Vintage or Vintage Inspired Archives - Be Kind, Thrift and Rewind

These accessories are a few of the vintage fall items that I have added to my wardrobe the last year. I have always loved scarves since I was a young gal when we lived in Europe for five years. I saw women wearing them year round. My mother wore a lot of scarves as well. The fall leaf scarf I found in my trips to Philadelphia I believe I bought it at Retrospect, a vintage shop at 508 South Street. The paisley one I found a vintage street sale in the West Village. My screw on earrings in the lovely golden amber color I like to wear with my vintage paisley fall skirt that has an array of golden colors.

The brooch with the lady with the flowing hair and flowers I found in at St. Luke’s Thrift Shop in the West Village. I really like the feminine with nature theme that is captured on the brooch. I had a brooch that was similar in the 80’s but I lost it through the years. So I was happy when I found this one.

When I started collecting more vintage brooches to sell in my Etsy shop I ran across a few brooches that can be used as a pendant as well. Apparently, this was a fashion trend in the 1940’s and earlier as well. The one I saved for myself is the one with the blue flowers and rhinestones in gold-tone metal. I have attached it to a gold chain I have. It is a very pretty piece. I am hoping to wear it at some point when I dress up during the holidays, although I think it would look great even with jeans and a black top since it would dress up any outfit.

I have attached a link to an Edwardian Era brooch made in Russia between 1908-1917. I have attached another link of an ancient Victorian Era Fleming heart pendant, circa 1897. I have attached the pictures through my Pinterest boards. If you would like to follow me on Pinterest I am adding in photos of some of my brooches from my vintage collection that is in my Etsy shop, as well as other brooches I like.

These types of pendant brooches are a unique vintage look. I think they make a lovely statement piece to wear currently, even with modern clothing since they are so different from the current trend of large cluster necklaces. The silver-tone pendant brooch with silver flowers and clear and blue rhinestones is in my Etsy shop currently. I prefer lighter necklaces myself, or clusters that are not such a heavy look. I am petite and generally, I like accessories that don’t overwhelm my smaller frame.

I have a couple of these brooch/pendants in my own vintage Etsy Shop HabershamVintage. They are temporarily on sale as well. Actually, all the items in my vintage Etsy shop that are over $14.99- $19.99 are on sale for 20% off, currently marked the sale price. All items over $19.99 are 25% off and marked the sale price as well.

I have been busy adding more of the jewelry I designed myself to my other Etsy shop, CosmicRenegade, the one with handmade items. That shop is also having a sale of 15% off items over $14.99. There is a coupon code to get the discount: HOLIDAYS. If you decide to shop please use your coupon code prior to checkout. I have added a lot of earrings, in particular, the last few weeks.

I will be planning on taking some pictures of the holiday windows in New York City again, as I have done the last couple of years. I hope you are enjoying the beginning of the holiday season and the rest of fall.

fall vtg scarf

Fall paisley scarf vintage

screw on vtg earrings

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Vtg Brooch from 40's with pendant

vtg brooch pendant

Vintage 90’s Blouse and a Thrifted Black Coat

October 31, 2016

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This is one of my favorite fall outfits thus far this year. I bought this 90’s blouse in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in some little vintage shop that was mostly loaded up with stacks of books. In the rear of his shop, he had a couple of racks of clothes and I am a sucker for anything floral so I ended up with this lovely blouse. The detail on the collar also caught my attention. I found this last spring but it was getting warm by then so only recently have I been wearing it quite a bit. It is old enough that it was made in the U.S.A. before so many clothing companies started having their products made overseas. It is a My Michelle brand piece with the slimming darts in the back. I have been wearing this blouse with blue jeans, black jeans, the black Japanese culottes in this post and various skirts.

My pink sweater was a gift. It is cashmere and from Uniqlo. The Japanese pants are also from Uniqlo. My shoes don’t look so great since the ones I have on in the full outfit photo are my post-surgical shoes. They are from Dansko yet they still have that post-surgical look. They certainly protect my toe joint which was the reason to buy them! I just bought a pair of Dr. Martens this week. I have wanted a pair for years but they never fit due to my bunions. Now they fit so I bought these Mary Jane shoes. I am thrilled about their British Rocker look, yet at the same time, they are black and professional looking for office attire. I love to walk so I need solid shoes. I bought them at Trash and Vaudeville.

My brooches are all vintage and the little umbrella brooch I have had since I was about seven years old! The tiny leaf one is gold plated and from a company called Krementz. I looked them up online and they made lots of beautiful leaf brooches back in the midcentury. The Infinity brooch I saved for myself since I have been buying some for my Etsy shop.

The black wool coat I found on the Lower East Side of the Village at a stoop sale. The lady was smaller than me. It must have been huge on her but of course, I was absolutely thrilled to buy it at a $5 a bag price. It has served me very well when the weather is around 40 degrees. Everything else the lady had for sale was also great but this was the only thing I could fit into and needed. That large green brooch I found in a vintage shop and have worn with this coat since. I really enjoy finding great deals and doing a bit to help save the environment but purchasing items further down the chain of production.

My daughter, Emily was here for six days. We had so much fun walking around and going places. We didn’t get as many photos taken as we planned. She did take these of me inside the Eastern Parkway subway stop. It was a cold, dreary day so the location seems better than outdoors. I took the one of me in my jeans and the same blouse and coat. When Emily arrived I was still hobbling around with my cane but after I saw my doctor again I was able to let that go. I still have physical therapy ahead of me but I am getting there and it is very exciting to be outside again more often!

I am still struggling with my eyes. I can’t wear eye makeup for awhile, if ever again due to an oil production difficulty. I am telling you if it isn’t one thing its another! I suppose now I will focus more on lipstick and blush. My nose is a bit red in this post due to heating up my eyelids. One just has to have a sense of humor about these things!

Today is Halloween so I intend to dress up as a Harajuku Décor Gal and go to the West Village to see people walking around in their colorful and lively costumes. I will try to take some pictures for the blog!! Also, I will aim to get a picture or two of me dressed up. I bought the rainbow knee highs that I have seen some Harajuku Gals wearing in photos. Aside from that, I am using my own clothing. I did buy some of the tiny bright plastic barrettes as well to add color to my outfit. I hope you enjoy Halloween!

blk thrifted 90's blouse MY Michelle

cluster-of-brooches

thrfited blouse 90's

blk thrifted coat

Blk thrifted coat from the Lower East side

My Mod and Skull Earring Designs In My Etsy Shop

October 16, 2016

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I wanted to share some of my earrings I have been making with you in this post. I am aware that I am overdue for a fashion post but that is coming very soon. Taking pictures for that is next on my agenda! I have been healing up from my foot surgery, albeit slowly, so I figured I may as well send out some pictures of the jewelry design progress I have been making.

With Halloween coming very soon skull earrings would be fun to wear! I like them year round for a playful, quirky, colorful look. Also mod earrings are great for creating a unique accessory look. I have been using some of my bead stock that I had left over from the 80’s, plus a few black glass cats from the early 90’s. I hope to be making more mod and skull jewelry designs soon. I have these Day of the Dead type designs in my thoughts. I also get inspiration from Japan’s Harajuku girls. The colors are so inspiring and cheerful! The green mod earrings in this post were inspired by Harajuku culture and also by the green in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I find it doesn’t really matter where we get inspiration as long as we get it.

I have a skull layered pendant necklace. I also just ordered some more vintage lucite beads for making colorful necklaces. A few of those necklaces will have a mod style. I have been struggling with not having the best set-up for making jewelry in this apartment. I have a large studio which is great but I don’t have the wonderful shelves I had in my built in desk that I had many moons ago when I was wholesaling costume jewelry. In time I will be able to create a better work routine with this endeavor. I get such joy from creating and designing jewelry. It is a rewarding process.

The red cone earrings in this post come in two styles. The cones themselves are red vintage Italian lucite. I like how unique they are. I also really like using the chain links from some vintage 80’s chain link that I have. I have created several designs with those chain links. I haven’t seen that many chain links like the ones we had in the 80’s. My first item I sold in my Etsy jewelry shop was a necklace made from pink and silver chain link. That pink chain link was so unique and pretty!

The skull earrings and pendant are all made from dyed turquoise beads. I think they are quirky and charming in an off-beat way. I like all the little squiggly cracked looking brownish or black lines that run through the colorful skulls. Whether you want to wear them with a steampunk look, vintage punk or a classic look they would be a conversation piece.

Well I hope you enjoyed this post and I will get busy with the fashion post early this week. I am enjoying being able to get out and walk again some and I hope that you are enjoying the changing of the seasons! Plus my daughter Emily is visiting later this week which often means some really good pictures are being taken soon. She is studying photography as well as literature in school. I will continue to add new jewelry items to my Etsy jewelry shop with more skull items and mod jewelry coming up soon too!

My Daughter’s Apartment is so Vintage Punk

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My Dottie Angel Dress

August 19, 2016

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I finally finished my Dottie Angel dress a few weeks ago. I had this idea to make it out of slightly thicker cotton and that presented some difficulties for me in the sewing project. It was actually easier to make with the thinner cotton I used for my daughter’s dress. A link to the post about that dress is here. Originally I thought I could get more year-round wear with a thicker cotton, but it turned out this particular fabric is rather hot considering the heat waves we have been having. Also when I worked on the collar and the pockets I had a bit of trouble turning the fabric and lining it up right with the binding tape. As a result I may go back soon and redo one pocket for instance. For now I am leaving it the way it is as I really need to focus on my priorities since I am having another foot surgery next Friday.

The trouble with the pocket presented itself despite basting the binding tape to the pocket by hand prior to sewing with the machine. A friend who is a dressmaker said next time to sew it with the machine instead of basting, just with very large stitching, then sew the smaller ones as usual and I suppose then to pull out the larger stitches afterwards. What occurred was a small piece of fabric escaped the binding so I have a small hole where my pocket should be closed and intact. I even tried zig-zagging a small section there but it still continued to sneak out of the binding tape. Patience!!! Live and learn. Well I am not the world’s best at sewing but the more I get a chance to do it the more I learn.

for blog dottie angel dress

for blog

Also with the neckline the fabric didn’t fold as easily due to being thicker, which meant there were spots where the binding tape showed more under the edge of the collar than it should have. I will just live with this and next time make a dress just like this one only with thinner fabric. I really like the pattern on the fabric of my dress. It has little bicycles and a cat on each bike. I found it when I was in Denver after my daughter gave me a gift certificate to Fancy Tiger Crafts. The navy fabric on the bottom I found in the garment district of NYC and it has little symbols in white of the four cardinal directions. I thought that went great with the bikes.

I made the medium-sized dress and it came out just a tad longer than I thought it would be. That is fine yet for some reason the shoulders are rather large on me, so as a result the dress tends to fall off my shoulder occasionally. I may try to take it in a bit in the back but this is also something I will tackle later on. So far I have chosen to wear either a sports bra under it or a tank top.

I really like the dress. I want to make a chocolate brown one with floral pockets and I have some really nice floral Liberty of London fabric I could use for the bottom piece and the pockets. I am totally crazy about floral prints. For some reason it doesn’t seem to be acceptable to wear floral prints in finance or bookkeeping roles. Therefore when I am able to go back to work I want to have a dress or two made from Dottie Angel patterns that has predominately solid fabric, or a tiny non-floral print, with the florals on the pockets and bottom piece. This way I can wear my flowers but keep it professional. Does anyone else have this struggle with office attire? If so please feel free to leave me comments of how you navigate around it.

Tiff Fussell, the designer of the Dottie Angel dress now has three other patterns. One is for children, the other two are for women’s dresses, or “frocks” as she refers to them. Of course I want to make them all. I will have to wait until after my foot heals so I can stand on my two feet and cut the patterns! Anyway I am excited that she is making more patterns. One is a wrap and slip dress pattern, the other is a dress, top and skirt pattern. The children’s pattern is for a dress and tunic.

Well I hope you are enjoying the remainder of summer. I have been getting out when I can to go for a kayak in the Hudson River where they have it for free in NYC, or a bike ride, walk, whatever I can to keep active before my surgery. Then it will be another long haul, like last time with my right foot, before I can go on any subways or buses, or go running at the gym. I will be so glad to get this behind me though!!

I have several post planned for the next few weeks so hopefully while I am recuperating I can come up with even more.

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