a bit of luck

My long overdue grandparents visit finally materialized Tuesday, and to my excitement, was even better than I had hoped! Every time I head to their tiny town, I drive past Arthur's junk store hoping by some miracle he'll be open and never once has it happened. Closed. Closed. Closed. And then...Wait! Last Tuesday was apparently my lucky day as he was finally there and open for business.

In I walked, and headed straight for the fabric I spotted in the far corner. Rummaging through the piles of linens I came across the sweetest little 1940's plisse house dress. Honestly that alone made me feel lucky Arthur happened to be in that day. Little did I know my luck was about to get even better when he actually came up to me and mentioned he had piles of linens in the back room if I'd like to take a look. Boy would I! To make a long story short my mom and I walked into the back room to find a nice little stock of dresses, suits, hats and bags from the 1940's-1980's!

I'm in desperate need of finding creative ways to photograph the goodies I pick up on my shopping excursions. But while I'm doing that, here are two of my favorites from the lot...

The polka dot 1950's cotton dress on the left is just as cute as can be. The photo really doesn't do it justice, especially with it's full pleated skirt. The only thing is, it's been faded in such a random way that it ranges in color from white to blue to green. I was thinking about soaking it in a light bleach bath to even out the color. I'm guessing (hoping) that it will turn a crisp white. I've always been scared to use bleach on vintage fabric as it tends to be quite delicate so any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

The 1940's floral plisse house dress on the right is in such immaculate condition that I still can't believe it. An ankle length, wrap dress from the 40's, seriously how can I not love this? Oh and did I mention it has sash that ties on the side and a dainty pocket at the hip? Washed and ready to wear I'm going to hang on to it a while before I put it up in the shop next Spring.

Okay and because I've already starting photographing and editing a few of the other pieces I picked up, here's a sneak preview. Hopefully I'll have both of these up by tomorrow night!