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

New solo act in the making: sneak peek

I've been wanting to create a feather fan act for a few years now, but they are one of the biggest clichés in burlesque and I wanted something with a bit of a twist. I'm still not sure if I will succeed in making it a bit less of a cliche, but at least I think the idea is unusual! I decided to make a seaweed act, so that the fans themselves would also be seaweed. I came up with this idea over a year ago, but I wasn't even finished with my Mata Hari act then, and before I could start working on this one I came up with the idea for The Chap and an irresistible urge of it being my next :-)

Nevertheless, now it's finally time for my Algae act! I have barely started to work on the costume yet, but I'm showing you a few sneak peek pictures of some of the materials. Why? Well, to tease you of course! ;-D

And because I'm absolutely in love wih the indian textiles I'm using for this one, sewing is a pleasure with them! 

left top: gorgeous indian textiles, left bottom: unusual
coloured feather fans, right: some trim and fringe