Restricting the bask to directly under the heat lamp.Filed under: Gifted it, Sewed it | Tags: Christmas, corduroy, cotton, dress, fabric, Gaffney's, niece, pink
Sigh. The reason I started selling clothes online at all was precisely to sell off all the pink vintage clothing I found. Stuff that was so beautiful, but pink. No sir, I don’t like it.
So of course, my niece, whose Christmas dress I make every year, chose p-i-n-k this time. In my favorite fabric store ever, during our special trip, just girls, she swept past teal velour, purple velvet, silvery knit and plunked her finger squarely on a hot pink baby corduroy.
With glitter, see?.
Efforts to push the dusty rose (and gray) taffeta were promptly denied.
So this dress will be hot pink. And super twirly.
Since Gaffney’s is amazing, I grabbed up out of the quarter bin (not the yardage, the price) a chunk of this cotton that might make the bindings.
Close enough? I know it hardly screams “holiday”. But neither does pink.
Filed under: Fixed it, Love it, Refashioned it, Sewed it, Thrifted it | Tags: blouse, pink, present, Salvy, vintage
My Mister’s sister is crazy for pink. I suspect it’s to prove her tacit credos that redheads can wear whatever they like, and so can tough broads.
She also teaches at a Chicago Public School, and hates mixing her ‘normal’ wardrobe with her teacher clothes. So she has a sort of double wardrobe.
I don’t know where this vintage handmade blouse will end up, but I spotted it at a suburban Salvy and plunked down the $.75, thinking if she doesn’t like it, she’ll donate it back. Or she’ll hand it back and we’ll put it up for a few $ on etsy. It has a wide, trapeze shape, and the sleeves were sewn on in three pieces.
Plus, the pink circles are mesmerizing. I had to repair the sleeve and bottom hems.
I think it worked.
Filed under: Get it, Love it, Scavenged it, Thrifted it | Tags: etsy, fitzfabulous, fitzfabulous@etsy, fitzs, pink
I’ve gotten the hang of etsy after getting sick of ebay. True, I once sold a thifted pink jumpsuit w stirrups on ebay for $153 after a fierce bidding war, but then I got stuck with big listing bills and zero sales too many times. I’m too cheap (or too small-potatoes?) for America’s favorite auction site.
So I’m on the etsy bandwagon. Better late than never. I’ve had some luck selling fun stuff I found thrifting that didn’t fit me right or is pink or doesn’t fit my narrow reporter uniform standards of everyday dress. And I love the hunt for fantastic design, weird details and anything made in countries that don’t exist anymore.
A happy pair of metallic shoes (too small!) is going out in the mail. 
So is a bluebird dress (blue not in uniform).
And some Wrangler jeans (too wrong for short legs). 
Proceeds will send me to P-h-i-l-a this summer to see the rest of the Fitzs. And that love of Fitzs overcomes my shame at the thought of self-promotion, so take a look at the old fitzfabulous.etsy.com and see what’s been hiding among Chicago’s overlooked thrifting gems. Some are already listed; some are coming soon.
That’s fabulous.
Filed under: FOIAd it, Fixed it, Love it, Made it | Tags: bill blass, cords, denim, FOIA, pants, pink, straighten, sunshine week
Not sewing as much as usual – work has heated up with a giant Freedom of Information project. I love the FOIA and the 1st Amendment and open government as reporter tools, and have wanted to conduct such an audit for a long time. So that’s good news. But here’s why editors wouldn’t let me do it before – it’s incredibly time consuming keeping track of so many document requests. More to come as Sunshine Week approaches.
That having been said, I have managed to straighten some pants, which is easy to do just because it can be done one small step at a time.
- Sliced the boot cut off dark denim pants inherited from my sister
- Un-booted gray cords I wear practically as reporter uniform
- Tightened up a gorgeous pair of vintage Bill Blass jeans
- Tried to taper the bells on these thrifted muddy pink cords because the waist construction is stunning and very solidly done.
So they’re pink, I know, after I just whined about stupid pink. (What’s with all the best thrift store stuff being pink?) But they are of such quality that I thought I’d try out dyeing on them since they were $1. Will try gray or brown or black. Nothing crazy.
The beauty of this work is that it can be done in pieces. Short attention spans welcome. Got 10 minutes to sew? You too can straighten pants. Click here for the step-by-step.
Filed under: Get it, Love it, Thrifted it | Tags: ebay, fitzfab@ebay, jackie-O, pink
I don’t do pink. Period. Don’t like it. Don’t like what it means. Yet I find the most fabulous dresses that happen to be pink. Here’s the latest casualty, now featured on fitzfab on ebay:
Look at that Jackie-O collar! And the charming diamond shape sewn into the simple front! You can almost feel the wool boucle fabric. And here’s the heartbreaker, a sassy side pleat fastened with covered buttons. I love it:
And I hate the pink. I think, “Dye that sucker. Dye it darker and enjoy it. Dye it anything darker.”
One time in high school I bought an amazing orange dress. Bias-cut long a-line skirt. The top had frog closurs and a keyhole over the bosom. H-O-T, except for the orange which in HS I also wasn’t into. Tried to dip it red. Failed miserably. Ruined the poor little dress. Guess it’d dye black now if I tried harder and with the patience and budget of an older woman. But that stunner of a dress left me scarred and scared to dye again. Asked the refashioning ladies what to do in terms of dye. Whatever they decide I will respect.
Meanwhile, I wave good-bye to Jackie-O in hot pink. Maybe she’ll finance something in a darker shade of purple.
