I feel as though I have not posted in ages, it feels a bit awkward right now.  Nor have I sewn in what seems like the same length of time.  Everything was business as usual last week, working on my next early fall outfit, when I found myself driving home from the office, witnessing animal abuse, confronting an unfeeling woman, and loading a terrified and confused puppy into the back of my car.  Oh, and then frantically calling a friend exclaiming “WHAT DO I DO NOW?!”  Yea.  But, the wonderful news is, after several stressful and emotional days said puppy is in her new home with her really awesome, new parents.  (Happy face!)

Suffice it to say making clothes was not a priority at the time.  But now my heart has calmed down a bit and I can get back to fun, non-stressful things.  I truly appreciate all of your comments on my last couple of posts!  I don’t think I’ll be able to respond to them at this point unless you had a specific question.  (I might need some time for that.)

So, since I don’t have any new sewing projects to share I want to show you some old things that I picked up at a yard sale a couple of weekends ago.

Three delicate baby dresses (Don’t you love the coral silk dress?  I want a grown up version for myself)…

…and a couple of dishes.

Perfect, old, little dishes.  My favorite is the mermaid green lustreware saucer with gilded stars.  I mean, really?  Love it.

Don’t you love it when you are so inspired to do something that you have to do it RIGHT NOW?

Several weeks ago I saw these 1930s floral-pattern and metallic shoes on Pinterest (from the Thought Patterns blog):

Beautiful!  I immediately bookmarked this image, on Pinterest, and in my mind.  I knew there was a way to make/refashion similar shoes.  I had a starting base:

Very old, maybe 1920s or ’30s Mary Janes.  You can see me wearing them here.  I had been thinking about getting them professionally repainted/dyed a darker color for fall but had been putting it off for no particular reason.  (OMG, I just realized, looking at this photo, the perforations form a heart in the center!)

So I’ve been trying to figure out how I was going to get the roses on here.  Paint them?  (HA!)  Waterslide decals?  (Probably not suited to leather.)  Decoupage with Victorian clip art?  (Might be messy.)  I have a whole bunch of Victorian stickers on my stationery drawer that I haven’t used.  While decorating a package today (for a certain little fairy friend), I realized that the stickers were printed on thin, clear plastic.  Eep! Just the ticket.

I went to work straight away.  No, I don’t know how durable this is and what will happen when I actually wear them out and about.  But I didn’t care, I was having too much fun.

And they are not perfect, there is a wrinkle here and there but I think they look pretty good.  I’m going to wait a while to see if the stickers start to peel off; if so, I might put on a coat of satin clear acrylic paint over them.

To finish these off I painted the trim a pretty, faded gold (“Champagne Gold” metallic acrylic paint from DecorArt).  These are now the prettiest shoes I own!  OK, so where to wear them?

Another summery project from my favorite skirt pattern, Simplicity 8418.  This pattern is just so good, the possibilities are endless.  (The green is not quite as vibrant as they are in these photos; it’s more like a deep grass green.)

Rounded pockets lined with baby blue and white gingham.

I’ve also converted a couple of vintage pillowcases into grocery bags.  I got tired of the green ones I had.  You know, the ones you get at the store, sometimes for free.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice that many stores offer those reusable bags but they aren’t exactly pretty or machine-washable, which is gross.  And who wants to hand wash their grocery bags?  Not me.

I’m ready to move onto fall sewing.  I figure if I start now I’ll actually have new things to wear in time for cooler weather!

You may remember this dress from a post earlier last year.  I loved how it turned out but found it too skimpy for me to wear outside of the house.  Problem was, I didn’t have any more vintage hankies in the same colorway to add to it; I really think the key to this dress not looking too patchwork-y or hippie-ish is limiting the hankies to a common color palette and design theme (florals with a lot of white space).  When I finally found a few more hankies that fit the bill I removed the 3-hankie skirt.  I added a 4th hankie to make the skirt fuller then added a smaller tier of 3 hankies (which were cut down to 4″ tall) on top.  Now it’s much, much better in my opinion!  To complete the look I tied an olive green silk satin ribbon around my waist to give it shape; the un-belted view sort of has a ’20s vibe to it which is nice too.  (By the way, I’m wearing a vintage white slip underneath since it’s still quite sheer.)  I think this crocheted cardigan would look nice on top for when it gets a bit chilly in the evenings.