Keepers is a monthly show and tell featuring one of a kind creations handmade using exclusively vintage and antique materials - down to the needle and thread. All pieces previewed are available for purchase on the Passage Keeper website.
Gather round friends for the second installment of Keepers! This month I turned 30 (meep!), stood in front of a dye pot stirring optimistically for hours, and sewed lots of tiny little stitches while watching free romantic comedies on Youtube - Penelope (2006) holds up very well and I want to live in it’s imaginary big city yet small town with a hint of Britishness world, You’ve Got Mail (1998) was a big yawn and simply can’t compare to The Shop Around the Corner (1940) though I did appreciate Meg Ryan’s apartment, and Mystic Pizza (1988) was very soapy but had all the New England atmosphere I could ask for.
Wanna see what I made?
I took a classic antique cotton dress with a crochet yoke and hand dyed it a custom color, adding a 1970s “shit” frowny face pin and a length of cotton chenille yarn that I cut off a fraying 1950s fringed blanket.
This piece holds a special place in my heart as it’s a straggler from a larger haul I got a couple years ago - if you’d like to learn more about it’s history see my essay All That’s Left of a Life.
Motor oil stained and sprinkled with some paint splatters this 1940s silk dressing gown had been long abandoned and left to rot. I hand dyed it to help blend the staining (somewhat) and freshen it up. It’s not perfect but it certainly tells a story!
My favorite make of the month is the transformation of a 1940s Navy issued sailor top. You can read more about the home this piece came from in my essay Letters in the Attic.
With stains that were not lifting and a large hole in the side, I decided to over-dye the top and hand sew star appliques to cover the hole and adorn the piece. I cut the stars from a pair of 1940’s broken zippered children’s shorts which I also found in the house.
That’s a wrap for this month’s show and tell! I’m looking forward to cooler weather, slowing down, and digging into the knits I have been squirreling away to rework for fall/winter.
Thanks for stopping by!
<3 Kari
In case you missed it…
I love the way you give these pieces new life!!
What a labour of love to transform these garments, Kari! I love Miss J’s dressing gown.💕