Destiny....Foreordained..... Serendipity...Fate?

 All of these words come to mind when I think of how certain pieces in the collection have found me. Sometimes its just plain spooky. Instead of sharing what little I got accomplished on the casket this weekend, I thought I would share a couple if interesting projects with ya'll...   

I am getting into the annual Spring repack of the storage...and I have them out, so here they are.

First is this really great 18th c jacquard silk~ when I saw the picture above on eBay, I immediately went to my catalogue and flipped thru it....yes indeed.....I have a piece that matches this

 But how strange it is, that this first piece, shown above, I purchased in 2007. Seriously....2007.  Twelve years ago. And this other piece just happens along....well of course I had to have it

 As can be seen, it matches exactly~ and was cut from my larger piece, as the cut line matches up perfectly with both pieces.  At this rate...I don't think I will live long enough to sleuth out the entire gown....

 Which brings me to this piece of utterly charming wool challis. Isn't it just the best?  I always keep my eye out for early fabrics and was looking for something to redress an antique doll, when I found 'a' piece of this fabric. A salvedge width, by 39" long.  

 I asked the seller if they had any more, and why, yes, they did. They  had 2 more panels....which I was glad to purchase. A while later, they found another...and then a couple more.....and a few months later, they found a bodice that matched.....do you see where I am going here????   A perfectly good, original, 1850s era gown was cut up to sell for doll clothes, which absolutely infuriates me. It's really no different than the 1840s quilt that I bought a few years ago, well, some while ago actually....square by blasted square....cut up by a seller on eBay.  WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   WHY???????????????????   I mean, yes, its theirs and they can do with what they choose...but good grief. Come on people.....  I bet if the seller of this gown, would have listed it as said gown, they would have got way more $$ for it, it would have remained intact, and they would not have had to waste time and energy cutting it into pieces......  All in all....I bought 6 salvedge width skirt panels...

  the complete inside skirt hem facing, seen above,

  and the bodice. I absolutely adore this fabric~ and thanks to a failed attempt at adding some kind of skirting to the bottom of the bodice, I will get a tiny smickrel to use for dollys. The rest, will be carefully restitched together. The beautiful tulip petal capped full pagoda sleeves are fully lined, front hand hammered hooks & eyes still attached.

Just a few hasty stitches in black cotton floss need be unpicked to get this girl back to her former self. The skirt panels at least were unpicked from each other, and not cut....so they just need to be restitched~ the hem edge is still intact, just needs the facing to be put back...so this is one of my projects sitting here patiently waiting for some attention.

I beg of all my readers, to think twice before cutting an original garment~ there are so very few left, and so many wonderful reproduction fabrics available to use for modern sewing. There will always be a market for intact, original clothing and textiles, always.