Fantastic Vintage Fabric of the Week - Goombay Bahamian Song

Goombay Music - Papas Beat the DrumsVintage Moygashel Cotton Fabric

My favorite find of the week is a rare vintage fabric featuring words from a popular Goombay Bahamian song. It is just added and for sale on Revival Fabrics.

In this vintage Moygashel cotton fabric, you'll find the printed words to a popular Goombay Bahamian song, "Goombay Papas beat the drums again, Goombay Mommas havin fun again, Goombays do a wicked dance when they do the Goombay"

Printed on one selvage: Hand Print REGD Design U.K. No451013 (Copyright GT Britain Empire), the other selvage Moygashel Sea Island Cotton. You certainly can't beat the quality Moygashel, a world class fabric manufacturer.

A customer review on Amazon of the album Bahamas: Goombay 1951-195 gives a great description of Goombay Bahamian music.

Moygashel Island Cotton - selvage

Fascinating Vintage Fabric of the Week - Taki 183 - Graffiti Artist

 

This vintage 1970s fabric had me stumped. Are the letters and numbers from a high school year book, classroom room numbers, or maybe bible verses?  I had to do a bit of research to find out the meaning behind the names and numbers. 

The fabric is sold and no longer available, but please read about TAKI 183 - Graffiti Artist Pioneer.


Take a look at the center of the photo and you will find TAKI 183 in yellow. 

It turns out that TAKI 183 was the alias of the very first graffiti artist written about in the media in 1971 by The New York Times.  Taki was the nickname of a Greek teenager that lived in New York and 183 was the number of the street he lived.

Taki soon had copycats such as The King 145, Roberta 223, Mike 38 and many others.

You can read the full story about TAKI 183 by The New York Times dated July 21, 1971.

Check out the TAKI 183 website, you'll find photos of Taki's graffiti and biography (and The New York Times article above).

To see the history of graffiti check out the short timeline clips on "Timeline of Graffiti"  TAKI 183 is the fourth clip in.

This is one historic retro fabric that I am doubtful I'll come across again.  It's been said that the last whereabouts of Taki is he owns a foreign car shop.

The Unicorn in Captivity - Unicorn Tapestries - Vintage Fabric

Recently I found a vintage fabric that is my Favorite Vintage Fabric of the Week!

Known as The Unicorn in Captivity, this fabric is based on a series of medieval Unicorn Tapestries from 1495-1505, and is based on religious symbolism. The tapestries are housed at The Cloisters in New York, a branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The fabric is on Revival Fabrics right now.

To read more about the incredible Unicorn Tapestries series, visit the MOMA website. Below is a photo of The Unicorn in Captivity tapestry at the MOMA

Back When Fabric was 37 cents a Yard

I have a thing for stickers. Smiley face stickers. Scratch n' sniff stickers. Those freebie address label stickers you get in the mail.

But the best kind of stickers are those that are still attached to a vintage fabric. Yes!

Here is a vintage circa 1950s fabric with an original Newberrys price sticker for 37 cents a yard.  (the fabric has sold on RevivalFabrics.com)

Also, please check out Revival Fabrics Facebook page that has photos of vintage tags and price stickers. I'm adding more soon.

Cyberdeal This Week

Cyberdeal This Week at Revival Fabrics!

This week only through Sunday December 5th, save 20% on your order. No minimum order needed, no hassles. Use coupon code at checkout: cyberdeal20

Can You Name This Vintage Fabric? Win It! Hurry!

Join in a fun contest to win a vintage fabric valued at $59

Do you know what this type of fabric was named in the 1960s?

Name this vintage non-stretch, fluidly draping polyester red and white polka dot fabric by Friday, June 4 and you win it! All three yards of it.

Leave your answer here, or over at Revival Fabrics Facebook page. If you are the first person to answer correctly by Friday 11:59 p.m., you win the fabric with shipping included.

Here are some hints:

* the name is a food that is sweet and yummy
* the fabric has a subtle crepe appearance
* its a fabric from the 1960s - 1970s
* a garment weight fabric

Game on!

You Know a Fabric is Vintage Fabric If.......What Do You Know?

I thought it would be fun to share how you know a fabric is vintage. Let's share those random gems you've learned over time or discovered lately.

Here are a few things that I know.

You know a Fabric is Vintage Fabric If......

~ ...paperwork, receipts, and envelopes found with the fabric have addresses without zip codes. I just learned from Antiques Roadshow that most zip codes started in 1963

~ ...the fabric is a yard long and has little holes that curve around the corners at the ends, you have a vintage fabric feedsack. These little stitch holes are called "tenter holes"

~ ...the printed design has metallic gold, the fabric is likely from the 1950s

~ ...super bright, neon loud colors can be found on late 1960s retro fabrics

~ ...border prints were popular in the 1950s and sewn into skirts, curtains, and tablecloths

~ ...a color called "Old Rose" was used in 1940s fabrics, a similar color to mauve of the 1990s

...What do you know?

Original Label from Vintage 60s Moygashel Linen Fabric

It's always fabulous to find a vintage fabric with the original fabric label or fabric hangtag --- valuable information to add to your knowledge base of when a fabric was manufactured, and the manufacturer.

This vintage Irish Moygashel linen fabric came with the original label, letting us know with absolute certainty that it's from one of the finest linen manufacturers in the world.

I read online that Moygashel Linens was bought by Ulster Weavers Apparel from the Lamont Group in 2001.

Find this vintage Moygashel linen fabric, with the original label, is on Revival Fabrics website.

Also, be sure to check out the photos of vintage fabric labels, and vintage fabric hangtags on Revival Fabrics Facebook page.

OP Art - Optical Illusion - Retro Fabrics

Just in! and added on RevivalFabrics.com website are some really cool, and not so easy to find vintage optical illusion and OP Art fabrics from the 1960s.

Wikipedia has interesting information on OP Art, be sure to check it out.

Happy Friday to you and have a great weekend!

Crafty Project for Mother's Day

Need a crafty idea for Mother's Day?

Make a unique teacup pincushion out of vintage fabric --- and try your hand at the handmade greeting card as well.

Check out the easy instructions at Vintage Image Craft

Mother's Day is right around the corner!

Yardage! uncut vintage yardage just in

Happy Earth Day! Aren't you glad to know that as a fan of vintage fabric and textiles, you are keeping these pieces of history out of the landfills? I know that I am.

Just in on the website are some pretty cool vintage fabrics in uncut yardage.

Photo #1: 6 uncut yards of vintage VHY Von Hamm-Young sateen fabric
Photo #2: 8 uncut yards of vintage cowboy fabric - Ropin' Cowboy vintage cotton fabric
Photo #3: 9 uncut yards of vintage satin fabric - Roller Derby Flower Power
Photo #4: 6 uncut yards of vintage polyester fabric - Art Nouveau Woman

You don't see this type of uncut vintage yardage fabric prints every day

Gloria Vanderbilt Vintage Fabric

Oh how I love this vintage Gloria Vanderbilt fabric! It's been in my personal clutches for quite some time and I'm now offering it up to you on the website. Raise your yard stick if you are a vintage fabric pack rat --- yes, up high. That's me too and some vintage fabrics stick around with me longer than others before I put them on the website.

Gloria, I've enjoyed having you around. It's time for someone else to delight in the roses, hearts, dots, polished finish, summer colors, and seersucker texture of this fabric.

Just In! Many Vintage Novelty & Floral Fabrics

Keep an eye out on RevivalFabrics website, I recently found many really unique vintage cotton fabrics. Most are vintage cotton fabrics from the 1940s - 1950s, there are a few 1960s fabrics.

I'll add these fabrics to the website over the next month. Check out the vintage fabrics that I added today. I especially like the vintage fabric with yellow butterflies and purple background --- it's a stunning color combination.

More added soon!

Yardage - Vintage Cowboy Fabric - Get a Yard Free

I'm so excited to have a vintage cowboy fabric in uncut yardage, I'm extending the Deal of the Day!

I have 11 uncut yards of this 1940s - 1950s vintage cotton cowboy fabric. If you buy 10 yards, you'll receive the 11th yard free.

Very rarely will you find vintage cowboy or novelty fabric in this kind of yardage. It's also sold by the yard, if you don't need the full yardage.

Valentine's Day Vintage Fabric - Cool Sepia Colors

Here's a fun vintage 1973 cotton fabric just in time for Valentine's Day!

In this vintage fabric you'll find bears holding hearts that say "This Bears My Love for You." Cute, yes?

Not only is this an awesome design, the date of 1973 is on the selvage. This is a Klopman Mills Burlington retro fabric.

My grandmother used to hand tint family photos. If you compare a hand tinted photo (photo from Wikimedia) to the bears in this fabric, you'll notice a resemblance in the wonderfully rich sepia tones and colors.

Happy early Valentine's Day to you.

Deal of the Day!

Be sure to check the NEW Deal of the Day! on RevivalFabrics.com

Check out today's Deal of the Day!

I'm offering a great daily deal on vintage fabrics and retro fabrics that could be:

* a great price for the day on a fabric
* buy a yard get a yard free
* who knows what other kind of steal or deal it could be! You have to check the Deal of the Day to find out.

Don't forget to check back on RevivalFabrics.com often, the Deal of the Day will change often.

Full Bolt of Retro Fabric - Buy the Bolt get 1 yard free!

I sure get stoked when I find a full bolt of retro fabric and vintage fabric ! It's much more common to find fabric remnants in 3 - 5 yard pieces.

On Revival Fabrics right now is 11 uncut yards of retro fabric on the original Everfast cardboard bolt. I'm offering the 11th yard free if you buy 10 yards. In this economy, I want my designing and sewing friends to have all the help they can get. (The discount will automatically apply upon checkout. The fabric is also sold by the yard, if you don't need 11 yards)

This vintage fabric is quality, reflected in the original $4.00 per yard price sticker on the end of the bolt --- quite high for it's time in the 1960s - 1970s. And also cool to find original sticker prices.

Printed on the selvage of the fabric is Everfast Fabrics, Inc.

Everfast was known in it's time as a manufacturer of deeply dyed fabrics with colors not prone to fade in the sun or in the wash.

If you are an independent designer, and have a large order from one of your buyers, you certainly could make many handbags, purses, jackets, pillows, or tablecloths from this authentic retro fabric.

Fun Vintage Fabrics - Just In

Just added today to RevivalFabrics.com are a grouping of vintage acetate fabrics.

These are fun vintage novelty fabric prints from the 1950s in motifs of butterflies, musicians, big-eyed light bulbs (you have to see this one!), camping lanterns, birds, and floral. All are dress, blouse, and lightweight pillow weight vintage fabrics.

I just love working with acetate, it has the lustrous shine similar to silk fabric, the swooshy rustle and body of a taffeta fabric, is soft, looks luxurious, doesn't shrink much, and dries quickly.

Vintage Grandma Moses Fabric - Halloween

Just added to RevivalFabrics.com is a really great vintage Grandma Moses fabric, from Moses' original painting "Halloween"

Grandma Moses was a self-taught artist. Her unique folk art style of painting made Moses one of the most successful woman artists in America during her time.

Anna Mary Robertson was born in 1860 on a farm in New York, and she also lived for a time in Virginia. Grandma Moses could have coined the phrase "it's never too late", since she started painting in her 70s and finished a painting at age 100.

At the age of 12, Moses left her childhood farm home, later married Thomas Salmon Moses, and had 10 children, five of which survived. Grandma Moses died in 1961 in Hoosick Falls, New York at the age of 101.

Moses' artwork was first discovered in a drug store window by an engineer. He marketed her art work to galleries in New York with little success; many gallery owners thought it foolish to invest in a painter in her 70s. But, after St. Etienne gallery in New York took a chance on her, Moses had a one-woman show in 1940.

Before becoming a folk art painter, Moses embroidered landscapes until arthritis settled in her hands. She then took up painting, and painted the people, things, and place in her memories.

Moses was a landscape artist with an eye toward the four seasons, as can be seen in her "Halloween" painting that speaks of Fall.

Between 1950 - 1967 the Riverdale Company manufactured fabric from many of Grandma Moses tiles and paintings.

Sale Reminder through November 30th

Just a reminder of our RevivalFabrics.com sale going on!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all

Today through November 30th, Revival Fabrics has two super offers on vintage fabric just for you.

Orders $49 and greater will receive FREE shipping. No discount coupon code needed upon checkout.

Orders $125 and greater will receive a 15% discount AND free shipping. Please use coupon code MY15 upon checkout.

Free shipping to United States addresses only. Overnight shipping not included in this offer.