Tracht & Mehr

One thing I love is a good second hand store. I have my favorites and this last weekend I made a trip to my favorite second hand store in Munich Germany. I love the Dirndl look and the lederhosen, but I would never wear it. I mean, really, you need to be an authentic Bavarian with the right Octoberfest party to go to to wear this stuff.

 

Ok, sigh, truth be told, yes I own a Dirndl. Of course I bought it a second hand store years ago in Stuttgart. it cost me then about 50 US dollars (75 D-marks) and it was mute enough that it did not scream dirndl.  I could wear it as evening wear. It is 100% silk in muted green striped skirt with a simple off white silk top and a green silk jacket. I changed out the buttons on the jacket so it was a much less obvious dirndl and it looked great on me. I have not worn it lately, I need to dig it out and find a good event to go to.

This last weekend I was in Munich. I have not been there in years. Every time I am there I head for a shop near the Rathaus that sells vintage Bavarian/Austrian wear. I love the boiled wool jackets and I have my favorite makers. Geiger is my favorite only because it was the maker of my first jacket. I bought it new in Stuttgart 25 years ago. The poor thing is now thread bare. The cuffs are frayed and it is stretched in areas I did not know boiled wool could stretch. I paid a lot for that jacket and when I bought it, I had really shopped around. I wanted something in a solid color with classic lines. I wanted it to last me for years.

My original jacket was very conservative. It was navy blue with straight patch pockets and the same color navy trim  So now looking for a replacement I wanted the solid lines again, but this time I was open to color. At this store I found two used jackets that fit what I was looking for. Good fortune, but only having room in the suitcase for one of them I tried them both on and made a decision. One was green with red trim, the other was blue with green trim. Both looked good on me but not a surprise, I decided on the Geiger jacket. I just like the way it fit a little better. The price was right, just under 40 euros. More room in the suitcase and both would have made the trip back with me.

Now for the old jacket. I am going to have to do something with it. Maybe a purse. Maybe I will toss it in the wash and see what comes out. Maybe a nice hat! I can't just throw it away, not yet anyway. It might be like Blue Willis and become a stuffed animal. We will see.

So here is my new jacket.

I love the buttons on top

and the asymmetrical pockets as well.

 

It is heavy enough to wear in early winter/ late fall or early Spring. I expect this one too will see lots of wear.

If you are ever in Munich, in the market for, or looking for either a boiled wool coat, a Dirndl or Lederhosen, at least from the high quality used wool coat standpoint, for men and women go to  Wies'n Tracht & Mehr the branch, Rosental 5 am Viktualienmarkt has the vintage/used area in the back of the store. They normally have a good selection of jackets to choose from.

Au Louvre Paris

I  was in Paris for a weekend getaway a couple weeks ago and while walking along the Seine in that area, you know the area where all of the books sellers are set up? One of the sellers was selling vintage woman's magazines. I stopped when I saw a copy of "Le Petit Echo de la Broderie", dated Sunday 18 May, 1913. It quickly became mine. You see, on the cover was this purse:

 

I love filet and this project is just beautiful. Had I picked this magazine up in 1913, by mail order, I could have  bought the filet for 3fr 75, everything for the embroidery for 16fr 05 the pretty closure (Irish crochet) for 0fr 85 and the the fringe with the little balls for 2fr 85 a meter.

 

The fact that one could buy hand knotted filet is a good thing since in many old books the actual making of the filet looks a lot like something rather daunting to make. Much better to know it could be purchased and that it was not uncommon to do so. How uncommon I wondered? I hate it when I don't understand something so research was in order.

I have to back up to a purchase I made several years ago in France. On the packet of lace it says it came from the Grands Magasins du Louvre.

Still later I found a second item, a packet of filet from Au Louvre Paris.  Here is the back of the packet which contained 5 squares of filet. Unlike most things, this one is dated 12 August 1909.

 

On the other side tied to the red cardboard square were the filet. One of them is on the cardboard. Size is about 6 inches square. Too small for this project.

  

The two stores, The Grands Magasins du Louvre and Au Louvre Paris, are they somehow connected? At first I thought that these stores were ones that sell interesting replicated things from the museum of the same name, but why then would they be selling lace? Something did not make sense. Doing a little research, I found out that they are one in the same and that they have nothing to do with the museum. You can read about it here. Much explains now why I have never heard of the store. It went out of business in the 1970s.

 

Recently I came across old catalogs from Au Louvre dated 1930/31. How nice it is now to put a name to many of the things I have found here in France. So back to the Filet. Here it is two ways one could buy in the early 1930s.

 

From experience I know I can cut what I need. The little squares are nice though. In my stash I have large cuts of this hand knotted filet. Not too much of the machine made stuff. As soon as I find a matching thread to work it I will be making something similar to the pattern I found in the 1913 magazine so stay tuned.

 

But while I am here, and while I paged through the catalog, I found some other interesting things. First off, I always thought people bought the religious metals in churches. Here however they are clearly for sale in either a silver color or gold. It is not clear that they are really gold or just gold in color. Price seem to indicate it is the same as what was for sale at the cathedrals.

Also interesting to me were the lace medallions I pick up so often at flea markets they are simply called ovals or squares of what ever lace type they take after. Shown are Venise and Cluny.

 

I have many of these in my stash I use from time to time on different projects. There is so much more in this catalog. I would love to find one from an earlier era, the search is on. Such fun to page through and so disappointing that I can't order anything from the catalog.

Parcours D'Artistes

Last weekend our home participated in something called Parcours  D'Artistes. For the weekend our living room and spare bedroom became an art gallery. We have French friends who became artists after they retired from teaching in the French school system. I met them not long after I arrived in France because of our mutual sewing connections.

I won't say it was easy, furniture had to be moved and the place where visitors would be needed to be was made spotless. For the weekend, Saturday and Sunday from 2pm to 7pm a total of a little over 350 people and two dogs passed through our home looking at art. Now it is your turn so enjoy the pictures.

Welcome from the front door and your view down the hall.

Now to your left is the spare bedroom.

Painting on every wall

The quilt is gorgeous!

Farther down the hall is our "secret passageway", named by a young guest to our home several years ago. It is a sort of narrow hallway that loops the kitchen to the hallway without having to go through the living room.

We snuck in a couple of my pieces in this hallway. With so much wall space, we had a little left unused. The three wall-hangings to the left are mine as well as the orange and green on the right.

Farther down the "Secret Passageway" you can see the mirror. Just beautiful!

Last, but not least is the living room. To the left are these pieces

And some close ups. Have you noticed that I snuck in some of my vintage lace table cloths and doilies? Love the cat.

The picture is a commission piece. it is a beautiful mix of ceramic and fabric mounted on a board. Did I mention the cat?

Turning around to the other side of the entrance are these pieces. The glass table is part of the living room furniture. It was a fantastic match for the hands.

Continuing around the room, the wall facing the fireplace

 

 

A better look at the piece on the left

 

Finally the front view with the windows. In a previous blog you have seen what the view looks like from the windows

 

And the other side of the window

 

Finally to answer the question about the rest of the apartment.

 

Ya, it will be a little work to put it all back, but it was worth it.

 

Now before you go there is one more picture you need to see. French Kittie has a new friend, but not for long. Statue of Liberty kittie was just made as a gift. He makes the trip to NYC soon. Hopefully his new owner likes him and will take good care of him

Linen and lace scarf and the old bed cover

Last week, I was at one of my favorite second hand stores. In the bin of damaged vintage linens was a hand made white cotton filet lace bed cover. Once well loved and used, now relegated to the damaged bin at the second hand store. I love this type of find. Damaged means free license to cut up and repurpose.

For this repurpose, I went to Pinterest and in my "I could make this" folder was this scarf:

The scarf is from a French blog called Petites Choses. Here is the original blog from 2012. I love the look, but pulling off this type of scarf takes the right type of fringe and  vintage lace.

 

Also in the same Pinterest folder is this scarf:

It is from a blog called stylewip, click here to see the original blog post from 2009. Again, the same idea, this time a solid cashmere knit for the scarf with lace used at both ends. This one is beautiful as well and is more do-able from a lace prospectus. At the same time less texturally interesting from the lace point of view than the first one. 

Armed with ideas, it was time to wait for the right lace to fall into my stash. The right type of lace could be those vintage covers they used to put on the back and arms of chairs to keep the dirt off the chair's fabric. Easy to find in US antique shops. the problem is I am not in the United States and evidentially the French made the type to protect where the head hits the chair, but I have never found the part that covers the arms. At the second hand store I found something that would work in the vintage linen damaged bin

 

Now to my scarf... Here was my starting point: On the bottom is the bed cover:

Folded on top of that is a meter of loosely woven linen, I picked up in Paris, in a nice antique light brown color and on top of the linen is a box of threads and yarns I might be able to use.

 

The loosely woven linen would normally be used in curtains but, if washed turns soft and very useable for a scarf. The threads and yards have been bought at various yard sales and flea markets. All different weights of threads in linen, cotton and silk,

 

Now for the construction of the scarf. The width of the scarf is 27 cm (10.5 inches). The width was determined by the repeat size of the pattern of the fringed portion of the bed cover. The length of the filet piece without the fringe is 33cm (13inches) and the linen is one meter long (40 inches). The seam joining the linen and filet is flat felled so that the seam is finished from both sides. The sides were finished with a serger and then turned 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) and top stitched.

Love that #10 foot Edge Foot...but I digress... Talk about easy!

Did I mention the pattern on the edges of the bed cover are butterflies? I love butterflies in lace.

It would be done, except, the original fringe on the scarf edges looked shabby.

I know, I know, shabby chic is in, but this was just too shabby for my taste. It was knotted badly due to many washing and was just plain, well shabby.

I wanted something a little more elegant. Enter in all of those threads in the box. I picked out a variety in colors from white to brown that would blend together.

I even used the warp off of the loose woven linen fabric since it had a nice kinky thread effect.

Blending threads give such texture to any project. Proof of my texture statement is below once the shabby knotted portion was removed and replaced the multiple thread knotted fringe. The shortest fringe is around 8cm (3 inches), the longest is about 11cm (almost 4 inches)

 

So now all that is left is a picture of the final product:

 

I am very much liking this one. Just in case I need some quick gifts, I can make 3 more just like it assuming I have enough threads for the fringe.

 

 

 

The Winner is...and Sharing My Lastest Second Hand Store Finds

First things first, I want to thank Vickie over at 2bagsfull for hosting this event. My number of followers has tripled. I like to hope that I will always have more followers than entries into my blog and now I have enough to last me, at the rate I post, well over 2 years. Thank you all for deciding to follow me. I hope you will not be disappointed in my output. I responded to many of you by going to your blog over the last couple of weeks. Life is very busy right now that when I have time to myself, it is creating something not reading things on line. Please keep commenting and don't feel like I am slighting you by not responding I enjoy reading everything you have to say.

Now for the second item. Random.org has spoken. There were 108 entries and the winner is ... Lynn Cockrell. I will try to contact you, but if for some reason I can not. please email me at jeanga6@gmail.com. I need an address so that your scissors will no longer be naked! 

Through the Grow Your Blog event, I have made the acquaintance of wonderful people who have blogs all over the world. One particularly I am getting the greatest hoot out of reading is the blog from Second Hand Rose.

I love the idea of photographing things in a second hand store. One has to wonder why someone bought some of this stuff the first time let along buying it a second. I could do the same in France. It is the same trash only different in some ways.

 

Last week I had visitors staying with me who wanted to visit one of the stores. Sometimes it is an expensive visit for me, sometimes not. This was an expensive visit. I always head for the room with the old linens, jewelry and funky clothing. Once again I passed up buying the 2 weasels biting each other's tail that is supposed to be worn as a scarf. No picture, sorry, I forgot. One day, one day, I will buy one, just not that day. There is a different one every visit. I think every French family must have one in their attic. What I did spend my Euros on instead was lace bits and vintage rayon ribbon:

 

A beautiful window curtain (bottom) and bed cover(top):

 

The bed cover has a little damage, but it was too pretty to pass and not buy. I had a hard time opening it since it was so musty smelling. I could see the dust rise from it as it was unfolded.  Even the sales lady had a problem when she unfolded it later. A trip in the washing machine and now it is shades lighter and so much better smelling.

In the front room I found a small Limoges trinket box:

 

Limoges as you might know gets the Limoges stamp from the name of the town it is produced not from a particular manufacturer. Just like Champagne having to come from the Champagne region of France, a Limoges item has to come from Limoges.

 

Here is a link to a website where there is a list many of the manufactures and what the stamp looked like from each company with years the stamps were used. I have been through all of the pages looking for my stamp and it is not there.

 

There is one that is close and it fits to what I would expect. The maker may be Louis Constant, Here is his stamp:

I have no signature on my box, but the Limoges France stamp is identical. If it is Louis Constant, I have no further information on him. He was a Décorateur. I could find no years of when his company operated.
 
My box is not of high quality, by any stretch, and was incredibility dirty.  I suppose it was mass produced in some way, although I have a hard time thinking that this church sold that many of them. I fell for the painting on the lid. It is a drawing of the Notre Dame Church in Melun France. It says so on the side of the box:

I have been to this church and this town. I am sure it was sold just like the metal religious trinkets I buy and use for my many sewing projects by the church by its little shop, normally located in a corner inside the church. Since it is a trinket box, it is going to house my church trinkets and whatever else I might have in trinket form that needs a place to reside.

If anyone finds out further information on this box let me know. I would love to try to date it.  If I were to guess, I would put it around 1950 due to the attic storage it must have gone through (aged dirt on it and lack of ease in dirt removal). One never knows. I have never seen boxes like these sold at any of the churches I have been in since moving here to France.

Thanks again for reading and if you are, following my blog.

This week I am linking with We Call it Junkin'

Linen and Lace Scarf

I don't know about you, but I look for inspiration for my projects everywhere. Recently I found two scarves made out of linen and lace on Pinterest. Of course I pinned them. As I was looking through my pictures the other day...

Oh, here they are:

From Lila pain d'épices' blog. I had a heck of a time tracing it back from the picture on Pinterest, I found the blog, but not the scarf. It is there somewhere.

The second inspiration is from Everyday Art design on Etsy and is a scarf made entirely out of  doilies. This one was easy to trace back to the source.

These two pictures made me start to think how I would make this sort of scarf.

I found a selection of linens folded neatly in my sewing room.  I cut them on grain and starched them so that the scarf would not go wonky on me as I was sewing it.

I pulled out of my stash my boxes doilies and lace bits. Here is a picture of what it looks like while I am messing up my sewing area creating. The box is full of lace bits, vintage pieces of lace that are less than a meter (yard) long. The hat box in the back is filled with doilies of all shapes and sizes. It is overflowing right now as I ran into a really good sale on them recently. You can see some of them next to the lace bit box in the dark round hat box.

The scarf construction was basic and pretty straight forward to do. The total length of the scarf when all linen pieces are sewn together is approximately 66 inches. The width was cut to 12 1/2 inches.

I liked the idea of the scarf done by Lili pain d'épices (love it. lili gingerbread,or as close as you can get to gingerbread in France. Yummy with fois gras),  but I wanted something more between the two inspirations. I wanted to use doilies like Everyday Art Design did, but not make the scarf completely out of doilies. Although, looking at that hat box, quite obviously I could.

I sewed the ecru handkerchief linen to the plaid linen at a 45 degree angle. Only having a fat quarter of the polka dot linen, it was cut straight. The seams are all flat felled so that there is no "wrong" side as far as the seams go. Using a serger, All sides of the scarf were then serged, awaiting the finishing of the edge seams.

The flat felled seams needed lace bits to help the transition to the next fabric. The bottom fringe is a little over 4 inch wide. None of the lace pieces are the same in ether size or color except for the "fringe", but even that is a little different at each end, really nothing quite matches adding interest to the overall look.

Now that all the lace bits and fringe were sewn on, it was time to complete the side seams by folding them over one more time and top stitching. Finished width is 12 inches. The lace bits were sewn into the final side seams and trimmed at this point.
Now for the doilies, here is picture of trying out different options:

After trying it on, anything in the ecru linen would not show when the scarf is worn so why waste the doilies?

The doilies were hand sewn on using an 80 wt thread. Finally it was complete and here it is:

Here are two ways it could be worn.

Now, there are two other scarves I found on Pinterest, I want to make something similar...Stay tuned.