Two found treasures

I've been busy scraping wallpaper at our "new" building...soooo much wallpaper. With 13' high ceilings, and 100+ years of wallpapering and paint over wallpaper, you can imagine the thickness of what I'm removing. Many of the patterns have been so rich, so colorful, even after all these years. I'm trying my best to get a few pieces to keep, but most of it just falls apart once it's off the wall. I did find this treasure yesterday, though. It was found just as my spirits were a bit diminished by the sweaty, gritty work (it's in the 90s and SO humid here in central Missouri). This was wedged between two layers of paper, on an area that oddly enough was not sticking to the wall anymore. It has a chunk of paint on the back, and a glob on the front, and it did tear (that's my modern tape in the top corner), but for having a date of 1923 on it, it's in good shape.

We don't know what was in our building before the furniture store that occupied it from the post depression to the 80s. Could this label for embroidery floss be a clue? A dry goods shop? Was the wife of the shop owner doing some handywork while waiting for her husband? We may never know!
We also may never know who this fellow was:

This is on the base, bare, plaster layer of the wall. He's been under their for a long time...especially if the embroidery floss gives a clue, as that was on top of two layers of paper already.
Our fellow on the wall was a real surprise as I scraped along. He appears to be in an Edwardian coat and collar. I get an Elvis mixed with Abe Lincoln vibe from him...but then I've been working really hard in the heat.

I plan on putting in a few neat finds for the next folk, maybe some Obama clippings, a few local ads, a nice note. I just love finding treasures!

Who the hell does this lady think she is!?

I'm sorry, but I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to vintage. I'll be the first to say "chop the hem, raise the skirt" IF something had damage down there, and the only way to return it to wearable condition was to repair it. That's just peachy keen with me.
But this gal from Elle magazine has gone too far. She's whacked the bottom off a freakin' DIOR gown, and to add insult, has paired it with a tank top (A TANK TOP!!!!) to make a "dress to wear to a wedding". Now, she does warn against pairing such fine items with such a lowly fabric as cotton. No, she has used a silk and cashmere tank. Well, ok then. As long as you didn't pair it with cotton.

How to make an old evening dress new

A nifty post by a vintage friend

Since I'm so lame at posting blogs lately, I thought I'd pass on a wonderful post by Maggie of Denisebrain Vintage...enjoy!
VINTAGE DENISEBRAIN: Style ideas from my parents

My current project...

Yes, my blogging has been a bit sparse lately, but with good excuse!
When I'm not running Hatfeathers Vintage, I'm working on my other company, doing graphics, printing, and that sort of thing. We've decided to expand, and are renovating an old building downtown to house it.
What are we, nuts!? Yep.
If you'd like to watch the progress of the building renovations, I've made a Flickr set for the progress pics.
Hatfeathers will keep going, and will get more attention once the dust settles (literally). I'll concentrate more on stock than the extraneous stuff like blogs and social sites.
Now, if only I can figure out how to operate at 100% without sleep.

Does this make me weird? Pepsi Throwback...

I'm looking forward to trying this stuff. I have grown up on high fructose corn syrup, Nutrasweet, Aspertame and the like...so this vintage idea of just using sugar, you know, that stuff that comes from the Earth without a lot of science involved, really seems interesting to me. I've heard that the Pepsi in countries like Mexico is still made this way, and is beyond tasty, and very different from our usual American Pepsi. I'm not sure why; why they feel we need the chemical concoctions here.

I remember a fellow from college (fellow art student Steve Banks, hi wherever you are!) who was telling of a trip to somewhere in Mexico. He was parched, and had finally found a place to buy a soda. He reached into a top load cooler and pulled out a Pepsi, the kind in those tall thin glass bottles with the pop top. (that's the noise of impending refreshment, not any of that silly aluminum can opening noise) As he drank, he realized it was the best Pepsi he'd ever had. Was it the cool refreshment in the hot sun? The glass bottle (any soda tasted better in those)? Or was it that natural sugar taste? Who knows, but he remembered that one soda years later, and was prompted to tell the story.

I've recently started just using regular old sugar in my coffee, instead of the Equal/Sweet'n'low stuff, or even the newer stevia extract products. That, plus cutting out some other sweets, has actually helped me curtail some appetite issues..PMS time excepted. I'm more willing to just have my one sweet coffee and move on. It's odd, maybe that real sugar satisfies the need for a sweet and my body can move on without the little voices saying "more, more, I need more of the precious!"

I know the Pepsi Throwback thing is just a gimmick, but I'm willing to give it a try. After all, they're throwing back to some awesome vintage era stuff. Now if they'd only put it in the tall glass bottles...or even the little short ones with the twist top. Ahhhh....

Items of the week...Doin' it Gunne Style

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and these dresses do just that-imitate. Gunne Sax by Jessica McClintock was an extremely popular line of dresses in the mid to late 70s. The style was imitated by other companies and by home seamstresses, as shown by these four dresses currently gracing our "Mid 70s to 80s" section. The hippie boho look is back...so get your Gunne on. Sort of.

Out of hybernation...Vintage thoughts on gardening

Spring is, well, springing up all around the Hatfeathers Vintage studio. The quince bush is in bloom, trees are budding, and the deer have done their annual beheading of the tulips that were planted long ago. There's still a threat of frost in our Midwest location, so the garden tasks are limited...or are they!?

I was inspired by this article from the National Gardening Association's Maggie Oster. She talks about the old idea of a "victory garden". In the WW2 era, the victory garden was simply a family's household garden, planted to extend the family's available foods in time of rationing, and to free the items from farmers for the war effort.
A victory garden could also help families with lots of mouths to feed and little to buy food with.
My husband told the tale of how his Grandmother put tomatoes in everything. A mother of 12 (yes, 12 single-birth babies!), she had to make the family budget stretch 'till it screamed for mercy. How else do you feed 14 on the income of a carpenter? You grow as much as you can in the summer, can it, and feed the family all year on what you grew in those few summer months.
I can guarantee the veggies she grew tasted far and away better than the anemic lettuce and pink gritty tomatoes from the super market.

So what can you be doing now to make your budget stretch? Here's some quick ideas:
1) Start building a garden bed. Clear off any size of yard that you can spare; pull up the sod (grass), amend it with compost, top soil, and shredded leaves. Till or spade-mix it in when the soil is dry enough to not clump, but moist enough to work with. Surround it with cedar or redwood timbers, rocks, plastic edging, or bricks, or just trench deeply around it and mulch heavily to keep grass at bay.

2) Not a square of Earth to spare? Get a few 5 gallon buckets, an old wash tub, or any type of vessel that will hold a foot deep or more of potting soil. You can use old latex (not oil) paint buckets, but you will need to make an extra effort to scrub out ALL the paint, and wash them thoroughly before using. Make sure there are some drainage holes, either by drilling or hammering a nail through the bottom. Fill with quality potting soil-not top soil, as it will turn solid as a rock in a container. I grew more and better tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets than I ever have in the ground. Go figure.
Just put them somewhere that gets a good amount of sun, but won't bake the pots, so on a patch of ground is great, on a slab of cement is less than ideal. If a cement slab is all you have, make sure to perch the buckets on some bricks, so air can flow underneath and cool the soil in the bucket.

3) Start a compost pile. Most city trash pick ups don't allow yard waste. A compost bin or pile is a great way to recycle your clippings and kitchen veggie waste. I highly recommend this site for learning about composting options. I have the one in Figure 3, and regularly harvest several wheelbarrow loads of wonderful black soil for my garden out of it. I also have NEVER had to burn leaves, and NEVER have veggie peels or scraps in my trash. We have 6 100 year old massive maple trees (and several smaller ones) on our lot, which make a lot of leaves in the fall. With my compost bin and mulching mower, I make light work out of fall foliage. My neighbor with 4 trees is still regularly burning leaves even in the spring, and clears the neighborhood of playing kids with the stench. (yes, I am on a soapbox, why?)

4) Install a rain barrel. Catching the water off your roof is a great way to recycle, or at least to keep your water bills down. There are oodles of commercial types available, and there's even a YouTube video on making your own. Rain water is loads better for plants, even if it's a week old, as it is not treated with the chemicals that municipal water supplies get. They don't have much for pressure, so watering far away isn't feasible, unless you like lugging buckets, but for filling the watering can to get to the potted plants around the house, or for the kitchen bed close by the barrel, gravity will give you plenty of help.

You can easily plant spinach, radishes, and lettuces from seeds with little or no skill. Some other veggies require more thought for spacing and depth, but can be done. Every garden center around will soon have starts (pre-planted plants) of anything from tomatoes to cantaloupe, for you to put into your prepared beds or buckets. Even if you spend $3-$5 on a pack of plants, if you get 1 measly pound of veggies from it, you have made back your money. The opportunity to garden with your children is worth your time, as well. It is great to watch their eyes light up when they see the process in motion, and when they realize veggies don't start under fluorescent lights and cellophane. You might also be shocked by what they will try; my son, then age 6, ate the majority of our spinach crop last year, raw and right out of the washing bowl! We'll plant twice as much this year!