Holiday Trunk Show December 6th

December 6th 6PM Preview

1930s Silk Velvet and Ermine Princess  Opera  Coat

1940s Wool Felt New Look Hat

Join Dame at Minerva's Owl for a Holiday Trunk show featuring a curated collection of our finest Top Shelf dresses picked especially with the Holiday season in mind. Every era is represented starting with the 1920s-1980s so there is sure to be something that compliments your personal style. 

You can shop the dresses all month but we'll be hosting the Holiday Stroll Party with added Vintage accessories to complete your Holiday look. If you see something you like that isn't your size, just let me know, we may have something for you in the Dame Attic. 

This event is part of Roslindale's annual Holiday Wander for more information on other local businesses and Holiday events in Roslindale, click here. 

Hope to see you there!

Fall Updates at Minerva's Owl

Wool dresses and smart separates, sweet baby dame and a few Men's specialty items. All available now at Minerva's Owl in Roslindale Square. NOVEMBER UPDATES to include Madmen era coats, sweaters and Holiday dresses.

Stop by Minerva's Owl on December 6th for Dame Holiday Trunk Show, details to follow

Shop Dame at Minerva's Owl

You can now find Dame Vintage at Minerva's Owl in Roslindale Square. If you aren't familiar with Roslindale, it's just one neighborhood south of Jamaica Plain, straight down Washington a couple miles past Forest Hills, or up Centre past the Centre Street rotary. A tad quieter and even greener than it's sister hipster hood JP, a bit off the beaten track, it's accessible by bus and by commuter rail or bike, but bonus-There's plenty of parking.

A trip to Roslindale can feel just a little bit like you've gone back in time, the square retains so much of it's charm from the 1920s when it was built, a diverse neighborhood with loads of restaurants, bakeries and shops. On Saturdays there's even a Farmers Market in Adams Park in the center of the Square. If you've never been, it's certainly worth a Saturday trip for brunch, markets and shopping. Between the Parkways, Adams Park and the Arboretum there's loads of green space to wander. 


For your summer vintage fix, check out Dame at Minerva's Owl, 751 South Street, currently stocked with our best vintage swim suits and summer maxi dresses. Here are just a few of the items that are available for sale. 

1960s Cotton Maxi Dress Size-Small

1950s Modern Boy-cut Swimsuit Size-Medium

1960s Space-age White Illusion Swimsuit Size-Medium

Rose Marie Reid 1960s Mod Skirted Swimsuit Size-Medium

1950s Cotton Tennis Bloomers & 1960s Cotton nautical knit Size -Small 

Shop Dame at The Drill Hall Flea 4/29

At the Drill Hall Flea 4/15

Dame will be pulling out all the summer stops at the Drill Hall Flea Market tomorrow 4/29 10-4.

If you missed us there on 4/15 there's one more market date left and our last show until the Top Shelf Flea on 5/20.  

For the last market we brought all our best Spring and Summer dresses and great rack of Men's shirts and 1970s Leathers. This week it's an all Dame summer - bathing suits and separates, loads of cute 1950s tops, skirts and shorts. Men's short sleeves from the 40s-50s, Hawaiian Mod Maxis and beach tunics. There will also be a small selection of home textiles, plus size 1950s cotton slips and I'm temped to break into the1950s handbags. 

Here are a few snapshots to give you an idea of what Dame has to offer this Summer. There is  so much nautical! 

Since we've moved I've yet to find an ideal photo taking location. The yard is almost 100% shade, the sunny spots move around the yard hourly. I used Instagram to take some of these photos since you can edit them on the fly, but the resolution isn't great. I just started using lightbox and it's a really fantastic photo editing app that maintains the resolution of your photos. I think it may be time for a computer so I can have better editing capabilities, in the meantime the phone will have to do. 

Hope to see you tomorrow! 

1960s RoseMarie Reid Skirted Suit	1960s Graphic Maxi
1950s Skirted Suit
1960s Sailor top and 1950s Cotton Tennis Bloomers	1970s Wrap Maxi Dress
1940s Cotton Bustier 1960s Skort

Madmen Part Two

Introducing Megan and Trudy. What a fun pair of ladies.


Megan is effortlessly elegant while youthful and sporty. I'm not at all surprised to see her daytime wear composed of easy care double knits. Her comfort and ease in her clothes totally reflect her character. Trudy is a bit funny, she has modern tastes but is decidedly feminine and conservative. This traditional silk shirtwaist in a bright offbeat pattern reflects her modern conservatism in my eyes.


Click here for Faye, Joan, Betty, and Peggy.

The better late than never blouse

This blouse was supposed to be my first Sew Weekly challenge back in, um well a long time ago. I signed up to be a contributing member for 2012 to the Sew Weekly Sewing blog. I'm one of about 140 members who sew and post their results according to a challenge issued by the site's administrators. Each contributor has the opportunity to be featured on the blog, but I'm pretty certain that requires finishing on time. So I'm way behind at this point. While I need to revisit my bandwidth to see if I can keep up with these amazing sewists, I was determined to finish this blouse once I started.


The challenge was buttons. I decided to keep it simple and use the Sencha pattern from Colette Patterns. A vintage styled blouse with buttons up the back. I knew right away that I wanted to make the buttons a design feature. Sewing with commercial patterns is pretty new to me. I'm a self taught seamstress, and devised my own measuring and draping techniques that served me pretty well for a long time. After I went to the MA Art program for Fashion Design, I learned to make my own patterns. Since I don't have slopers in my own size, I thought trying out some commercial patterns would be a fun and easy way to get back into sewing. I also thought it would be a great way to learn more about custom fitting patterns and present easy design basics. I tend to make projects more complicated then they need to be sometimes so I also thought this would be a great way to keep it simple. 


The process went pretty smoothly. I cut the pattern, drafted a muslin, re-cut the pattern, and made adjustments for a short torso, in one afternoon. To make the adjustment for petites most patterns tell you to cut it at the waist and raise it to measure. If you are petite you know this is not really an ideal solution. It doesn't shorten the width of the shoulders the neckline/bust-line or shorten the height of the arm holes, all serious issues for a petite fit. Since this pattern didn't have set arms and had a sort of raglan shoulder I know the fabric would probably drape ok. After three months, (?) when I finally went back to it, all I had to do was buttons and finishing. 


You would think that the buttons wouldn't be an issue for someone with 6 sewing machines. Yes 6. But the combination of machines and attachments or lack of proved to be a maddening exercise. Two of my newer machines (1960s-1970s) turned out to be broken in one way or another and my 1940s refurbished machines include every attachment under the sun, except the appropriate button-holer. So I had to break out my first new machine. The Singer 160, the limited edition vintage styled machine that Singer released for their 160th anniversary. If you sew, you know that machines have personalities and getting to know a new one can take some time. Having never used a digital machine, I had to get used to the automated features with less than ideal illustrations in the manuals. It seems like a good solid machine and the button-holer is what I would call adequate for basic buttons. My 1970s machine has far more sophisticated button options, so guess it's worth fixing. After fighting with it for a full day, I finally realized I was threading the bobbin incorrectly and was able to finish the blouse! Viola. 

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading my wordy post. Hopefully  I'll learn to write about sewing in a more interesting way. If you have any questions on my fitting process, fitting for petites or my experience with this pattern, ask away. 

What's your creative process?

So my mind is going in 100 creative directions and I'm really looking forward to the process of narrowing down my thoughts. I'm pretty excited to get back into the Markets, I'm so in love with Dame's current collection of Vintage, ironically it's the most finely curated yet. Although, the jury is out on how long I'll remain a vintage vendor. Who know's maybe I can't quit it, once I have the time to go scouting again the bug could certainly return. 


In the meantime I'm looking forward to the creative pursuits neglected while I was running the shop. On my agenda is photography, sewing, possibly a Fall Mini Collection inspired by my good friend Tonya who has debuted her fine talents on her new blog, Rational Construct, and continuing home design. I have a few summer items I'd like to make and I want to finish the blouse which was intended to be my first project for The Sew Weekly blog.  I've actually given myself a deadline, Sunday to wear on Easter, so looks like I'll be sewing Saturday if I ever want to make a single self imposed deadline.


I've been running around and around in my head trying to figure out how to find direction and inspiration. While the sources of inspiration are endless, I'm trying to hone in on the achievable and the fun and point myself in the right direction. Instead of a business venture, this time around my main goal is to have fun and bring art back into my life, to stop working so hard, and to start creating things. 


Using sewing as my inspiration I used Moo cards to create new hang tags for the Vintage Markets. A bit of a cop out I know, but a slight nod to the Dame transition. These are the images I chose. 

The Blouse I'm supposed to finish on Saturday

Experimenting with pattern weights for the first time

I'm curious to know how you find the time and the focus to work on your projects and how you choose which creative paths to follow when time and resources are limited. I'd love for you to share your projects, inspirations and tactics for finding the time for it all. I'm sure I have a lot to learn.