The Great Thrift Tour of the West

One of the best things about living in the West is how easy it is to pack up, drive, and hit somewhere so cool and strange that you couldn't have possibly expected it. The boyfriend and I just wrapped up a driving tour of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, and while it was blisteringly hot in some places, the beauty and horses and rivers made up for it.

There was thrifting too; in Big Timber, Montana I scored these handbags for 5 bucks each.  The "wicker" bag is vinyl, I'm guessing 60s / 70s and made in Hong Kong.  It seems very Trina Turk to me, and I love it.

The worked leather is probably the same vintage.  I have an almost off-balance and disturbing love for tooled leather.  It needs some saddle leather oil love, but once I've worked on it it will be gorgeous.

In a tiny tiny little hamlet between Wyoming and Montana we found a tiny tiny little store that was selling this 1900s dress.  If i had an 18" waist it would have been mine.  It was made out of the softest, worn brown silk, with handworked embroidered trim.  All the stitches were by hand, the back was fastened by hook and eye, and the underskirt was attached to a silk slip.  There were short waist bones, that I suppose augmented the corset the wearer would have had as a base layer.

The Cutest little Store in the World

Finally, Butte Montana, the "Chicago of the West" which had The BEST vintage store I've ever laid eyes on.  I was complaining to my boyfriend that it was impossible to find good women's vintage anywhere on our trip, and clearly the problem is the guy who owns Redirections.  He's already got it all!  He also had tons of gorgeous 40s fabric that he was selling by the yard.  Go, Buy, Wear.  Wonderful.

Missed Blogging Opportunities

Yesterday I was driving through the back-of-beyond in Wyoming.  We stopped at a small junk store, and when I asked for "sewing stuff" the owner directed me to his neighbor.  She took me into her basement, where she had a fleet of Singer treadles that she sewed custom order Western shirts on. The cool thing about them was how unadorned they were.  They were real Western shirts for real Western men.  Sunday best, but still plain and simple.

And of course I did not document this bit of sewing serendipity at all.

Which is probably why I'm not much use as a blogger!

While she showed me her shirts, her husband showed my boyfriend his mini-tractors that he restores and he even let him drive on around his backyard.

All in a day's work in Nowhere, Wyoming.