Amber Dusick

sewing from a pattern from the year I was born

I love vintage sewing patterns because I always have this image in my mind of the perfect vintage something and I can't actually find the item.  I'm always dreaming up 70s era tunic tops but most of the ones that exist are polyester, which feels icky and hot in summer.

I got this 1977 McCall's 5565 from Etsy seller Picky Pat Basket a few weeks ago because it is made for stretch fabrics.  And I could make my dream shirt a reality, and with cotton jersey.  

By the way, if you are planning to shop vintage patterns, take note of the measurements.  Sizing was different 30 years ago, a vintage size 12 is more like a modern size 6.  Etsy is a great source for vintage patterns, I can (and do) spend hours sifting through them.

I skipped the belt for now.  I also didn't even bother to finish the bottom or the sleeve egdes, I'm just going to leave them raw.  The fabric trim is vintage and I've been holding on to it for years.  (PS - those little dark dots aren't stains on the shirt, they are water drops from my wet hair.)

My sewing as usual isn't perfect, but I'm pretty happy with this particular shirt.  I'm slowly learning to sew stretchy knit fabrics and get comfortable with it.  Not sure why I was afraid of it for so long!  Considering that cotton jersey is all I want to wear most of the year when it is hot I think I'll be doing more of it.  

Now I just need to find more patterns... 

 

 

 

quilty

I realized I had better post about this before it gets all summery and nobody wants to hear about quilts.  This vintage quilt came into my life in a very sweet way and I've been meaning to share.  

So a long time ago (at least a year ago now) I get an email from someone wanting to trade me a vintage quilt with a hole in it for some woodmouse stuff.  I first thought she must be crazy.  I hadn't ever had a request like this before.  Artist to artist trades sure, but never someone who wanted to trade a random vintage thing.  What do I want with a vintage quilt that needs mending?  I looked at the pretty pictures she sent and then told her no thanks. 

Followed by me looking at the quilt pictures over and over.  Couldn't get it out of my head.  So I eventually said yes.  She knew me too well.  

  
Once in my house it sat upstairs waiting to be mended.  For a year.  Until this winter, I finally fixed it up and it now lives on the sofa where there was no blanket before.  

The thing that amazes me is how much this quilt has changed the entire room and our use of it.  Both my husband and I have taken naps on this couch, something we never did, pre-quilt.  It is in a room with our fireplace and we've all enjoyed the coziness in that room so much more.  It is not that we don't have blankets in the closet we could have dragged out and used, but this blanket now belongs in that room.  My mom and grandmother always had special blankets that lived on their sofas and now I understand it.

And of course the cat has a new favorite spot.   

 

 

 

the locket

I've always wanted a locket, ever since I was a little girl.  Probably every girl who grew up in the 80s did, thanks to the movie Annie.  I didn't want just any old locket though.  I wanted a special one or one with a story or a very old one or one that was given to me or....something.  

I found it.  

Here is the thing.  I don't wear much jewelry.  Except the lovely ring that I nearly lost forever and my red glass signature necklace I don't wear anything regularly.  I'm being very careful about what I purchase and what I bring into my home this year.  I didn't need a locket.  I certainly didn't need to buy myself jewelry!  What about being frugal?  What about not spending money on things I don't need?  It is only January February and already I'm buying something frivolous?    

Well, sometimes it feels good to break the rules.  Especially when a sterling locket made in 1895 with original monochrome photos is involved.

No, I don't know who they are.  Or most likely, were.  I do know that I am keeping their photos together and saving them respectfully.  Yes, I did indeed pop them out of the locket to put my own photos inside.  Most people react with horror when I tell them this part.  I thought about this for a long time and I realized that the worst thing would be for the locket to sit in a box untouched and unused.  Much better for me to use the locket and appreciate it.  I'm just not that type of person.  I don't buy things just for the sake of owning something, I buy things to use them and find joy in their use.  So I put tiny photos of my two boys in it and it is the "mama" jewelry I never knew I wanted.

So I've been wearing it with my red glass one and so glad I bent the "only buy stuff I truly need" rules.  Oh, and yet another tunic photo!  This one is actually a vintage smock though and I bought it many moons ago.  

We're just heading out of a cold/flu cycle in our house (as his grumpy little face shows) so I'll be back soon when I'm all caught up.  Um, if that ever happens.  

 

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Was it horrible to have taken the photos out of the locket?  What would you have done?  

 

 

 

 

for the love of tunics

I've been into a tunic thing this winter (when I bother to actually, you know, get dressed) and this vintage one is my favorite now.  It all started when I sewed this one.       

I love that folksy print and the covered buttons.  

You can see my standard lazy long hairstyle here in that first pic, just tied in a knot while still wet.  I don't even bother with pony tail holders lately.  Been getting those urges to cut it, this was the last time it was cut!  I have two hairstyles: long and cut at an angled bob.  This has been going on for 17 years.  Yawn.  Not sure what I'll do if anything.  Suggestions welcome.  

 

on being thoughtful at estate sales

 

 

This Sunday there was an estate sale down the street and I stopped in.  I have a love/hate relationship with estate sales.  I love them because I'm a naturally curious person and I love to wander in a house room by room and look at their stuff and imagine how they lived.  I hate them because it is sad to wander in a house room by room and look at their stuff and how they lived.  Lived being the operative word here.  Estate sales always mean someone died.  They mean that someone died and nobody wants their stuff and that I'm getting the very last glimpse of their home the way it was.  The way they carefully decorated it.  I think about where the items came from and how the stories behind them are now lost.  Now they are just things again.  I guess they always were. 

Still, I always wander carefully and usually don't touch much.  Other people are madly digging through the cupboards, carelessly tossing stuff aside, making a chaotic mess and bargaining loudly.  They are like rabid hyenas.  I just can't do it that way.  It is almost as if I wander through waiting for an object to tell me "it is okay for you to take me home" or something.  I have to really love something, it has to really be meant for me.  I need a sign.

At this particular sale the old man was there, sitting in a chair watching people dig through his home.  His wife died and he was moving to a home.  There were professional estate sale staff running the show and handling questions, he was merely watching.

I had a five dollar bill and that was all.  Not that I expected to find anything for that amount, estate sales in Los Angeles are not known for being cheap and I almost never find anything at them anyway so I didn't come prepared.  However, on the stove amidst all kinds of other junk was this happy yellow and aqua earthenware dish.  Well worn, well loved.  And it was five bucks.

Not only was it the exact amount I had...but look how it matches the color of our house and the bench on our front porch!  Meant to be, I think.  It was also the cheapest thing at the sale.  The estate pricers must have thought it was a chippy piece of junk.  Everything else in the house was pretty pristine and mostly Victorian in style so I can't help but thing there must be some reason they kept this old dish all those years.  Only I don't know the reason.  Maybe it made her just as happy to look at it as it now makes me.  We'll go with that.  

 

 

Do you go to in house estate sales?  Are you sentimental at them like me?     

 

 

 

Scroll Saw Geekiness

To make a long story short, we toured this 1885 home and carriage house recently at the Los Angeles Arboretum.  I'll spare you the part where I drooled over the red and white and aqua details:

And the part where I realized that where they kept the horses is much more beautiful than my dining room:

Because in the carriage house I spotted this:

Oh, be still my heart!  A pedal operated scroll saw from 1876.  For the confused, I use a scroll saw to make my wooden toys.  Oh how I wish I could see the things that were made with it.  And I daydream about trying it out.  Think how even more eco-friendly my toys would be if I cut them this way?  Nah.        

I love looking at old houses.  I think I could look at old houses for a living if such a thing existed.  No, I don't want to photograph them or write about them or do any actual work.  I just want to wander through them and daydream.  Is that a job?   

can you guess?

What does...

this skirt by LovetoKnowYou

this strap by moxieandoliver

and this vintage engraving from bananastrudel mean?

Other than that I've been drooling over all three of course.  Is it that I'm taking a trip to Eastern Europe?  Is it that I love the color brown?  Is it that I secretly want to be a gypsy wanderer?  Something else?

I'll tell you one thing that I do know.  You are never too old to try something new.  Never too old to learn.  You are never too old to change.  Often, the person you want to be was there the whole time, you just haven't been properly introduced.  It is up to you to make that introduction.  No matter how awkward it might be at first. 

 

romantic dinner in a 25 cent dress

We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary this week (which we celebrate in addition to the day we met) and we went out to dinner.  A date, just the two of us!

So I got this sheer little dress in Wisconsin at a country thrift store, one of those ones that are so cheap they have a "$5 for a bag of clothes" deal every day.  I stuffed so many vintage goodies in that bag that this dress cost me about 25 cents. 

I have a secret about this unique belt that came with the dress.  I took it off during dinner and stashed it in my purse.  It was an eight course dinner!  Yes, that is the kind of gal I am, I'd much rather make room to enjoy the food than look fashionable.  My husband teased me about it, threatening to take his pants off at dinner to get comfy.  He didn't. 

Without a baby on my hip I was able to wear heels.  I love these shoes.  They are one part sexy and one part retro housewifey.  Like me.

My charm bracelet made an appearance also.  It is fun to look at them and remember what trips the charms are from or who gave them to me. 

The hidden in the mountains restaurant (Saddle Peak Lodge) we ate at has been there for over 100 years.  Clark Gable use to eat there as well as a slew of "old Hollywood" stars.  And of course it is haunted.  It was filled with all sorts of collections too.  Spoon collections and old books!  Walls and walls of books.  Swoon.

Such a treat to have a date.

 

ice cream trucks. happiness on wheels.

Ice cream trucks are magic.  Pure magic.  Think about it, they slowly drive around randomly through neighborhoods with a truck filled with ice cream and other frozen novelties.  They bring it to you.  It is one of the last remaining services that come to you.  Plus, it is ice cream we're talking about here.  Not door to door vacuum or encyclopedia salesmen.  Ice cream!  It finds you!  Tell me there isn't something magical about that. 

A happy tinkling melody carried by the breeze through the trees...is it?  Could it be?  Yes!  You hear it and pause for a second and listen intently.  Is is coming this way?  Up my street?  

A dash for cash and then run out the front door as fast as you can and line up.

 

Enjoy your treats in the yard, racing the sun who is trying to melt them.  "Wanna play hide and seek later?"  

Then the ice cream truck moves on, bringing happiness to the next bunch of kids.  

Please, let there always be ice cream trucks for each new generation.

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PS - I heard one wind through our neighborhood as I was painting this truck.  Not kidding.   This sounds almost too precious but honest, it happened.  I didn't however try to catch it - I was too engrossed in toy making and didn't have cash anyway.  I really hope I didn't disturb some ice cream truck karma balance and that it comes back my way again soon.  Next time I'll be ready.

(I'm keeping this set.  I cannot possibly let it leave my house.  However, I did make another one for the shop.)      

Woodmouse Circus

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Step Right Up!  You won't believe your eyes!  A menagerie of spectacular animal feats!"

I love the circus, actually the idea of the circus.  A vintage circus anyway.  And the circuses of my childhood.  I love the history of them especially and the vintage advertising for them.  

I grew up just outside of Baraboo, Wisconsin which is home to the Circus World Museum...the largest collection of circus artifacts in the world.  It is also the birthplace of the Ringling Brothers Circus (who later bought Barnum & Bailey) so the circus is close to heart and home.  I even knew some professional circus folk, a whole family of stilt walkers.  I like to pretend that somewhere in my family tree there are a few trapeze artists hiding but I don't think that is true.

(UPDATE: Upon talking with my father in law, it turns out that my husband has a great great + uncle who was Harry Houdini's assistant for many years. I've grafted myself onto their tree thanks to marriage.  So I can claim this, right?)         

Meet the woodmouse circus folk:

Clown.  I was a little hesitant to make a clown as so many people are creeped out by them.  I think he turned out pretty innocent and non-scary.

Lion.  I'm smitten with the lion.  I think he is my favorite of them all. 

Circus seal with stand and ball.  In first grade my class performed a circus play and I was a seal.  I had to wear all black and squirm around on the floor with a ball.  I remember being terribly nervous.

Dancing circus bear with a ball.  I have had recurring dreams about bears my entire life.  Maybe there was a bear trainer in my family tree?  Nah.   

Circus elephant.  The first (and only) time I rode an elephant I cried.  It was at the Circus World Museum actually.  I was a child and the elephant was stinky.  Then I felt bad for knowing that he was stinky and plus I was scared.  And excited too because I really wanted to ride him.  So I cried and cried because that is what you do when you are four and can't make sense of things. 

And of course it all takes place in a big top tent!  I secretly wish I could paint our house like this, but it would just look like it was being fumigated.  I think it is odd how they make those tents looks like happy stripey tents...doesn't that attract children to them?  We have termites in this climate so we see tented houses often around here.  

Finally, I have to take this opportunity to share one of my most precious articles of clothing.  My vintage Baraboo Circus Parade shirt.  From 1980.  That I've owned since 1980 when I attended the first ever circus parade there.  I had a red one that actually fit me too.  I wore this shirt like a dress back then as pajamas as I was just a wee thing.  It is one of two articles of clothing that I still have and wear from childhood. 

Enjoy the show!    

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PS, Maya is doing an at home circus theme right now go check it out!