Vintage clothing Altered Book

I had talked previously about an altered art book round robin that I was part of. It started last year on the ebay vintage board with 13 people. The main theme was vintage clothing and we each had our own sub-theme. Mine was Vintage lingerie & Beachwear. This month I received my finished book back and I'm here to show it off. Each month the books were shipped to a different person in the group who decorated a layout in the book according to your theme. It got a little bumpy here and there during the project, one girl got the boot from the group for being late every month (we were suppose to ship our books on the 15th of every month) another gal had to leave for family reasons, and last month, one girl lost 2 of the books in her own house (glad my book wasn't lost) So the project ended 3 months early, but I was glad to get my book back, because I couldn't wait to see it. To the left above is the outside of the book which I covered with some old rayon tulle and a large beaded applique. Below are the layouts from each of the ladies who worked on my book. Click on the images for larger views. I'm missing a photo of one of the pages, because it came out with glares on it.

Christmas fairies, Doggie presents and leopard pants!

I hope that everyone had a nice Holiday! We made it through alright here. We have always opened our presents on Christmas Eve, so now we also have the turkey on Christmas Eve too. Boris had a very fun Christmas, and you can watch the video below to see him open one of his presents. He loves boxes and presents and loves to rip them open. We had to put him in the other room while we opened our gifts, then we have to hide our presents so that he wouldn't get into them when we let him back into the room!

I received a fairy from each of my grandmom's this year. Above is a pretty one from grandmom #1. I really like this one because she has her feet in a seashell, and there is sandy beach under the shell. You know that I love the shore. It has clear plastic that looks like water inside of the shell, very pretty.
To the right is from grandmom #2, it's a pretty fairy behind a looking glass, and she hangs from a stand. I've never seen one like this before. I like mermaids and fairies.

In between Christmas festivities, I did a little sewing for myself. I bought a new sewing machine, so I had to break it in. Nothing fancy, $60 from WalMart. It does straight and zig-zag stitching, which is all that I use. I made this little rag doll with a dress made from 1950s fabric and vintage ribbons. She's also wearing nylon panties and a lace petticoat. I made her neck too long and alien-like so I stitched it to shorten it, then I had to camoflauge the stitches with a tiny pearl necklace. I embroidered her face and gave her a strawberry blonde hairstyle made from mohair.

Last week I mentioned that the first item that I ever sold on my website was a pair of faux fur leopard pants. I bought a jacket from a seller on ebay last week, and when I went to leave her positive feedback, I checked out her other auctions, and guess what she currently has listed - Faux Leopard Fur Pants - they look identical to the pair that I sold 9 years ago! I thought that was so funny, I've never seen another pair like them. I doubt they are the same ones though. Mine sold to a gal in NY and this gal is in CA.

Now for your viewing pleasure, a short clip (48 seconds) of Boris ripping open one of his presents. This was the 2nd gift that he opened, and you can hear by the panting that he was already tired out, he gets so excited.

Christmas Cookies & Trees

Thursday was cookie making day. I made some chocolate chip cookies from a cookie-mix gift that I received from a gal at work, and I made more using the good old fashion recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips. Then I made a bunch of butter cookies, which are a big favorite here. I also made some fudge. It was the first time I ever made it, but I think that I fudged the fudge recipe, because it hasn't hardened yet. I just added a little sugar to the recipe, because the chocolate seemed a little bitter to me. Maybe that messed it up, I don't know why it hasn't set up right.
The little tree here was my gift from my part time job. It's a real tree and under it was a tiny little Christmas present for me.

Below are three photos of our tree. I don't think that I posted photos of it last year. We had just bought the tree before Christmas last year, it's pretty cool. It's about 5 feet tall and it has a furry brown bear standing behind it. It has kind of sparse branches which give it an old fashioned look and a burlap bag bottom. We have it decorated with vintage ornaments and candles from my Mom's Christmas collection. The photos are kind of busy, but hopefully you can see the bear. Behind the tree is a wall of cases that hold my Mom's dolls.

Here's an early morning sleepy Grinch

And here's a recipe for Butter Cookies -

2 cups sifted flower

3/4 cup butter

1/2 sugar

1 egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Cream butter, then add sugar gradually and cream until light and fluffy.

Add egg yolk and beat well

Add small amounts of flour, mixing thoroughly after each add

Add vanilla and blend well

Put through cookie press. Add optional sprinkles. Bake at 400 degrees for 4 to 5 minutes. Makes about 6 dozen cookies

Geek alert - 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' (yeah, now when will it be released?)

Super geek alert - I'll be watching the Doctor Who maraton on the SciFi channel today!

Happy Anniversary, Happy Anniversary, Happy Anniversary, Haaaaaaaaaaappy Anniversary!

Happy 9th Anniversary to Dandelion Vintage! It was 9 years ago this week that my website went online with just a single page and about 15 items from my own collection. I think I was online about 2 months before I sold my first item, which was a pair of early 1960s faux leopard fur pants! I kept moving forward adding more and more stock, and expanding and adding departments. Now I am one of the longest lasting vintage clothing website online with over 1000+ pices of stock online for purchase.
I'm lucky to have such a great job and lucky to have great friends and fans of vintage who have kept me going - with much more than making purchases, but also with friendship, support and words of encouragement through the rough times. The vintage clothing market has changed alot in the past 9 years, and this year it seems to have taken a severe turn towards trends and fads, but I am here for the long haul! I will continue to bring you a great selection of classic vintage clothing, and try as hard as I can to keep the pieces affordable enough to add to your own wardrobe.

Please click the image to check out the site and take advantage of the 25% off sale going on from now until January 5th. The discount will be subtracted in the shopping cart. Regular shipping charges apply.

Bye for now, Carol

Christmas Songs & TV watching

I'm not a fan of Christmas music. Yeah, the name is Carol, but I find most Christmas Carols kind of corny. I don't mind hearing songs playing in the background when I'm shopping though, so I guess I don't totally hate them. I do have a select few favorite Christmas songs that I do look forward to hearing each year.
In no order, my faves are -
Santa Claus is coming to Town & Merry Christmas Baby- by Bruce Springsteen (hey, I am a Jersey girl, I can't help but have those on the list)
Blue Christmas - by Elvis. Love. That. Voice
Wonderful Christmas Time - Paul McCartney, sappy, but I love Paul in all his sappyness
Happy Christmas - John Lennon, more than a Christmas song
Christmas Wrapping - by the Waitresses, so fun. Do you know this song is 25 years old!
I also like the theme to the Grinch, and the piano music from the Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon, even though neither is really Christmas-y, but you hear them on the radio this time of year.
Also, I should mention U2's version of Christmas, baby, Please Come Home - even though it's not really a big fave of mine, but it is U2. I love them, but I really don't like when they do cover versions of other songs.

My favorite Christmas tv watching each year -
The Christmas Story - come on, who doesn't love that! I've really been waiting to see it this year. Darren McGavin (the Dad) died this year, he's just so cool in the movie. When I was a kid, I was a big fan of the tv show The Night Stalker, and he was great in that too. The Christmas Story was shown on Friday night, but Doctor Who was on at the same time, so I had to choose watching the cute guy over the classic movie. I'm such a girl. But then it was on again Sunday night and I laughed like a dork through the whole movie! They'll be a marathon of the movie starting Christmas Eve for 24 hours. I never get tired of seeing it over and over.
The Grinch Who Stole Christmas - the real Grinch, the cartoon grinch, the Boris Karloff narrated Grinch. Not that movie that I refuse to watch! I love his dog Max. Anyone who has a dog can't be all that bad.

Charlie Brown Christmas - I love the kids choir singing that plays in the background through the cartoon. I love when they are rocking out dancing when Charlie Brown is trying to get them to rehearse for the play. I can't decide which kid is the coolest dancer, I love them all. I want to jump up and rock out too when I hear that piano!

Once in awhile I'll watch Rudolf, and I also like the cartoon with the Heat/Freeze Misers singing their songs.

What are your favorites?

More dog torturing

Here is the video that I mentioned a few weeks ago. On a nice warm November day, my Dad & I took Boris for a walk on the beach, and a little swim. But Boris was more interested in trying to get up on the sand dunes to mark territory. So anyway, here is just a funny little clip for your enjoyment, with my Dad trying to get Boris in the water. Check out the little water shake that he does all the way down to his tail. The annoying sound that you hear is the wind, the waves and my goofy laugh.

Gifts for me!

Yeah for getting packages in the mail! Today I received 3 packages.

The first package was a give-away that I won. It's a special 4x4 collage creation by Lia @ Art Junk - It's called 'The Dress Maker' She also included a cute little card of a Godey's Fashion plate print. Fun, and wrapped in wallpaper, what a great idea!



The next package was my Vintage Christmas Swap from Donna at The Fabric of my Life . First was a little card that I loved, it's so sweet -

Donna made me a cute little stocking from 1950s fabric, lined in pink and white polka dots. Each item was wrapped in red tissue paper, and it was alot of fun to open each present.

Inside was a vintage angel on a star, a hanky with blue roses, a painted ornament, a candy Santa, a funny little wooden Santa, fabric covered buttons and pins, a pretty sachet, a scented soap and tealight and a pretty floral pin that I really loved.

The sachet, the pretty pin and the fabric covered buttons.

The next swap is a Vintage beauty Swap - check it out and sign up if you can. They're really fun. I'd love to sign up for this one, but I don't know if I can round up 4 items in time

The last package was a 1950s Simplicity Pattern Counter book that I won on ebay. I haven't had a chance to look thru that yet, but I'll post photos from it later in the week.

The Annual Christmas Dog torture

So this time every year, we drag Boris around and try to get him to pose, so that we can get a photo of him for our Christmas card. First off, he gets upset because we move things around, including his blanket, which normally no one is allowed to touch. He never likes to set still, keeps trying to walk towards me, and always looks in the wrong direction. It takes many shots before I finally get a good one suitable for our card. We grab him when he's asleep, thinking that he'll be kind of groggy and set nice and still, but he's still very fidgety and fussy.
To the left is the 'Oh jeez, not another Christmas card, do I really have to do this?' look
Below is a moon doggie glowy eye shot with his bottom snaggletoof-ums sticking out. The photo on the right shows his enthusiam for the whole ordeal. All attitude, just like a supermodel. He won't throw a cellphone at you, but he will nip at you!



Finally we get lucky and get a few shots to choose from. He still doesn't look very happy though. He makes it look like a Grumpy Christmas!

Cute little crafty trees

Yes, I succumbed to the cuteness and simplicity of these little trees too! I spotted them on a few blogs and you can get a very simple pattern to make them yourself at littlebirds.typepad.com/. There is also a flickr photo group for these little trees too.
I made mine out of some very pretty cut velvet tapestry that came from the estate of Olga Schwenker a few years back. The background of the fabric is a matte gold satin with designs in rich colors of green and burgundy. I stitched some little faux pearls on it and a button on the top. It didn't take long and I did it by hand while I was watching Gilmore Girls (I don't know why I'm still watching it. The Christopher and Luke fight started out good with Luke getting in a great punch, but it ended up pretty pathetic, especially considering they were fighting over flakey Lorelei. And why is Rory crying because those two girls don't want to be her friend anymore? Hey Rory, remember your best friend Lane, the one who is pregnant with twins? Logan shows yet again what a spoiled brat DB he is, but I bet Rory will go back to him next week, saying it was all her fault, like she always does. I use to love this show, what happened?)

Next, I started an altered book of my own. The Vintage Clothing themed round robin that I was involved with is just about finished. We were suppose to run until March, but I should be getting my own book back next week. We had 1 gal drop out because of family illness and 2 girls were given the boot from the group, one because of lateness and one for loosing a members book.
The book that I'm doing on my own doesn't have a theme, just pretty stuff that I like. The first layout was made from copies of some vintage paperdolls that I found online, and a bit of some love-sick poetry that came in a load of vintage that I had bought.

The next two page layout was inspired by a photo from Victoria magazine of a very plush, vintage decorated livingroom. I added some old laces and buttons and trim.


Also, I am a knucklehead. I sent out my Christmas swap and forgot to include my name so that my gal knows who the present came from!

Vintage Fishies Give-Away (and some fabric for me!)

A Vintage Give-Away!
Here is a set of unused plaster fish and starfish by Miller Studio. They are from the late 1960s to early 70s, and are still kind-of in partial box. They are bright yellow and orange, one fish and the starfish are still attached in the box, the other fish is loose. I got these several years ago, I can't remember where though! I've never put them up for sale because one fish does have a line down the front of it that I wasn't sure what is was. But I've put pressure on it and it doesn't seem like a crack, just a mark on the surface, which is very faint. This is a great set for your vintage bathroom or vintage beach house. MAILTO:carol@dandelionvintage.com- to enter the drawing for these fun fishes. A winner will be chosen December 15th.

Next, One day I ran out to two shops to try to do a little Christmas shopping. I only bought 1 present, but I found some great vintage fabrics at an antique shop - for myself! I don't often buy at antique shops, well, because you know that I am cheap. But they were having a sale and I couldn't resist these great 1940s fabrics.
First is a dark blue and white tropical floral plisse. It's only 32 wide by 1-1/2 yards, but I'll make something out of it. Next was a blue, white and chartreuse challis, 4 yards! I'll get a dress and more out of that. Finally is a blue Bemberg rayon chiffon with white and lavender flowers, another 4 yards of that, which will be another cute dress for me! Now I have to track down a few cute 1940s patterns.


I also bought two large pieces of a grey print rayon and a 1950s Waverly hollyhock decorator fabric, which I will be reselling on the website in a few weeks.

On Thursday, the weather was really nice, so we took Boris over to the beach for a swim. He is more interested in walking around peeing and sniffing than swimming though. He'll go into the water a little bit, bite a few little waves, and then try to make a beeline to the dunes. I took a video of him at the beach, I'll have to put some of it online so that I can torture my blog readers!

Bye for now, Carol

DIY Sewing & Refashioning article in Time magazine

Here's a good story from Time magazine about the trend of people returning to sewing their own clothing, or refashioning used clothing. It's great to know that alot of people are interested in setting their own trends by making their own clothing, rather than following what the Mall and magazines tell them is a hot trend. The article mentions the Wardrobe Refashion group that I joined during the Summer (their site is where I found the Time story link)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1562966,00.html

A new sewing machine is actually on my Christmas list (a cheap one) I'm tired of sewing on my itty-bitty machine that I bought at Target for $19.99. It was good for small projects, but I need a nice solid machine so that I can use that sewing area that I finally have in my new room.

Remember the Dimple

"Don't be hasty Hildy, remember the dimple - and it's still in the same place"

I wasn't feeling well today, so I didn't get any work done. But I did get to watch His Girl Friday (yet again) while I was convalescing. I love that movie, one of my all time favorites, but who couldn't love Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. The dialog goes so fast and funny. Rosalind is so awesome! plus she wears these great striped suits too, and a fantastic matching striped hat at the beginning of the movie.

The quote about the dimple comes when Hildy complains to Walter because he fought their divorce several months earlier. She was mad because Walter had a skywriter write the message 'Hildy don't be hasty, remember the dimple' in the sky over the courthouse when she was trying to get the divorce finalized. He then tells her that he still has the dimple and it's in the same place.
It's a great, funny movie, see it if you haven't already!

Victorian autograph book

Hi! Thanksgiving went well here, turkey and all the fixings turned out very yummy, and I'm not tired of the leftovers yet! Now to focus on Christmas, yikes. I've bought a few presents so far and I want to set aside a day next week to head out to do some shopping. I only buy for my parents, Boris the turkey-hound, my 2 grandmoms and an aunt and her dog, so it's not too big of a list, luckily.
I worked in retail for many years, and I'm sympathetic to anyone working this Black Friday weekend. We opened at 6AM at my last job, which was in a fabric and craft supply store. Yeah, I know, what crazy people need crafts at 6AM? Lots of people that's who. We had 3-4 registers running non-stop with long lines until almost noon. In a way it was kind of fun though, because it was so crazy.
This week, while nibbing through my desk looking for something, I came across this little autograph book that came from way back in our family. It is from the late 1800s and it has little writings and some cutout images decorating the pages. The book belonged to Sadie Pidgeon, I'm not quite sure who she was in the family, but there are other familiar names in the book. She had the book signed by friends, schoolmates and family. Some of the little verses are funny. Above is the cover of the book which has a pretty pressed design, and below are two of the pages, including the first page that Sadie wrote herself - 'To write in my book is my delight - but tearing out leaves is not polite'



The second page is from Aunt Martha, dated 1881 - 'To Sadie, When you grow old and can not see, put on your specks and think of me'
Some verses are very serious, others sweet, some religious. One smartass named Aaron Kircher wrote in 1885 - 'Roses red, violets blue, I pity the man that marries you' - click on the images for larger views. I may do a few more pages the next time I take photos for the website. It's really a great little book.

OK, it's Saturday night, what are you doing? Me? well, I'm going to go watch the Top 10 Spongebob Squarepants episode countdown - debauchery woo-hoo! Then hopefull they'll be something else good on tv after that.
My vcr broke over 2 years ago, and I really need to get a new one. I may break down and get a dvd/vcr combo player (I spotted a cheap one for $50) It could be a Christmas request. It used to be that I couldn't last without my vcr. I had a tape in the machine ready to tape something at any time. I have old tapes full of episodes of the X-Files, and anything U2 related that was ever shown on tv. I have on a tape somewhere, U2's first US television appearance in March, 1981 on the Tomorrow show (remember Tom Snyder, this was before Letterman had his show) I currently have a crush on the new Doctor Who, so I've been thinking that I want to tape the episodes, since I think they'll stop airing the show in January.


Time for pie - so good-bye, Carol

Ask Bronny & Queen of the Oddballs

My website receives a mention on the Ask Bronny website, Yeah! 'AskBronny, formed in 2006, is a fashion website created to demystify fashion for women in a safe, fun, interactive, online environment through advice, education and information whilst aiming to create well dressed, confident women reflecting their true selves'.


My shout out for the week goes to Queen of the Oddballs - I recently read writer and performer Hillary Carlip's fun book after finding her on myspace . As a teen she performed on streets and in clubs as a juggler and fire eater. She won the grand prize on the Gong Show doing her song and juggling routine . Click the link and view the clip of her performance. So funny, I was such a fan of the Gong Show when I was a kid.
In the 80s she appeared in several movies including Xanadu and Bachelor Party, she had an all-girl band Angel and the Reruns. She was talking about 'Girl Power' before the phrase was spoiled by the Spice Girls, when she published a book of stories written by teen girls in 1995. She had alot of fun name-dropping adventures which she talks about in her autobiography 'Queen of the Oddballs' - It's a fun read, that you will enjoy.

Artsy project

Inspired by the Art Every Day Project that I came across after visiting Art Junk's blog . I wish I could devote a little time each day to do something creative, but right now things are kind of hectic. But I did work on this box a few nights last week. I took and old gift box that came out of an estate, I think a wallet had been in it. I grabbed the lingerie images that I used on the top of the box and on the inside of the lid from normavalentine's beautiful flickr images The other images were items I found online or scanned myself. To the left is the top of the box with some vintge flowers, gold star fabric and gold velvet ribbon around the sides.
The inside of the lid (below, right) has more gold star fabric, a copy of a vintage lingerie image and more millinery flowers. The inside of the bottom of the box has some vintage purple crepe fabric, green ribbon and a small bunch of flowers.
The underneath of the box (photo on right) has a copy of an old magazine, a copy of a flower seed catalog and a flapper photo add. All done with good old fashion Modge podge!

New at Dandelion Vintage this week -
11 Dressy Blouses - nylon & rayon, 1950-60s
6 skirts - 2 1940s rayon skirts, 2 full circle skirts & a novelty print skirt
9 Victorian & Edwardian items - skirts, bodice, capes, Black dress & more
11 slips - full and half slips, all nylon, 1950-60s
11 more slips! - several more pretty styles
1940s black floral rayon dress (small)
Another page of photos from Victorian to 1930s
a 1950s wedding gown - long train, small size

OK, time for some pumpkin pie after I wash my face and put on the pjs. Then to settle down and watch the Gilmore Girls. Let's see how mad this episode makes me. I cannot believe Lorelei married Christopher. This is definately going to be the last season of this show, they totally ruined it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bye for now, Carol

Love this Victorian fabric

This is a really great fabric that I totally love! It's from a Victorian petticoat, late 1800s to early 1900s. Very Art Nouveau. It's a very dark green cotton with water lillies in purple, mauve and pink, with blue water swirls beneath them. I wish that I had yards and yards of this fabric. I don't know what I would do with the fabric, probably build a shrine to honor it because I'd be afraif to cut it! I would wear this as a regular skirt myself, if it were my size. But I have a personal rule about not altering vintage to fit me other than minor hemming.

This petticoat along with several other Victorian & Edwardian items are set to be added to the website on Monday along with some skirts and some dressy blouses. Today I'm going to try to get a big group of slips set for this week's update too.

Two plugs for me, and a plug for some fabulous vintage lingerie

First, a few dresses from my website received blog mentions this week - one on
Vintage Society's Blog on myspace and two more dresses of mine were mentioned on one of the blogs that I check out regularly - clothesaholic - so please go check out those vintage blogs and add them to your bookmarks!

Next, I received a request for a link exchange from a site that specializes in fabulous lingerie from the 1920s to 1940s. You know me well enough by now, so you know that I love vintage lingerie and loungewear from those eras, so of course I spent awhile checking out the spectacular pieces at Silver Screen Loungerie Here are just two of the beautiful items that really caught my eye, yummy!