Life As Of Lately

It has been an interesting last few weeks. Getting up at 4 am is a very hard thing to do. Especially since your husband is a night owl. He used to stay up until 1 or 2 in the morning when we first started to date. Now we're in bed by 10 at night and up at 4 am. It's gotten easier. I've learned that if I get up around 7 am it makes my day a lot easier. I tend to get things done earlier and I'm not as tired. Of course I always have Ridley willing to wake me up 15 minutes before my wake up time to "remind" me that he wants his wet food. Darn cat. I love him to pieces  but he does drive me crazy sometimes.


A few weeks ago I went to my local thrift store and found some vintage skeins of yarn. One was a Gold Sayelle Orlon yarn. I love vintage gold colors. It's so pretty and different. The other was Dawn Wintuk in black. It's also an Orlon yarn. The Orlon yarn is a lot more springier and is very easy to knit.A lot of my vintage cardigans are made from Orlon yarn.

 I decided to make a knitted beret because one can never have too many cute hats, shoes or purses. I used this pattern fro Ravelry. It was a really easy pattern and it knit up fairly quickly. I did make it a lot shorter than the pattern called for. I like my hats to be close to my head so I can wear my hair curled or in braids.






This beret I made a few months ago. I made it using super wash wool. Super wash means that the wool fibers won;t felt when you wash and dry them. The pattern for this was out of my giant knitting book A Stitch in Time Vol.2. The pattern also includes a matching pair of mittens. I haven't decided whether I want to make them or not. I also made my sister a couple of "hipster" hats.





I haven't sewed a lot lately. I did fix up all of my petticoats this past weekend so now I can wear them without worrying about them looking bad. Not that anyone is going to see them but I will know the weren't looking too good. I'm neurotic like that. I know people won't know since it's hidden but I'll know and it'll drive me crazy.

I have been looking for elastic cinch belt for a while. Whenever I do find them they elastic is dead and they want more than a couple of bucks for them. I lucked out a couple of weekend ago and found these beauties.I'm not sure if they are vintage go not but I love them. I may need to replace the elastic since they are a bit too tight on me right now.  I had a huge collection of cinch belts when I was in high school. Of course I got rid of them once I went to college.





Last Friday and Saturday was the annual rummage sale at St. Gall. It is a HUGE rummage sale and I've heard that people from out of state come to shop here. Last year I got there around 9 am and it seemed like a lot of the good stuff was gone. I still got some goodies but all of the jewelry was gone and I only had a budget of $10. This year I got there around 6:30 am. I had to drop Jess off at work at 4 am and let me tell you it has been a long time,if ever, that I have driven that early in the morning. It was nice; not many cars on the road. I got to St. Galls and there were already to long lines. There were two lines : one for going to the auditorium (housewares,crafts,jewelry,clothing etc) and once for everything else (furniture, lawn care things, parts). They opened promptly at 7 and the people piled in. I picked up to paper bags to carry my goodies and proceeded direclty to the jewelry section.

I was in there for about an hour and came away with lots of goodies. It was hectic and let me tell you old ladies can be very pushy and rude. Here's what I came away with.


Of course Ridley had to give it his sniff of approval.
 

Whenever I got to thrift stores, garage sales, or ,in this case, rummage sales I always look for vintage purses and jewelry. Those are the first two things I always look for. Then I look at patterns and fabrics.

I had great luck finding these beautiful evening handbags. They all have chain handle that is tucked in so they don't get snagged on each other. They were hiding under a bunch of bad '80s purses.



I saw this purse from across the room. I saw the colors and boxy shape. I figured it was probably an '80s does '50s but low and behold it's a vintage 1960s Verdi. It's a good size purse too. This baby is mine.







I constantly have to remind myself to look under things. Under tables, under piles of clothes, just under things. Luckily this time I did. I found this vintage 1950s wicker purse. It's gone from who9te to cream in some spots and one of the handles is a little loose but I'm sure I'll be able to fix these issues once I get to buy some tools I need. I love the pattern on the purse, the print of the lining which is in amazing condition; no tears or stains. The neatest thing was the eagle emblem on the latch. I haven't been able to find anything out about it.









Here are all of the patterns I found they are mostly from the 1950s and 1960s. I was lucky enough to find a few men's patterns. It seems that those tend to be very hard to come by. I have come acros A LOT of 1970s men's patterns but these are the first from the 50s and 60s.






I found these patterns in the same box that I found the mens pattern. I get to so excited and happy whenever I find vintage patterns. I literally don't see anything but what's in front of me. Which is one of the reasons I always wear a shoulder purse. I wear it across the front of my body so no one can get at it.


These are all preteen or miss patterns. I love the cute  dresses but the nighties and undies are the best.


The first pattern on the upper left is a reversible wrap dress. How cool is that? I don't wear form-fitting dresses otherwise I would keep it. The housecoat pattern next to it is still in it's original state. Factory fold and all. I've never found a vintage pattern that wasn't cut. I'm also contemplating keeping the little boys clothes pattern. I'm not expecting but I would love to make my future children their clothes.



All of the patterns from here on-out are for dolls clothes. There are patterns for Revlon, Cissy and Betsy Wetsy dolls. At first I thought they were babies clothes but I'm sure that it would be easy to grade these patterns up to baby size.





Aren't these earrings gorgeous? They're all clip on and in great conditions. I am very tempted to keep the black cluster bead earrings. I probably won't though.

The black beads sparkle really prettily. They have copper fleck in them that I couldn't capture very well.



I only found a few necklaces this time around.







I love the elephant trim would be super cute for a little girls dress or jumper.



These lovely embroidered doilies are actually tissue holder covers. They have and elastic case hidden under the Christmas theme.





Lovely vintage tea themed table cloth.It's on the small side for a coffee table or small round table.


The dresser doilies are so pretty and feminine.


Gorgeous vintage hankies. I love the edging on these but I don't have the patience for such small, intricate details.



I wish this gorgeous sweater had been in my size. The beading detail is perfect for the 1950s and the detail on the collar is amazing. I need to wash it and then it'll go up for sale.


 


Finally, my tiki guy from Hawaii. Not sure if it's vintage but for a buck who could pass him up. He was also hiding under a table riddled with a ton of candles and candle holders. There are a few things I forgot to photograph but that will be for another post. I think this one is long enough already.


I hope everyone has a great week and weekend. I'm going to make a blouse or two. ANd play some Ocurina of Time this weekend.