Alternately titled: Why I Love Tennessee And It’s Awesome Flea Market!
The flea market here is monthly, and I do try to go every month (last month I had to miss because I was in Florida – but I’m not complaining!!). The whole thing is MASSIVE – and full of vendors selling all kinds of stuff, from priceless antiques to dirty junk. I personally like the dirty junk 🙂 There are also vendors who sell boring shit like socks & discontinued Clariol hair dye & door mats with whimsical pictures of your preferred dog breed, but I tend to avoid those booths because, well, boring!
Anyway, I took my new friend Jenna with me this time, as she had never been before! We met up with Lauren Winter after about an hour. We also ran into Kaelah as we were leaving – Nashville is such a small town! I’m not going to go into detail over what everyone else bought – let’s just say we had to make an extra trip to the truck about an hour in, because we already had too much stuff to carry around! 🙂
I didn’t make out with quite as much bank as I customarily do – no huge garbage bags of fabric for $4, or stacks of patterns for pennies apiece – but I did come home with some perfect little gems.
My absolute favorite thing I bought was this dress – I bought it right before we left (after seeing it first thing & obsessing over it for the next few hours, ha!). I haggled the lady down to $15, which is totally a steal I think. The fabric feels like some kind of silk-blend; it is unfortunately much too hot to wear during out 100*+ days. Anyway, the colors are kind of autumnal. But I love it so much!
I did end up swapping out the buttons to these – the ones on there obviously weren’t original, as they didn’t match the dress at all. Also, there was one missing. I am quite sure I bought these brass buttons at the flea as well, so it seems like a good fit 🙂
Those are the old buttons on the right – silver rhinestones. lolwut
One thing that really delighted me about this dress is that there is a lot of hand-mending all over it – including these little darned holes at the hem. It was obviously a favorite dress.
I also bought this pillowcase (filled it with polyfil from my sewing room – for some reason I have like 3 bags of it?) for $1 – I love all the embroidery! The lady who sold it to me said the woman who did the embroidery was in her 80s at the time. I just think it’s so pretty!
Some pretty brooches – the pinecones came from the same booth that the silk shirtwaist dress is from.
As far as sewing notions, I found a few…
Crazy zippers! Lol I have NO idea what I will do with these, but they had to come home with me.
Crazy bias tape – I see a floofy Christmas dress in my future…
Plaid taffeta… good for another Christmas skirt? Man, I love Christmas.
Celery green lining fabric… kind of boring, but it was also kind of only a $1 sooo no complaints here.
In the world of things I didn’t buy but considered taking home with me anyway –
THE CUTEST PUPPY I’VE EVER SEEN
He’s a miniature Australian Sheepdog! At 19 weeks, he weighed about 6 pounds. We all fell IN LOVE, but apparently he already sold (lol who sells a dog at the flea market anyway?).
Well, no, I didn’t actually want to buy this. Thought I would share anyway. Apparently, this is Farrah Fawcett’s head, in a wooden box.
I actually started – and mostly finished – a new dress over the weekend, but the weird slinky poly was giving me an absolute fit, and the pattern wasn’t looking too hot on me (maybe because of the fabric?), so I ended up tossing it (rather violently, I might add) in the corner & instantly felt 100% liberated. I haven’t had a proper UFO in about 2 years, so this is a very new experience for me.
In the meantime, I started a new dress – we are revisiting Simplicity 1803. In the loudest print I have ever purchased.
Headed toward Tackyville, y/n?
LLADYBIRD 
I’m always forgetting the flea! darnit!!! 😛
Great finds and that puppy, awwww!
You can come with us next month! 🙂
Dogs at flea markets are usually from puppy mills, or stolen. Wah, wah, wah. That’s my Debbie Downer music. Sorry, “the more you know” and all…
It’s super tacky and that’s why it’s awesome! 😀
I think that is usually the case, but this was just one dog being sold by a vendor who sold other stuff. Apparently he bought it from a breeder to keep, and then decided he traveled too much to give the dog a good life (you know, running around & being a dog & such), so he sold it at the flea. That would explain why it was 19 weeks old, instead of the usual 8 or whatever.
Me, personally, I like to adopt my pets from the shelter 🙂
Wow! I really need to take advantage of our local flea markets! I hope we have finds like that here! 🙂 That dress really suits you!
N on tackyville, but what do you expect from the likes of me….
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT ON THOSE ZIPPERS!!!! i’m dying!
Those zippers are intense! And kind of a strange length? I can’t wait to see where they end up. The christmas bias tape is pretty epic too haha! Good finds.
N to tacky – Y to Beautious!
Px
A girl on my block had one of those Farrah Fawcett heads. We used to give her very bizarre makeup jobs…but of course I’m not taking the credit/blame for the haircut!
Farrah fawcett head in a box……weird and wonderful eclipsing those zips and pushing that cute dress to become mere faded memories….that head is mega lol
Those zips are epic. Must now search for mental zips – the bias tape looks fun, think our local shop sold some with snowflakes on last year…if they did Halloween tape with bats or spiders I’d buy the whole damn roll!
Oh, that fabric is my kind of crazy. Can’t wait to see how it goes!
That embroidered pillow is a treasure–good job.
The bias tape! Aghh haha. So cute. I wish I had a flea market to stalk! So many fun finds. My husband must be so glad there isn’t one, he’d hate going, lol!
That puppy… he kills me! Soooo cute! I love the looks of your new Simplicity 1803– the bright fabric is awesome!
Ah …. that puppy brought back memories of the one we lost June last year, to heart disease at only 10, he was black and white, with the nature of an angel, and in Oz a “Shetland Sheepdog”. Immensely jealous of your flee market jaunts.
yeahhhhh flea market!! i’m about to share my finds too. how did i miss the creepy farrah fawcett head? and that dress is adorable on you, lady!
UGH! I saw those very zippers on Friday but decided against them. I also passed on a bow pin and am kicking myself for that too. However, I totally scored on over 60 patterns and some beautiful lace. YAY! Fortunately I didn’t see the creepy head. Love the flea market!
Ah, so it was YOU who bought up all the patterns & didn’t leave me any! Haha I kid… think I have enough in my stash at this point to last a couple of lifetimes 🙂
There is so much eye candy in this post I don’t know where to begin! The autumnal shirt dress, those ZIPPERS!!, that ridiculously cute puppy, your work in progress which looks soooo fun…. Not to mention the disembodied head of Farrah Fawcett. I love crazy random crap like that. Not that I need it or want it, but I would have totally taken a picture of it too. 🙂
OK, I saw the title of this post and could not read further because I’m pissed off at myself for not going. In my defense: Super busy weekend. See you there in August??