In which the prodigal returns. Also, a sale...

This is Eliot.

(He's one of Zelda's offspring, formally known as "Eliot, Son of Cheeky Bastard")  Sometime around early August, i made young Eliot an appointment with the vet, through the nice folks at Spay Today.  And he promptly disappeared.  They let me reschedule his appointment a couple times, but when i still couldn't find him, i went ahead and applied that credit toward getting Zelda spayed, which definitely needed to be done.  The kittens are adorable, of course, but there are only so many suckers in my circle of friends willing to adopt them.

Last night, Eliot turned up on the porch, meowing to be let in, as though nothing had intervened over the four months or so he's been missing.  He's friendly, rumbly, affectionate, and apparently healthy.  (He's also still terrible about hopping onto the kitchen counter, alas...)

But having used his appointment for Zelda, i now need to come up with more money to get Eliot neutered, and quickly.  And that's where the "Get Eliot Fixed" sale comes in: buy two or more items from Fripperie, enter "Eliot" in the message to seller section, and i'll refund 20% of the price of your items, now through November 21, 2010 (refund via PayPal - if you're not paying with PayPal, convo me first, and i'll set up a reserved listing for you, with the adjusted price).  Stop by the shop and see if there's anything you can't resist...

How did i get myself into this mess?

So, CREST - the Capital Region Etsy Street Team - is having a blog hop, with team members talking about how they got into their craft.  I don't sell handmade items in my shop (though i make lots of them), but there's still a lot of knowledge - even craft - that goes into seeking out, researching, and describing vintage patterns.  It's been an unlikely sort of path to get here...

My mother tried valiantly to teach me to sew.  And despite my resistance, i'd learned some of the bare essentials: to lay out and cut a pattern, thread a sewing machine (though as a kid, i was strictly forbidden to touch the tension knob...), do some basic handsewing and embroidery, how to shop at a fabric store.  But i really didn't want to sew.  After all, i figured i could get Mom to do it.  It wasn't until i got to college and started playing with living history - i ended up interning for the costume director at Jamestown Settlement - and i realized that even if i could find the garments i wanted, i couldn't afford to pay anyone to make them.  Mom was inconveniently far away, and not really interested in the research angle.  But how hard could it be to sew them myself?

Approximately the third garment i ever stitched was a reconstruction based on an archaeological report: no pattern, lots of grading, measurement conversion, the works.  Definitely the trial-by-fire approach.  Not, perhaps, sensible - and probably not what i'd recommend to others - but very, very educational.

A college roommate had a 1950s dress pattern.  It seemed a curiosity.  It wasn't until several years later (when i was working at G Street Fabrics) that i met a vintage pattern collector.  G Street was itself a fabulous education in textiles and sewing of all sorts, and i was by then deeply interested in costume history, but mostly earlier stuff - 19th century seemed late to me, let alone anything recent enough to be called "vintage."  It wasn't until i got back into dancing that i got interested in vintage clothing.  I made a deal with a friend that i would go to dance swing and ballroom with him, if he would go and dance English Country (think of all those set dances in Jane Austen flicks) with me.  Before i knew it, i was out shopping for vintage dresses to wear to dances.  But i'm not small, and dresses aren't cheap.  It was back to sewing, and my own serious and growing addiction to vintage patterns...

Want to check out other team members' stories?  Follow the links below:
Sandi Volpe Designs
Birch Tree Jewelry
Sew Artsy
Collage and Clover
{Life as we live it}
The Twisted Cow
Turquoise Angels
Crazy Mokes
The Dragon Nthly
The Planet Geek Chronicles
Of Cats and Crafts
RAM Jewelry Designs

Old fashioned

It's hard to argue with a good pound cake.  And this weekend, at a bake sale at the Friends' meetinghouse, i got a good pound cake.  Which, happily, had a photocopied recipe taped to the top:

Grandmother's Pound Cake
Use an electric mixer for superior cake.  Pound cake improves if stored a day or two.  Butter is its characteristic flavor, but you may like to add 1/2 teaspoon mace, or 2 tablespoons brandy or orange juice, or 1 tablespoon caraway seeds, or 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Butter and flour a large loaf pan or two or more small ones.  Set the oven at 300F.

Cream until light and fluffy
     1 cup butter
     1-2/3 cups sugar
Beat in, one at a time
     5 eggs
When creamy, fold in
     2 cups pastry or cake flour
     1/4 teaspoon salt
Spoon into the pan.

Bake about 1-1/2 hours.

Ginger Pound Cake.  Add 2 tablespoons yellow ginger to the mixture.

Imperial Cake.  Cut 1/2 pound seeded raisins in pieces and dredge lightly with flour.  Break 1/2 cup walnut meats in pieces.  Grate the rind of 1/2 lemon.  Prepare the cake batter and add 2 teaspoons lemon juice.  Fold in the raisins, nuts and lemon rind, and bake.

For the record, the one i got had caraway seeds, and i don't think that's a version i'll repeat - the rye bread association is just too ingrained.  Now, poppy seeds, with lemon, perhaps... or a hint of maple, maybe with the orange juice and vanilla... i can see lots of other variations.     

Matchless

I picked up this hat some months back, visions of Easter bonnets dancing in my head.  And then i found that i had a heck of a time finding anything to pair with it: it's a straw hat, which says "casual" - but then it's trimmed with Guipure lace and hefty rhinestones, both of which say "dressy."

I'm currently leaning toward something fit-and-flare, made up in a cotton, perhaps a plain sateen, or a tiny floral print on a nice lawn.  Dress trimming might involve lace and/or rhinestones - i recently saw a '50s dress in a casual print trimmed with rhinestones (can't for the life of me find a link to the blog post now, of course), which almost has me convinced, and i'm not generally a fan of rhinestones.  I thought about pintucks, but the lace motif is so swirly, i'm not sure the strong straight lines of pintucks wouldn't fight with it.

It plainly needs some remedial steaming, and unfortunately, it looks like the veiling is past saving, and will need to be replaced - i'm holding out for silk veiling.

So what would you match with this hat?  Bonus points for sharing good sources for silk hat veiling!

Mmm, pancakes

After chatting on Twitter about canning, the delightful SarahAnntiques and i decided that it would be fun (though not, perhaps, economical...) to exchange jars of things we had put up.  Jams and jellies were swapped, and in the back-and-forth, we mused that some of the lovely, sweet-tart, fruity goodness would be simply brilliant on pancakes.

I have - from my mother, who got it from the mother of a friend of hers, many years ago - an obscenely buttery pancake recipe.  After testing it out, Sarah insisted i publish it here, for your breakfasting (or dining) pleasure:

Griddle Cakes

1¼ c. sifted flour
2½ tsp. baking powder
3 T. sugar
¾ tsp. salt
3 T. butter, melted
1 egg, beaten
¾ c. milk

Sift together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Combine egg, milk, and melted butter and add to dry ingredients all at once, beating with a spoon or mixer until smooth. Drop batter from a tablespoon onto a hot griddle (375°F for electric griddle). Cook on one side until puffed and full of bubbles that break, then turn and cook on the other side. Makes about 11 four-inch cakes.

Okay, that's the recipe as i got it. Disclaimer time: you will need more milk than it calls for. I generally add a splash at a time to keep the batter at the right consistency as i cook. And “smooth” is a relative term – you may still have tiny flour clumps, and that's fine, they'll sort themselves out. I usually make a double batch and freeze some, as they take it surprisingly well.

So pick your jam (thin ones are best for pancakes!) or syrup (don't even think about anything that uses the word "flavored" - this demands the real stuff), and sit down to a steaming stack of pancakes.  You can thank us later - wouldn't want the pancakes to get cold.

The ones i'm keeping

Picked up a little lot of four patterns recently, and found, to my delight, that all three of the adult patterns included were larger sizes.  The '60s Vogue dress and the cute little girls' skirt, jumper, and blouse will both be headed to the shop, but these two Advance patterns will be staying:

The one on the left, 3001, is from about 1942, and the housecoat on the right, from 1950.  Both patterns have a 40" bust!  And oh, the pockets on them!

If you've been waiting...

...now would be a good time to stop by Fripperie and take a look at the vintage patterns, sewing books, and notions: it's been a year since the very first listings were posted at the shop, so i'm having a sale!  If you enter the code "1YEAR" in the "message to seller" box, i'll take 10% off your entire order.  This sale lasts through September 12, 2010 - shop early and often!