Did I Just DIY?

Last week my yardsaling/estate-saling buddy and I went to an estate sale really near my house. It was the second day, which meant my very favorite thing - everything was half-off!

 We got right in as it opened and I headed straight to the bedrooms, where the closets are, and one would assume, the dresses are.

I found a couple of cute vintage dresses right away. I was pretty happy with these finds.

The last one I wanted to fit me so, so badly. But what you see there is as far as I can lift my arms in it. (Stupid large rib cage). It's so Jackie O. It's so shiny. And the buttons on the neck are so sparkly! True love.

As I was rooting around in the closets, another woman - not an employee of the estate sale, just another shopper - said to me "oh, you like vintage dresses? You should go out in the garage. There's a whole box of them out there." 

And she was right. A whole box of dusty, stained, GORGEOUS dresses. It looked like this in the car after I was done:

I was told as I checked out (rather gleefully - my poker face was not in place but what were they going to do? The prices were clearly marked!) that someone else had been there the day before and bought 30 dresses. I can't even imagine what they get when this amazingness was left behind.

Unfortunately, some of them were stained. I decided to see what I could do about that, bearing in full mind what my track record is of doing things myself. I asked on Instagram and was given the advice to spot treat with a combination of mild detergent, hydrogen peroxide, and baking soda. I tried it, and IT WORKED. I didn't even think to take before pictures, because who would have imagined that I would actually succeed?? This picture, if you zoom in, does show one of the stains right in the center of my chest:

I took the picture thinking I wanted to keep it and then saw how short and stumpy I looked and changed my mind. But there it is, the stain, right in the center. And look at it now!

No stains! No dust either, for that matter. Just lovely and clean! I'm so proud of myself.  I was so proud, in fact, that I went to town on all the stains on all the others and met with equal success!!

Different dresses in different stages of the cleaning process.... but all CLEAN!!

It has been suggested that cleaning might not be DIY. But I ask you. Did I not DO IT MYSELF? And I made the cleaning solution out of separate ingredients. And applied it. And soaked the dresses. And dried them. And I DID IT MYSELF. And as we all know what an epic failure I usually am at DIY, let's all just agree to give me this one. I'm just so pleased.

I spent the next few days scrambling to get them all measured and photographed so that I could spend Monday and Tuesday listing them from here:

Perfection. I also decided to wear one of my new vintage dresses to dinner that night, and was very glad I did.

Oh summer. Never leave me.