Ceil Chapman, 1948

Vintage Ceil Chapman dress:

"Back gathered dinner dress (shades of skirt shapes to come), cut just over the ankle.
Of dark blue twill silk; Ceil Chapman."

Vogue, 1948

Vintage 1940's Hats

Crochet.
Yep, they are crocheted.
Pretty chic too.

Paul Newman

Requiescat in pace et in amore

LOLfatcats

Vintage Handbags

More scans from my calendar:


Classy Bakelite in Contrasting Colors, 1940's



Cheerful summer tote adorned with sequin flowers, Enid Collins, 1960

Vintage Irene Suit

Vogue, 1949

Newsflash

Elite Hillary backer joins the elitist party!
Sorry Baroness Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, but as a "regular person", I really could care less if a "insanely wealthy, titled aristocrat" leaves the Democratic party.
Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Chief and Morning Glories

Here is a new picture of Chief.
Such a big boy, no longer a little kitty.
He has begun venturing out on the back deck and into the yard.


The deck covered with wisteria and morning glories.

Vintage Suit

Lilli Ann, Vogue 1954

No Honor

The Republicans have no problem lying.

That we all know.
This goes beyond the pale.

I am speechless.
At least georgia10 on Daily Kos is not.

Oh, and some asswipe Republican tore the Obama '08 sticker off my car tonight while I was in the fucking WalMart parking lot.
I kid you not.
So.
Pissed.

We Are Not Amused

I promise this will be my final Sarah Palin post.

At least until she talks to real reporters who ask her tough questions.

Rick Davis from the McCain campaign has said:

Rick Davis, campaign manager for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., just told Fox News Channel's Chris Wallace that McCain running mate Gov. Sarah Palin won't subject herself to any tough questions from reporters "until the point in time when she'll be treated with respect and deference." ... "Sarah Palin will have the opportinity to speak to the American people," Davis said. "She will do interviews, but she'll do them on the terms and conditions" the campaign decides.

Sarah, just a little hint, respect needs to be earned and so far honey, you have done nothing to earn mine. Having 5 kids means nothing to me when I know gals who have 7 or more kids and homeschool them all.

And Deference?
Seriously?
Just who the hell does she think she is....the fucking Queen?

Vintage Dress

Givenchy, 1953

Give Em Hell Joe!

Now this is what I'm talking about.

Ugly American

This post on Huffington Post pretty much sums up the way I feel about Sarah Palin, without my meanness.

Many pundits in reviewing her polished performance claim to see an unflappable and gung-ho winner on stage. My honest-to-goodness visceral reaction was quite otherwise. What I saw on that stage was the personification of small-minded smugness, an utter lack of humility, a kind of self-righteous entitlement based on little more than puffed-up narrowness. She struck me not as plucky but, rather, as stunningly immodest--to the point of arrogance. Some people are arrogant and maybe deserve to be. They know it, and flaunt it, while everyone else thinks they are jerks. But there's another kind of arrogance, perhaps harder to spot at first, an arrogance that apparently doesn't even recognize itself as such, a sanctified, self-satisfied presumptuousness that flows from sheer naïveté about oneself and the world and manifests itself in giddy ambition.

Sanctified, small-minded smugness.
Yep, I know this person.

Scary Kitties

I know I should not laugh, but there is something about bobcats taking over an abandoned home just hilarious.

I've Got you Covered

Well, we have just seen the Republicans use 9/11 as a way to get votes with a "9/11 Tribute Video". Why am I not surprised?
Here is your daily dose of reality from Obama to scrub the bullshit of the Republican convention.

Community Organizers

I'm still pissed about the derision that Rudy and Sarah displayed last night.
So in case anyone is wondering what a "community organizer" does here is a Photo History of Community Organizers.


That is a photo of one of my favorite community organizers, Dorothy Day who helped the poor and homeless and promoted social justice. I guess Republicans would call her a communist.

Ugh.

I was pretty appalled by Gov. Palin's speech. She was sarcastic and the speech had a very ugly
tone.

I promise you, every women out there heard who she was. She's the leader of the clique who
was cruel to you while she smiled at you, she is the gal who ran the PTA as her own little
fiefdom and treated like shit because your kid was odd or had problems, she is the petty woman who ruins your reputation or runs another family out of your local church with an ugly smear
campaign all the while smiling at them, she is the gal that gets the town to cancel Halloween and inferrs that those who disagree with her worship Satan.

I get who she is and it is not a person I like.
Just ugh and no.

WTF?

I'm wondering what Republicans have against "community organizers"...besides the fact that they help people...in communities.

I'm Mad As Hell

You know I was willing to be nice about Sarah Palin, but not now.
She represents the party that has trashed this country for the last 8 years and they do not get any more chances to make it right. All she is doing with her speech is piss me off.

So to anyone who says I should be nice to Palin.
I'm not ready to make nice, I'm not ready to back down, I'm still mad as hell....




Oh, and Republican party?
You can kiss my big fat ass.

Barf

I think I just thew up in my mouth.
Rudy scares me...

To help you make it though the bullshit spewing out of Republican's pie holes tonight I give you Bill, enjoy.

More Conservative Bullshit

Via Peggy Noonan on the WSJ.com

blahblahblah can't pick on Palin blahblahblah sexism blahblahblah.
And then this gem:

"For one thing, you assume evangelical Christians will be appalled and left agitated by the circumstances of Mrs. Palin's daughter. But modern American evangelicals are among the last people who'd judge her harshly. It is the left that is about to go crazy with Puritan judgments; it is the right that is about to show what mellow looks like. Religious conservatives know something's wrong with us, that man's a mess. They are not left dazed by the latest applications of this fact. "This just in – there's a lot of sinning going on out there" is not a headline they'd understand to be news.

So the media's going to wait for the Christian right to rise up and condemn Mrs. Palin, and they're not going to do it because it's not their way, and in any case her problems are their problems. Christians lived through the second half of the 20th century, and the first years of the 21st. They weren't immune from the culture, they just eventually broke from it, or came to hold themselves in some ways apart from it. I think the media will explain the lack of condemnation as "Republican loyalty" and "talking points." But that's not what it will be."

I do not know WHAT conservative evangelicals Noonan knows, but the ones around here are the biggest bunch of hypocrites on God's green earth.

They would be savaging this family if they were Democrats.

Fucking hypocrites.

UPDATE:

Noonan on open mic.

Peggy Noonan, I knew you were too smart to buy the bullshit you Republicans are shoveling...

and just let me say I think the Schadenfreude is so good I just want to roll around in it.

"Country First" My Ass

Here, this will help you get over the bullshit the Republicans were shoveling tonight.

Morning Thoughts

GOP platform on abstinence and education

"We renew our call for replacing 'family planning' programs for teens with increased funding
for abstinence education, which teaches abstinence until marriage as the responsible and
expected standard of behavior. Abstinence from sexual activity is the only protection that is
100% effective against out-of-wedlock pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, including
HIV/AIDS when transmitted sexually.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I love Republicans.
If it makes the fundis happy they will stick with a view, even when it is a proven failure that
puts the lives of teens in danger.

Some early morning thoughts:
On a political board I post on a few posters have flounced off over the night, always fun to watch the hissy fits with posters proclaiming "Screw you bitches, I'm outa here!".
I'll miss their special form of crazy.

Palin is obviously a commie traitor. What were the Republicans thinking? They must actually
hate America. Was McCain not wearing his "American" hat when he picked her?

OMG! Will someone PLEASE tell Elizabeth Hasselbeck to STFU? Jesus, that woman is an idiot.
Why does Barbara let her open her pie hole? Oh look, New Kids on the Block are back.
(I turned on the TV to see if we had tornado warnings and there was The View, Joy always
reels me in)

There is a Palin Candidacy Death Watch (With Poll) over on DKos, good times.

Palin is the gift that keeps on giving....if seeing Republicans is a form of entertainment
for you.
It is for me.

Last point.
I wish you could reach though the tv so I could smack Mary Matalin.

Thanks I feel better now.

Troopergate

What can I say.*
Troopergate.

"An internal trooper investigation had found Mr Wooten guilty of several infractions - using a Taser stun gun on his stepson, drinking on duty, threatening his then father-in-law and shooting a moose without a permit, the Anchorage Daily News reported yesterday."

If they all live in mobile homes, in the South**, this would be a Jerry Springer show.

Here, this will take your mind off the fail that is Palin***:




*I can say a whole lot more, but I'm not voting Republican so I could care less if McCain choose a right-wing, anti-choice creationist with the least amount of experience EVAH as his running mate. The fact that she has a vajay means nothing.

**Don't judge me bitches, I live in a mobile home, in the South.

***Yes, yes Michelle is made of awesome.

Turn Off The Talking Heads

If you are watching the Democratic Convention on one of the cable channels you are not getting the whole story.
Please, I beg of you, turn on PBS or C-SPAN to get your convention coverage without the opinion and spin of others.
Also you will see all the speakers and videos, like this on by Speilburgh on our military:


And this one with President Jimmy Carter on New Orleans and Katrina:

Wake Up America!

I'm all about the Democratic convention this week.
Here is Dennis Kucinich 'Wake Up America!'

He's Home!

Mr. Kitty, who has had issues since his near death experience, wandered off almost a week ago.
I have been so sad, crying over the weekend and just moping around.
Tonight, I went to lock the front door before I went to bed.
I looked out "just in case" and he just comes wandering up the steps!

sigh.
I feel very warm and happy right now.

CAKE!

Via a post on Feministing I have just discovered Cake Wrecks where in they make fun of cakes.
Yes, decorated cakes.
"When professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong."

This is the kind of shit you cannot make up.

Cakes for cat lovers:
"I think the baker captured that blank look of mortal terror quite well, don't you?"

"I think I saw this outfit modeled on one of Maury Povich's "Who's the Daddy?" episodes."

More Vintage Lilli Ann

Fabric of France "Bamboo", Marvelous blending of mohair, worsted and silk created by Faques Exclusively for The exciting new Lilli Ann Couturier Dress Collection. Lime, Cognac, Fawn, Blue, Violet, garnished luxuriously with mink flowers....

Fabric-Of-France "Embossed Nuage" Rhinestone studded silk and cotton fabric created exclusively for the exciting new Lilli Ann Couturier Dress Collection. Black and White, Gray and white, Brown and white with dramatic velvet trim.....

Both 1954....

Not sure how I feel about the mink flying monkey thingees (yes I know they call them "mink flowers"...they look like monkeys to me) on that halter though.
Creepy.

Living The Vintage Life

Interesting article on the Daily Mail about a few couples in England who live their lives completely in the past.
Cool.
Who wouldn't want a kitchen like this:


I would LOVE to re-do my house like the one above.
Seriously cool.

I don't even mind that they are housewives who live for the comfort of their hubbies.
That is their beeswax and what was the woman's movement for if not to allow women to make any choice they want?
Except they make the mistake that many do of forgetting that not everything was so good in the good old days.

Remember the good old days?
Without AC? Or computers? Or microwaves? Or chemo? Or polio vaccines?
Remember Jim Crow and "separate but equal".
How about having to get your husband permission to go on birth control?

Life was slower and in someways gentler so I do understand the desire to retreat to a fantasy world, but that is all it is because the world of Andy Griffith and Lucy never really existed.

sigh

Color me disappointed....

Of course if John McCain, who fooled around on his wife and then divorced her for a newer, richer model can run for President, I don't see why Edwards can't at least be Attorney General.

The Cuteness....

Carol over at Dandelion Vintage has a new addition!


and here is a new picture of Chief....


Now everyone say awwwwww.....

Vintage Emma Domb

Coming soon to Damn Good Vintage, this wonderful vintage Emma Domb dress.

Just In Case

Just in case that rat bastard Karl Rove comes to your town and you end up contemplating a citizen's arrest like the 4 folks in Iowa, here is a short lesson on preforming a citizen's arrest from Nathan Robinson.
I'm just saying....

Vintage Ceil Chapman

July, 1954

Bad Boys, Bad Boys

COPS is on TV.
Ya'll, there really is nothing better then drunk ass rednecks trying to explain to the police why they drove their car into "daddy's" front room.
Or yelling at each other...
Or...

Jillian!

The guys over at Project Rungay have put up of a preview of the Fall Collection of Jillian Lewis, one of the finalists from season 4 of Project Runway.
I am in love.
And I'm normally not a gal who goes for the ruffles....
If I was skinny and had the cash I would so love to own all those sweaters and that great coat.

Pat Premo

Pat Premo Dress
1954

Lilli Ann

Here is the whole scan of that Lilli Ann dress below:



Fabric of France Finest pure silk "Embossed Jacquard" created exclusively for the exciting new Lilli Ann couturier dress collection. Copper, gray....dramatized by accents of rich Parisian velvet and Austrian hand-cut jewels....about fifty-five dollars at fine stores or write Lilli Ann, 16th and Harrison, San Francisco or 512 Seventh Ave, NY

Good Foundations

Foundations.
No I am not talking about the kind that holds up a building.
I mean the kind that hold in the tummy and push up the boobs.
Girdles, waist cinchers and "all in ones".

Warner's Merry Widow Ad, Vogue 1954

I am also NOT talking about spanx.

I bring this up because I took a return this week for a dress that fit the customer perfect in the waist, hips and bust. But it was a bit too tight in the underbust area.
I did not ask if the customer was wearing the proper foundation garments or not.
If she had been wearing an all-in-one or a high waist girdle the dress might have fit perfect.

I get the not wanting to wear a girdle, but ladies vintage clothing was constructed to be worn over foundation garments. One of the reasons modern women, even skinny gals have a problem getting vintage dresses to fit properly is our problem with wearing a good girdle.

Yes they can be a bit uncomfortable, but look what some of you wear on your feet...how can a girdle be anymore painful then some of the shoes I see gals wear.
And your choices are not just limited to vintage lingerie.
There are modern foundations online and even at your local WalMart.
Playtex still makes those girdles you can get in a box.

Not as awesome as the offerings at Dollhouse Bettie, but they will still do the job.

Strides have been made in fabrics and components that are more comfortable without losing the control that you need to fit into that vintage wiggle dress you have fallen in love with.


Lilli Ann Embossed Jacquard Dress, Vogue 1954

Word.

More pearls of wisdom from Kim over at The Girl Can't Help It...this time it is birds.

"I hate birds. They're flying disease machines with eyeball-scratchy claws and beaks of pokey torture and just the thought of them flying anywhere near my personal space is enough to make me run for the hills. If the hills were made of Xanax. Am I a mental case? Magic 8 Ball says "it is certain"! Ever notice how sometimes they're ganged up in the parking lot and when you walk past them they don't even flinch, but instead give you the "oh no you DIDN'T" look? They're up to something and probably shouldn't be trusted. Those arrogant flying jerks."

Too much Hitch?
I don't know, but some birds do seem to be up to something.
On the list of creepy things birds are below clowns and fucking dolls, but they are above squirrels and giant badgers.

Watch List: Vintage Pattern

On my watch list:
A favorite vintage silhouette of mine.
Very 30's, so Thin Man. All they need are a couple of martinis in their hands.
Love the 2 sleeves options and look at the back detail on the rear.


Swanky.
The auction for this great vintage pattern ends July 22nd.

In case you did not know that NRA symbol at the right comes from Depression Era legislation called the National Recovery Act. It only lasted from 1933-35 before the act was declared unconstitutional.

Dear God.....

Dear God,
When I am 63 I would like to look like Helen Mirren.
K?
THX

Love Julie

Project Runway 5

So I now have a girl crush on Korto.



She is not one of those tiny hipster designers, has amazing skin, great hair, designed a dress made out of a table cloth that did not NOT look like a tablecloth that almost any woman could wear and be happy in (different color though and without the garnish) AND she lives "outside of Little Rock, Arkansas, where she now resides with her husband and daughter"!

OMG!
I live "outside of Little Rock"......
Also "She is inspired by rich fabrics and textures and says her designs are intended for real, full-figured women."
"Best Fashion advice? Wear your size..."
AMEN!

I'm gonna stop every woman I see with a big 'fro from now on until I meet her.
Word.

I can't wait to see more of what she comes up with this season.

1955 Vintage McCall's Evening Gown

What a pretty vintage pattern:

Auction ends in 4 days.
It reminds me of this vintage prom dress I sold a few years ago: