a real life saver - childrens costume jewellery

Thursday at ten o'clock A. M. , 40-
Older women gathered in charcoalcoloured, box-
In the former factory in Brian industrial zone.
Women from the Toorak Save the Children Division pay $15 per person to visit the clothing collection, a private museum of Australian apparel in 200.
Loel Thomson, who has not advertised visitors for her collection of 10,000 items, has been collecting for more than 20 years.
Through word of mouth, she now receives up to 10 tours a week.
Proceeds will be donated to each charity nominated by the visiting group or by default to Murchison nursing home.
Save the Children's Organization climbed the stairs to the first floor and walked down a corridor with display cabinets full of lace, tapestries and clothing jewelry.
The corridor leads to an ante-
More showrooms and a long church bench.
A petite woman with glasses, former school teacher Thomson told today's "class" that collection is a "hobby of growth ".
For decades, she and her husband Brian have run two very successful truck dealers in Shepparton and Albury.
In 1975, the couple purchased Noorilim, a 1879 Italian-style mansion similar in size and style to Werribee mansion and spent 24 years repairing the property
80 hectares on the banks of gulben near Murchison
For the glory of the past
Loel Thomson collects insects and shells and puts them in a drawer.
Noorilim turned into a real life
In her own museum.
She looked closely at the original plans of architect James Geer for Noorilim and looked at the period accessories and furniture.
She scrubbed the mington tiles in the hallway until their intricate patterns glow again.
She ripped the carpet 1970 thick and fixed the firewood oven in the laundry and kitchen.
She expanded the garden to five hectares and built a lake with roses, blue spruce and weeping cypress trees.
On 1980, Thomson allowed an Australian local Miss contestant to hold a fashion parade in Noorilim to raise funds for children with disabilities.
Soon, a fund-raising Day was held at Noorilim by local hospitals, church groups and vintage car clubs.
The open day in early 1990 raised $50,000 for the Murchison Historical Society.
She has raised $20,000 for Murchison nursing home and still sends checks on a regular basis.
During 1986 European trips, Brian, Loel and their son Andre lived in the historic city of Bath for a year.
Loel visited castles and museums throughout the UK.
But she especially liked Bath's clothing Museum, which dates back to 1600.
She spent a few days visiting the British country market and buying old irons, baby boots or Victorian hats that others didn't want.
Brian shipped seven classic Jaguar cars back to Australia for sale, filled with his wife's clothing collection.
In 1988, Thomson built a coaching house next to Noorilim to store her rapidly growing collection of clothing and arranged a small museum display inside, the theme is "between Edward and" war ".
At 1999, the Thomson family sold their business.
Now Noorilim with a vineyard is getting too stressed to maintain, so they sold it.
In Brian, near the Yarra River, they bought an old computer factory that could accommodate his hobbies --
Cars and motorcycles
And her costume collection.
They live at the scene.
Tourists usually donate to pass on the heir wedding dress or the baptism dress, but the focus now is to fill in the blank items in the collection or tell an interesting story.
She picked up a delicate Edwardian silk camband that was part of the bride's dowry in early 1900.
She said it was "very special" and probably only wore it a few times, if any, because it was too valuable.
She then raised a pair of rough, huge female cotton balls, saying they were equally valuable.
They were handmade during World War II or the Great Depression and may have been cut off from old sheets.
Pointing to the lace around the leg holes, Thomson said: "The person who made them is not a sewer", "sewing is too bad ".
"It's just the kind of thing that doesn't usually survive," Thomson said . ".
"It will be used as a rag duster and then thrown away.
But for me, in the long run, it has more stories to tell than many other things that are more novel.
"Thomson opened two doors behind her and brought us into her showroom.
We strolled leisurely in the music.
There is a 19th-century fashion accessory on a table: a parasol, a cloth hat from an old lady, next to a photo of her wearing it, a fan, a comb and a child's glove.
At the footwear table, a pair of Victorian-style toddler boots dwarfs a pair of giant WWII excavator boots.
A bathing suit show points out that in the neck, swimmers begin in the 20 th centuryto-
Modest knee style, ending the century, kids often wear knees
Diving suit of length to keep the sun.
Thomson keeps changing the exhibits and her spirit is "it doesn't make sense to get things out unless it's saying something ".
In last October, a woman who visited the collection donated a copy of World War II-era lady's two-
Tailored suit.
On 1942, the lady's father won a prize draw in a gray wool suit fabric made by the Yarra Falls Mill in abertsford and paid for the tailor at Flinders Lane, make it the impeccable costume of his wife.
For Thomson, this illustrates the value of wartime quality clothing materials.
Thomson has been looking for an exciting "discovery" collection at every second
No matter where we go, no matter where we go, I will look for it ".
Two years ago, in a market, she found a small cardboard box with a fragile red, hair-made necklace and a matching brooch.
She bought the work intuitively and felt what it meant, and soon after, she visited Dublin's National Museum and saw an exhibition that was almost the same as the one she purchased.
According to the museum catalogue, it is made of Maomao, originated in ugar, Ireland, and is a product of the cottage industry during the 1840-generation potato famine.
Thomson later noticed that part of her own horse hair necklace was sewn in the shape of a clover --
Maybe an immigrant souvenir from her hometown.
Thomson, 63, is often asked what happens when she gets older and can't look after the costume series.
She felt that she had made too much financial and emotional investment and had not given up for decades.
"At the moment, this is almost the whole reason why I exist.
"It feels a bit like the work I have to do," she said . "
"I think I'm doing something meaningful, social history --
It is wise that I can leave it to future generations.