Barbara Mary Sculati

Wedding Dress Wednesday: Hips! And Happy New Year! I just picked up this very wounded bird midcentury beauty from @foxtailestates ( a great estate clean out company in the Minneapolis St.Paul area- I recommend them if you are in need of estate clean out services in the metro😊) and though I honestly don’t think the dress has a good chance of surviving a cleaning ( the lace is already in rough shape…) I am going to at least try as I love this dress. ❤️ As found, it had buckram skirt support to accentuate the hips- like panniers. It is 2 stiff pieces connected together and fastens at the waist with hooks and eyes. Ironically, I’ve had a single one for a few years, and all this time I thought it was the base for some sort of hat/ bonnet form, but didn’t understand why the “straps” were so short. Now I know what it is! They are stamped “ US Patent Applied For” In my searching I’ve been unable to find others like it or any patent information on it. Wedding dresses from the 50’s and 60’s often had silhouettes that featured wide hips that then accentuated a small waist. Grace Kelly’s wedding dresses is a lovely example- swipe to see. I’m guessing this type of skirt hip support may have been used on other wedding dresses of the era to help achieve the exaggerated hip silhouette, but this is the first complete one I’ve ever found. I think it’s such an interesting part of wedding dress fashion history! #hippanniers #widehipweddingdress #woundedbirdweddingdress #vintageweddingdress

What a wonderful year it’s been! I’ve always loved vintage wedding dresses, and in 2024 I really tried to offer more of them in my Etsy and EBay shops. I try to get at least one new vintage wedding dress listing done per week ( I know that doesn’t sound like much, but with all my other listings in my 3 shops- I have a vintage Etsy kids shop too that I started in 2024- and with making at least one video each week for Instagram and YouTube, it can be a challenge! ) Some I clean and repair, some I sell as they are, some I sell as “salvage/ wounded birds/ project” dresses for others to work into their own creations. The 78 dresses sold on Etsy this year spanned from the 1930’s to the 1990’s. I sourced many them locally at thrift shops, estate sales, bulk buy estate clean outs, Facebook marketplace and I am SO blessed to have received several vintage wedding dresses from generous folks who have donated them to me- I truly appreciate it! I do my best to find new homes for them and offer them at budget friendly prices as I don’t believe weddings need to be the huge expense that they often are. Thank you for being here with me on this journey and all the best to you in the New Year!!! #vintageweddingdresses #worththeeffort #etsysellersofinstagram #2024wrap #vintagelover #budgetfriendlywedding #generouspeople

I’m so grateful for the vintage clothing donations I receive! Thank you so much @theanastasialee1 for sending these lovely vintage wedding dresses and veils- I really appreciate it! I am especially nervous to attempt cleaning the 1920’s one as I have not attempted anything similar before with the sheer beaded fabric (rayon?) over silk satin, but I will try as that’s how I can keep learning and hopefully my experiences can be helpful to someone else ( whether I am successful or not…) #unboxing #vintageweddingdress #20sweddingdress #30sweddingdress #generouspeople #vintagedonation #weddingdressdonation #futureprojects

Wedding Dress Wednesday: Ok, so though this is technically a vintage prom dress, I think this would be a lovely wedding dress! Donated by a follower, this belonged to her Aunt JoAnn. JoAnn was the prom Queen for Lincoln High School in Manitowoc Wisconsin in 1958. She shared her memories of this dress and that event to her niece Mary who donated the dress to me in hopes that I could restore it and find a good home for it. Allen, the captain of the football team, was designated as the homecoming King and it was up to him to choose his Queen. He was kind of seeing someone else at the time, and folks assumed he would choose her, but to JoAnns surprise, he chose her. The theme for the prom was going to be “Pastel Paradise” and it was then that a seamstress named Tilly Sleger was commissioned to create the dress for JoAnn. Tilly was renowned in Manitowoc for designing and creating beautiful dresses for proms, weddings/special occasions from 1935 until her retirement in 1968. Tilly hand sewed on all the lace motifs as well as each individual sequin and pearl. I love the detail she designed with the little circles of lavender/ lilac satin that add a pastel pop of color under the lace. And that waist sash! Each of the roses was made by hand and hand stitched on- I absolutely love that. JoAnn said that Tilly also created a matching pillow for the crown and created another separate waist sash in the opposite color-way that JoAnn wore with the dress at her graduation. JoAnn recalls her and Allen spending many hours practicing dancing in their recreation room prior to the prom and an open house was hosted by her parents before the dance with 220 people attending. The dress was worn again by a grand niece in the 80’s as a costume for a play. It was a labor of love to do what I could to restore this beautiful dress- see my reels for the restoration. Here’s to it continuing on its journey and creating more wonderful memories. Now sold- Thank you ! ❤️Thank you so much @troutlilyhill for donating this wonderful dress and for sharing your Aunt JoAnns stories! #vintageweddingdress #vintageweddingdressforsale #promqueen #50sdress #manitowoc

Now sold- Thank you! This dress!!! I have to say this is definitely one of my favorites that I have ever worked on. JoAnn was the prom Queen for Lincoln High School in Manitowoc Wisconsin in 1958. She shared her memories of this dress and that event to her niece Mary who donated the dress to me in hopes that I could restore it and find a good home for it. Allen, the captain of the football team, was designated as the homecoming King and it was up to him to choose his Queen. He was kind of seeing someone else at the time, and folks assumed he would choose her, but to JoAnns surprise, he chose her. The theme for the prom was going to be “Pastel Paradise” and it was then that a seamstress named Tilly Sleger was commissioned to create the dress for JoAnn. Tilly Sleger was renowned in Manitowoc for designing and creating beautiful dresses for proms, weddings and special occasions from 1935 until her retirement in 1968. Tilly hand sewed on all the lace motifs as well as each individual sequin and pearl. I love the detail she designed with the little circles of lavender/ lilac satin that add a pastel pop of color under the lace. And that waist sash! Each of the roses was made by hand and hand stitched on- I absolutely love that. JoAnn said that Tilly also created a matching pillow for the crown and created another separate waist sash in the opposite color-way that JoAnn wore with the dress at her graduation. JoAnn recalls her and Allen spending many hours practicing dancing in their recreation room prior to the prom and an open house was hosted by her parents before the dance with 220 people attending. The dress was worn again by a grand niece in the 80’s as a costume for a play. It was a labor of love to do what I could to restore this beautiful dress- here’s to it continuing on its journey and creating more wonderful memories.Thank you so much @troutlilyhill for donating this wonderful dress and for sharing your Aunt JoAnns stories! #vintageclothescleaning #beforeandafter #worththeeffort #restorationpowder #maryellenbestpress #promqueen #50spromdress #tillysleger #manitowak

Wedding dress Wednesday: Bows. Big bows. 🎀 . Fashions come and go-often times eventually repeating- and yes bows are having a moment once again… They were popular in the 1950’s and became huge again ( pun intended) in the 1980’s / early 90’s. Swipe to see a quick video of some 80’s big bow wedding dresses. ( which I lovingly refer to as “big ass bows” 😊) This Dance Allure wedding dress from the 1980’s / early 90’s has a pretty darn big one. The dress had some issues when found and although I didn’t clean the dress , I was able remedy 2 sizable tears at the back of the dress using some salvaged lace and onion skins ( What?!? Check out the recent video I posted on this dress to learn more 😊) Bows served not only a decorative function on wedding dresses, they were also a great place to hide fasteners such as buttons, hooks and loops for bustling up the train on a wedding dress. Snaps or hooks and eyes were often used to keep those big bows up and perky. This dress is currently listed in the wedding section of my Etsy- tap my bio for my Etsy shop link. 🎀 #bigbows #bigbowweddingdress #danceallurealfredangelo #80sweddingdress #bigassbow #vintageweddingdress #etsysellersofinstagram

Currently available in my Etsy- shop link in my bio. I created this video in case this solution to remedy tears in a taffeta wedding dress is helpful to anyone. Onion skins have tannins in them which helps the color adhere to the fabric/ fibers. If using onion skins to dye a garment that will be washed a lot and exposed alot of sunlight, a mordant such as alum could be used to enhance color fastness and make the color more permanent. #oldvintage #vintagedress #beforeandafter #sewing #vintageweddingdress #torntaffeta #onionskindye

Fun Finds Friday: Antique Victorian girls silk plaid dress. This little beauty was part of the collection of items I purchased a while back from Facebook marketplace that were found in the historic Milledgeville Georgia “Cline Mansion”. The home was occupied by author Flannery O’Connor. It’s possible that this dress belonged to Flannery’s mother, Regina Cline. Regina Cline was born on January 27, 1896 in Milledgeville, Georgia. Cline married Edward O’Connor on October 14th, 1922 at Sacred Heart Church in Milledgeville. They had their only child, Mary Flannery O’Connor in 1925. I estimate the dress to be from the 1890’s/ early 1900’s and I estimate it fit a child of approximately a 5/6 year old, so it is possible it belonged to Regina. It is fashioned from silk in a wonderful plaid and features darling Juliete sleeves. The silk and lining are too fragile for the dress to be worn, so I did not attempt any cleaning or repairs on it, but with the exception of the blue silk trim it presents well.Now sold- thank you ❤️. #reginaclineoconnor #reginacline #milledgeville #georgiahistory #victorian #antiqueplaid #victoriangirls #victorianchild #antiquesilkplaids #flanneryoconnor

Now sold- thank you !❤️I felt this little sweet dress was worthy of some love and TLC . It looks to have been loved by a little girl long ago and now that it’s clean and wearable once again, I’m hoping it will be loved again by another little girl. ❤️#vintage50s #vintage50sgirlsdress #washingvelvet #christmasdress #retrokids #classickidsclothes

Wedding dress Wednesday: 1940’s WW2 era wedding dress. I purchased this from a weekend shop that sells items from estate clean-outs. I’m estimating it to be from the 1940’s as the romantic Victorian style was popular then and the side zipper is a Talon zipper with a “V” on it. A few years back I had another garment with a similar zipper and somewhere down in that rabbit hole of research I remember reading that Talon was not able to produce zippers quite up to their usual standards due to the metals needed for the war effort, so they marked them with a “V” ( V for victory) I looked again recently to try to find that information again but was unable to- let me know if you have heard that same information! So the dress itself is fashioned from acetate satin ( silk was also used for the war effort, so it was not commonly used in wedding dresses of the era) and it has a pretty lace bodice and peplum. A sheer mesh fabric is used for the upper bodice and ruffles. As found it was a bit yellowed, had small holes in the mesh / net, had underarm stains, quite a bit of satin scuffing and a significant stain from what I’m guessing to be from water/ moisture wicking up onto the train in storage. I wasn’t able to do anything about the satin scuffing, but I was able to make the mesh and lace holes less noticeable and cleaned the dress so that it is now wearable once again. I created a reel on this- check it out if interested. The dress is currently in the wedding section of my Etsy- shop link is in my bio. Fits like a size small. I feel it was worth the effort- hoping someone else does too ❤️#40sweddingdress #talonvzipper #beforeandafter #vintageweddingdress #vintageweddingdressforsale #ww2erafashion #

Available in the wedding section of my Etsy ❤️A 1940’s wedding dress gets another chance at a special day after some cleaning and repairs. Worth the effort ❤️ #vintageweddingdresscleaning #beforeandafter #vintageclothescleaning #worththeeffort #40sweddingdress #sodiumperborate #retrowash #vintageweddingdress #talonvzipper

Fun Finds Friday: Antique Childs red mohair coat, hat and button leggings. 🥰 I purchased this a while back from my favorite Whatnot seller @susanels_vintage ( a great source for vintage ) and waited to list it until the holiday season- it’s now sold- thank you ❤️ Though the 3 pieces came together as a set, there is a bit of a mystery in regards to the sizing. The coat as found was rather generously hemmed shorter -presumably to fit as a hand-me-down for a younger sibling, so I released the hem to its original length. The coat appears to be home sewn, but the hat is stamped A BeeDee hat ( and a pencil marking of what appears to be $1.00- a lot of money back then!) The button leggings each stamped with a “3” which I presume to be the size and are smaller than what I feel would fit a 5 year old as what I’m estimating the coat to fit. I basted on a matching piece of felt as a panel inside each legging and and custom dyed some velvet elastic and added buttons to make “ extensions “ allowing them to fit a larger size leg. This is all removable. ( swipe to see) Sometimes it can be hard to pinpoint an era for children’s outerwear, but I’m estimating this to be perhaps from the earlier part of the 1890’s, but could be Edwardian. The buttons appear to be replacements as the button holes have been stitched a bit smaller. I’m guessing the coat originally had 3 self covered buttons and that the mohair probably wore off of them. I could not find any information on the BeeDee hat other than an ad for summer hats from the 30’s 40’s, so I don’t know how long the company was in business. That style of button leggings were around in the Victorian and Edwardian eras ( imagine trying to do all those buttons on a squirming child…) It’s such a cute set and how fun this would be for a sleigh ride or outdoor photo shoot in the snow! #antiquemohair #mohaircoatvintage #victorianchild #antiquekidscoat #redmohair #buttonleggings #victorianleggings #beedee