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Vintage clothing

Okay, things are not going well!

I'm afraid I haven't been feeling too good recently - I've been in and out of hospital, but they haven't done anything so I'm still feeling sort of run down and not quite able to get onto an even keel.

And my two-bears-a-week target is hanging in tatters!

I have managed to get a little bit of work done this morning though: I have put some of my vintage clothing on the DGBVintage website. There are three absolutely beautiful summer dresses from the 1950s and one 1960s crimplene wiggle dress! Do take a look if you get the chance: I hope to get some more clothing up soon.

Silence-breaking post

Many apologies for not posting for ages. I think I am still on course for my two-bears-a-week thing - if you count the little heart bears of this post as being equivalent to two bears. It's a bit of a stretch, I admit, but it will have to do. I have now sold two of those little bears, and a third appears to have been stolen. I'm never sure what tone I should adopt when saying that: is it "curses - someone stole my bear!" or "hooray - someone wanted my bear enough to steal it!" It is slightly annoying though, when you've spent ages making something.

I have not posted for so long (an entire week!) because I have been busy with the dress agency, which we are setting up at the Art & Craft Centre. Henceforth, you may address us as 'The Wardrobe'! We will hopefully be taking in people's designer clothing and occasion wear, and selling it for them, with a commission on top. In addition to this, each of the unit holders will sell some of their own stuff. For my part I will be doing vintage clothing.

I started out buying vintage clothing on Ebay. The problem is that vintage clothing doesn't come cheap, so I have had to price the things that I have quite highly. Really, I ought to be buying from second-hand shops.

I have tried this. There is a lovely book called It's Vintage, Darling by Christa Weil (see here): it's a great read, and when you're finished, you're all fired up to rush out to the second-hand shops and find some fantastic designer-label stuff. Sadly (and obviously), it's not as easy as that. I'd say I do know a little about vintage clothing now - but put me in a second-hand shop and within a few minutes, I become hypnotized by the mountains of modern rubbish. In this state, I wouldn't recognise a piece of vintage clothing if someone smacked me in the face with it.

The first time I went, I was thoroughly demoralised and left with nothing. The second-time, I did buy two things, which I think are vintage. One of them is, I believe, a long 1970s fair isle jumper dress by St Michael. The trouble is, its brown(!) And it has some bobbling to it. The second item is a 1980s faux-wrap dress in a gorgeous blue with big pink roses all over it. I looked at it and thought, 'is that out-dated and horrible or gorgeous and vintage?' I honestly had no idea. Anyway, I bought it and brought it home, and I am beginning to warm to it slightly.

So, I will go back and try again! I'm sure one gets better at it with practice. It is rather awkward though to be following the same group of people in a little trail around the charity shops. I am sure the staff must feel rather miffed. At one point I bought a [modern] blouse for the unit, priced at £3.95, and the lady at the desk told me it had been reduced to a pound. I just could not fathom the idea of buying something for a reduced price in a charity shop (bargain hunter, I ain't). I had to put the extra £3 in the collection box on the counter. It was very awkward.

Anyway, in the meantime, I have just about managed to complete one bear. I am out of practice at making big mohair bears though, and I'm not sure whether I'm happy with this one. She has a wide face anyway, and the addition of an applied lower jaw makes her look as if she has double chins. To top it all off, her neck and body are made from a longer pile mohair than her head, so her chin sort of sinks into fur of her neck, making it look as if she has no neck at all.

I finished her too late to take photographs, but I will post some tomorrow. In the meantime, I wanted to show some video clips. I have discovered The Pogues on Youtube, with Shane MacGowan - he of the wonderful voice, but rather sad, alcoholic appearance...

Phew!

I had an exhausting day yesterday - and I wasn't the only one...

He's not himself at the moment. We think he might be suffering from arthritis after his accident: he seems very quiet and tired - either that, or in a blazing temper, snapping at everyone. Another trip to the vet is called for.

Yesterday, I went to the Art & Craft Centre to meet the couple who commissioned Emma (the second bear in this post). I was really nervous! I don't generally get to meet the people who buy my bears. I rarely sell them face to face: either people buy them through the website, or they sell at the Centre whilst I'm not there.

Anyway, I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but they were lovely people, and it was really nice to talk to them. So I came home feeling as if it had been a good day - even having spent the morning struggling unsuccessfully with an elephant design.

Then, later on, I picked up an email saying "You have an order waiting for you." It was from Bear Pile - somebody wanted to order Vinnie! I was sure it was a joke, but I emailed back with a shipping quote, and another very lovely customer got back to me. So, this morning, I sent Vinnie on his way to Rhode Island, USA (sniff!).

In the meantime, I'm not making much progress with the actual creating. I have been trying to improve my elephant design. I have made some changes successfully, but I am struggling with the feet, and I'm not sure it's ever going to work out right. The trouble I have is that, when the legs are stuffed, the base of the foot curves outwards, which compromises the balance of the elephant.

When I made these bears, I managed to get them to stand fairly firmly. I put interfacing in the base of the foot to stiffen it. But they also had fairly short legs, which meant I could stuff them quite lightly to avoid the bottom of the foot curving, without that actually being a problem in itself.

Anyway, I can either persevere with the elephants, and maybe have nothing to show for this week, or I can put the elephants aside and start making bears quickly, to try to meet the two-bears-a-week target. It's really difficult: on the one hand, I really should be making more bears per year; on the other, I wouldn't like that to result in my making boring bears!

I have another project on the go at the moment too. At the Art & Craft Centre, myself and three of the other unit holders are going to get together and take on another unit, to run as a dress agency. In addition to the clothes that people bring in to sell, we will each have something of our own to sell there: my bit will be vintage clothing.

I am not great at vintage clothing: underwear I'd say I know something about now - but not general vintage clothing. I chose to do it because I have already tried the underwear at the Centre and, although I have sold a few pieces, it hasn't exactly been flying out.

Anyway, I guess in some ways, the principles are the same though: there are some similarities in style (or silhouette, at least), and the signs of age will be the same.

I have bought two books to help me research vintage clothing, and they arrived this morning...

They are really lovely big colourful books; I'll let you know whether they are actually useful. At the moment, I have a lot of books piled up waiting to be read, but I guess these are a priority at the moment.