Teen Guy's room Make-over with a Vintage twist

Hey there my retro lovin' peeps on the web!

I wanted to share with you my son's room reveal.   Over the years, although we have upgraded some of the major fixtures in the room (bed, desk, media console)  it hasn't really been redecorated since he was a toddler (he is 19 now). So this you could say was long overdue.  

   It took Peter awhile to decide on colors.  He is an avid eighties fan, so under consideration was mixed pastels (thought it would be too feminine), white walls with pastel accents (ditto),  light blue, (not mature enough) black (too dark).       He finally decided on a medium gray for the walls and a darker blue for the trim.

[Paint - Walmart brand "Color Place"
"Gray Granite"  & "King Neptune Blue"
both in Semi-gloss finish]


Some Before pictures:
                                                             

   These are the closet doors.   All the trim (window trim, door trim, & closet doors/trim) were the same wood-grain.

Green grass & Blue sky....

When Peter was little (around 3 years old) he loved Richard Scarry's 'Busytown'  series.   We had just moved into our house, and my original plan for his new room was going to be a mural on his wall similar to one of the Busytown scenes. so I did the blue & green (sky & grass) for the backdrop. Before I ended up seeing the vision through, my daughter was born and then life got very, very busy with the two little ones, so the mural itself didn't end up happening.

Wall before....

Peter, like me,  loves vintage.  With his room re-deco, there were items he wanted to showcase for decorations. He has several Cadillac advertisements from the hey-day of the brand.  He has been collecting these for the past few years. We bought inexpensive picture frames at a department store (about $2/frame) and mounted the ads.
One of his other interests is Coca-Cola memorabilia. He has retro style signs, tins, old bottles and other items.  They provided a nice pop of color against the gray walls.

After:

The room is finally all painted and his vintage decor displayed!  He finished framing up his Cadillac ads and mounted them on the far wall next to the closet in a set of three to balance the ones on the wall above his computer. He set up some of his Coke memorabilia on display in another corner along with some vintage style car models.   A few storage pieces from Ikea to house his record collection and we were good to go!

[Note - a few things that didn't make it into these pictures really help with the vintage feel of the room too. Peter has stereo components from the good old days as part of his entertainment system - a record player and 8-Track player. His record collection is prominently on display too]

The closet had been plain wood-grain doors on tracks. A couple of coats of
"King Neptune blue" make them stand out

Closet close-up (decor has not been hung up yet)

Vintage Cadillac advertisements make interesting & inexpensive decorations

some more Cadillac vintage ads

Kitty surveying our yard

Coke is it!  Some tin signs on the wall, and model cars

Some additional vintage car ads balance the decorations on the walls

Granite gray walls

Ikea cube bookcase houses his records & books

Finally finished!

Do you use your vintage or retro collections for decorations?
Please share in the comments!

Can you beat this amount of mid-century awesomeness?

Hi Friends,

First, a heartfelt Congratulations to Lisa of My Pretty Baby Cried She was a Bird blog, who got married about a week ago. I read Lisa's blog regularly. She adds wit and a knowledged eye to her many vintage finds, from tag sales to old advertisements to photos. I never know whether I will be treated to Borden's talking cow family ads, or a critique of a mid century dining room. A true gal after my own heart!

Now down to business....  I have come to possess my own little piece of mid-century awesomeness.  My very own starburst clock!

As my fellow afficianados of the fifties & sixties decades know that due to our newfound space travel, society was obsessed with all things not-of-this-earth. This translated into many design flourishes like Googie architecture found in motels, gas stations and bowling alleys, and fins on everything from cars to eyeglasses.

The Starburst or Sunburst clocks are perhaps one of the better known pieces of iconic fifties material culture. Their original designer was George Nelson, well known for his design advances in that period.  They were soon to be copied by many different companies like Lux, Elgin & Westclox. Westclox made sunbursts and starburst clocks, some capped with little balls at the end of their spikes.  Lux put little flowers on the ends of theirs and called them "atomic daisies." Some of their clocks were also made with pop-art colors like striking red or blue.   Elgin used teak and brass alternating spikes to differentiate themselves. I have included some photos of the many different types I found on the internet:

alternating teak & brass spikes

spikes capped with little balls

Atomic Daisy clock

 Personally,  as much as I love fifties design,  I was never a fan of the straight, hard lines that are found in a lot of the items then.  I like a much softer, organic feel to my furnishings. That's why previously, I never longed for a starburst clock to adorn my walls.
Then a few months ago, that all changed.  I was doing some looking around on the web, when I saw the type of starburst clock with swirly lines and LEAVES on the ends!  (I am a nut for floral and nature themed items...)
so obviously I fell in love with it, and had to try to get one of my own.      Sadly, I found that many of the clocks I saw on Etsy, Amazon & Ebay were all priced in the one-to-several hundred dollar range.
But not to be discouraged, I kept digging.  Low and behold, I found a 'fixer upper' model on ebay for $12!  yes,  my own little piece of fifties iconicness for under twenty bucks (including the shipping)      My clock still runs, although at some point the wiring was changed out, (and it looks like the person who rewired it may *not* have been a rocket scientist, as the wires look a little funky)  The official maker of my clock is United.
It also has two candlestick pieces that abut from either side a little below the dial that take a Christmas sized lightbulb. This is somewhat of an oddity, as I have not seen any other clocks that feature those.

The leaves have a fair share of rusty spots, but overall it's not in too bad of shape.  I have purchased a bottle of "Krud Kutter - The Must for Rust!"  (no kidding that's actually what the product is called!)  It's a biodegradable rust remover product.  I plan to clean the metal pieces with that, and then hit them with a couple of coats of metallic Krylon paint.    The dial needs some cleaning too.  I was also weighing the possibility of replacing the wired clock movement with one of the battery ones you can find in a craft store.  I have yet to open it up, so that may not be as easy as it sounds, but with the wiring as is, I am fearful of plugging it in and leaving the room as it may be a fire hazard.  Plus, having it eight feet up on the wall with a plug hanging down looks a little unsightly.   At the very least I am going to have my Sweetie take a look and rewire the plug with a modern one.

Nifty Candlestick appurtenances

So I am so thrilled to have found this piece!  I will definitely take pics of the 'restoration'  and post them later.

Have you found a wonderful item online or at a tag sale that you were able to fix up?  Do share!

Pleasant thoughts coming your way!

Yvonne



Sources:
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/clocks/mid-century-modern

Sew for Victory

Hello Everyone,   once again it is a cold and damp day here.   We have had 3 storms this month so far, and another 3 due over the next week. The one that set down last night has been named "Q".   (Where the temperature here is slightly above freezing, we most likely will have rain/freezing rain instead of snow, -everything is already muddy and slushy, so what's a little more?)
I have decided that the person to come up with this storm name must either be scraping at the bottom of the barrel, or   a big Star Trek fan.( i'm hoping it's the second one)

'Q' from Star Trek

Now Q was never my favorite character,  it kind of bugged me that the Q Continuum, albeit an intelligent race, could consistently screw with the humans' minds and timelines to such an extent they they thought they were having  breakdowns.  Although it  turned out that Q himself was a bit of a renegade and the rest of his race didn't approve of his theatrics,     It didn't really seem like they were interested in conquering humans, more like they were playing 'cat and mouse' games for their own amusement.  but I digress...

(a quick side note here before totally leaving the Star Trek subject - there was a way cool episode last year for American Pickers where one of their clients was none other than William Shatner, who, along with his wife, had bought a farm house in Kentucky. They wanted Mike & Frank (the pickers) to get them some specific antique items (totally cool pie safe anyone?)  with which to redecorate a home office. Love this show,  (and having the classic Star Trek connection was just like sprinkles on ice cream for me.)

So back to the main theme of this post.    Over the past week, I have come to learn that two awesome vintage blogs I read are holding sew-alongs. (one I will discuss here, and the other which is for the 60's in a separate post)

If you don't know what a sew-along is, you can think of it something like a book club, but instead of reading a book, people are sewing a garment - usually within a theme and time frame put forth by the Blogger hosting it, and its over the internet not in real time.  (yes I know the similarities to 'book club' are melting down).
 So Rochelle from Lucky Lucille started a "Sew for Victory" sew along.  This is a 40's inspired one, where you pick a garment or item from that time period to sew.  
It goes until the end of March, and she has a flickr group set up for people to join who are interested in participating.

For this project, one should take into account the thrifty mindset of a 40's gal (or guy) when preparing for this project. There was rationing going on, people were recycling for the war effort,  trying not purchasing new items, but finding new ways to re-use their old ones. "Make do and make mend."  So maybe instead of buying new fabric for your project, use some up from your stash?  Re-purpose some notions and trim  from some worn out clothes you have?

Rochelle also has several posts with ideas for 40's garments, patterns and other great 40's inspired things to get you in the right frame of mind.     I spent the past couple of days going through my pattern collection to see if I had any 40's patterns or a more modern pattern that could be modified to make a 40's look. I have a ton of patterns from 1950's-present, but luckily I found that I actually had 2 patterns, from 1947.  (which in my case would make this less of a "Sew for Victory" and more of a "Sew because We-Won-and-You-Didn't!"  (insert picture of kid sticking her tongue out here)

My two vintage 40's patterns are these:

Vogue 6511

Vogue 6231

Vogue 6511 is described as a "Two piece lounging Pyjama set" and
Vogue 6231 is a Skirt (sorry, no fancy description there)

I am tending to lean towards the first pattern as it is a beautiful look, but I really do like skirts, so maybe will do the blouse from the first and the skirt from the second.

Some issues with using vintage patterns in this project:   modern day fabric is mostly available in 54"  & 60" widths.  The yardage on the back of these is 39" and 35".  Thank goodness for the internet and quick google searches!   I found this yardage conversion chart, so that problem can easily be solved - The 4 1/2 yards of 35" fabric needed for the skirt works out to be 3 1/8 in 54".

Another issue is the waist sizes.... I've found on these as well as many of the 50's patterns that they are made for women with teeny tiny waists.   Now I don't consider myself a large person.  My waist is 29",  the largest waist size I find listed is 28", which by their imaginary person proportions has a 37" bust, and I know THAT ain't so with me!  The "ideal" for the woman back then was a small waist,  but given that patterns were supposed to be developed for real people, not ideals, were the women actually that small?    Kind of makes me feel like an amazon giantess. I will have to put my alteration skills to good use for this to 'make it work.'

A third interesting thing, and really more of an observation, was given that this time period was supposed to be one of frugality,  I find these looks seem to require large volumes of fabric.   Now one could make a hypothesis that since the patterns I'm using are post war (1947) that the country was aiming to get back to normal and going to the other extreme to convince people of that ["Go forth and buy large amounts of fabric because everything is going to be alright. No, really..."]
Or perhaps it was a subtle way of boosting the economy by getting people to spend more? Another possibility is perhaps Vogue being higher end, might be putting forth the idea that luxury = massive amounts of fabric.     I will have to research some earlier patterns from the 40's to see if it is the same with them.

Which leads me to another issue to consider.  In being thrifty minded for this project, I would like to use fabric that I already have - both of these looks call for 3- 4 yards of fabric for the lower portion (either the trousers or the skirt)     Usually when I buy fabric, if not with a specific pattern in mind, I rarely buy more than a yard or two, so the chances of my having 4 yards of anything laying around are probably not very good.....   Will have to do some creative thinking about this.

I am very much looking forward to this Sewing for Victory challenge, I will let you know how my looks are progressing. I hope that some of you will join too!

Have you done a sew-along in the past?  What for and what were the results?  Please share if you can!
Thanks for reading!



 

Thinking of Spring...

Last weekend the weather was cold and dreary (yet again)    Peter & I decided to check out a few of our local haunts.... One great store is "The Watchamacallit Shop"  in Wareham, MA.  where there is a little bit of everything.

I found this beautiful  Art Deco dresser (DO WANT.. SRSLY)

*sigh* maybe some day

Peter really liked the signage:

He ended up getting several old Cadillac Advertisements to frame for his wall.

I will have to take some pictures and post when he gets them framed...

I didn't get anything here, but then on the way home we stopped at a small store that opened about a year ago in Falmouth  (Dee's Home Again).  It is one of those places I have driven past every single day on the way to work and think to myself: "Man, I gotta stop there and check it out one of these days." So nearly half a year later,  I finally did.

 It seems to be mostly home goods & furniture, but they did have some vintage clothing, and (very happily I might add) they mark down items for each month they've been in the store.    I found this:

front of dress

A beautiful vintage 60's dress, I'm guessing what must have been a bridesmaid's dress.   It is full length, heavy cotton or linen,  lined.  Soft, pale yellow in color.  There is no label on the inside, and some of the seams look hand finished, so I'm wondering if it may have been a custom job.   

and the neckline has the most beautiful bead trim....

The backside of the dress has a large bow that detaches on one side and when reattached via hook & eye conceals the top of the zipper.  The best part was that due to it having been in the store already for a few months,  it was marked down to $10!   (you can't even buy a couple yards of fabric for that little anymore, and this dress was probably made with 4 or 5 yards)

back of bodice close-up

Back of dress

I tried it on and it does seem to have been made for someone a bit more well endowed than I  (It's okay...I have long since come to terms with my body, and that I will never be a contender for a St. Pauli Girl regardless of whether I can pull off the blond braids)    

Obviously too,  wearing a full length yellow bridesmaid dress would look a little odd, even for the most confident of vintage chic people.     

So I have modifications in mind....  thinking a simple yellow sundress? I could cut it off just above the knee, have plenty of extra fabric to add a sash, some rosettes, possibly make a matching purse? Would need to take the side seams in too.   I found these pictures on the web of what it could maybe end up looking like...

Yes, dreaming of spring....  I will have to add this to my sewing projects and post pictures when I get to doing it.

Have you ever modified a vintage dress?  What were the results?  Would love for you to share!

Thanks for reading!

Lovely Green Velvet dress

Greetings! This is one of my favorite dresses.  I have had it since my college
days. It is a beautiful, dark olive green;   a fitted bodice with covered buttons up the front (decorative, as the actual closure is a side seam zipper)   It has a yoke neck,  (a double layer of fabric that creates a ruffle), and semi full skirt that goes just a little below the knees. A  very good friend moved into a house and found a box of old dresses in the attic. There were 4 of them, all velvet, but sadly the fabric on the others was very badly damaged.  This was the only one intact, and still it has a few issues. (I was able to use the fabric from the other ones for smaller projects like linings)

I'm not totally sure how to date this dress...  I'd like to say early 50's. It is similar of the style then, I am reminded of a dress worn by the character Myrtle Mae in one of my all time favorite movies "Harvey" with Jimmy Stewart

The label inside says "Helmer, Inc., Syracuse"  and in doing some web research I found very little. I found there was a dress shop in Syracuse around since the 30's til the mid 80's, carrying fine dresses, dry goods like gloves, hats, purses, etc.  The original location on Marshall street seems to have been demolished in 1936.  
One scanned newspaper ("The Syracuse Herald Journal" from Feb. 2, 1945)
carrying a headline 'Nazi's Report attempt to Cross River'  had a large advertisement with a list of stores staying open on a Saturday :   It lists "By Special Permission,  and in full compliance with the emergency fuel proclamation, the following stores will be open Saturday to fill your emergency shopping requirements."       Amusing that a fine ladies' dress store would be considered 'an emergency shopping need'  right along up there with canned goods and powdered milk. God only knows how difficult it is to find elbow length dress gloves to wear when the third Reich is about to invade!

 I did find one other dress on a pinterest board that looks like it could have been made from the same bolt of cloth as mine, right down to the covered buttons.    The description lists this dress as "30's dress."
But I don't think mine is that quite that old.....
One last bit of research turned up a video clip of fashion week dresses that look to come from a current fashion house or designer named Helmer.  Related?  Not sure - never heard of it before today  (and I have watched EVERY episode of Project Runway): http://www.celebritynetworth.com/video/runway-dresses-from-helmer-517059143/


Below here is a full picture of my dress hanging flat.... along with a close-up of the bodice.

And a close-up of the jewelry set I wore  (early 60's Sarah Coventry)

Last but not least, the other 'accessory' in the first picture is my miniature dachshund Calvin. (Paris Hilton, eat your heart out!)  Not quite the purse dog -we tried putting him a shoulder bag, but I don't think accessories are supposed to wiggle around that much.

I apologize for the photos not being the greatest. I am still learning...

What do you think, is the dress likely older than the 50's?  

Do you have any clothes items that are a mystery to date?

Thanks for reading!

Get ready... Get set.... Blog!

They say that getting started is always the hardest part. I have really been wanting to start this project, but then found myself procrastinating about it. (and believe me, I can take procrastination to a state-of-the-art level)   Never having had an audience for my writing before is a little scary. I wasn't sure exactly what the voice would be.

My name is Yvonne, I have loved vintage things long before I knew what 'vintage' was.  I also love sewing and creating things.   I share my life with my husband Chris (a columnist for our regional paper and a games journalist for the web) and my two awesome kids (Peter & Autumn) who are now both teenagers and my best antiquing & thrifting buddies.  Also several fur-kids:  Calvin, a highly intelligent if somewhat paranoid mini-dachshund; Charlie, a sweet, hyperactive beagle-mix; Turtle-turtle,  a turtle my son and his grandfather rescued when my son was little; and Lightning, feline mistress of the house.   I am a total animal lover, and an animal crusader (a term I coined awhile back as 'activist' often seems to have such negative connotations, like chaining yourself to trees and mailing bombs to research facilities.  I'd much rather write a strongly worded letter).

I am a bit of a pushover for taking in ones that need homes too, but I am also a strong believer in ethical pet ownership. (getting a bit off topic here, but I expect that at some point in the future I will share pictures & stories about them too).

In trying to come up with a name for my blog, Chris suggested "old shit I collect"  and while both extremely amusing and a very accurate description, I didn't think it had quite the nuance I was going for.  It seemed like 'vintage' and 'retro' were heavily used in other blog names, and I couldn't figure out a way to make mine stand out.  Many of the other names I thought up that were clever and time appropriate were already names of other blogs (that mysteriously had nothing to do with vintage or retro stuff)  So I chose to do something abstract but personally meaningful.  Do I actually drink 15 cups of tea a day?  On a good day, yes. On a bad day, damn straight!   Being of Dutch & Irish heritage, tea is something of a birthright.  (F*ck the coffee)  although I might add that sometimes I make a cup of tea, take a couple of sips and then get involved in whatever I was doing....then realize my tea is cold and need to make a fresh cup.  That happens a lot.   I will also mention that in Holland, you can go into a bar and order a cup of tea and they will not look at you like you have 2 heads. That is so seriously cool   (cue Bob Hope in "Road to Utopia"- goes into a bar and orders a lemonade, bartender looks stunned, and Bob growls back at him "In a dirty glass!")

And as for the Cat....  they make the best writing companions. They don't wiggle around too much on your lap like the dogs do, and will give you an honest opinion on what they think.


So what do I collect?

• My favorite time periods are the 1950's and 1960's
• I love vintage sewing stuff: machines, thread, notions, fabric, patterns (especially patterns!) I probably have at least a hundred if not more.
• Housewares & furnishings from afore mentioned era's
• Vintage clothing & Accessories 
• French stuff (Oui, je suis une Francophile! J'adore les vielles choses francaises )

Why do a Blog?

I have a lot of lovely vintage things I've collected over the years. I am really interested in history and how our material culture reflects that. I have discovered a wonderful online community of people with similar interests  and want to be a part of and add to that.

In some ways too, I would like to regain my sense of self.  I think most Moms that happen across this blog would understand, but would be hard-pressed to describe exactly to people without kids what I mean.When you have kids your life gradually becomes an extension of theirs. This isn't a bad thing, you can think of it as working on your Thesis, but instead of a few years of post-grad school, you're working on it for more than a decade.
 First with the diapers and feeding, then chasing and playing and legos and school and playdates and PTO and scouts and.....  You become known as "______'s Mom" instead of by your own name.

I used to have a fashion sense: I would sew a lot of my own clothes, do fabulous things with fabric,  and accessorize! Nowadays yoga pants and a sweater seem to be my staples.

I used to read books, (lots of 'em) Now if I make the time I end up feeling guilty because there is always other stuff that needs to be done.

It sounds like I'm complaining and that's not really what I mean to do. You just get to a point when you really want to figure out where the person you were went to.

Where do you get your stuff from?

Here in New England, 'thrift' is part of our blood. Some trace it back to Puritan ideology,  Ben Franklin extolled the virtues of it.   I don't have a large budget to spend on items, so I need to be resourceful in my means and methods.

Swap-shop:   Not sure if this is a local thing or if other towns have these.  At our local dump (transfer station) there is a ramshackle metal building; the idea is simple- if you have something you no longer need that has life left in it, you leave it there. Other people take things.  Except for the dump sticker, there is no cost involved.  A lot of times people have a strange idea of what 'still usesable' means so there will be a lot of trashy stuff, but I have made some awesome finds there. Another downside though is there are some people that literally camp out there on Saturdays waiting til things get dropped off and swoop down to grab them (many second hand store owners get their merchandise that way)  The dump attendants have tried to put some restrictions on time allowed to stay, but it's not always enforced.   Unfortunately too, the cost of the dump sticker has become extravagant over the past few years.

Thrift stores:   Goodwill and Salvation Army are two that have large stores in my area.   I find these are often better sources than antique stores,  but you often have to dig through a lot of stuff to find your treasures, so a good knowledge of your vintage aesthetic is helpful.  Sometimes these items are 'diamonds in the rough' and require a little TLC.

Side of the Road:   Believe it or not, it's a fairly common thing around here.  Sometimes its just furniture, sometimes yard-sale leftovers, A keen eye and a quick turn signal are helpful.

Antique Stores: There are a couple of kinds of antique stores.  There is the high end ones where everything is in pristine shape, neatly laid out in cabinets, you don't want to touch anything for fear of breaking it (and thus needing to pay for it) and they charge top dollar for their merchandise.  I don't like those kinds of stores. The other kind are often warehouse kinds of places where things are layered in, there is a little digging involved, you get some dirt on your hands and you can usually barter.. but in the end it's worth it because you found SOMETHING AWESOME! These are the kinds of places I like.  Unfortunately, as both are often under the heading 'antique stores' in the searches, it's hard to tell which kind is which without actually going there first. 

Yard Sales:  As with other places, these can be trash or treasure. I made a resolution a few years ago as to pick and choose which sales are worth checking out.  Many a time have I followed miles of 'yard sale this way' signs only to find some old kiddie toys and a couple of boxes of mixed dishware. Seriously not worth the half a tank of gas getting there.    There are some local churches that do multi sales a few times a year.  Neighborhood multi-family sales are also a good source. 

Free-cycle: (www.freecycle.org) While this is more of a thrifting source than for antiques, it can always surprise you. We have gotten half my son's record collection off of people cleaning out their stuff.  This is a similar version of a swap-shop, but online. It is organized into local communities, people post 'offered' items they no longer need, or 'wanted' for items they might be looking for. 

Gifts:     This is a bit of a vague heading, but many of my most treasured items were given to me by my grandmother or other relatives; not in any formal sense  (like its my birthday)  but just that they were trying to find new homes for some of their things.   An older lady friend of my mother's had a son who worked for Proctor Silex, and had a lot of old Corning Ware she wanted to downsize. Would I like any of it?  Would I?  It may as well have been my birthday to have several vintage pieces of Corning to add to my kitchen!    

    So while I'm not suggesting you start be-friending old people in hopes of being gifted something,   If you make it known to family and friends that you are a 'good steward' in that you appreciate things, especially of an older nature,  you may find that things will come to you.    A few times my Mom has come visiting and brought things from people I hardly know... I ask why?  and she says 'Because they knew you would appreciate it and take good care of it.'