I had such a busy weekend (with work) I wasn’t able to sew one stitch. :|
Luckily, I had just one magical excuse to leave my cluster analysis work: the Modern Vintage Chicago event hosted by Chicago’s Randolph Street Antique Market in Plumber’s Hall. Thanks to Tasha of By Gum, By Golly for getting me out of the house because I found I had won her giveaway for 2 tickets to the event last Monday. I don’t think I would normally have gone (just because I had to pay), but I’m glad I went.
I convinced my mom to come to the city to come with me, and it was pretty easy to convince her. We had a pretty fun time browsing all of the clothes, accessories, and what-have-you. We just strolled around, noses deep in clothing racks and tables covered in brooches, gossiping and trying on hats. I wish I had brought my camera to the event to take some photos, but I wanted to keep my hands as free as possible for hunting, so much so that I brought my smallest purse to be extra-hands free.
This is an image of the upper floor, where they had a lot of clothes. There was another floor, just below this one too that was filled to the brim; and all of the hallways were filled with vintage lovelies too.
I was hoping to find more sewing supplies but I did find one booth that had a whole box of buttons and trims. It was a bit too expensive for my taste, but I couldn’t resist these two button sets:
My mom and I spent a great deal of time searching through one particular booth’s collection of broaches and I fell in love with these owlies and pin set:
This pin set is really neat. It is actually one large pin that separates to form two smaller ones. I’ve been looking for one for quite a while now and I fell in love with these since I think this one is very versatile.
And here’s a view of the back so you can see how it separates out:
And last but not least, I found some lovely fabric:
My mom said she didn’t think this was very vintage (ie from the 50’s), but it did have that vintage smell and well as having aged-looking selvages. I wasn’t so convinced, but fell in love nevertheless. You can see it has a really nice sheen to it; my mom thought it was a cotton chintz. It’s 4 full yards of yellow-rose goodness, so I can definitely get a pretty dress out of this. hip hip
All in all I had a nice time, but I thought the prices weren’t any better than if you went to an antique shop in the city. But the main benefit for me was that they all came together in one large show. Seeing all of these vintage wares has really got me itching to go out to the flea markets again with my mom. I can’t wait till the weather gets nice again here and for my work eases up so that I can venture out, stress-free.
Hope you all had a lovely weekend, too! And thanks again Tasha!
In: Miscellaneous
Good finds! I saw that booth with the notions too but restrained myself. I really wanted to buy some of the buckle blanks but forced myself not to since I have a couple that I have yet to use.
Those owl pins are great, I guess they would be considered scatter pins, something I had never heard about until I read about it on Moxie Tonic’s blog but now I’m smitten. I love that your owls are different colors!
Lovely finds! The brooches are so sweet! I love the cleverness of the one that detaches itself from itself! And that fabric, is seriously to die for. You’ll be a yellow rose of texas in that sweet print! Darling!
xoxo,
Sunni
Love the black fabric. On a side note, my husband did his dissertation on cluster analysis :)
Ohh did he really?! I could have used his expertise on my presentation… :)
Love the owl pins, I just bought quite a few buckles but haven’t fashioned them into a belt yet (any tips on what type of fabric to use with them?).
Prices are generally pretty high at Randolph, I opted not to go to this show and instead went to the opening market at Rosemont (Wolff’s). It was FREEZING and I woke up at 5:30AM for it but managed to find quite a few lovely things! I probably won’t venture back there until it warms up a bit though… who knows when that will be!
Sorry, I meant to comment back to you sooner. I think you really can use any fabric you like, but I’d recommend putting light interfacing on it no matter what (unless the fabric is quite thick.)
Casey from Elegant Musings has a wonderful tutorial about how to make a fabric covered belt. It’s how I do mine now.
I’ve never been the the market at Rosemont. How is it? Curious if they have sewing stuff pop up there… I usually go to the south suburbs and go to the I-80 market with my mom which is on Sundays. But its still too cold imo to enjoy browsing around. Can you believe this weather in April?!
I love this fair! I did a lot of hunting for the wedding at this fair, but agree that the prices are pretty high. In the end, it was cheaper to turn to etsy and eBay, and pay for shipping/handling. Someone asked me to go with them this past weekend, but I was out of town. Glad I got the recap here! : O )
Thanks for attending the Modern Vintage show! So glad you enjoyed yourself! Thanks for doing this blog post! I love it so much I am going to share with our Modern Vintage fans on Facebook.
Many thanks,
Kimberly Oliva
vendor @ModernVintage
RandolphStreetMarket
PS: Hope to see you at our SEASON OPENER MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND!