Morticia, Gomez, and Thing..

OK. The only thing I really want to mention about the Morticia Addams dress is the "Fun Stix". Fun Stix are just a Wal-Mart name for 12 inch pipe cleaners, sold in the craft department. I spliced them together and sewed several of them into the hem of the bottom of the dress to help the tails splay outwards (the fake rose doubles as a prop to keep the tails out, btw).
 It was a good idea that worked, but went unnoticed--( just as I'd suspected). Everybody's eyes were on my best accessories, Gomez and Thing.

Alan created the "Thing" illusion entirely from scratch, using a fake hand to hold the box, and then rigging his real hand into the box through a hole in the suit, all the while supporting the box with a handmade belt rig.


Thing entertained all evening by lighting cigarettes and buying drinks.
Thank You Thing.

Good Times.

(more KW: Morticia Addams Halloween Costume, Gomez, Thing, home-made, how-to )

My Halloween Dress- Sneak Preview!

This year I had a serious hankering to make a good Morticia Adams dress.  I finished it yesterday, and today I modeled it for artist Gretchen Kelly.

Check her blog daily for wonderful watercolors and guaches...

Next week I'll post photos and way more than you want to know about the making of the dress.    Meanwhile...    
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Paisley for Brains*

I feel like I've been neglecting the "vintage clothing" aspect of this vintage clothing blog for the last few weeks--- and since I'll probably be blabbing about Halloween costumes next week, I'm tapping out this quickie to let you know that I decided to go through my very precious, very personal, paisley shirt collection --- and chose a few to dispense into the shop inventory.

These hard-to-find colorful cotton shirts from the 60s are a huge favorite of mine, so consider this a major store event.





*   "Paisley for Brains" is the name of a Musty Chiffon Show, and may be copyrighted. I don't know, but I'm sure Musty would loan me the phrase with her blessing...

The Carribano 502

Did I ever tell you how my shop used to be a reggae bar?
Yup. 

There was DJ booth, a mirrored barback, and a secret speakeasy-like lounge & kitchen in the basement, complete with posters of Jamaica hanging on the walls.

Where I sit behind the counter in my heap of projects is right where the dance floor used to be.

Around 2000 this neighborhood was so bad with drugs and crime the owners basically abandoned their business to save their sanity. A bullet hole on the Diamond Street side of the building remains as a reminder of Hudson's "Good Ol' Days".

When Alan bought the building in 2001, there were layers of bad panelling and linoleum, and a dropped ceiling. It all got peeled back to the original walls and floors.

Here are some before and after pictures of my shop.  Looking west:




And looking east:

(I am really good at filling up space with stuff.)

My wallet turns 30 this week!

Purchased new in Woodstock, NY, October 1978 

Making it work

Remember a few weeks ago when I got into the attic of that big mansion with all the really old clothes?
Well there was a garbage pile in the middle of the attic floor, where they had thrown all the tattered "beyond repair" mouse eaten clothes that they figured I wouldn't want. 

I put a clause in my $$ offer that allowed me to rummage through the garbage pile and take whatever I wanted from it.
One of the (many bagfuls of) items I found was this adorable telephone print shirtwaist dress from the 50's-60s.  
This is the after picture:


The dress had about 6 -7 bad mousechew holes in, including this big one on the back.  It was a mess.

But the print was so cute, tiny old-style telephones everywhere
I was determined to save it, even if it meant turning it into a $12 apron.

But the good news was that there was a 3 inch deep hem in the dress; plenty to steal and use for patch repair, and re-hem without shortening the dress.

 Here's the back of the dress after all the repairs, and ta-daa, there's even enough hem fabric leftover to make a matching belt. ( Or patch it a dozen more times in another 50-60 years).