Textile; historical and vintage

Framed Heirlooms.

     While I have enjoyed putting up "new" decoration in my gorgeous room, some things are more familiar. I found a good place out of the sun for my framed textile heirlooms, above all the family portraits, which I thought very fitting.
 The dress was given to me by my Oma (Nanna in dutch) when I was a little girl. She told me that I should look after it, because it was special. I often dressed a large doll in it.
Then I put it away carefully, and it migrated along with us. It is hand-made of a thin, sheer cotton with little white dots woven into the fabric and printed with little sprays of flowers.
The 2 butterfly-fairy prints are postcards she sent me as a child.
The beautiful lace, which is in one piece with edges of roses, belonged to my other grandmother, my Beppe (Nanna in frisian).

Oma as a young woman.

Here is a picture of my Oma as a young woman. She is wearing the original dress.
It was just after the war (WW2) and nearly everything was rationed, and you needed coupons to buy everything from food to clothing.
I'd say she would have had 2 children already, and her husband and her are not well off at all. And then, I've been told, she was given a dress by a relative which had been worn to a wedding.
You can tell she feels very pretty in it. After she had worn it, no doubt, on numerous occasions, perhaps to church as well, she made it into a little girls' dress for her third and fourth daughters.
And that's why I like it; she wasn't too proud to say no to a hand-me-down; wore it with pleasure; and used her creativity to re-make it for her little ones. She must have loved that dress, for she kept it, and gave it to her eldest grandchild decades later.

Paternal Grandparents.

Here a picture of my Pake and Beppe, all dossed up in their finery. I don't know if it was their own wedding or if they had been to one, but they are wearing buttonholes. My Beppe is even wearing a flower in her hair. This photo is from the 1930's, they married late. She was born in 1901 and gave birth to her 5th child and youngest son (my dad) when she was already 40 years old. My Pake ran the village butchery, just like his father.
I didn't get this photo until a few months ago, when my Dad moved to Thailand for a while. Those old photos taken from glass plate negatives were very sharp focused. With a magnifying glass you can see all sorts of little details.
And I suddenly noticed the lace collar on her dress coat. It is the same bit of lace I have framed!
I have always wondered how she wore it. I thought that she might have had a Frisian costume, and I'd always assumed it had been part of that. But no, far more bourgeois than that.

I love having 2 photos of my Grandmothers wearing the textile that now hangs in my room!
Super special bit of family history.

  

"Bush Baby" Oak Leaf Gnome.

This week I have been busy getting my little web-shops back up and running. They had been in-active for a while, but back to work I go!

This little Bushbaby and many of its' friends are up for sale!

Treasure Hunt Show Case

Thrift score of hand dyed embroidery floss.

One of my latest finds in an op-shop (Sallies!) and what a score! 69 unused skeins of the most beautifully hand-dyed embroidery cottons. Some from a local textile artist, and some from America. First I was trying to choose the prettiest colours, and then I thought, "what the heck, I'll buy them all!"

I paid about $20...

Delicious Goodness.

Fabricabrac Nov. 2012 Newtown.

I attended another Fabricabrac market at the beginning of November. Again in Newtown , Wellington. My love and I had a nice weekend in the city, we had managed to get cheap rates for a mystery hotel, which turned out to be same hotel we had recently stayed in, so very nice! We caught up with my brother and sister-i-l and also with our daughter, who cooked us dinner.

My humble stall.

I came with 2 big baskets of fabrics and sundry, and left with only 1, and some freshly bought fabrics, intended for making hobbit-cloaks out of soon.
Although the market was not as well attended as last time, probably because they had to change venue due to earth-quake building regulations on the original hall, it still got pretty busy.
The people that came were intend on buying and sewing.
 Or perhaps just hoarding...
Anyway I made some extra pocket money, and we had a great excuse for being in the capital!

A break in the crowds.