Angelic Inspirations

As a little girl I loved to play with dolls, but not baby in the stroller....no they wanted to play dress up with me. Paper Dolls were sheer delight. Today I'm still playing with dolls and not ashamed to admit it. I call them my, Angelic Inspirations, that are unique individual works of art, one-of-a-kind creations. No two are ever 

alike. The dolls I prefer to use are from the 1930's to the 60's. You know the arms and legs move by rubberbands and the eyes open and close.

 

I am extremely lucky to locate these, they are becoming limited in quantity due to their fragility. I 

sometimes have do a little 'corrective surgery'  and a little 'plastic surgery' on the faces if need be. I hand apply hair to the dolls or re-do the hairdo that is there. I always try to salvage the original dress the doll came with and incorporate it into the design usually as the slip or for embellishment and then its time to create.

Vintage hankies are hand-embroidered, unless they are so fragile they begin to shred...not a good thing, but managable.... I hand-embroidered the floral pattern of this 1940's hankie. Click to enlarge for better view. 

Then the embellishments are added, such as vintage rickrack, bits of jewelry, Sworovski Crystals, etc, then the underskirt of doilies, tulle, or other textile create the slip, and wings are attached. The final step is adding the angels 'voice'. Each angel has a charm which has a word or saying that has a special meaning.

This is how an Angelic Inspiration is born................................
 One day I was in a favorite antique mall when I spied this perfectly pink hat from the 1940's

It has layers of satin petals
with velvet dangle poms...
very remeniecent of tiny pink cherries


                                  

The back had the original net and very thick velvet covered wire supports. I just knew that repurposed this hat was really a perfect pair
of Angel wings! Now, this hat, when flattened was not a petite set of wings.

I knew this angel was to be larger than I was used to. I looked for months, but none of the truely vintage dolls, the size needed was at least 18", were in the price point I needed. So, while strolling thru some dolls one day I saw this face in the crowd........................................

She is definately not old, very modern, but those big baby blues just whispered Angel and she measured 18".

Het little slip was ready for much needed embellishment and her little satin slippers were ideal. On a roll I began my next search for her dress. I already had some vintage eyelet trim for the slip and was so excited when on another foray to the antique mall saw this delightful hand-tatted doily in exact size needed...........

I think these are tulips and I just love the color detail in them. Well, Now that I have the Doll, her dress and wings, it's time to put the creation together..........................................................................

As you can see her 'halo' is made of a wreath I created from latex rose petals and silk leaves. She holds a full bloomed latex rose in the palest shade of pink accented by a satin bow and her little charm that reads, 'Faith'.

See I told you  still love to play with dolls. I can't wait to show you my other Angels again, but for now I need to head off to find other vintage goodies for some other ideas I have. Thanks for stopping by!

'Faith' is available on my website  http://www.brownginghamcreations.com/ or just leave me a comment if you would like more info on her.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't forget it's Pink Saturday with Beverly over at How Sweet The Sound. You can visit all the other links thru HERE  And,  Vintage Love Saturday, over at Southern Lady's  Vintage Love thru        HERE                                    
On Tuesday visit Me and Everyone at Tam's Gypsy Corner for Three Or More Tuesday

Vintage Sewing

I am the first to admit I am no seamstress, but I can embroider. When I was 6 my Mom and Grandma started to teach me. A red gingham and black dog that made a cute pillow when completed by plain straight stitches...small dresser scarf completed with a lazy daisy stitch. Pillow cases.....accenting a jacket with names of friends on it during grade school....wallhangings...By the time I was in High School embroidery was too time consuming and drawing, painting....that was much faster. Any way stores were now selling clothes with machine embroidered designs, sooo it was much easier to pick it up at the store. Embroidery was on the back burner. Now I have to admit vintage textiles were always my passion. That never changes. I was the girl in jeans with lace and calico. Jessica McClintock was my fashion designer...she did a lot of updated retro dresses taking cues from the 19th century. I was even  able to fit some of my Mom's 50's outfits. But, hankies, dresser scarves, table linens, dish towels, potholders were fondly collected....yes I was 10 when my hope chest began...LOL... it quickly became my parents hope basement by the time I was 16...as they joked.  Today embroidery is back in my life. I still do decorative painting in acrylics, but I find...maybe with age....'painting'  with thread relaxing. As I've said before vintage textiles are a pasion. They hold a fascination. When I find a box of scraps....a pillowcase....a love worn tablecloth....an apron. I imagine who may have owned it...used it.  Is this lace from a cotillion gown worn by a young lady soon to say goodbye to her fiance'.....Was this pillowcase stitched as a wedding present......how many parties has this cloth seen and oh if it could talk, what would that apron have to tell?  I love to Rework-Repurpose-Recreate those vintage peices of time.
This is why 3 years ago I began Brown Gingham Creations, where I create designs using vintage textiles, patterns, and embellishments. I have done Wedding pillows for our flower shop Bride's to match thier flowers................
You can click the pics to enlarge.

1950 machined hankie with new pillow and flowers

And totes to put fresh bouquets into rather than just tissue........................................

1940's hankie hand-embroidered and beaded on new canvas tote

 eventually my design ideas utilizing vintage embroidery and textiles started rolling.......................

Angelic Nightlights using vintage textiles. This Pretty in Pink 1960's spun plastic doll sports a dress made from a 50's hankie I hand-embroidered, a 40's hand-tatted doily, and her wings are a 40's heart shaped crocheted potholder.

This vintage inspired pillow, from my 'PillowTalk' collection, is a combo of a new pillow form accented with a 1940's hankie I again hand-embroidered, embellished with new sworovski crystals and a 1940's rhinestone ribbon pin, and finished with new matching trim.

My Anggelic Inspirations are vintage dolls recreated with vintage new dresses.

Like Autumn here. She looks good for being over 60. I find dolls that have been loved.....fix their booboos..and give them new fashions. Autumn sports a dress created from another 1950's hankie I hand-embroidered and them embellished with 1960's plastic flowers and new leaf sequins.  Her wings are dried leaves and she holds a bouquet of dried statice.

I've added a new line called Placesetters. I combine vintage embroidered fabrics with paper embellishments to create unique placemats for the table. The fabric medallion on ths one is a 1940's transfer patterns.

I'll be quite for a minute and you can look at some photos..................................

1960's dishtowel hand-embroidered with new rick-rack

Vintage textiles I hand-embroidered and embellished. Vintage textiles used range in age from 1930's-60's

This tablecloth and napkins were reworked and hand-embroidered. The co-ordinating apron is from flour sack material and hand-embroidered

This 1930-40 apron was created with a new Mom in mind

This 1960's peice was reworked and repurposed into a new pillow

Again the textiles in this pic range from 1930's-1960's

The Chair is one of my hand-painted peices.

This wonderful 1940's tablerunner was fun to complete. I hope the lady that began it is pleased with the finished result.

This clothesline is filled with vintage charm from textiles of the 40's and 50's

This 1940-50 Bridge Table cloth was fun to complete.

Some of these designs have been sold, others are waiting to be put on my sites, and still others are available at Brown Gingham Creations , Brown Gingham Creation , and Apronation.
I will be linking to Southern Lady Vintage Vintage Love Saturday and to Liz over at Brambleberry Cottage for TIme Travel Thursday.
 I can't wait to pop in and see all the vintage pretties.

It's time to show my true colors!

Flag Day is Monday and Fourth of July is around the corner. RED, white, and blue are the colors of American Summer.

I was at Walmart and found this great new throw...........

Sorry, but this is not my porch, ...wish I had a day bed and porch with enough room for it.....it's dark out right now and there's no way to get a good picture....so, I found this pic on Walmart's website of the throw.  I love the vintage look and it'll be great on my porch swing.......

(This is my old throw.It is my Favorite throw, but  after 15 years it was ready to be retired.)

especially with pillows made from ......

This 1940-50 love worn table cloth in a Native Amrican motif and

this Southwest harvest motif.

I have some new creations that show thier true colors.

This little Angelic Inspiration is about 65 years old. Her crocheted dress and hat are original. I added her vintage 1940's doily wings and embellished with sequin stars, an American red paper rose, and a new flag.

Included is a wonderful book, Poems of Patriotism by Guest. This book has so many poems still relevant

today. She is $24.99

There is another Angelic Inspiration honoring our National Flower....... 

She is a 1930-40 composite doll with her original hand-tatted dress, but I added her 1950's hankie skirt in a rose mothif. Her wings are a 1940-50 doily and she holds a garland of hand-tatted edging with paper red roses. She sports a matching headband. She is $34.99

I can't wait to show you pictures of my completed porch and I really enjoyed creating these patriotic dolls. I hope to have more soon available at my Etsy shop. Link is on the side of blog to take you to my Etsy shop.

I'm happily linking this post to my friend Susan's blog  over at It's a Very Cherry World for her,

 

I hope you stop  by and see all the Red letter finds others have HERE .
I also wanted to remind you to stop over at the Etsy Cottage Style Blog for Market Monday. I Co-host this meme every first Monday of the month. We over 50 vendors who link on and invite you to come to the Market, browse and buy. This is our third Market Monday and it has steadily grown to quite a large group. It's really like a virtual Flea Market, but better. You can visit 24/7, no heat, no finding a parking spot, jammies and fuzz slippers optional.
Please stop by thru here.