The Long Good Buy

You'll be relieved to hear that this week we've been wearing clothes. This 1960s silk Dollyrockers maxi featuring this season's ultra hip cheese plant print (proving that there's rarely anything new in fashion) and turquoise leather coat have featured on my blog countless times since I acquired them. Jon's 1960s Italian fine knit is an old favourite but his burgundy skinny cords were a lucky charity shop find this week.

This was yesterday's outfit. You may remember my Leo Narducci maxi dress from THIS blog post last year. I found the rainbow stripe Bill Brown bag (no, I've never heard of him either but I'm a sucker for anything with a Made in England label) in a chazza on Tuesday and the colours instantly reminded me of the dress, likewise the 1960s plastic beads which I found in the same shop, so regardless of the chilly temperatures and relentless rain I gave it an outing.

Clockwise from top left: 1970s Welsh wool mini dress; Indian leather cross-body bag and pony skin neck purse; English-made deadstock leather knee high boots; Vintage Luis Mari of Nice, Cote D'Azur boned cotton sundress; 80s Wrangler cowboy boots; Handmade 1970s cotton maxi dress; 1970s leather jacket; 1930s brocade opera coat; 1960s gent's raincoat; 1970s patchwork bag; 1960s St Michael tie and Tricel foulard; 1960s Richard Draper of Glastonbury sheepskin boots; Massive Art Deco boxed seagull brooch; Past Times Indian embroidered waistcoat; Gieves and Hawkes tailored wool jacket (currently retailing at £795)

We came back from London three sacks of stock lighter so this week has mostly been spent scouring the charity shops of the Black Country for fabulous vintage to replenish our rails. With six festivals booked we've also been keeping our eyes peeled for colourful and quirky bits to tempt the vintage virgins who wander into our stall in between bands to pass the time. We don't like anyone to leave empty-handed.

If you want to catch us on the road this Summer HERE's the list so far.

Clockwise from top left: Vintage Eastex midi dress; 1980s English-made leather flying jacket; A huge pile of doll's house accessories; Two boxed bow ties; Handmade red velvet veiled pill box hat; Urban Outfitters deadstock burger purses; Navy leather cap; 1970s leather moto jacket; Neon orange Ju Ju jellies (handmade in Northampton) and 1960s plastic beads; 1970s tooled leather Algarve souvenir bag

Obviously all the dolls house stuff is for me, my next project is a four storey beast of a 1970s Lundby for which I'm currently stalking eBay in my hunt for groovy vintage furniture. I wish that glorious bird and butterfly print Luis Mari dress was my size, it would be the perfect summer frock with a floppy sun hat and a straw basket. I'm seriously tempted with the brocade opera coat but I've acquired a psychedelic Welsh wool cape and jacket plus the craziest fringed suede number in the last twenty four hours so a fourth outer garment might be a little excessive!

Another keeper is this 1960s box jam-packed with vintage sewing ephemera. My heart skipped a beat when I spotted it, I couldn't wait to get home and tip the contents out all over the lounge floor (just like I did with Grandma's sewing box when I was a little girl!)

Vintage sewing boxes like these give me such a thrill. With bagged-up broken necklaces, labels from clothing, receipts, a rainbow of 1960s seam rippers and neatly rolled up tape measures, you get a real sense of the previous owner. The most thrilling thing for me was the discovery of two leather buttons, identical to the ones on my beloved turquoise leather coat. What are the chances of that happening?

At £3 this hand-blown vintage genie bottle had to be mine.

We came back from our travels today with a whole van load of vintage, in fact there's so much that we've had to buy a couple more rails to accommodate it all on. I shall endeavour to share some photos of it all soon.

In doll's house news my Lundby Gothenburg is now complete and taking pride of place in the bedroom. I love switching on the lights at bedtime, lying in bed and admiring it (I am strange!)

It's a Bank Holiday on Monday and we've got some glorious weather forecast. If that's true we'll be out car booting and if not, I'll be cracking on with doll's house project number three.

See you soon!