And the winner of the dress giveaway is Rachel Nevada!! And I just learned how to do that thing where you freeze and save the image on your screen!!

(I took this photo about 6 years ago in Sacramento, doesn’t it just make your heart buzz with song?)

Thanks for all the sweet and supportive comments you guys, it’s confirmation that I am on the right path and that all this hard work is paying off. Much love sisters.

Been way too long since my last giveaway! I’ve got a number of pretty dresses lined up and am going to try and do one a month this summer (and hopefully beyond).

Just leave a comment containing some sort of feedback about my blog and/or shop. Anything. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I have been working hard to step it up ’round here lately and any help would be appreciated.

As for this gorgeous (modern) dress- it is a slinky, silky polyester, fully lined, with sheer sleeves and forest green scalloped lace at the neckline and empire waist, and ties in back. Label is “Passport”. It’s a size small, ample room in the bust but a nipped little waist. Measurements, lying flat, are: shoulder 14.5, bust 18, waist 14.5, length 35.5. I just noticed a little tear at the left shoulder seam. You’ll live

I will use fantastical internet technology to pick a winner next Thursday!

At some point in Violet Folklore’s past I have posted something somewhere online about my love for 70s Hawaiian peasant dresses.

I’m thinking you feel the same way about these carefree relics of simpler days gone by.

And, like me, picture a dark-skinned earth mama puttering barefoot around her yard in a dress just like these gathering coconuts and mangoes and grinding taro and kava kava roots for an upcoming celebration.

When I came across these dresses in another Etsy shop recently I quickly hearted all of them.

And a few days later received a message from the shop owner. She had gotten all of the dresses from the estate of a friend who had recently passed on. But she and her husband were leaving Hawaii to move to the Middle East soon (I know, really?) and she needed to liquidate her stock. Would I be interested in purchasing them?

Her asking price was a little high, and it was hard to fully ascertain the quality of the dresses as they hung lifelessly on mannequins in the glaring mid-day sun. But I saw the potential. Oh yes, I saw the potential. So we haggled for a bit (I’m getting pretty good at that) and before long they arrived at my door step, all packaged up with pretty tropical leaves.

Can you believe I scored this amazing pile of Gunne Sax gowns… on May Day!? Beltane is my favorite time of year, and my sap was certainly rising high when I came across this sweet collection and made it my own

These two dresses especially blew my mind- have you ever seen Gunnies like this?? I hadn’t.

This dress was a re-shoot, it’s been listed in the shop for a bit already.

And this one isn’t a Gunne, but isn’t it just as gorgeous?

I am working on listing the first two dresses right now, and plan on having the others up by tomorrow evening!