Vintage textile fair at Pontivy.

On Sunday I was up very early to go to the annual textile fair

in Pontivy.

This was my second year of exhibiting and selling.

It takes months to collect and launder everything.

This year I had also done quite a lot of indigo dyeing.

Detail of lace on a Breton cap.

For anyone who loves textiles it is like being a child in a sweet shop.

It is wonderful to see so many beautiful things all in one place.

Old linen work shirt which I dyed.

As always I took sometime to display all my stock.
 It is important to me that everything looks good.
All the old sheets have to well laundered, folded and displayed to show their beauty.

Lavender sachets.

The lavender sachets I'd made have copies of old photographs
 I've been collecting printed onto linen and
are filled with my own home grown lavender.

Monogrammed napkins dyed.

The dyed napkins were much admired and quite a few found new homes.
I'd also dyed two old linen men's work shirts, one in a mid blue
and the other in indigo.
The indigo went before I had time to photograph it !

Detail of lace Breton cap.

When there were some quiet times I had a look around and took some
 photographs to share with you.

The piece of jewellery below is the type worn by the famous Josephine Baker
when she danced and sang especially in the night clubs of Paris.

The jewels would be all that she would have worn on her top !!!
You can easily imagine the impact her show had !!!

Body jewellery.

The old French fashion magazines are always popular
and quite a few younger designers seek them out for inspiration.

Old French fashion magazines.

A friend of mine bought some of these old reels to convert
into little lamps, they'll look so good.

Thread bobbins.

There are many beautiful old buttons about and many of them are added
 to clothes to give a focal point or in this case worn as brooches
often two or more together at the same time.

Old buttons made into brooches.

I can never resist the mixture of old linen and red embroidery.
I find it very difficult to part with the pieces that I've collected.
Luckily there is still some around for other people to admire and buy.

Linen with red embroidery - love it !

I will do a second post this week with more photographs for you to enjoy.

     

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