sunday dress

1940s crochet lace dress, vintage straw tote - Flea market
Vintage metallic gold shoes - Nashville vintage shop

This weekend during my monthly visit to the Tennessee flea market with Lauren, we ran into a woman who had this dress hanging in her booth.. an old discolored dress with a crochet lace bodice and tiered crinkled cotton and lace skirt stretching to the ground, all in a mismatched shade of antique white. The seller told us a story of traveling through Ohio in search of estate sales and buying this dress from a man whose mother had worn it in celebration of her wedding in the 1940s. On an impulse, I bought it along with this straw tote from a vintage leather vendor, a mid-century matador print, some sewing patterns, and a pair of cut geode bookends.

I soaked the dress in the bathtub overnight (using Oxyclean and Dr. Bronner's soap) and dried it in the sun outside. When finished, it had turned into the most pristine shade of white.




I love this dress, but I'm not certain that I'll keep it for myself. Watching it transform into snowy white in the wash reminded me what a beautiful wedding dress it would make, and it'd be great to see it used as such by someone else.. maybe I'll sell it? When I bought it I was convinced of dyeing it to a tea shade or maybe black, but now I don't think I could.

Belated Sewing Saturday coming tomorrow.. starting some cold weather projects soon.