.

Got a great Mad Scientist project we just wrapped up to show you, very steampunk, made by my husband and my youngest daughter and I have already been wearing mine.

What will you create today?

I get my thrills thrifting #8: Sewing and Silent Film

Day 273 Successful day yesterday of thrifting.  Thrifting on a small, really small, like loose change, budget makes me really picky and I was happy to find some vintage silk floss from Switzerland, some cotton DMC, an old doll pattern, a crewel pattern and a vintage baby bib or apron.

I actually finally found a mannequin.  I have been looking forever for a price within my budget and this was well under.

Mostly this was a successful day for my teen daughter.  She is really interested in 8mm filming and we found a really nice gentleman through Freecycle who had this Editing machine and a few random old films of unknown families.

While most of the films were from the 50s and 60s, including some that were shot here in Albuquerque, the oldest film he had was probably from the 30s/40s? (not too sure about film history here) and it was in black and white.  Here is a still shot from it of one of the little girls in the family film.

My daughter found this great old projector practically in mint condition and it was well within her budget.  I don't think it had ever been used it was that pristine.

The man we visited that had the Editor also found these movies of Willie Mouse and JFK so we spent last night watching silent 8mm films.

He also gave her this Brownie camera, case and lenses that were his parents'.  He only asked that she dedicated her films to him when she becomes a big movie maker lol.

She has some great ideas going, I can't wait to see what the kids produce.

What will you create today?

Scenes from my Sketchbook #13: Monsters on the brain

Day 266  I am sure it is the hours of Being Human both US and UK as well as Grimm and Lost Girl that I have absorbed lately that my sketchings have been pouring out of me in monster form or maybe its the fact that I broke down and finally watch reality TV with my tweener, Face Off, OMG the drama.  I don't know how  you work but I have to have noise in the background so I tend to put on TV series while I am working on big jobs~thank gawd for the invention of internet, DVRS, Netflix and Amazon Prime my heroes.

Most of these last embroidery patterns are from UrbanThreads.com a site I love maybe in between Netflix and Amazon because of their creative awesomeness and HUGE supply of unique hand embroideries (they have machine too) Anyway, I am working on some new projects so have to get back to stitching you might think being 'Tabitha' I can just twitch my nose and the job is done, but I can't so I spend a lot of hours joyfully sewing with my needle in hand.

What will you create today?

I Get My Thrills Thrifting #7: Aprons and Vintage Sewing Books

Day 263   Having a bit of trouble with the new Taichi format so hopefully we will get it out tomorrow.  In the meantime you will have to just be satisfied with a few treasures from our thrifting adventures.

  I love sales at thrift stores.  Picked up a bunch of unique pillow cases for my reclaimed fabric aprons that will be coming out starting this week.

Found this gem sitting amongst the books.  Excellent condition for a paper booklet.  I might just have to make some of these shirts up for the hub.

This was my favorite find of the week.

And it came for patterns for each featured item in the book.  I just love seeing history all wrapped up in sewing and needlepoint.

What will you create today?

I get my thrills thrifting #6: Goodwill Tshirt Hunting

Day 246 Well I didn't really find them at Goodwill but it just sounded right in the title.  These will all be going into my new Artfire Store  they are mostly 18" pillows, I am thinking the Twilight one might be a 16" or 14".  If you are interested in any of these let me know!

Archetype Tattoo and a Dragon Tattoo

Jacob and 1971 Led Zeppelin World Tour

  

Korn and Rockband Skulls

Twilight, 'dominant and Thundercats

Aprons, cross stitch plates and fabric collages coming up on the horizon!
What will you create today?

I get my thrills thrifting #5: Singer Sewing Machine Attachment Love

Day 238  I am totally in love with sewing machines and I mean some serious petting.  Its a disease and if you sew you probably know of which I speak.  Don't judge.  I could barely contain myself as I saw this in the glass case and they were displayed with the box open so it wasn't until I got it home that I could tell how good a condition it was all in.  I mean seriously the manual has never even been flipped through.

The sad part of this tale is I got it home and NONE, NOT A ONE of my vintage sewing machines are slant shank, they are all low shank...BOO HISS..so now to decide do I sell these or hold out for a slant shank machine cause you know if I give them away I will see a machine the next day at the thrift store for $5, its the way I roll.

These are labeled Singer Sewing Machine Attachments for class 404 machines.  Part No 161277 and it is completely intact with all the original pieces.  I think it is from the 50s.  It even has the card that the little darning foot came on.  Oh to long for the days when sewing machine feet were $2.25.

What will you create today?

I get my thrills thrifting #4: All we got for Christmas....

Day 230:  This Christmas my hub and I were determined to only get things we found within a certain price range (read dollars and change) at local thrift stores and flea markets.  So we either were given or gave these things as is or we used them to put together into other gifts (that will be the Mad Scientist Monday post).  Here is just some of the awesomeness: 

A White sewing machine virtually untouched beneath its cover.  I don't think the original owner ever touched this or sewed from it at all because everything was brand spanking new when we lifted off the cover.  

My girls found this Sewhandy by Singer for me as a Christmas present.

An adorable machine for kids beginning to sew on.  

This wasn't really on Christmas but afterwards because I was searching for buttons for a project.  A lovely grab bag, you never know what will be inside.

How mod are these?

Spools of thread dug out of a tool box of all places at a local thrift store.  I am surprised at the good condition of the thread.  I often use thread from the thrift store in my hand stitchings.

This lot of vintage blue buttons was a gift from my kids.  The ravens on top were just gift tags to use for contrast because I couldn't get the color to come out right.

These 2 are among my most favorite gifts, a vintage scale and an electric pencil sharpener!

Some vintage mysteries I found for my girls for Christmas presents.  There were also some amazing vintage Sonic the Hedgehog comics as well.

One of the best was a tea set that belonged to my hub's mom that she played with as a kid.   My youngest loves tea sets and playing tea with her American Girl dolls and this was a big surprise.  You can see some of the vintage cookie cutters that we also put in their stockings too.

All in all it was a great holiday.  Great in that we all got things that we will cherish and use and were meaningful to the recipient.  This took a lot of planning and luck but I think it will be a tradition that we will continue from now on....one bonus was we only had one bag of recycling because there was very little packaging and we didn't have to wrestle with any unopenable plastic boxes YAY!!

I'm going to go get that new to me White machine up and running today. What will you create today?