What's Old is New

Oh, how I love vintage. I like poking through thrift stores and yard sales, love transforming the old into the new. Two toddlers has left me no time to do this anymore, but there was an estate sale just blocks from my house recently, and I was able to pop in during naptime. In the house, I found small stacks of vintage fabrics, taped together, each stack organized by color and marked $2. So I bought two stacks, not exactly sure what I was getting. It was a grab bag of sorts, and when I took it home I was unsure whether there was enough in each for anything, but I was able to make Carousel Dresses for both Penny and Lulu, out of the scraps:

I have the perfect destination in mind for the girls to wear them, if they so choose. Stay tuned! In other sewing, I've been using my vintage patterns to make a Liberty smock from vintage Simplicity 3177. I love how the blue lining on the bodice makes the outer fabric look a tiny bit blue, in hue.

I've had this vintage polyester forever. It also came from an estate sale and I had been meaning to sew up the pattern, vintage McCalls's 8635 forever. There's something about solid accents on busy prints that has my heart. The pattern has an adorable tie option, for the back, though I knew it would be too fussy for busy Lulu, so I made it without.

Sometimes I think about all the things I'm going to get back to when I have more time on the schedule. I'd like to do some canning once or twice a year. I'd love to travel again, and see all the places on my list I haven't yet seen. I want to thrift a bit more (though Mr. Jones has no wishes for me to do so). In the meantime, it's fun to dip into old things, and be able to transform them into something new, for my family.