{250 sales} giveaway!

I'm excited to announce that my shop is officially up to 250 sales after 15 months of business!

So, I'm hosting my first giveaway!! (So all of you lurkers out there - leave me a comment!) 

One $25 shop credit to either of my Etsy shops - schätzli or schätzli vintage. I'll randomly pick a commenter and you can choose anything from the shop(s) you like!

{It's not required (because I hate required steps to enter giveaways!) but I'd love it if you'd "Like" me on Facebook or follow my blog at the bottom of my page. Pretty please!}

Good luck!

Giveaway ends at 11:59pm CST on Saturday, January 12, 2013.

(Giveaway open to international readers, although it is for $25 including shipping - so shipping costs may apply. Winner will be announced on Monday, Jan. 14 - so check back to see if you've won!)

First Shop Update of 2013!

I've updated the shop with some estate sale finds (!!) and will put several more items on this week. Pretty convinced some of these pieces are from the 50s.

For now, I have...

... a couple for boys...

... a handmade christening gown...

... and for girls.

Check them out over here!

a couple new shop items (*gasp!*)

It's been awhile, hasn't it? The summer has been slow going for the shop, so I've tried not to go thrifting too much. That always gets me in trouble.

But, the other day I had the itch and the girl and I drove out to one of my favorite thrift spots.

I found these adorable crop tops - although I don't think I'd ever put my child in one,  they are so cute and summery!

another sweet pink dress ... (I think I need to sell these as a lot for someone and get some other colors in my line!)

A sweet little yellow toddler nightgown...

And a summer sweatersuit from West Germany - I include that tidbit because from the tag (that says: "Made in West Germany"), I can tell it was manufactured at least from 1990 or before which makes it vintage for sure! (Because West Germany was no more at the end of 1990.) It's in really great condition although like the crop tops, I'm not sure I'd put a baby in a sweater for 100 degree temps, but it's still cute.

Feel free to stop by the shop or click the button on the right side of my blog to visit! I'm slowly clearing out my sale items and hope to have my new all-baby/children's schätzli shop up by Sept. 1. I'm still not sure if I'm going to open another shop - like schätzlipatterns or something like that, but I'm deciding. Too much great vintage for one person!! 

Wish me luck and I'll be back with another shop update at the beginning of the fall. 

Ciao!

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! :-)