Making a change -- Junk Gypsy style

 I have had this dress form in my bedroom for some time now.  She is usually dressed as you see here.

Three pretty white skirts, a vintage apron, lace collar, jewelry, scarves, vintage rose corsage and a crown.

Here's the dress I found at the Merchant Square flea market last weekend.  I called it a Junk Gypsy prom dress.  White lace with plenty of swish to the handkerchief skirt.  

Here she is with the same lace collar, vintage jewelry, a concho belt and crown.

Here's a close up of her jewelry and the vintage lace collar. 

Or, should I exchange the crown for my own cowgirl hat and the gray scarf?
 
I think she needs something else.  Any suggestions?

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Merchant Square 3-day sale this weekend

Merchant Square is having a 3-day sale this weekend and a flea market tomorrow, Saturday.  I have loaded my booth and taken some pictures to share.

Inside my locked china cabinet I have lots of antique and very vintage items.  Here you see fancy perfume bottles, a gold lipstick holder, lovely rhinestone jewelry, rhinestone topped antique hat pins, lacy French gloves and an antique dresser tray in the back.

On this shelf are vintage necklaces, bracelets, a tray with French lace under glass, MOP binoculars made in France, old eyeglasses, and a beaded purse.

On these shelves you can see two turn-of-the-century boxes with celluloid pictures on their lids.  One is a glove box the other is for jewelry.  The insides of the boxes are in near perfect condition considering their age.  You can also see two autograph books (one on top of the old jewelry box and the other is open in front) that were signed in the 1880's.  Beautiful handwriting and lovely sentiments inside each one.

And I have stocked my booth with plenty of frames (white, black and original finish) and mirrors.

The mirror on top of the china cabinet is very old and very heavy!  Would look good with on its side or placed vertically on the floor.  It is really big!

All of us at Merchant Square hope you will visit this weekend if you are here in the Phoenix and East Valley area!  The mall is full of wonderful treasures!

This was a great find yesterday

I hit a few thrift stores yesterday and came across this:

Someone lovingly and probably laboriously put this Christmas tree picture together by gluing down bits and pieces of vintage jewelry, vintage beads and lots of green glass shards.  It measures 16"x20".  Now I truly appreciate all the work that went into this.  But I bought it to take it apart.

It is so old that the glue had completely dried out and a flat blade screw driver pops most of them off easily and cleanly.  I bought it for the jewelry for my artwork.

It would take a very long time for me to find broken rhinestone pieces, beads and earrings.  This saved me a lot of time hunting -- especially for the rhinestones.  However, I still look for vintage jewelry to sell in my booth.



After I take all the bits off, I plan to take the background piece out and paint the frame white and sell it separately.  Will also bag up some of the beads and sell them separately as well.  Nice find! 

Two finished lampshades

These are two of the small shades.  I finished them up yesterday.  They are actually for a chandelier or tiny lamp that takes a flame bulb with a small base.  I need to make two more to go on a chandelier I have for sale in my booth at Merchant Square.

Fun to do!  Here is the first one I did . . .

It had six sections.  Three I covered with a cut up doily.  I overstitched the pieces to the wire frame.  This particular section in the middle is covered with a piece of lacey ribbon wrapped around the frame and pinned.  The bow is from a piece of tulle fabric that has pink felt polka dots on it.

This side is wrapped with another piece of lace and has a white feather glued to it.

This section has tiny rick rack wrapped from top to bottom.  An old photo was cut out and glued to coffee dyed cheese cloth and a piece of pink fabric.  It is pinned to the wire frame with safety pins.  I also glued on the ribbon roses and then put old shoe buttons, crystals, a diary key and some pearls on the bottom.

Here I covered the entire shade with an old piece of lacey fabric from an old dress.  I overstitched it at the top and bottom of the frame.  I had this old vintage bouquet of pink flowers and I tied a piece of rayon ribbon on it.  Once again I put old pearls from vintage and new jewelry around the bottom.

You can tell I spent more time on the first one.  It was a learning piece.  The second one was easier because I used one piece of lace to cover the entire shade and whipstitched it in place.  I may have to make changes since I don't know how much light they will filter once they are on the chandelier. 

I plan to do a couple more and will post them when finished.  I have to hunt through the thrift stores to see if I can find two more small shades OR some small lamps that take clip on flame bulbs.  :-))

Display idea

I tried the bit of mink in yesterday's blog as a display piece. Worked out OK.From left to right: lovely rhinestone earrings, pretty bow pin with purple and pink stones, rhinestone necklace and two old buttons covered in sparkly stones. I also acquired the lace runner in the photo over the weekend.

Jewelry

As you can see, there were a lot of really pretty pieces of jewelry at the flea market last Saturday. This is not all that I found. Some pieces are already in my showcase at Merchant Square. Got a bag full of those vintage watch faces. Can't wait to use them. The rest will be in my booth.

Vintage Lady collage

The image in this collage was obtained from Digital Collage Sheets. I get periodic emails from them about their new images as well as other goodies they offer. Check them out here. A link is also posted on the right side of my blog under "Links to Explore." As yet, she has no name. However, I loved doing this collage. I used some vintage trims and jewelry along with fringe from an antique dress (laced with black beads) in this collage. At the top there is a tiny gold locket as well as a gold pin at the bottom. I thought they sort of matched the items she is wearing in the photo.

Please check out the Digital Collage Sheets website. If you like this image, she can be found on their website here. But look around the website. There are lots of really nice images and other items. It's worth a look!

Valentine assortment

I was so inspired by the Valentine's shown in the recent issue of Somerset Life, the January/February issue. Especially the one on the cover. So I set out to create Valentine's of my own. Here are pics of the first three I have finished.

This was the first one. I decided to make it very similar to the one on the cover of Somerset Life. I sewed, by hand, the tiny pearls on the red felt heart. I love the vintage rhinestone pin that is glued to the top.This was the second Valentine.This was the last one I have done, so far. There is another one in the works today. The item in the center of the pink heart is actually an earring that I found at the flea market last weekend.

Learned something new from this experience. I wanted to use metallic thread on these Valentine's. But my past experience with metallic thread ended in a very frustrating experience. The thread tends to shred after taking a few stitches. Well, then I visited JoAnn's Fabrics and Crafts and asked someone who worked there. Found out there are actually needles for the sewing machine that won't shred the thread! So I bought a packet. It worked!