By now, you may have pegged me for the type of girl that would be attracted to vintage millinery flowers. If not, I can save you the trouble of figuring it out. I AM ATTRACTED TO VINTAGE MILLINERY FLOWERS. I got really into it some years ago after I attended an estate sale of an antique French fashion doll dresser (yes, there really are people who do that). This lady loved all of the beautiful antique textiles that I do-ribbonwork, millinery flowers, ribbons, wonderful fabrics, linens, and lace. She also had a huge collection of Victorian ephemera, but that's a whole other post. Anyway, to say that I had achieved antique textile Nirvana when I went to this sale was an understatement. I left happy, but broke, with bags and bags of great things, one of which was a plethora of millinery flowers. At the time, I used to set up regularly at a local antiques show, so I sold many of the flowers there. But, there are always those holdbacks. The ones that I just couldn't part with. Then, there were a few more that I had picked up along the way at various venues. All well and good, but what the heck do you do with all of those pieces? I was pretty sure I wasn't going to become a doll dresser and use them to adorn the dolls...I was pretty sure I was not going to start wearing hats and dolling them up (although maybe for a girlie tea party in my garden sometime...but, I digress). Then one day, I happened upon this cool small dress form at my local craft store (Hobby Lobby, I think). It had a distressed pink wooden top and a chicken wire like skirt. Hmmm, on went the thinking cap and in the cart went the dress form. This is what I came up with.
My girl is as pretty from the back as she is from the front. I added the ribbon "cumberbund" and lace "shawl". Many of the flowers were just stuck in through the holes and the ones that wouldn't stay for the most part were held in place with one of my favorite accessories, twisty ties. Pretty simple.
Gotta love a pretty vintage pink rose...
And a deep pink velvet rose...
I really love the pink velvet berries...
This ended up being one of my most favorite inspiration pieces. And the best part is, no vintage millinery flowers were harmed in the making of this project! I hope you enjoyed seeing it on Pink Saturday. When you have the chance, go over and visit Bev at How Sweet the Sound for loads of other fun and PINK offerings.
Until next time,
Oh what a gorgeous way to display those scrumptious flowers AND the fact should you ever have the NEED to use on you can just pluck it from the skirt. That is if you really really had to....
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, Happy Pink Saturday.
Kiss Noises Linda
Oh my! This post just takes my breath away.....I soooo love your vintage flowers and what a fabulous display!Thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteBe well, Laura
beautiful flowers...
ReplyDeleteOh goodness.. you are the QUEEN of Millinery flowers! what a fabulous dress! now where can I have those flowers! so unique and beautiful!
ReplyDeletehave a good weekend!
Beautiful flowers! Lovely arrangement!
ReplyDeleteHappy Pink Saturday!
Angela
Just beautiful, great photos of those velvety gorgeous roses too! ~*Happy Pink Saturday*~
ReplyDeleteStunning!!! You need to be very proud of yourself-those old millinery flowers (at least the real good ones) are getting harder and harder to find. That dress form is beautiful!!! Great Job!! Love Tiina....
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! I have a small dress form (purchased at Michael's) and a chicken wire skirt I put it into. So far it's just been sitting on my sewing table. I don't think I'll do flowers like you did, mainly because I do not have flowers to do it with, but you've inspired me to get busy doing something with it. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHappy Pink Saturday. Your blog is just such a delight to visit each week. Of course, all of the pink goodies always warm my ♥. This week everyone seems to be out-doing themselves!
ReplyDeleteWishing you, and all those close to your ♥, a purr-fect weekend filled with joy, peace and gracious living.
Dress form is to die for!!
ReplyDelete*´¨)
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(¸.*´ (¸.*´* HAPPY PINK SATURDAY *
everyone must be in the mood to change their backgrounds!!!
ReplyDeleteLooks lovely, just like u
What a wonderful idea. I have a dress form that is wire I wonder what I can come up with?? I love vintage millinary flowers and I read the post below and am in love with the French/Nordic look. I bought the book JUL and just gave one away on my 100th post giveaway.
ReplyDeleteHappy Pink Saturday.
Kris
How absolutely lovely!! this idea-----
ReplyDeleteare you selling them? you totally should.
Judy, that was beautiful and I must say, I too love millinery flowers, Char
ReplyDeletethose flowers are so beautiful! i'm feeling a little green (not pink) with envy!! happy pink week!
ReplyDeleteif I whine alot will I get one?? really great. happy pink, Heidi
ReplyDeleteI love what you did with the millinery flowers and the dress form! Fabulous! Happy Pink Saturday!
ReplyDeleteJudy that is the most unbelievably beautiful thing EVER! Incredible!
ReplyDeleteThis is simply stunning! What a wonderful way to display your vintage flowers (yes, I'm an addict too...) Happy Pink Saturday to you!
ReplyDeleteSometimes I feel like I have been living under a rock somewhere as I don't believe I have ever seen so many millinerny and beautiful vintage ribbons until now. Your collection is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteBecky
Girl, I have to tell you that I am in love with this. It is gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteHappy Pink Saturday, Judy.
I love your display. I share a respect for those twisty ties too. They can be pretty powerful. I used them to attach little clear lights to some put-together-trees I needed in the yard one Christmas. The held in the Texas winds.
ReplyDeleteHave wonderful week.
Jennifer
Hi Judy. I just wanted to thank you for stopping by my blog and entering the giveaway. I'm off to look around your blog now. I hope to see you again sometime.
ReplyDeleteADORE what you did with those millinery flowers! So charming!
ReplyDeleteThose are so vintagy sweet! I love it!
ReplyDeleteOMG, it's beautiful! You should be so proud...wish I had one! Thanks for visiting my blog. Can your read Danish? What book did you order?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely Fabulous! Love the flowers, so luscious!
ReplyDeleteJudy... I am speechless..this is so lovely,wow...I am impressed my friend!!
ReplyDeleteThese are incredible!!!
ReplyDeleteYes, Miss French*Laundry, I deeply wanted to use one of those semi-arch top windows for your custom one -- it's big enough to do beautiful justice to all the goodies you want on it. AND, you would get to meet me in person - what a treat! ha ha -- because I would bring it to you. No way I would trust such a wonderful old window to any shipper!
ReplyDeleteAlas, every single one of them still has their original 150 year old glass, which is that wonderful antique cola bottle greenish blue. So the black and white damask painted on the back would look black and pale aqua. Grrrr!
If you saw the arch-top window in my most recent blog post that I've already been working on for some time, there is another one. I don't own it yet, but I'm working on it! The guy that sold me that one is using the other one as a bulletin board in his office. That one would also be perfect for your window.
Failing that, I have some GORGEOUS but pretty big 4-pane arch top windows that I found behind a barn a couple years ago. All of them are missing one or more panes, so all the glass has to be cannibalized and then new glass put the ones I cannibalized from. You can't just replace a missing pane or two because new glass doesn't have the same "color" as old glass once you paint the back of it. They are gorgeous windows, and again, I would bring them to you. Your luck day, fer sher.
However, I would much prefer to do yours on a single pane window. So be patient. The perfect window will come to me. They always do. (And I'm truly hoping to get the sister to the one in my current blog post!) The French sign/painting I will be doing on that semi-arch top I picked up last week? I've been waiting seven years for the right window to come along. SEVEN YEARS!
I adore the bow applique lace curtains you have on eBay right now! Wouldn't those make GORGEOUS frilly sleeves on a lacy-frilly-ruffly-and oh-so-feminine Victorian blouse with real pearl buttons? Yum! I may have to dig one of my sewing machines out.
Still love this amazing millinery beauty. You gonna sell that one, or is it a keeper?
Hugs! Ronda
What a lovely display for all of those flowers! They combine beautifully!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful way to use your vintage flowers. In my altered art group we decorated a paper mache mannequin. Such fun!!!Love your blog and also love the french/scandinavian look that you mentioned earlier.
ReplyDeleteTake care,
Carole