Finding my personal style

Vintage fashion is quite a small niche that once you find it, it's easy to think that you've got your style sorted out. But once you've been wearing vintage for a while, you find that you gravitate to certain looks more than others. And it you wear vintage long enough, you'll find that your tastes will change.

So here's some snapshots of my personal style journey.

Initially, I was drawn to 40s styles, but 50s styled pieces were easier to find so I ended up doing a lot of more 50s styles.

Once I started sewing, I could do much more period accurate looks.

I discovered hats and learned how to harness my hair.

I obsessed over the early 40s.

And the late 40s.

And I made a couple of side trips to pixie land.

So what have I learned about my personal style?

• My favorite fashion years are 1940 to 1950 although I do occasionally go older or newer.

• I prefer clothing that is comfortable and easy to wear. While I'm more than willing to wear a girdle and huge crinoline for special occasions, for everyday wear I just want to wear regular old under things.

• I don't like most novelty prints. Oh, they are so cute, but they make me feel like I'm 12! I need be more picky with my prints and also do more solids.

• Separates are awesome! Again, more solids than prints.

• Hair matters. I need to work on finding a great everyday hairstyle so I can look good everyday.

• I love linen, cotton and rayon! No more polyester!

• I look good in color! And I can wear loads of shades that a lot of people can't so I should embrace them.

• I prefer a classic, tailored look rather than a frilly, girly style or a tomboy look.

What have you learned about your personal style?

Indian Summer

September is the month that never really makes up it's mind as to what season it wants to be. We had quite a long stretch of chilly late fall weather so I packed up all of my summer clothes.

And wouldn't you know, it was decidedly summery this weekend. So goes life in the midwest.

So I pulled out this Bernie Dexter dress to wear to a wedding we shot this weekend. It is such a fun dress that I couldn't resist the chance to wear it one more time.

To be honest, I'd been having a bit of an identity crisis lately. Between the growing out pixie, the new hair color and the having to wear more modern clothes to work, I just wasn't feeling like me.

Plus, I've been doing so much costuming, I haven't even had the chance to start on any of my fall sewing projects!! But this weekend, I really felt like I found myself again.

My hair is finally back at pincurl length again! It probably would have been ok earlier, but with work being crazy, I hadn't had time to really play with it until this weekend!

 And I finally gave up on the reddish brown hair color. It just wasn't me! So back to darker hair it was.

 Sometimes it's nice to have a break from all of the effort that goes into dressing vintage, but just like any vacation, it feels good to be home again once you're done!

Old Favorites

I've gotten to wear a lot of new things this year but sometimes it's nice to break out an old favorite! This grey wool kirtle is comfortable and fun to wear and I just love it!

It might not be the most flashy outfit but sometimes you don't want to be flashy.

I also wore my faux fur partlet. My husband thinks it looks a bit silly but it's nice and warm.

The drape of the wool is fabulous and the skirt is super swishy! The pleating plus my own natural bum padding gives a rather fashionable shape to the skirt.

Some sass taking off the partlet! I guess this would go under the heading of Elizabethan pin-up. ;)

People wore a lot more clothes in the 16th century than we do now! I know they were in a mini ice age and in England but it does take a bit of getting used to. I really still needed to wear a pair of sleeves but I don't really have a good pair of sleeves that matches this outfit yet.

 Everyone was bundled up in capes and fur this weekend! I'm sure it will get colder before the end of the season but it was still quite chilly in the morning.

This past weekend was the annual camping trip we take with our friends and we got to hang with them at the faire all weekend! It is so much more fun to go in a large group! 

We worked on making sure we got around to seeing all of the shows we hadn't seen yet this year. There really is so much to do that you can't see it all in one day. Plus, some of the performers don't do the same show every time they perform so there's even more to see.

Alas, we won't get to go back for a few weekends. We got some weddings coming up and we'll be busy busy busy. Hopefully, this will mean some more vintage outfit posts over the next few weeks.

Some Good English Weather

This weekend, we had some good English weather for faire! It was chilly and gray, although, it didn't rain, thankfully. So I got to wear some of my cold weather costumes!

I decided to wear my fitted English gown on Saturday when it was going to be chillier. It was so fun to wear!

I planned on wearing a pair of plain black gloves but I forgot them. The pocket slits don't actually have pockets but I could still tuck my hands in them to keep cozy!

Plus I got to wear my pocket! It's quite handy for stowing all of my modern bits while in costume.

It was pirate weekend! Arrrr! There were a lot of great pirate costumes around this weekend!

 With it being pirate weekend, we just had to see the pirate stunt show! I adored last year's stunt show because they threw in some Shakespeare references. This year was also excellent.

There were duels to the death, swash bucking action and quite a bit of laughter.

 Some of the non-pirate cast members also got into the spirit of the weekend!

Stay tuned for more costuming adventures coming later this week!

Wearing History for All!

I've been a huge fan of Wearing History Patterns for years! And I'm proud to announce that the proprietress Lauren is launching a line of clothing. Right now, she's running a Kickstarter campaign to fund the initial costs of production.

The Maisie Dress has that look of separates and features a great music novelty print designed just for this line!

The Victoria dress is the perfect everyday vintage dress! Dress it up or dress it down, I guarantee you'll reach for it again and again.

The line also features some great separates like the Norma Jean Blouse paired here with the Smooth Sailing Trousers.

The last piece is the Ruthie blouse in the same dotted chambray as the Victoria Dress.

As part of the Kickstarter campaign, you can pre-order any of these beauties. There are also some other pledge rewards including a scarf in the music print, a Wearing History tote bag and deals on e-patterns! Please consider pledging towards this project so we can all have Wearing History pretties!

Major Fail

It's easy to be overawed by sewing feats created by great seamstresses. But sometimes well all have major fails. And today, that major fail belongs to me.

I've been working on my Italian striped dress. I posted some trim anxiety on Facebook and Instagram earlier this week. Eventually, I decided to purchase some thinner, green ribbon to do the trim with instead of the wider black ribbon I originally purchased. And I'm quite happy with the switch.

I got cocky and didn't try the dress on till this weekend. (Also lazy because getting yourself into a side back lacing dress alone is a pain in the butt.) And it's about 2 inches too small. I measured and it's 1/2" smaller than my support layer. Eeep! After you add wearing ease (plus my waist usually gapes a bit on the support layer), it's just not going to happen.

Luckily, I had enough fabric to remake the back piece. I'll have to start from scratch, remove the trim, take the back piece off, make a slew of all new eyelets and sew everything back together. In the end, I know I'll be happier especially since the old back had the trim going over a pair of eyelets. But it's going to be so much work!

To give myself a pick me up, I did a bit of retail therapy at the Ren Fest this weekend.

I purchased this pretty pearl necklace for costuming! 

I also picked up this cute ring! It's hard to find a period appropriate ring. I really wanted a gold ring but I'm pretty happy with this one.

 And the last bit of costuming fabulousness is Patterns of Fashion 3 by Janet Arnold. I have a serious case of must sew all of the things right now!!!!!! I have plenty WIPs to finish first.

HSF#17: Yellow

This was a surprisingly difficult challenge considering the fact that I love yellow! Originally, I did have a yellow UFO that I was saving for this challenge but I decided it was a wadder. I had so many Elizabethan projects to do before the end of the faire that I didn't think I'd have any time to do anything.

But then the weekend before faire, I decided that I needed a new petticoat since I turned my last one into a bodied petticoat.

So I scurried off to Jo-Anns for some linen. Originally, I was eying some lovely green linen rayon but then I spied this golden yellow color and I knew it was meant to be!

The Challenge: Yellow
Fabric: 3 yds linen/rayon
Pattern: none-it's just a rectangle pleated to a waistband
Year: late 1500s
Notions: thread, hook and eye
How historically accurate is it? the rayon part not so much, but otherwise pretty good.
Hours to complete: 3 hrs
First worn: September 2014 to the renaissance festival
Total cost: ~$20

Now, you may have noticed that I'm wearing the petticoat on the outside, which is definitely not where it is supposed to be.

Originally, I was wearing it under my bodied petticoat but the bulk of the waistband was too uncomfortable so I decided to layer it on top.

So really, I'm missing a lot of layers in this outfit but it's faire and I was still one of the most historically accurate people there.

And maybe next time I will wear it as an actual petticoat!