Posh Frock Friday... err, Saturday

Life's hard enough without having to actually post a posh frock on a Friday. Well, actually I was still sewing it until 12.22 if the truth be known.

With a 95% vintage wardrobe, it's not often that I customise clothing, save for a change of buttons from my huge collection. I do spend an awful lot of time repairing things – goes with the territory – but this one really was beyond all hope.

A once-lovely vintage 1950s sapphire-blue satin halterneck dress which had been well and truly trashed, I was able to salvage the large sequin-embroidered pockets and drum up a bit of luxe sportswear (quite frankly, the closest I am ever going to get to trackkie bottoms) by adding them to this grey trapeze-shaped sweatshirt dress from Cos.

One girl's trash is another girl's treasure

At my regular visit to the fleamarket this morning one of the traders saw me looking at this old leather bag and just gave me it!

The outside of the bag is in very good condition but there had been two internal dividers sewn in and one had been removed, causing the bag to start to fall apart. My sewing machine isn't up to sewing leather but, as all the holes are there, it just took half an hour, some careful hand-sewing, a bit of glue and the use of a bulldog clip as a little clamp and it's repaired!

I suppose a lot of things that have come my way have been dumped because they needed repairs. Last year a friend gave me a large bag of 1940s and 1950s clothes from her mother to sell on eBay. As the repairs got more and more major, I finally realised it was her mending bag and it had been in the cupboard, waiting to be tackled for so many years she'd forgotten what it was!

Why make one when you could make two?

When I was kid my mother used to make most of my clothes. As she always bought too much fabric (just to be on the safe side, eh?) she never made just one thing, and I think I've absorbed that habit.

The yellow cushion was made with leftovers and still I managed to eke it out to make a little bag. I bough this 1970s print skirt at the fleamarket and with the fabric I cut off when I shortened it, I was able to make a belt and use a buckle I've been saving for years.

Collage is alive and well

One of mine (left), Julia Trigg's work currently on show at Castor + Pollux and some great stuff by Jacob Whibley.

http://www।castorandpollux.co.uk/2010/09/julia-trigg-exhibition-online

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/artwork/creative-reuse-ephemera-collages-by-jacob-whibley-122414

Julia Trigg also exhibited in my Open House, Nine by Nine (see above) in May this year. At the bottom of the page you can also see one of my children's dresses and one of my screenprints on wallpaper - more about that in a future post. (Page from Absolute Brighton magazine, May 2010.)

Breathing new life into old stuff

Hello there. My name is Carol and, having kept up a general blog for some time now, I have decided to start this new one with a more specific, but certainly not narrow, theme.

Like many others out there in the blogosphere, I am a passionate collector of vintage clothes, but I also re-appropriate vintage and recycled fabrics, furniture and other finds. The theme of this blog will be hunting for vintage and second-hand treasures and giving discarded items a second chance.

You can have a look at my more general blog here: http://carolseatory.blogspot.com and you can see my children's clothes at http://www.atelierbricolage.co.uk.

So, to start with, here's a dress made from an old curtain using a vintage 1960s pattern. I liked the inappropriate combination of winter trees on a sleeveless summer dress. Old curtains are great for recycling as you often get a lot of fabric even if there's only one of the pair. There are pitfalls though: the fabric will be weakened - and probably faded - especially down the sides, by the sun's rays; also, I often find that curtains have been used as dust sheets for decorating and so they may have paint on them. Even after damaged fabric has been cut away, you can usually squeeze quite a lot out of the remaining fabric, although you probably won't be able to lay out the pattern pieces as per the instructions as you would with a new piece of fabric.

The first time I wore this dress I happened to visit the market where I had bought the original curtain. I met the stallholder again; he squinted at me and said "I recognise that from somewhere..." When I told him how his old curtain had been reincarnated he insisted on taking my photograph to show his wife what had become of a piece of their old junk.