The "Vintage Dress Form" is a beauty~!

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat...

Known suffering...

Known struggle...

Known loss...

And have found their way out of the depths...

These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion...

Gentleness...

And a deep loving concern...

Beautiful people do not just happen...

~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross~

This is one of the funnest redo's I have ever done...

It started last Saturday with this blog post: The Vintage Dress Form Redo...

And, now "Betty" is gorgeously dressed~!

Granted, it took me a bit to figure out how I would drape material over "Betty"... my vintage dress form, but once I figured a plan, it was fun to run with it...

I didn't want to glue anything to her, or make anything permanently attached. I just used a basic, large, tight piece of elastic around her waist and everything is tucked and safety pinned to the elastic. 

It took a lot of safety pins, but she was fun to play with. The bottom rouched, long skirt is one of the old, thick, vintage sheets from the purple room that I cleaned last week. Lace was hanging too straight and I wanted pillowy, blouncy, poofy. The sheet worked out perfect...

The next layer is a piece of vintage lace I picked up at the antique shop for $4. It had a big hole in it I stitched up and then, I coffee dyed it this morning to get a deep, rich, color.

Then, there is a piece of thick, see through material ~ I am clueless what it is called - a Walmart clearance rack purchase for $2 a couple weeks ago...

On top of that is an old, damaged, long doily. There is a wide piece of coffee dyed lace wrapped around the waist and tied in the back, to hide the elastic.

She is wearing a set of my avon jewlry from many, many, moons ago. I pinned the matching earrings into the skirt. She also has a vintage 'estee lauder' locket and 2 cameos from a clearance bin at Walmart for $0.25 each.

She also has a few vintage doily's pinned in, here and there and a doily around her neck...

Someday, she'll have a big, black ball at the top of her, it's just convincing the 'Man-Child' to weld me one, to a piece of rebar ~ of course it's a 'female thing'...

I can just see her wearing purple, crushed velvet attire soon~!

"No matter how plain a woman may be,

if truth and honesty are written across her face,

she will be beautiful~!"

~Eleanor Roosevelt~

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"Betty" ~ the Vintage Dress Form...

Is currently undergoing a DIY redo in my living room while I'm drinking coffee and watching Netflix, with a paintbrush in my hand...

Do you remember "Betty" ? 

The 'Betty" vintage dress form that I drug home this Spring in this blog post:

 "Vintage, antique & Vintage... "

Well, the 'vintage' blue material on her never matched anything in my home. Much less the "The Purple Passion Set..."  in the room where she'll someday reside, so she's being transformed~!

First, I cut all of the vintage blue fabric off of her, to get down to the bones...
She is a 'pressed paper' adjustable, vintage form, so it was a bit tedious stripping her down and cutting around all of the buttons on her that are used to adjust her. It took me hours ~ no sense lying. But, it was worth it~!

Once the vintage blue material was off, I knew if I decoupaged her, she would pass for a wood manequin from a distance ~ an illusion is what I am creating...

I printed off a bunch of old, french perfume labels to add some bling to her... It was a 'sticky mess' Mod Podg'ing them all on her neck ~ I initially intended to do the whole form in vintage french labels, but it was taking me hours to cut them all out and once the neck of the form was done, I was fearful she would look 'too busy' if I done that on the whole form... 

Then, I got a really great idea and started digging through some of 'Julia Burket's old papers.  

(Julia is the lady that owned the house before me that left all the old, Russian, journals in here from the early 1900's...)

And, I found an old, composition notebook that the mice ate a corner off of. It was her notes book from when she went to cosmetology school in 1942. It was the perfect, light weight paper to decoupage with. So, I used the cosmetology notebook to finish Betty!

I added a few of the french perfume labels to the bottom, to tie it all together...

(Yes, the Mod Podge is still wet in the pic... I have no patience...)

Then, I used some acrylic paint to shade around the 'bling' on the skirt, to give it a deep, rich, look...

I wrote the story on her right hip of how she lost her blue, vintage, clothes and came to be decoupaged. And, the story about using the old, 1942, cosmetology notes on her bodice ~

 And, Mod Podged over it to seal it...

(How do you like my help there on the right, on his back watching the progress...)

And then, she got 'Antiqued,' to make her look old...

Once she was completely dry, I sealed her again to add even another layer of depth, with some 'Instant Age Varnish' and soon, she'll get a new skirt. A skirt with a big bustle of course. I think she needs a big bum...

Of course it will be 'Lace Crazy'~!

I'll update soon, on the re'do of "Betty..." 

So, check back to see her full transformation~!

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Vintage, antique & vintage... Oh my heart melts...

I want to share a few 'recent' acquisitions...
Everything new to me is an 'acquisition~ I don't know why?

My dearest friend on the planet sent me this GORGEOUS crocheted table cloth one day in an 'if it fits, it ships' package from Wisconsin. It had some other trinkets in the box I need to photograph and share!

This was given to her on her wedding day and stayed stored away, until she found out about my obsession with lace and all things delicately~crocheted and well, I squealed a little when I opened the box...
It now resides in my bedroom, draped over the side of the "Ooohh, la, la chair"...

And, those cute little French boxes, acquired not long ago because I couldn't resist~!

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Then, there's this little find ~~~

This is an 1880's celludoid, antique photo album, complete with the old, old, pictures~!

It looks beautiful on my dresser... It was a trade, so it didn't cost me anything and I am proud to own this piece of history. I just wished I knew who the pics belonged to. I'm sure their ancestors would love to have them...

Very intricately made -
So intricate and fragile from age that the left side of the floral is missing. But, a treasure nonetheless...

The clasp is just beautiful ~ You don't find things made like this very often 

The velvet is in rough shape on the back, but she is old & that just adds to her charm...

The album is full of pictures ~ here's a little taste~!

(I've never seen one with a collage like this one ~ very unique!)

I think the photo of the children is my favorite...

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And then, there is this sweet little number ~ complete with the "Shabby Shawl"...

~A vintage dress form~

My better half calls her "Betty"

(I think she needs a lace corset)

She was part of a "trade" of good also, so she didn't cost me anything -

She'll reside in one of the bedrooms upstairs, or in a future sewing room someday...