My sullied stars

Dress: Atmosphere, thrifted;

Scarf: thrifted;

Black slipdress: thrifted;

Shoes: Aerosoles.

These photos were taken in our neighborhood right before a huge thunderstorm Tuesday night, so it was wonderful to see the geese and baby ducks (!!) on the water before the rain came down. I've forgotten how beautiful our neighborhood can be. The gazebo hasn't made an appearance on the blog lately because the warm weather seems to attract many people to it and it's always occupied. But sometimes certain spots near the lake are so serene and quiet, and the ducks don't mind too much if you want to get a closer look.

This dress was one of the thrift finds I scored on Monday. When I bought it, the dress seemed perfect: navy blue, star pattern, nice button-down shape, pockets and at a really good price -- $5. It was a little tight, but with some smoke and mirrors (my scarf and black slipdress) you'd never know that.  Basically, the dress fit this idea of some 1940s Victory-Gardening-Bettie-Page-cheesecake frock that I've wanted for awhile. I'll try to get some shots of it without the scarf sometime so you can see the form-fittingness of it a little better. My slipdress is actually hanging out a considerable amount in the pictures, and although it wasn't that much of a problem during the day, I think I'm going to find a white ruffled replacement just for this dress.

The only problem I've run into with this dress is that when I hand washed it (which the tag said I should do), the navy blue dye began to run, and soiled the pristine white stars. You can't really tell in the photos, but now some of the stars are white, and now some are tinged purple. I felt like such a silly novice about it all, but I've never had this problem with thrifted clothing (most of the time everything is pre-worn and pre-washed). I think the accidental dyeing adds more to the charm and makes the dress look older than it is, which I'm fine with, but I'd rather not lose any more of the color. Do any of you know what to do in terms of cleaning a printed garment like this?

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