Jean vest re-do and a June Challenge

Since hanging with the celebs at Coachella was not in the cards for me this year, I am modeling the latest in faux festival fashion.

The Coachella Music Festival is held each year in April in Indio, California.
One trick to getting around the work dress code spaghetti strap ban is to wear a jean vest. Last month, the SPCA thrift store held a weeklong $1 clothing sale where I found an 80s style jean vest and purple knit top.

The material on the vest under the arms was too bulky so I whipped out my trusty seam ripper and *rip* and took out that extra material. Then I decided the quasi-peplum add-on had to go *rip* and ended up with a vest ready to fray.

I went above budget at $10 buying the ice cream cone joujou dress. I call it that because the colors and ruffly layers seem sooo ice creamy. The beige crocheted bodice qualify for a linkup with Anne of spygirl-amb.blogspot.com for her 52 pick-me-up fashion prompt.

What is a Tami fashion post without a Pattern of the Day? It just has to happen. The closest thing to my ruffly festival fashion is this child's dress pattern 1970 McCall's 2691.

1945 The Complete Book of Sewing

This week's thrift shop finds were the start of my vintage souvenir plate wall beginning with my home town. Perfect at 75 cents!

Link to displaying collections-vintage-souvenir-plates
Fabric remnants ($4) and a necklace I will use as a lanyard for work($3).

I so enjoyed last month's April AtoZ Challenge, I have found one of those participants is hosting a June challenge.
https://kathleenbduncan.com/ will provide prompts and Saturday is photo challenge day. Summer is a perfect time for me to participate in one of these and sometimes the prompts produce surprising and fun-filled results.  M'kay, who is in with me on this one? 

Going Tyrolean

Visible Monday of the Tyrolean kind. Ok, so it is not a fashion trend right this second, it could be! *grins* 

This thrifted pair of the Fjord Fashion sweater and olive green Gloria Vanderbilt jeans fit the prompt of "Green-acorn" for SpyGirl Anne's 52 pick-me-up. I borrowed Mr. VZ's Stetson straw hat and am wearing my Danner camo hiking boots.




I'm telling ya Tyrolean, here is an image of my brother and me from 1961.


Close up of sweater detail

Having completed my fashion analysis and clothing selection class, I have learned I am a rectangle shape. This is not uncommon for people of a certain vintage. Waists thicken, things happen. 

The final required students to do a fashion analysis of a prospective customer. We each choose a slip of paper from a hat. My customer was Hannah, an interior designer who favors dramatic style in her clothing. A 31-year old, she is 5' 8" tall, heavy framed, broad shouldered, non-athletic and wants to appear slimmer. She has a diamond-shaped face, thinks her legs are her best attribute and wants to show them off. 

The first task of the final was to sketch your customer's body type sans clothing from the description provided above.



Among other analyses, we were to choose an outfit for a social event. I had Hanna attending an art gallery gala in Sacramento. 

Peter Pilloto printed peplum top paired with pencil skirt

What I'm listening to ~

Quilting update - culled from my recent purchase of a $3 thrifted bag of fabric scraps and paired with the fabric in the foreground as a backing, I will be making a Corn Crib quilt for my mother's caregiver.

Diagram from Quick and Easy Projects for the Weekend Quilter

The Corn Crib Quilt is described as "crib" being a safe place for baby to sleep and a "corn crib" an American name to store corn. Here are the strips that were then cut into two-color rectangles.



I find crib-sized quilts the perfect size to throw on the back of a couch to add color and within arm's reach to add warmth. 



Look at the symmetry and color composition.  Lovely! I had the quilt pieces laid out carefully and in order of the chart and then, well as is said, the best laid plans of mice and men (and quilters) often go awry.  Here is the end result of the corn crib quilt top. I should have known better than to join the squares as full strips. Bad Tami. Then I had to cover up the uneven squares with floral appliques. The creation became less about the squares pattern and more about the appliques.

Quilt top with binding

Finished quilt

What projects have you undertaken this past year?

The Five Dollar Thrift Challenge

Halogen shirt and sweater

Handmade skirt

BCBG heels

(entire outfit thrifted)

I didn't start with a $5 thrift challenge in mind, it ended up being these two garments that weren't meant to go together, kept calling to me.  Some thrift shops here in Northern California offer a dizzying array of discounts, color coded with certain exceptions, all very confusing. At the final ring up I don't ask questions, the total is usually much less than what I have anticipated.

The sweater ended up needing a couple of small fixes.  I repaired a french knot that had come undone and a flower edge that had frayed.  The skirt was handmade, it appeared to be someone's quick sewing job for perhaps a fashion design class.  

I first tried to fix the pink lace border by ripping out the stitches of the portion that was basted on the wrong side of the skirt.  When I tried to sew the lace back on, it was a disaster.  Back to ripping seams, I decided to finish off the skirt with a scrap piece of material to give it more of a finished look.  

I bumped into a new-to-me blogger in my internet travels.  Her interests align directly with mine - thrift fashion revitalized - refashionista.net.  This image is from one of her unsuccessful refashionings.

Linking with one of my favorite groups notdeadyetstyle.blogspot.com, Vising Out on a Monday.

I think I qualify to linkup for spygirl-amb.blogspot.com for her weekly fashion prompt of Rust with that color flower in my skirt.

Just got my hair did and boy did I miss out - I should have gone Opal!  It is kind of My-Little-Ponyesque.

It took some searching but I finally found another blog challenge group write31days.com for a writing challenge every October, every day.  Blog challenges are good for at least two reasons - the topics stretch your imagination and you discover new-to-you bloggers.  

With October being my favorite month of the year, it will be a snap posting each day.  There are numerous fashion and other linkups that I will include, perhaps a Pattern of the Day or a babydoll mugshot.  

1964 Horsman Doll

My new position with the grand State of California focuses on preservation of the Sacramento Delta.  During the 31 Days I will be posting some waterway images. 

Stay tuned for tons of fun!

Partying on with Pink Saturday

It has been awhile since I have linked up with Beverly at howsweetthesound for her Pink Saturday theme of anything goes!

Close up of the skirt print

My camera is still in absentia so the iPhone will have to do for this frazzle-haired look of a Fun Floral Friday.  Thrifted pieces include the Charter Club pink cashmere sweater, the island inspired necklace/lanyard and the Jones New York print skirt.  I am also joining /spygirl-amb.blogspot.com for her PINK 52 pick-me-up fashion prompt. 

Thrift shop finds at Goodwill this week were this green JKLA jacket and straw hat (both for $7.99 each).  I will alter the jacket to remove the belt loops and I'm thinking of changing the lapels.  I will model this jacket with another find from my Vancouver trip.

Update to the jacket, I removed the belt loops, folded in the elf lapel, tacked it down and embellished with pins I snagged was given from the mom.  The Coldwater Creek black polka dot with green piping sundress was a thrift shop find in the Washington area.

Let's go retro - do you remember crocheted dresses for dolls?  

Adding in a sweet Madame Alexander Cinderella. 

And a pink-haired Brinn clown.  

Pinking out with a Pattern of the Day from 1969.  

I have been having major issues with my upgrade to Windows 10 and the incompatibility with Google Chrome.  I would advise to wait on that upgrade.  

Feeling Groovy

I really did not appreciate the 70s era the first time around. These recreated 70s memories are so much more fun.

1970s ML Studio suit $50 from Thrift Town

I have been holding on to this suit for the perfect time to showcase it.  I finally found these banging BCBG high heels to go with it ($8 thrifted). I could not find period shoes in my size and believe me, I tried. 

Updating this post to link up with Anne at spygirl-amb.blogspot for her 52 pick-me-up prompt of "Best Foot Forward."

If you are in the 70s mood, visit Melanie at Bag & Beret for her 
groovy-bell-bottoms-two-ways and Vix at Vintage Vixen for her purple-haze 70s maxi.  Moving my groove thang on to Patti and the clan at Visible-monday.

Thrift shopping produced a 2 CD set of reggae dancefloor grooves 1968-1974.  I will be shaking my booty to this one!

I am on vacay for the next few days AND I have finished my Macroeconomics class (pretty much, online final in a few days).  Should be receiving my degree in the mail soon.  

Adding in some tunes ~



Far out some Patterns of the Day!

1970

1972

1973

Thrift shop finds included a 1945 Sewing book, a girl tool set (I know the Mr. will leave intact because they are all PINK), a Japanese ceramic of a gardening girl with a hat and a birthday stuffed animal. 

A hippy chic summer dress, 1977 Peasant Chic publication, a black Preview linen maxi dress and a teal Coldwater Creek shirt NWT.

Can you dig it?