Prints Charming Sunday: Presidential Sweet.

Welcome to Prints Charming Sunday- and also Happy Valentines Day! I hope your roses are free of thorns and your chocolates free of fat. Wow, that sounded like a really lame Hallmark card.

I'm not going to rock a Valentine's Day novelty print theme today, because I've already done it over the past week or 2 and frankly, I'm kind of over all the hearts and pinks and cutesy. Instead, I'm thinking about tomorrow, which is President's Day here in the US, honoring our country's forefathers and whatnot. I thought about what could represent the day in a novelty print and came across plenty of red, white & blue bicentennial/1776-1976 vintage stuff but it's just wasn't exactly was I had in mind. And then I remembered the Colonial/Americana theme.

The Colonial/Americana theme for home decor made it's way into the home starting in the 1950's and carried on well into the 1970's, from the oversize plastic gold-painted eagle plaques to the Americana drapes, which also matched the fabric on the hulking, heavy wood furniture. Good...lord. Fug. And while I appreciate the patriotism of it ... it was not pretty. Yet, it was more common to see that in the average Joe Schmoe home in anytown, USA than the idyllic, mid-century modern/Heywood Wakefield/atomic/boomerang decor that we like to assume homes looked like in the 50's. The colonial crap was cheap, easily accessible and the furniture wore like steel. So there you have it.

So in honor of tomorrow,today's vintage Presidential-y novelty print is this Vintage Americana-Print Sailor Blouse:



It's not too gaggingly colonial, not too cutesy, but the perfect combo for old-timey sweetness. Blouse is currently available on Etsy from seller Decades of Baltimore.