Announcement! (The shop kind.)

So I've made the decision and the ball is rolling!

I've sectioned off my children's shop as my main dig. At schätzli, you will be able to find baby and children's vintage clothing, patterns as well as games, books, toys and decor.

And, as of today, I've opened a second shop! This shop, called schätzli vintage, will be my "play" shop ~ slightly less serious, more random and just the place for all the fun things I can't pass up or others give me. And I'm super excited about this fun shop ... it won't be my main focus, but I'm happy with this decision nonetheless! I'll be adding some handmade stuff closer to Christmas (more on that later - and I'm excited to have a place for it.)

C'mon over and see the changes I've made!! Let me know what you think.

Upcycled Retro Throw Pillows

(I have a feeling things will be a little bit slow around here the next few days, but bear with me. I have projects to finish, just a bit of slowing down to do amidst my jobs and family. So, if I'm MIA around this joint, you know not to worry.)


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My sewing machine seems to work in spurts these days. I tried again the other night and successfully have sewn a project I've been meaning to do for awhile! I LOVE finishing these envisioned projects - especially when they've been longer in the works than necessary. 


Insert "Upcycled Retro Throw Pillows" !


Unfortunately, my scissors beat me to taking a "before" picture - which happens much too often! Sorry. It was just a sleeveless cross-bodice A-line simple handmade retro (think flower power) dress. I wore it to one college function, but it was a bit too tight up top. And, if you know me, that pretty much means any normal person couldn't wear it.


So, I cut it up.

Added some awesome vintage salmon polyester (never been used by my grandma) and ta da!!

Amazing (in my opinion), retro, flower power throw pillows. Check 'em out here! 

New Kitchen Valance - on the cheap

So, we've had this rolling shade from the Home Depot for about 3 years. It covers our big sliding glass doors at night. (Otherwise it's too freakalicious to be in the kitchen when it's dark outside and the whole world potentially has its eye on you. And your children.)

Anyway, it cost about $15 (maybe less?) and it's starting to look a little worn as only a $15 shade should. I mean, it's not like I'm going to put in a custom shade in a place we rent -- and don't plan to stay in forever. (*crossing my fingers and hoping we go sooner than later. Love the rent and the freedom - hate the neighborly sounds and poor construction.)

Here she is. Lookin' pretty sad.

Insert awesome $1 vintage Vera sheet picked up from a random garage sale a couple of weeks ago. It was fitted, so I cut it up.

I'm not really a butterfly, floral-y person, but I'm in love with this print for some reason. Butterflies, ferns and leaves in multi-green and khaki colors.

Pair it with some yellow walls, a free curtain rod (minus the hardware, unfortunately) and you have a vintage valance on the cheap. And one that makes me smile.

So, here's the before...

And here's the after!

(sheet - $1 (thrifted), curtain rod - free, rod hangers - $4 (Home Depot) = Total Cost: $5)

*Sigh. Trying to add more vintage into my personal decor style ... 

More "on the cheap" posts to come!

May garage sale finds (vintage edition)

I've been garage-saling this month to look for a few items we need on the cheap. And I love reusing if it's something we don't need to buy new. (If it's pillow or matress, you'll hear me singing a different tune though. Used? Ew.)

Last time I went looking I came up with several fun vintage finds!!

(1) cardboard doll suitcase - $1
(1) vintage table fan - $5
(3) doll dresses (30 cents)
(1) "the Golden Rule" - German measuring system pattern book (50 cents)

I thought the red "the Golden Rule" book just looked interesting when I picked it up. There are color pages and lots of good stuff in it. Boy was I uneducated!

I looked it up on etsy and the same edition (2nd edition - first is in German) in mint condition is $145!!! Um, holy crap!

Score.

It has black and white and some color photos. Late 60s! Love!

It has the Lutterloh system instructions, pictures, and over 200 patterns! Amazing.

If you want to see if before I sell it, feel free to let me know (Valerie?)!! If I can even make half of $145 on it, it'll be way more than worth it! So exciting.

Shop Finds {somebody stop me!!!}

Help! I might need an intervention ... I keep finding wonderful vintage stuff for the shop, but unless it's boy or a quarter garage sale find, I really need to temper my vintage finding/buying. I have tons to list, but I just get so excited to find something!!

My friend, Sarah, is a huge garage-saler and has found some great stuff (garage sale season has started early with 70s and 80s in March this year) already. I rarely find vintage baby clothing at garage sales, but she's scored.

Here's the cutest little "cheerleader" baby shirt dress she found. 10 cents. Seriously.

Oh, so, cute!

And a Sal Army find: my German "dirndl" style baby shirt:

And, I stopped at a kids sale on the half price days and found several dresses:

(nautical!)

... and a lovely peach smocked, size 3 Orient Express toddler dress.

Gorg. *sigh*

Replacing Worn-out Elastic in Vintage Clothing

So I decided to brave an attempt at fixing some sleeves on my little vintage dresses. Two had the exact same problem: worn out elastic in the sleeves. Otherwise they are in excellent shape!

So I whipped out my trusty elastic thread and went to work.

(Excuse the bad lighting in the photos...)

After I took out the old elastic, I was left with this:

I sewed around the sleeve following the old sewing marks with some elastic thread and tada! Re-ruffled sleeves.

What a difference, right!?

Here's the other: before...

... and after! Much better.

I also took it around the waist of these pink corduroy overalls, but the effect wasn't quite as great because of how heavy the corduroy is. It worked okay, though. I'm good with how they look now.

I love elastic thread! What's your secret sewing weapon??

A few new shop finds for Easter.

I had some glorious hours last Friday all to myself. I got an orange pedicure... (complete with iced Passion tea from the 'bucks)...

... and went thrifting! (Totally my new favorite pastime.)

Here are some fun things I found.

a Polly Flinders size 7 smocked dress. I'm in love!

the sweetest Easter dress - complete with bunnies and daffodils

Two more 1970s jumpers!! Not nearly as sweet as the strawberry jumpsuit, but very, very cute.

I adore this polyester nautical jacket. Not very summery, but I'm listing it anyway. People are crazy for the nautical stuff.

And remember the little cowboy button-up?  I went back and found the pants that matched!! hahaha! (And sold it this week -yay!)

Thrifting. *sigh* it's so much fun.

Fun {shop} Patterns

A friend alerted me to some 60s and 70s patterns at a local thrift store and I was on it! Normally local thrift shops have only super ugly 80s and 90s patterns that no one wants ... but I was so surprised to find their huge selection of earlier vintage patterns!

They were all very cheap, plus 25% off, so I bought 16 to add to the shop. I think I figure if I can sell two of them the rest will be profit. That's pretty darn good!

Here are a few fun ones.

no date - 1960s - my favorite!

1967

1966

1972

1973

*Sigh. Hoping to find more 50s patterns sometime. They are probably my favorite ...

Favorite New Shop Items :-)

In the last two weeks I've had some luck thrifting. After I wrote that things had been flying off the shelves, inevitably, they stopped flying. :-) But, it's okay, the slower pace just kicked me into gear in beefing up the baby sections of my shop.

I will finish out my first year (October 2012) with the miscellaneous vintage things I have and after evaluating what has sold the best, I'll probably try to pare down to the main sellers. This, of course, has been baby clothing so far. I have the best luck finding it, buying it and selling it of all the other things in the shop. Random other things have sold, but these babies have been the pick. We'll see how the rest of the year turns out and go from there.

So, I've found the Salvation Army is my best place to find vintage. Some thrift stores you could look all day and not find a piece or two. Others (the S.A.!), if you're lucky, are vintage heaven. Where are your favorite places to thrift?

Two Salvation Army stores and around 15-20 pieces later, here's my favs of the bunch. Even little baby boy stuff is showing up! Check everything out at the shop, click here.

baby bowties

Yellow Easter dress, anyone?

teeny, tiny little blouse

awesome retro smock top

elephant short overalls

cowboy button-up.

Mmm! Love love love thrifting and finding sweet little things!! Looking forward to garage sale season coming up soon! :-)

Sesame Street love

Aw yay! My little Sesame Street baby boy jumper was featured on this blog! Their Sesame Street post was so cute! Go check it out ... my fav was the fuzzy Grover puzzle.

:-)

Such fun.

Shop Update! A few more little cute things

Wow! Things have been "flying off the shelves" so-to-speak from my etsy shop. And I'm definitely not complaining about that - it's a great problem to have! Love it.

Although it does create the need to fill the shop back up, so we went thrifting the other day and found a few things. I need to go again, but it does take some better planning. (She fell asleep in the car and had wet through her pants - so obviously we need to 1. go in the afternoon and 2. take the diaper bag. Yeah, this mama needs to be more prepared.)

Anyway, here are a few things I've recently added to the shop!

Head on over to see the rest!