Polka-dot dress

I absolutely love old photos, especially those from 1900 or before. They're usually not very expensive & I'll buy one if it catches my eye. I especially look for unusual or beautiful clothing, probably because I love fabric!

I found this one recently, which I would guess is from around 1890-1900. The unique polka-dot dress caught my attention! Most of the dresses I see in photos are much plainer.

The woman in the photo looks like a serious and proper Victorian-era lady, but does the dress reflect a hidden playful and daring streak? I'll never know!

Louise

Dressing up

I haven't posted anything for almost a month....where oh where does time go?! I have two projects I'm working on, and they both have deadlines.

The first is a Halloween costume. It's been several years (or a few decades!) since I've dressed up for Halloween, and it's been fun making this costume.


I'm making the apron and the hat from this "pioneer" pattern (circa 1989), which I found at a thrift store. The fabric (shown behind the pattern) was from Joanns. It's a reproduction fabric that I had in my stash, but is a bit too thin for quilts. It must've been really inexpensive because I bought several yards of it, which I need for this pattern! I'm making the apron and the hat from that fabric, and I found a black dress at a thrift store to wear under it. I'll be adding a ruffle on the hem of the dress to lengthen it (cut from a pair of thrift store pants) and I'll be embellishing the dress with lace from a thrift store blouse. Can you tell that I'm no stranger to thrift stores? It's fun to try to be creative (and cheap!), and it will be a unique costume, unlike what the chain stores are selling. I'm glad I'm enjoying sewing this, because I've put several hours into it, and it's still not done!

I love anything old, so I think I'll really like this costume, providing it all comes together as planned! You never can tell with garments, though.....that is one of the reasons why I quit sewing my own clothes. I don't like to "tailor" things to get them to fit right.

In the spirit of Halloween, here is an old photo of my Grandma, from about 1920, all dressed up in a clown costume looking very sweet. I would love to know the story behind this photo!


I'd love to see other old "costume" photos if anyone has any.







My other project is for our upcoming Quilt Show, but I really can explain it better when I have a photo of the finished product. I'm almost done with that one.




Louise

Sunbonnet days

Well, here it is noon already and I'm playing on the computer when I have lots of other things to do! I have dozens of old family photos stored in the computer, and this is another one that I really like. I believe it was taken in the San Jose or Mountainview area of California, about 1904. The first five people are my great-grandparents Silas and Ellen Grable, and their children. The little girl is my grandmother Gladys. Silas and Ellen were born in KS and IN, and settled in California around 1900. The bought several acres of ranchland and planted orchards. In fact, it looks like there is a small seedling just in front of them, if you look closely. (Photo will enlarge if you click on it.)

Old photos can give us a glimpse of life in the past. The hills in this photo is pretty bare, but today the California hills have beautiful oak trees generously scattered around. I would guess that at the time of this photo all the trees would have been cut down for the wood, or perhaps the cattle had eaten the seedlings. Today, this same area is probably dense with housing developments.

This is a close up of the same photo. I just love the photo of my grandmother, the little girl in the white dress. With the sunbonnet hiding her face, she looks just like Sunbonnet Sue! Her parents look so proud of their little brood.

Well, back to my chores! I'll reward myself with some sewing time tonight and will try to get something quilt-related posted next time!

Louise

Hanging up laundry

I discovered Carol's blog recently and found it interesting. Carol shares her old family photos and writes stories about the people in them. Although I'd like the focus of my blog to be on quilts, I think it would be fun to occasionally share some of my old family photos.





This is one of my favorite photos, and I don't even know who she is! Her face is obscured and she just doesn't look familiar to me. Her clothes are from the 1920's or 1930's, so she could be a friend of my Grandma who was born in 1901. The original is a tiny snapshot that was in with my Grandma's photos.

I love casual photos like this, that provide an unstaged glimpse into the past. I imagine that this woman was just routinely hanging up her laundry when someone got the camera and snapped her picture.

I think I'll get a larger copy made of this one, put it in an old frame, and hang it in my laundry room. It would fit in perfectly there. I have vintage knick-knacks above the cabinets, and some old aprons all pressed and ready to hang.

My next post will be more quilt-related. I've been working on things, but have nothing finished to show off.

Louise

p.s. This blog entry took over two hours, to get everything how I wanted it. I'm sure it was only my imagination, but it sure seemed like I would have it all good and then everything would change on me! I'm also frustrated that this photo won't enlarge when you click on it. See the next blog entry if you want to enlarge the photo. I have so much to learn!