Watnot Redux This Morning!

Remember about a year and a half ago when I posted a big blog post about the Watnot Shop closing? Bestest junk store ever; I was pretty distraught at the time and I still haven't fully recovered...

Anyway, yesterday Mr. Tanner calls me on the phone and tells me he and Lois have been cleaning out their barn and have uncovered many more boxes of textiles and linens that haven't seen the light of day in decades---I should come check it out.

How cool is that?

They set up this morning at a barn sale out in the middle of apple farm country, a few miles out of town.

Complete with black cat and rusty old gas pump.

Check out my haul.

Beacon blankets and 1950s cowboy fabric:

Vintage buttons and spectacles:

Curtains and remnants galore:

and more curtains and remnants galore:

The only stuff that qualified as clothing for the shop were these hand tatted chemise tops:

But so what? I got a major junk fix, and am stockpiling a great collection for my week in Brimfield this September.

say cheese

Sorry to be neglecting the blog so.
Hopefully I can find some time this week to pull some stuff together from the growing blog-clog file.
In the meantime, I did slop together this big fat video slide show the other day, from shop pictures taken over the last couple of years. (The music, a Michael Jackson In the Closet Remix, is one of my favorite MJ songs you never hear anywhere.)
Big Thank You to all the customers who let me take their picture! Enjoy...

Thanks, I'll stick with French Fries

Summer is Officially Here! How do you look in your Bathing Suit?

Meet Chi-Chi

There's nothing I love more than buying an old dress from its original owner.  

This is Chi-Chi

Chi-Chi and her mid-50s black and red party dress with the 23 inch waist and the rhinestone buttons.

Chi-Chi called me out of the blue yesterday and invited me out to her family's (18th C) dairy farm in Hillsdale to look at a bunch of old clothes she wanted to get rid of.  A customer at Chi-Chi's "Self Serve Tag Sale (Put the money in the Can Thank You)" told her about me and Chi-Chi acted on the tip.

(By the way, Chi-chi makes her own reinforced and grommeted tent flaps out of awning remnants and fabrics from the sale bin at Joanne's Fabrics--- Kudos!)

Anyway- Here are a just few more of Chi-chis (and her mother's) dresses that I will be ironing tomorrow when I open up. I promised to find them good homes.

Hippie Chick Fashion Report

Just back from my annual weekend at Mountain Jam, best hippie-chick watching festival in the east.

Here's the quickie Fashion Wrap-up:

Best vintage,  by default, ( it was the only I could find, Ack!!.):



Best Smile and Flowers in her hair:

Best Hat:


Best patchwork ad nauseum:

Best, worst and only mullet:

Best t-shirt:

Best Little Edie Beale "You-can-always-take-off-the-skirt-and-use-it-as-cape" ensemble:

Best dressed musician, Richie Havens (yes I was this close):

Best save of an otherwise totally boring outfit by adding red cowboys boots (you can never go wrong--)


Best cowboy boots, overshadowed by worst tie-dye:


Worst public display of teeth-flossing during a Michael Franti set:

(ok...I swear, this woman spent a minimum of three minutes flossing right in front of me, looking up at the mountain, oblivious to me taking her picture. I took several---praying to God she would notice me and stop !)


And the Grand Prize Bestest Hippie Chick outfit of the weekend:

Holy earth tone sweater in broad horizontal stripes, worn with gauzy pink/charteus maxi skirt and pink and black Converse high-tops. Purple nail polish completes this fabulous ensemble. Humble, stylish, not overstated, not understated. My Favorite.

Not-so-Secret Sources

...Part one in a series where I actually divulge some of my secret vintage sources!...

As I think I've whined here before, customers regularly ask me:

"Where do you get all this great stuff?"

(as if I would grab a piece of paper and write down the secret location of a big wholesale warehouse full of yummy vintage  for them...)

The simple answer is this:

 Everywhere and anywhere I can.
I'm a born treasure hunter, and if there is vintage nearby I will sniff it out.
For example, 
Check out this trove of vintage I discovered just last week:

Take a wild guess where it was. Go ahead, take a shot...

I'll pan out a bit:

--- look closely now---
...Here's another view...

Yup.
I was at the freakin' mall!

Right across from Radio Shack and Build-A-Bear...

Huge store, called Capital Costume, with vintage furnishings and costume supplies as well, all reasonably priced.  Most of the really great dresses were out of my price range (for resale), but I did manage to buy some cheaper damaged things that I can repair, as well as these fab late-60s go-go boots

just in time for Trixie and Gio's You-can-Wear-White Party next week.

Next week, I'll tell you about the incredible house call I went on on Mother's Day...the 90-some year old pack-rat hadn't thrown away a stitch of clothing since 1949. 

I need someone to model some of these clothes for me for the next blog...sizes 6 through 12 (she gained weight over those 60 years)...So come on in and play dress-up with me....

These are Your Bosom Friends

... and no one will suspect...

(I wish they'd explain the lace doily bosom yarmulke thingies pictured lower right)(click to enlarge)

from a 1930's department store catalog