Youtube: All About Hair Rats

Have you ever been interested in hair rats? Check this video for where to find them and how to make your own. Expect future tutorials with hair rats!

Suit-able for the 1940s

I haven't bought a lot of ready to wear clothing lately but when I spied this navy and white microprint suit jacket at Banana Republic for a mere $35, I snatched it up.

I had planned on attempting to make a 40s suit this fall/winter but maybe now I won't have too.

Outfit:
Jacket: Banana Republic
Blouse: vintage
Hat: vintage
Skirt: Simplicity 3688

Yay for fall weather!

I got this hat way back in June but it was soon too hot to wear it. I'm so happy I can whip it out again.

I think I'm going to replace the weird bone colored buttons with something more match-y and add one more button to raise the stance a bit.

What are you excited about wearing this fall?

Hope, Heart, and Happiness

Today I need to ask you guys for a favor. My church runs a nonprofit organization called Hilltop Equestrian Center and it's been nominated to win a share of $5 million in grant money being given away by Chase Community Giving and we need your votes to win.

Vote here via Facebook. Chase bank or credit card customers can vote at www.ChaseGiving.com and cast double votes.

All of our ministries focus on teaching children Hope, Heart, and Happiness.

Hope - Someone cares about you

Heart - Being passionate about something of value.

Happiness - Contentment beyond circumstances.

We uses horse riding and equine care lessons, paintball and equitherapy (physical therapy on horses) to reach underprivilaged and handicapped children and all of these opportunities are offered at no cost.

All you have to do to help us get this grant money is pop over to facebook and vote. If you share via Facebook, Twitter or email, you can earn an extra vote. There's a total of $5 million in grant money being given away and I'd really appreciate if you'd take a few minutes and vote. If you'd like to learn more about the programs offered at Hilltop Equestrian Center, visit us at http://www.hilltopequestriancenter.org/HTEC/.

Thanks! We'll be back to our regularly scheduled vintage programming tomorrow!

A Knitting Conundrum

It is still hot here but the weather is supposed to be turning deliciously fall-ish tomorrow and continue that what for a while. But I'm so ready for fall and knitting! I'm almost done with my spring knitting project so it's time for fall knitting! (Since I kind of missed my planned summer project... )

My husband won me some yummy cranberry worsted weight wool yarn this summer so I'll be using it for my fall project. I've been trolling Ravelry for some yummy patterns.

This comfy sweater has a hood!

This darling bolero is also super cute!

This sweater has a darling lace pattern.

My vintage options are this 40s cardigan.

Or this Swagger Coat from A Stitch In Time Vol. 2 but I'd have to do a shorter version.

Oh, decisions, decisions! I'm leaning towards the bolero (possibly lengthening the sleeves) or the mustard lace sweater. I've got less than 20 rows left on my current sweater and I'm all excited to cast on a new project. What pattern do you like best?

Some small projects

Since we finally got rid of our old kitchen table and moved my new 50s table into the kitchen, all of my sewing stuff go displaced on to the floor and in a cardboard box. Something needed to change.

So I took this floral canvas and made up a hanging organizer for my sewing things. Small light things like marking pens, seam ripper, and tailors chalk went in the top two rows.

I used the heavy canvas to make pockets for my scissors.

And the bottom two pockets hold patterns and notions for my current works in progress. They are really full right now since I have several works in progress. I'm trying to get myself down to just two!

And I also started working on my Red Riding Hood caplet. I used the same pattern for the hood and caplet from my husband's monk costume and just lengthened by six inches because that's as much as I could squeeze out of my yardage. I thought it looked great from the outside, but a bit cheap with just the wrong side of the red stretch velveteen on the inside so I dug into the stash to find a lining material.

I choose some left over black taffeta with a velvet pattern. I'm not entirely sure that the drape and stretch of the two fabrics will work well together but I also have some cheap black lining material I can use instead. Hopefully there is no fabric fail because I love the look of the black print inside the caplet. *crosses fingers* Right now they are hanging to let the bias set so we'll have to wait and see.

The birds loved the organizer fabric. They kept crawling all over it while I was trying to lay out the pockets.

I was trying to fly through making the organizer so that I could have time to put all of the stuff back in the organizer before my husband got home (instead of spread all over the floor...) so there were loads of scraps for the birds to play with. It always seems like the first step in any organization project is to make a bigger mess than you started with.

Adventures in Black Hair Dye

Here's a review of the drugstore box black hair dyes that I tried to get black hair.

If you can't wear a pretty dress, you might as well go shopping

Since the forecast for today was overcast and rainy, this Renaissance Faire trip was not a good one for costumes, but we made up for it in shopping! :)

My splurge for this year was a lovely leather corset from Brown Cow Art. It makes my waist look like it's been photoshopped. :) And it's not even nearly as tight as it could be. I'm sooooo happy that I was good at Jo-Ann's this weekend and only spent $10 instead of bringing home the 6-10 yds of $10/yd fabric that I fell in love with.....

The lady who helped me was very enthusiastic and let me try on several corsets before I found one I liked. Of course, now I need some appropriate clothes to wear under my corset.

My husband's big purchase for the season was a kilt and accessories. He's been wanting one for a while and aside from the fact that wool is ridiculously expensive, I have zero desire to do all of those pleats so he opted to buy one instead.

I also got some accessories for my new Renaissance costume.

I got earrings to match my growing collection from Stillwater Chainmail.

A nice black belt from Blue Flame Leather.

And a leather pouch found at a corset shop of all places (Renaissance Fashions). It's not nearly as nice of a quality as the leather from Brown Cow Art or Blue Flame Leather but I really wanted this size and shape and it was not too pricey either.

If you missed last year's haul, it's here and here. To catch up on all of my Renaissance costuming adventures, set aside a few hours and start here.