A Shop of 1920s Dresses

Last week I was in Grayling, Michigan visiting the Ausable Quilt Shop for their Row By Row block. We also visited the Crawford County Historical Museum which had a display of vintage dresses in a 'dressmaker's shop'.

Wedding Dress

Most of thehe dresses dated from early 1920s.

Sheer dress with embroidery and beading

A dress with a sheer over skirt with ribbon embroidered flowers

beaded and fringed purses

Ella M. 'Sal' Truettner Hubel owned the Pink Lady and Shirlee Shoppe ladies apparel stores in Grayling. Her portrait and the dress she wore are on display in the museum.

Sal was born in Clare, MI on April 12, 1903 and died at age 94 on March 5, 1998.

Grayling is situated on several rivers and is today called "The Canoe Capital". Those rivers originally were important for transporting logs during the lumber heyday in Michigan. Little remains of the original virgin forests, but just outside of Grayling is a tract of unlumbered forest at Hartwick Pines. The city is also home to Camp Grayling, the largest training camp east of the Mississippi for the National Guard. The Grayling fish is gone, but fishermen come for trout and the Jack Pine forests are the only home for the Kirtland Warbler.

See the quilt patterns and kits in this year's Row By Row here.