I finally listed some new items in my www.refinedjunction.etsy.com shop.
Dark suiting wool skirt. Appliqued on the front and accented with polka-dot bias. Fully lined.
Vintage scarfs (all but one are Vera's) in lovely vivid colors.
The one below is sold but I decided to post a picture of it. The theme is quite interesting (knights and castles).
Here is what's going on around here. With a new infant in the house I still manage to find time to craft here and there. But I definately do very poorly with blogging about it. I'll try to do better (at least with posting the pics)!
I am very happy with this blanket that I pieced together from vintage linen, sheets and floral remnants. Very generous size (34"x42"). Suitable for a child, as well as makes a great decoration piece.
These slippers are part of a bridal shower order
They are also available to order. Toscana and green/black linen slippers are available at my shop www.refinedjunction.etsy.com
Hope to be back soon.
It's exciting and sad (because time goes so fast!) at the same time to realize how close the winter holidays are! With the recent move and a baby on the way it has been especially busy around the house. I have to pass on fall decoration this year but pledge to start getting ready for Xmas festivities soon.
In the meantime, I just finished working on several holiday dresses for a wonderful handmade child clothing store in Kirkwood, MO (http://www.lassandladdiehandmade.com/).
They all incorporate vintage linens but the last dress is a special one. Isn't that koala cute? I used a vintage embroidered panel for the front. The panel was a framed wall picture that I dismantled for this purposes. I regret I didn't take any pictures of it in its BEFORE state. Here are the embroidery details:
I found two small crewel embroidered pillows some time ago.
At first, I wanted to make bags from them. But they ended up being upcycled into dresses. This is one of the dresses (still working on the second one).
I combined them with light-weight Italian wool and lined the skirt.
And a quick update on the recent finds:
1) Hand-painted plate by Vera; lady bug logo on the back. I think those are plums but not sure.
2). Several pieces of vintage fabric.
Moving is still in progress and my sewing gear is resting peacefully inside big banana boxes recycled from a local grocery store. My husband makes jokes on the issue of us turning into "chiquita banana" guys.
Although moving to a new place is very exciting, I do not enjoy the surrounding packing mess and REALLY REALLY miss my sewing! To cheer myself up I looked through my craft pictures today. I found several pictures that somehow got lost among numerous images on my computer.
Here is the top I made for myself some time ago. The fabric comes from a vintage curtain and didn't happen to be the best choice for this model. That was the first time I used that pattern and, as I realize now, lighter-weight fabric would be a better fit for the project.
By the way, I've never seen blue roses in real life. Have you?
Also, shot of vintage scarfs (two of them are Vera) that I was trying to restyle into something useful. The project had never been finished but I got a pretty good idea what I was going to do with the left bottom one (the largest). Cannot wait to put it into works!
And here goes a cheerful vintage sheet, along with fruity tablecloth and geometric napkins:
The new tablecloth dress is available at my clothing shop for women (www.refinedjunction.etsy.com).
The front is a former vintage tablecloth hand-embroidered with grape wines (cross-stitch on linen). The dress is size small-medium, comes with a sash and is fully lined.
This is the second adult-size dress I made from embroidered tablecloth and I really like the result. Here is the first one:
Photography (the above model picture) is courtesy of wonderful Jessica with the Ordinary Morning Photography. I love her web site http://www.ordinarymorningphotography.com. You can also find her on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/omphotography/.
Last week we took a road trip to Key West that is an amazing place to visit this time of year. Trees and flowers are in full bloom; the whole island is fresh and green due to recent rains (the weather was bright and shiny, by the way). It's a low season now, "snow birds" are back to their upstate homes, and the island is not overcrowded with tourists.
Sadly enough, many businesses are closing down due to the economy. Including Key West Handprint Fabrics, a company that opened its doors in 1961. Fabric patterns were created by local artists and, at first, you could see the fabrics being printed right there, at the store on Green Street.
Here is one of their earlier fabric prints:
I listed these new sunny dresses at my shop today (www.creativebabies.etsy.com).
They are all made of wonderful vintage textiles and would be so perfect for a sunny day!
Finally, I found a good alternative to the nasty plastic shoe boxes I used for storing my lace, ribbons, bias tape, etc.
This basket happened to be just the right size to fit all the trims I have. I spent good couple of hours getting together all my supplies scattered all over the house. Now they are organized and stored in style!
This circus dress was also finished over the weekend. I love the unusual vintage print of the front fabric. This dress is the last of this kind; made in size 5T; and is available at my Etsy store www.creativebabies.etsy.com
After a few weeks of total silence I am finally ready to post about this blanket throw I made as a gift for my parents.
I used an outdated wool blanket with a satin binding. Removing the binding usually exposes some seriously noticeable machine stitching that you can creatively mask with simple running stitch or cross-stitch embroidery.
It's so easy to run even stitches at this point since all the marking has been already conveniently done for you by a machine. 
Rose applique was cut out from wool sweater scraps:
I always back my throw blankets with soft cotton (and machine-tie the layers consequently) since I mind that itchy-scratchy feeling you get when wool touches the skin.
As a child I was fascinated with the Wizard of Oz. I read and re-read it several times! I was jumping through the roof when I found a vintage pillowcase themed after that book! The pillowcase has definately seen better days as evidenced by its faded colors and some tears.
Some parts of that aging treasure (hey, it's still young at heart!) were used to make tote bags:
The leftover was used to make this blanket:
Came out to be very unique!
The blanket is 36"x36" in size and will be available at my shop tomorrow (www.creativebabies.etsy.com)
