Red white and Blue

The red one *Just* sold. The white and blue ones are still available (as well as several others). The air-conditioning is on.

Brimfield Bound!

I'm making a major de-cluttering effort this week; headed to the Brimfield Flea Market in Massachusetts with a big van-load of draperies, tablecloths, dishtowels, tchotchkes, artwork,  ephemera, odds,  ends, etc etc etc.    All the stuff I would love to be selling in my shop but simply don't have enough space for.    Here's a tiny sampling of some of the stuff I've dug up from the hoard:

vintage knitting books and mags

                                          vinyl Barbie cases

                                           Vintage 70s Spider-Man sleeping bags

                                                scads of yummy textiles

                                                    including an electric SHEET (?!)

   and a Roadster bedspread:

Scads of antique lace trims (which I have lovingly measured and packaged)

                                                      A Remington Portable Typewriter

                                                       

and a few pieces of choice clothing, including these amazing old lace up Renaissance-y boots.

                                                

If you're a Brimfielder, come stop by at the Meadows, along the west side fence.   I'll be there hanging/selling with Meri of Sideshow, Tues-wed-Thursday.  Weather's supposed to be gorgeous, and I'll be making my traditional Brimfield Penut-butter and Jelly sandwiches (BYOmilk).
 Five and Diamond will be closed on Thursday and will re-open Friday the 13th.    Seeya!

new Signage

Though it still needs to be sealed/weatherproofed, I finished my new sidewalk sign this week.
This is the sign that sits out on Warren Street (Hudson's main drag) and brings foot traffic up one block to the shop at 5th and Diamond (aka Columbia) Street.  A lot of people have told me they would have never known about my store without this sign.

Anyway here is side A

inspired by this 1927 Metropolis Poster:

And this is side B

a more direct rip-off of this wonderful sheet music graphic for Smoke Gets in Your Eyes:

Happy Spring!

A tiny sampling of pictures taken in the shop in the last 3 weeks. (Most of these things are sold, but the the black velvet gown, green party dress, the yellow day dress, and chiffon dress with open balloon sleeves-- are all still available.  I also have the white unform jacket in a larger size.).   So much fresh merch---- so much ironing to do!  

The peek-a-boo Abe shirt

Often when I'm hunched over needle and thread behind the counter in the shop I'm really just goofing off with my own clothes.  For example, this is the new Peek-a-Boo Abe shirt I've been playing around with lately

 It was a plain button down shirt that I liked simply for its soft cotton lavender stripes (plus it was already sorta nicely beat up).   I more or less rehashed it into a practical summer blouse with a bunch of one-of-a-kind details.

After cutting off the sleeves and mending a few holes

 I (1) made exterior armhole facings in contrasting stripes

(2)  derailed the stripes on one side of the collar for a sort of cubist mitered look,  

 (3) made a checkerboard-ish patch for the left pocket,  and
(4)  made an asymmetrical flap out of one of the leftover cuffs for the other pocket.



I opened up the top-stitching on the cuff/flap and inserted a 5 dollar bill, folded almost exactly to the size of the flap.  I sewed it back together, opened up a little porthole for Abe's face, and finished it off with white bias tape.    The idea here is to have a secure pocket that A) an ipod would not fall out of during a bike ride, and B) could hold a hard-to-get-at 5-spot to cover me in a flat tire or dehydration emergency.  I'm pretty sure I've rigged it so the only way of getting at the bill is to open up the stitching or cut the cloth.  We'll see.

Handmade Valentines

I finished the shirt from the sew-along and I'm happy with it.  Towards the end of construction I asked Alan to model it for me for the sew-along flickr group and not only did it fit him well, he really, really liked it.


Since we have a tradition of handmade-only Valentine Day gifts in this house, it became his Valentines gift.
The Valentines Alan makes for me are always made of wood.  This year I dropped a hint back around Christmas time, when I was setting up my vintage miniature Christmas.
I've always wanted a miniature (1/12th scale) dress form, but would never tolerate a modern, cheezily manufactured one. So he carved me one out of wood.

It is 5 inches high and has sweet little cabriole-shape legs just like full-size ones in my shop.  Perfect!

(The collage behind it is the Valentine Card I made for Alan. I didn't realize when I chose the central image that the man in the etching was holding a knife- oops--)

I joined a Sew-Along!

My true passion is to hunt down, repair, and revive old clothing, but every once in a while I like to make a garment from scratch. For camraderie, inspiration, and disipline's sake, I joined this group at the wonderful Male Pattern Boldness blog. (click on pic to take you to the sew-along page)

Through the magic of the internet a whole bunch of sewing enthusiasts get together online and construct a casual man's shirt together. (Or did I mean a man's casual shirt?)
Anyway, here's my pattern and fabric:

It's going to be a lightweight short-sleeved shirt, made from a pair of x-tra large linen gaucho pants I picked up in a thrift. Yummy mixed stripes.
In the interest of not boring my blog readers (all both of you) I'll be posting all the fascinating details of my journey on my flickr page, where the Male Pattern Boldness Group page is. Should be fun.

I've already said "phooey" to the construction of a muslin practice piece (mistakes, ME?), and started cutting out my pattern today.