Site for Vintage

Thanks to a message from a fellow vintage seller, I found a cool website, called VintageGazer. It is a curated photo gallery on the order of Pinterest, but strictly for vintage things, which is very exciting for us vintage types. Not only can items from vintage shops be listed, but there are antique photographs and ads posted also. Anything vintage or antique may be posted, but the photos need to be appealingly clear and crisp and there has to be some content as well.

 

My friend at ElsiesAttic posted this beautiful ring

Another acquaintance from the world of vintage, AnotherTimeAntiques posted this gorgeous photo

Then I just posted this (though it needs to be accepted before it will be published)

As I wrote this, I realized all three pictures are of green things--what a funny coincidence!

I'm not sure how long it has been around, but am so glad to have found it. A lot of folks who sell  "old things" have been longing for a site like this. So I'm putting in a good word here and am hoping you'll check it out and spread the word.

Hat Trick

Let me emphasize first off that I am not a hat person. They don't work for my face and I have very short hair, so it just plain doesn't do much for me. But, I always wear one when I take a walk and I always take one when I go on vacation because that usually involves a lot of walking too.

I have a very nice "straw" hat (it's 100% cotton) with a brim that I bought last year because the hat I had, though I was very fond of the black and white stripes, looked terrible on me.

Nice enough, but a bit boring. It has a braided leather band. Never occurred to me that I could change it, until last week when an "AHA!"moment occurred (can't remember what triggered it). I could take off the cord and replace it with lace and buttons!

So I set to work...

Pulled out the lace bag and dumped it out.

It is all antique passed down from my great grandmother, grandmother, and mother. A lot of it was handmade by the grannies. I've thought about selling it, but I'm selfish, so I don't, which is good or there wouldn't be any for this project!

Picked out this crazy stuff, which was probably the edging from a tablecloth, as it is circular.

Nothing like being stuffed in a bag for years...

Anyway, I ironed it and a couple of smaller pieces...

and set to work.

I keep all of my thread in this lovely sewing box my mother made for me when I was a teenager learning to use a sewing machine.

Got the lace band on and made some "flowers" (I use that term loosely). I used to make fondant flowers when I worked with pastries for many years, but these lace ones were not to my liking.

Besides, as I  held them onto the hat and looked in the mirror, I realized I am not a flowery hat kind of gal.

So, of course the next thing that came to mind were...BUTTONS!!

Combed through my stash and decided to use the mother of pearl 

ones because I have so many (those of you who love buttons will understand).

Choose a large one to cover the gap in the lace where the flowers were going to go, but not enough of the fraying edges were covered, so I added some smaller ones.

Then I sewed more of the small ones around the band.

Ta-dah!!

Not sure I could make a career of it, but it works for me.