Fleamarket Finds, Vol.7

So while I'm stuck at the airport in Paris, I may as well write a couple of belated posts more!

Last time I posted about the open air market in the Basque Country, and this time I'll post about probably the very best open air market in Finland (at least that I have been to). It's in a small town far north, in an area of Finland where they mostly speak the kind of Swedish that was spoken in the area hundrends of years ago, when Finland was under the Swedish rule. 

The trip there is long, so it was really nice when this year we organized a little bit of a roadtrip with a couple of friends (one of which is originally fom the area, and his parents still have a lovely cottage by the cost), and had the last sauna + swim of the year by the sea. The weather was quite terrible, so I decided to wear some confortable and warm clothes. Unluckily enough, I came down with a cold nevertheless :-D

30's sunglasses, 1930's tie, shirt from fleamarket, breeches from
fleamarket (they are part of a Finnish army uniform), puttees from Varusteleka and NOS 1940's shoes

To be honest it's been such a long time since summer that I can't even exactly remember what I bought! But the three main things I remember are a gorgeous jugend bookshelf (that nowadays holds part of my vintage shoe collection), a jugend cushion cover and an old sewing box.

The first and the latter were two items I had really been searching for, specially the sewing bow. I now sew so very often (burlesque + tribal fusion bellydance + vintage) that I had been in urgent need of a sensible way to organize the basic sewing supplies for a long time. The box I found was not the prettiest, nor the in the very best of condition (specially since the wood got quite wet with the rain during the early hours of the market), but it was big (lots of space!) and I got it at a very good price (prices for sewing boxes are usually quite prohibiting). 

[picture to follow when I arrive home!]

The cushion was a simple piece with a jugend rose pattern, but the elder lady who was selling it was so happy I wanted to buy it that she even gave me a discount! Still searching for more of these, one can never have too many cushions! ;-)

[picture to follow when I arrive home!]

I already have a jugend bookshelf that I bought in the begining of the summer, but I had nowhere else to put shoes in my room so I was in dire need of a second one. Later on Lassi did a bit of research, and he found an almost identical one in an old Muurame catalogue, which was quite awesome because most of the vintage pieces of furniture in my room are also from Muurame (warning: if you google the name and come up with pictures of what they do today please do not be scared! they used to do absolutely gorgeous pieces in the 1910's-1920's decades)

[picture to follow when I arrive home!]

Fleamarket Finds, Vol.6 - Basque Country edition

Oh my, LONG time no write! In my favour I can say a LOT has been going on and keeping me busy, but that also means I have so much to update that I better start writing! 

So back we go to last summer's holydays. As some of you might know, I am originally from an area called The Basque Country, which is currently divided between Spain and France, and since my family still leaves there I try to visit a few times every year. 

This summer, for the first time (!), we managed to visit an open air fleamarket/fair in the French side of The Basque Country, after having heard they are exceptionally good. We did a bit of online searching, and finally decided to visit one in a small town by the coast called Ziburu, and it happened to be exceptional indeed! Our main concern was that we had to fly back, so what we could buy was limited by that, but we still managed to make some very good finds. 

I came home with three pairs of vintage shoes and two vintage purses, and Lassi bought a set of copper pots. The purses were 1910's-1920's, of which one was crotchetted in silver with cut steel beads and the other one in dark brown with (mostly rusted, but still ok looking) cut steel beads. The brown purse specially caught my attention, since I had never seen any like it. It is built as a long tube with a hole in the middle and two rings on each end, and meant to hang from the belt. The rings can be moved passed the hole in order to access the areas in which items (probably small items such as coins etc) are stored, and replaced so that nothing comes out while that purse is worn. I love it! So ingenious. 

Upper picture: full hoard
Lower picture: 1910's-1920's purses

Of the three pairs of vintage shoes one was specially rare and beautiful, but only one of the pairs fit me and unfortunately enough it wasn't the rarepIr. The first one was a gorgeous pair of white and green leather 1930's shoes with cutout details, which (according to the seller) seem to have belonged to a French lady who was the first French woman to fly in an airplane. The other two pairs were both 1940's brown suede shoes, one of them with a really cute front drape detail (this is the pair that fits me) and the other one with cutout details (which has since found a new loving home). 

Looking forward to visiting the Basque fleamarkets again next summer!

Up: 1930's shoes
Middle and down: 1940's shoes

Fleamarket finds, Vol.4

I love ex-tempore visits to fleamarkets, some of the best finds happen that way! I decided to quickly visit a charity shop yesterday in between work and my dance lessons, and it was definitely worth it. I found a vintage purse and a vintage-style piano shawl for around 15€! :-)

The shawl is something I had been looking for for a while. I have two authentic turn-of-the-century silk piano shawls, but they have to be used with extreme care due to their age and fragility. I had been searching for a "new" shawl in the same kind of style in order to be able to use it, for example, for tribal fusion bellydance costuming, but all I had found so far were terribly shiny and clearly made out of synthetic materials. I'm not sure about what material this is really made of, but in practice it looks like rayon, and it's sturdy enough for me to be able to use it without worries! Plus it has an extra-long fringe, I'm in love!

The piano shawl and the vintage purse

The purse was a big surprise because it's the first real vintage accessory or piece of clothing I've found in that shop for months. It is beautifully hand-stitched, and the diminute size of the detailling is quite amazing. Not only are both sides of the purse fully stitched, the edge and even a trim on the handle are also decorated. The lining is silk, and it seems to be in such a crazy good condition that I suspect it may have been replaced later on. I'm not a big expert in this kind of purses, but I would guess it's from the 1940's. Quite a find!

Some details of the 1940's(?) vintage purse

Fleamarket finds, Vol.3

Besides the new burlesque costume I posted about earlier, I'm currently also working on a new bellydance costume. And this time I decided to finally try out something that's been tempting me for a while, which is using buttons instead of coins! I will elaborate on this in the future when the costume is finished, but I mentioned it mostly in order to explain why I've been hunting for buttons in charity shops for the last week or so. 

After work on Friday I decided to visit a new charity shop I had never been to before, and besides a bunch of the buttons I needed I also managed to get a couple of vintage treasures: a 1940's tablecloth and some vintage buttons. 

The tablecloth isn't maybe extremely spectacular, as this kind isn't so difficult to find and one sees them in fleamarkets every now and then, but it was in pristine condition and only cost 2.5€! The buttons I found while hunting for the ones I needed for the bellydance costume. I found quite a few fabric covered white buttons in two sizes, that are usually quite hard to find nowadays, and are for example perfect for vintage repro underwear. Besides those I found three really cute wooden square buttons. I'm not sure if there are old, but even if they aren't this is a precious find since wooden buttons and buttons in any other shape than round (and in a proper material) are almost impossible to find nowadays! I still have no idea what I'll be using them for, but I'm sure they'll look pretty wherever they end up ;-)

1940's tablecloth and vintage buttons

Fleamarket finds, Vol.2

And it seems it was a specially nice weekend for fleamarket hunting, so here you go round two! I'm only posting the items I bought (except a small arts & crafts turn-of-the-century flowerpot stand I forgot to take pictures of), Lassi found some nice jugend textiles and objects himself. 

We found this objects from a couple of fleamarkets in the countryside, which is where the best fleamarkets usually are but it also means you need a car for it. 

This lovely nurse cap/headpiece cost 1€, but I actually got it for free with the other items I bought. It's so cute! And it will fit perfectly with both my vintage aprons, since even though I'm not sure about how old this cap is the model didn't change so dramatically over the decades. 

(1950?) nurse cap

The other clothing item I found in that fleamarket is a 1920's nightgown, but I'm planning to use this one with a sash and as a summer dress. It's made of linen and it has gorgeous decorative pleats and cross-stitching on the collar and sleeves. I think this one will fit perfectly for the orientalist 1910/1920s look, since it reminds me a bit of antique greek/oriental clothing. And it only cost 10€!

1920's nightgown

I also got some lovely art deco ceramic spice jars, probably 1930s. These are quite often found in fleamarkets around Finland, but the ones with nice jugend or art deco motives are often overpriced. I'm more interested in jugend objects at the moment, but these are so pretty that I couldn't leave without them! They only cost 4€/piece, and even though one was broken and glued back I decided to also take it with me since it was half-price and still in working condition. 

1930's ceramic spice jars

Fleamarket finds, Vol.1

A quick post to show you something that Lassi found for me last Thursday while I was at work! I will probably end up writing many posts about things both Lassi and me find in fleamarkets in the future, so I have decided to start numbering them accordingly.

This is a pair of black leather and suede oxfords found in Radio Kirppis in Tampere, which is one of the fleamarkets we often check. This is a bit of an interesting pair, as the model itself looks like it's from the 1930s-40s, but Lassi believes they were made in the 1950's (and I usually trust him since he's very good at dating). The leather is a bit wrinkly, but nothing that some good Peckard's and a pair of lasts can't fix, and even the laces are original.

lovely use of different materials

Also, since the heels are rather wide and very sturdy, these are just perfect for daily wear! I will probably take them to the cobbler's for half-soles, but otherwise it feels like these babies are going to stay with me for a looong time :-)

side view and sole