#thevintagefashionchallenge Day 1: Hello!

The Vintage Fashion Challenge is an Instagram event hosted by
@iliveinmylab, @makethislook, and @tinyangrycrafts.

I'll be investigating individual patches on the Crazy Quilt and telling their stories, both on IG (short form verbiage) and here, longer posts with links.

Here's my intro video that I posted incorrectly on IG:

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For Day 2 (which I combined with Day 1 on the IG post) I actually donned an entire vintage outfit!
See it, next post.

Here is one of the pages I was waving around in the video from my Otis Fashion Textile Class Binder:

I'm going over some of the original pencil in ink, as my instructor suggested in 1985.

Stories

1) The African knockoff print
I still have the top I made out of this! It was hanging behind me in the above video. Lou decided it was a lovely cat napping station after I left it on the bed. (Sorry, no documentation).

I think I bought this yardage at my favorite fabric shop in Poughkeepsie, NY in the '70s.
The top was sewn in 1973.
Here is a post that goes into details.

2) The Vintage Floral
This one I bought at Pilgrim Mills in Providence, RI. There used to be a lot of fabric mills in the Providence area and Pilgrim was an outlet for mill ends. Sewn in 1981, it started as a retro boatneck fit-and-flair dress.
I recently found an old slide with me wearing the dress, but since I'm already so late in posting this, I'll come back and add it later!

Other notes:
Did a full rendering of this print in gouache, plus a colorway for an Otis class. Another thing to hunt for.
I refurbished this into a skirt (currently lives on Mending Mountain).

On the quilt, not sure if any patches have lasted.
This one, in the upper left corner, I covered - look how faded it got!

3) The Couch Fabric
This covered a love seat that my parents gave me when I moved to Manhattan in 1977.
It was my paternal grandmother's, I still have it (in storage in the garage).
Again, a photo search for another day!

Fashion Challenge: Neon Flashback

I dug a little deeper into the shopping cart of treasure and found a bunch of neon printed items from the 70s. Here is a paisley shell with an unfortunate front zipper (think I'll replace it with an exposed metal zip). I paired it with my yellow 80s bubble nylon/spandex tube dress.

nifty pockets!

Neon paisley, right on!

A loud floral Hawaiian style shirt.

I was curious to see how it went with the shift from Monday...
No doubt you'll see me in this soon!

Something about this appeals -- must be the color combo.

This fabric looks downright sedate after all those others.
The yellow, peach and orange acidly pop against the beige ground --
didn't come through in the photo.
It's a lot of yardage in a giant muumuu... I foresee another new skirt!

Today is the final day of the Fashion Challenge week.
Which look do you think I should submit to Keely for her recap?

Fashion Challenge: Pining for Printed Pants

I envision myself, lounging under the umbrella pool-side, wearing my Pucci palazzo pants, sipping on a virgin mojito...

Source via Lyst*

Then again, I could be in the garden, wearing my Gaultier Monet trousers, stopping for a sip of cool spring water...

Source via Lyst*

Ah, well... The Pucci is actually a skirt and not pants, the Gaultiers are a "bit" on the expensive side ($779)...

So here I am, on the back patio, wearing my Indian hippie skirt that I got in Artesia:

I'm OK with that.
Thus concludes Thursday's Fashion Challenge: Printed Bottoms.

Here are some more printed pants that I found on Lyst*

Fashion Challenge: Tribal Floral #OOTD

"Tribal" is a vague insensitive catch-all adjective that the fashion industry is using for this season's ethnic inspired prints. When I hear "tribal", what first comes to mind to me are black and white/off-white geometrics. Which lead me this morning to to my shopping cart full of treasure gleaned last Friday from Larry's trove of archives.

He had about ten garbage bags that we sorted through. It was exhausting!
[I'll tell you more about that later.]

Alas, the tribal shift was too small.

But, I found this in the cart too!
A Polynisian print muumuu!
Polynesian = "tribal" in my book PLUS it's floral.
Score two points in today's Fashion Challenge.

Ummmm, ready for the luau...

Better!
I chopped off the top and turned it into a skirt.
And look, yesterday's plaid shirt has returned!

It's a mock ikat, which also qualifies as "tribal"

To the Max - #OOTD

Comfortable and bright. Scrounged the maxi cotton/spandex knit tank dress from the sample box at work. I am SO lucky! I'm road testing it at work to see if I trip on the stairs in it. So far, I'm safe from self harm.

Flashback at Work

I'm back at the money job (designing prints for underwear) after a wonderful two days surrounded by fashion bloggers at the Lucky FABB conference. I have lots to share, but must do some, um, "real" work.

In my absence on Monday, the boss went digging through the archives and found this to revive:

Are you able to read the date?
1993!
Animal prints are indeed timeless... scotch tape, not so much.

Have a great Tuesday! I'm kind of sleepwalking through it (don't tell my boss).

pattern recognition: Daisy Janie

Daisy Janie is hosting a fabric giveaway that ends today (12/16) at 8pm EST. I love her prints so I entered for the "Shades of Grey" bundle. Here is SpyGirl in a shift utilizing it:

click on images to see bigger 

source

I hope I win!