Mini dress forms dressed for the party!

After receiving and thoroughly studying my copy of Somerset Studio (Jul/Aug 2012) magazine I fell in love with the Ranger Challenge Liquid Pearls & Stickles little dress forms.  After mulling that over for about a month, I hunted up the two mini dress forms I had and started to work.  They are both papier mache, both about 8 inches tall.  Even taller once they were glued to the candlestick holders.  One was covered with Chinese paper and varnished so I had to cover it myself. 

Here they are!  I love them!

Here's the back of each one.

Here's the front of the one on the left.  I love the old watch necklace, multiple ribbons and the little flowers.

The back has a little bustle of pink lace. 

Here's a close up of the one on the right.  Again I used an old watch as a pendant.

Since the front of this form was rather plain, I decided to add flowers to the back of her costume.  I also had the two glass candlestick holders in the cupboard that were gathering dust and not much else.  Used them as pedestals for the forms.  What do you think??

It's time for the Dress Form Party!

I recently discovered the blog The Polka Dot Closet and have added it to the Blog List on the right side of my blog.  I also just added a button on the right side because I am going to participate in her first Dress Form Party beginning on February 7th!  Well, as you probably know, I have a bunch of dress forms (four to be exact.  I recently sold one) and constantly use them in my booth at Merchant Square as well as in my home.

So join me in as I take you from my home to my antique booth.  I have pics of the dress forms in various states of "dress"!  Here is my absolute favorite dress form.  She resides in my bedroom.  She has the steel skirt at the bottom and is on a stand with wheels.  A great buy from a good, good friend who is also an antiques dealer.

She is dressed in two vintage petticoats topped by a more recent lacy skirt with a vintage voile party apron.  On top she has a lovely vintage collar, a new scarf, an old rose corsage, several new necklaces, pearls and is topped with a crown.  I love this dress form and she is a keeper!

Next up are two more dress forms that I use regularly in my booth at Merchants Square.  I continually dress and redress them depending on what clothing I either create or find.  I love vintage clothes!  But they are getting hard to find.

The dress form on the left sports a square dance petticoat, pretty gray silk scarf, a corset I embellished and lots of pearls -- a favorite of mine!  The dress form on the left is wearing a black slip dress I made by embellishing a black slip with vintage lace and fabric roses.

Here's a close up of the altered corset over a very pretty Scaparelli slip I found.  This was taken in my studio where I was working up the display for my booth.

Here's a close up of the altered slip dress and the necklace I embellished.

Last is the torso dress form where I try corsets as I pick out embellishments for them before selling them.  She also goes into my booth from time to time for displays.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my dress forms and all their decorations!  Please feel free to click on the pictures to enlarge them for viewing (I think you can still do that??!!).  Thanks for visiting my blog today!

After Christmas redo of my booth at Merchant Square

A couple of pieces of furniture sold last week and I didn't have any in stock in the garage.  So I had to go shopping in Merchant Square for some good buys -- which I found!  Then I redid my booth and most of the displays.

Have switched from Christmas to birds.  I have a couple of bird cages in my booth now.  This pink chair is a child's chair in great condition and just darling for a girl's room.  Love that hatbox!

This is the dress form that is for sale.  I have dressed her in one of my slip dresses and added a fur collar.  Next to her is a great shabby easel that holds an old print, several old buckets and a blue sap bucket.  Lot of other goodies to see here as well!

This great piece I found this morning and bought from another dealer.  It is a really nice display piece.  Loaded it up with lots of old flower frogs, rubber stamps, another bird cage on a cake plate and a dress form.

I Love that old La Mode print.  It is an actual page from an old magazine.  In this huge bowl is an assortment of rubber stamps, sponge stamps and some Maya Road items.  For you scrappers, this is a good deal because the prices are very right on those stamps!

Have a few cowgirl items here.  Red straw hat, white boots, bandana napkins, old toy horses, old horse show ribbons, and a couple of old suitcases.

I also put out several new hats.  This one is a vintage Easter hat.  She's wearing old pearls.  Vintage pink gloves and a die cut that is framed.

Come on over to Merchant Square and visit!  New dealers are moving in now and many others are redoing their booths for the New Year!  

Finally getting something done!

It's been a very busy week.  I was swamped for the first part of the week with a side business that I am going to venture into for a new bff.  Nothing more about that yet.

But yesterday and today I did get some long standing projects done.  First in the dress form reform.  I have two dress forms that I had used in my booth.  One I do use, the other was vandalized -- more about that in a minute.  Here they are, all fixed and ready for use.

The tall one on the right was all wibbley wobbley.  I had been meaning to secure the base of the form to the stand, but put it off.  So this morning I did that as well as tightening the stand to the base.  Now she stands straight and doesn't wibble wobble any more.

The short one on the left is the one that was vandalized several years ago right in my booth at Merchant Square.  I noticed one day that she was leaning, really leaning to the left. When I investigated the knob at the top, it fell right off -- it was securely in place before.  Then I discovered that someone had unscrewed a section of the inside pole that kept her upright and stable, removed it, replaced the knob back so it looked OK, and made off with the pole.  Really made me mad!  So she has sat in the garage for a couple of years until this morning.  I just pushed the center pole up to the top and screwed the knob back on.  Although she is shorter, she will make someone a great torso display piece.  She will be for sale in my booth in a day or two.

Next I went on to sew the little jumper for my granddaughter's American Girl doll.  Here it is:

All I have left to do is sew on tiny snaps and make a shirt to go under it.  Not sure it will get to her in time for Valentine's Day, but don't think she will care much, really.  I will be off to JoAnn's in a couple of hours to hunt up snaps and a bit of white knit fabric.  This was pretty simple to do.  It was a project that required me to dig back, way back, into my sewing memory to recall what to do.  But I loved doing it!

Out of town up in the High Country

My BFF Gail invited me up to Payson to stay in their RV for the weekend (beginning last Thursday).  Needless to say, we shopped til we dropped!!  And we did drop on the couch Friday afternoon to catch a nap before dinner!!  It is a little cooler up there and it is a higher altitude.  And it is forest!!  Just refreshing!!

First great find I want to share with you:

I can't resist a good old tinted photo.  This one is of the Sonoran Desert and I couldn't leave it behind.  Especially since the frame is very old.  Price:  $2.00!!  (((smiles)))

Here is the grouping of old tinted photos on the wall of my great room.  I tried a straight-on shot, but there was a big reflection in the large photo of Yosemite.  The tiny photo at the top right is a signed Wallace Nutting.  He was a pioneer in tinting photographs.

Next great find from Chrisy's Cottage in Payson.  Her husband takes photos of the dress forms in her shop and then alters them.  (You should see the dressed forms she has in her shop!  Would knock your socks off!!  Wish I had taken pics!)  I fell in love with this one!  So me!  Petticoats, dress forms, corsets and crowns!!  All the stuff I look for to put in my booth at Merchant Square.  I really don't have much of it at home, however.

Here is where the petticoat picture is going to hang for the time being in my bedroom.  That is the only place in my house that is "girlie".  I play with shabby chic in my booth and that is enough!!  I love it, but not so much in my house.

More tomorrow!!  Found some great things!!!

Dress form

I bought this dress form in September of last year.  It is the dress form of my dreams.  She has been in my booth since then.  I always thought I would bring her home if I decided to quit having a booth.  Well, shoot!  I decided I wanted her at home now.  So here she is in my bedroom.

She is decorated with a vintage slip, apron and lace collars.  She will become a display for jewelry that I have either made or found.

Right now there are only purchased pieces on her.  But I will change that.  Also think I will be changing out the apron.  Pretty sure a long vintage apron is in the garage, stashed somewhere.  I just have to find it.  Looked for it yesterday, but couldn't find it.  Will continue the search.

Dress form of my dreams

Today I acquired the dress form I have always wanted but could not find. A good friend, Sharon, had this dress form and was willing to sell it to me! Whoopee!!! It is a professional fashion designer's dress form. On rollers and she has removable arms! How cool is this?? I will be using her in my booth at Merchant Square to display prom dresses as well as vintage clothing. I have a couple of other home sewing dress forms that I will be selling soon. I don't need 5!! I will be selling two to start. Perhaps a third one after that.

Once I decide that I don't want to do an antique booth anymore, this baby is going in my bedroom to display vintage dresses and perhaps wonderful jewelry.

This is in my garage. See the black plastic bags?? They are full of square dance petticoats in every color! They will be in my booth at Merchant Square soon. Not all at once!! They would fill the entire floor of my booth if I let them out of the bags!!