Reware Vintage Blog

I’m very excited that Dally in the Alley is fast approaching – it’s on Saturday, September 6th! Dally is one of my favorite Detroit area festivals to sell at and this will be our fourth year setting up there. This year Dally in the Alley is turning 31 years old, and this year the artists of the Russell Industrial Center will be featured, with the help of Mark Arminski curating. Wow.

If you’ve never been, I strongly urge you to come this year! There will be four stages of local bands playing throughout the day, and some fantastic art and other vendors as always. Plus, the money raised by the fair goes to an excellent cause – the North Cass Community Union. From the Dally in the Alley website: “The NCCU has used the Dally proceeds to fund the environmental lawsuit against the City of Detroit trash incinerator, provide roaming security during the nighttime hours, and grant scholarships to enable neighborhood children to attend the Art Center Music School.”

I am hoping to set up in our usual spot on Second Avenue (check out the map here) with our bright red tent. Hope to see you there!

One of my most cherished T shirts in my personal collection is my mother’s “Feels So Good” Chuck Mangione shirt. I have  memories of my mother putting that album on the record player after I came home from school and singing along to the horn melodies. Now I listen to the cd in my car, sing along and smile.

I have another Chuck Mangione T shirt that I wear more often, but only because I panic that I might get a stain on my mother’s. My dad gave it to me years ago when he moved and found it buried in a dresser, and told me that he couldn’t remember where she had gotten it but assumed it was when she saw him on tour right after I was born. I now know that she probably ordered it through the mail after finding this order form in a copy of “Feels so Good” that I made this notebook from. Love it!

Thanks so much to Tokyo’s Dance Music Records for being super nice and sending me pictures of our Record Notebooks on display in their store!

I love handmade bags. Unfortunately, most of my handmade purses are…not handmade by me. I have yards and yards of cool vintage material I pick up in all sorts of different places with every intention of one day making something from it, but rarely ever find the time. Usually when I do make something, it is with the intention of selling it to someone else. Yesterday I had the rare occasion of not really having to do anything all day, so I decided it was time to make use of some of that fabric for myself!

This was a terribly awful wall hanging of…well, we haven’t quite determined what this supposed to be. Elk? Deer? Caribou? Something like that. I wish I would have taken a picture of it before I started to show it’s crazy ugliness. It was fake velvety material, and the thing was so tacky I just had to buy it. It screamed “Make me into a bag!”.

I framed a close up deer-like animal for one side of the bag, and the grazing deer-like animals for the other side. The whole wall hanging was trimmed in a repeating patterned edging, which worked perfectly for the shoulder strap. I couldn’t decide which side to make the front and which to make the back, so I made it reversible with a tab that fits over the top and buttons on both sides to close the bag!

I backed the material with interfacing to make sure it would stand up to my abuse and I lined it with a brown-black marbled cotton, and made several pockets to better organize all the needless things I always jam into my purses.

Four months of the material laying on my shelf, four hours to make my new favorite purse. Totally worth it.

Yesterday Anna, Roxy and I had a photo shoot for our new fall items. Bored of shooting in downtown Pontiac, we decided to drive down Perry Street and snag photos in front of some abandoned businesses and strip malls, a couple open businesses and even ventured into the local cemetery.

We tried to be quick at each stop to avoid getting harassed by anyone, but a creep in a sports car ruined the effort. Still, we got some fantastic shots and had a great time afterwards getting dinner and a pint afterwards!

Thanks so much Anna and Roxy for being such great models, as always! I’m very excited to have lots of new items to list on the website over the next month!

Check it all out before it goes up for sale on our Flickr page!