Being Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you all are having a great day at home with your families and eating lots of turkey.

I've had a busy week so far! My thesis defense for my Master's Degree was on Tuesday so I'm very thankful it's over! I did manage to squeeze in a quick youtube video for you. Enjoy!

Gearing up for winter

Winter is not my favorite season..... It's so cold!!! But I've come to the conclusion that being prepared is a lot more useful than pouting about it.

I've been making an effort to stock up on vintage winter goodies like warm hats and coats.

So when I awoke to find the high was supposed to be 28F on Sunday, I wasn't exactly happy but my wardrobe was prepared.

I just adore the collar on this jacket! It always makes me feel glamorous!

I paired it with some other cozy winter pieces like my wool skirt and a green cardigan.

Pearls were added for a dash of class.

All and all, I kept mostly warm!

11 Questions

The lovely Jessica of Chronically Vintage has nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award. I'm not really big on blog awards but I really liked the questions she posted to go with it so I thought I'd answer them anyways.

1. What are three of your favorite things about blogging?

Growing up, I always wanted to be a writer so blogging gives me an outlet for writing. I also love getting to meet all kinds of great like minded people. Really, I can't think of anything I don't like about blogging!

2. What kind of sagely advice would you give to a blogger who is just starting their first ever blog today?

I would say not to give up or get discourage. It can seem like nobody is listening but it takes a while to get a following. Just remember that you have things to say that are worth listening to.

3. Do you find yourself drawn more towards creating word heavy or image heavy posts, or do you prefer a fairly even mix of the two in each post?

I like posts with a good balance of photos and text. Too many pictures and there's not enough substance and too much text and can be too dense.

4. What is your favorite ten year span (note, this doesn't have to be a specific decade, such as the 1930s, you could pick 1925-1935) of all time from a fashion standpoint?


This one is hard for me because I really love transitional styles. I'd probably pick 1947-1956 though I also adore 1915-1917 and 1939/1940.

5. If you could go on a shopping spree (and money was no object), what are five vintage wardrobe items that you'd buy today?


1. A Lilli Ann suit
2. A 1950s princess coat
3. A 1940s tilt hat (or three!)
4. A pair of deadstock 1940s peep toe pumps
5. A 1930s bias evening gown

6. What are five of your favorite savory foods, and five of your favourite sweet ones?


Savory: sour pickles, kalatama olives, goat cheese, bacon and pizza
Sweet: anything chocolate, red velvet cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, anything pumpkin flavored, sweetarts, and brie baked in a pastry

7. What's your favourite place you've ever lived? What are some of the reasons that makes this spot so near and dear to your heart?


I can't really say that there is any place I've lived that I really loved more than the others.  There are two place that I just adore that I really do want to live in someday-Maine and St. Augustine, FL. My grandparents live in Maine and it's just gorgeous in the summer! Not sure I could handle the snow but that's where Florida comes in. A few years ago, my husband and I took a vacation to St. Augustine in January and we both fell in love with the town! I just love being near the ocean and the history there was amazing! I so wanted to just have someone pack all my stuff up up and ship it down there so I wouldn't have to leave!

So, in my dreams, I summer in Maine and winter in Florida.

8. If you could go on an all-expense paid vacation for two weeks to anywhere in the world, where would you go and what vintage clothes would you bring with you? 

I'd take a Mediterranean cruise. I love cruises and I've always wanted to go to Europe! I actually did a post way back on a dream cruise wardrobe!

9. Currently, what are your three favourite colours? Do you wear these colours often or simply enjoy them in general?


Coral, mint and teal. I do wear them sometimes but my wardrobe is pretty colorful so I don't stick to just a few colors.

10. If you could attend a concert from any musician/band throughout all of time, who would you pick to see live?

I really love music! But my biggest love is musicals. So I'm going to cheat a bit and say I'd love to see Miss Saigon which is my favorite musical I've never gotten to see live.

11. What's your favourite time of the day (morning, dusk, etc) and why?


I'm so not a morning person and I really prefer evenings! Winter evenings are great for being cozy inside with a book or knitting and summer evenings seem to last forever and are full of fun things.

Sewing Bits

I've been eking out bits of time for sewing. Since I had to grade up my graduation dress pattern, I thought I'd do a wearable muslin first.

Blouse in progress. I choose an old thrifted sheet that would be cute enough to wear but not beloved so much that I'd be crushed if there were issues.

Skirt front! It's coming along quite nicely. Alas, it'll be about eight months before it's warm enough to wear.

I also had a friend give me a pile of vintage patterns! There were some super cute 50s and early 60s ones!

And there were also some really cute little girl patterns. We're not planning on kids any time soon but they were too cute to pass up!

Navy and Maroon

 There are many places to start when building an outfit. This outfit started with the hat. I really wanted to wear a hat so I picked the one I wanted to wear first and then started accessorizing my accessory.

 

This 50s hat is one of my favorites! I really need more navy blue in my wardrobe so I can wear it all the time!

I love using accessories as a pop of color so I added a blue cami and gloves to a rather maroon outfit.

For jewelry I went with classic pearls and a cute pin with pearls and blue stones.

I had a really hard time picking out a purse since I don't have a navy blue one and I didn't want to use black either. But then I remembered this cute purse with maroon flowers.

I've also been pondering getting Bettie Bangs again (if you didn't guess this from Monday's post). So I opted to try a rolled bang instead.

Alas, I remembered why I don't like rolled bangs on me! They are super tiny and sit way up by the hairline, accentuating my long forehead. Oh, well. Guess I'll just have to keep pondering about getting bangs.

Fall Sewing Day Dreams

If you've noticed that there's not been much sewing on the blog, that's because there's not been much sewing going on. I'm in the midst of thesis writing insanity so I can graduate in December. But just because I can't actually be sewing right now, doesn't mean that I can think about it. So here are some projects I can't wait to dive into as soon as I finish my thesis.

I purchased this lovely blue wool to make my graduation dress. Hopefully I'll have time to make it before graduation!

I'm going to be making up this dress! At least I'll have something pretty to wear under my polyester graduation gown.

I have 3 yds of this lovely vintage fabric. Alas it's only 35" wide so it's been hard to find a pattern that will work with it.

 I've been considering this dress but I'm not sure that I'm in love with the neckline.

I also bought this lovely wool recently.

I purchased it with this pattern in mind but I'm not sure this fabric will work for a jacket. It's a bit thinner and more drape-y that I was expecting.

I think this might work instead. I'm not sure though.....

I also have 5/8 yd of cashmere that I have no idea what to do with but it's calling my name.

Youtube: Victory Rolls for Short Hair

Victory rolls are an iconic 40s hairstyle but they can be quite difficult to wrangle. Add in short hair and they can be downright frustrating. Here's my technique for quick victory rolls on short hair. The secret's in the setting pattern!

Dressed to Impress

Sometimes you just need to dress to impress. When I need to be extra impressive, it's great to have a rocking vintage suit to pull out.

This velvet 50s vintage suit is one of my favorite vintage finds!

It's fabulous and fits me like a dream! I'm always shocked to find pencil skirts that fit me.

The lobby of my building was a convenient set for this shoot!

This is the modern half of the lobby that's been redone. The other half still has the original flooring.

I had a quite splendid hair day. I felt like Marilyn the whole day.

Do you have an outfit that always makes you feel impressive?

Repro Patterns and Where to Find Them

Reproduction patterns are a great way to wet your feet with vintage patterns without having to deal with all of the issues that come with actual patterns. I'm just going to give a mini review and some info about some of the repro pattern companies I've used. You can find everything from hand traced copies of original patterns to completely remastered and multisized patterns.

The Big Four

Butterick 5281

Simplicity, Butterick and Vogue do have reprints of vintage patterns. Pros: cheap, easy to find, loads of styles. Cons: They took perfectly good vintage patterns that actually fit on a person and added, oh, five or so extra inches of ease.
 
Eva Dress

Some Eva Dress pretties!

Eva Dress has a huge selection of 20s-50s patterns! Most of them are single sized but they have recently been putting out multisized patterns. The website is easy to navigate and you can search by decade or bust size. I've had great success with their patterns.

Past Patterns

A 1930s Past Pattern in my stash

Past Patterns carries repro patterns from the 20s-40s as well as a historical patterns. Most of the vintage patterns are Vintage Revivals, which are hand drawn copies of vintage patterns (one sized) with a photo copy of the original directions which may or may not be legible.  They also do have some multisized patterns as well but I've not used any of them. Their website is not the greatest and the pictures on the main page of each decade are often tiny and hard to see so you have to click on it to tell what it is. But they are great for hard to find styles like 19-teens. And they are based out of my town!

Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility is a darling pattern company that does historical as well as vintage patterns. They come professionally printed and drafted and have good directions. Now, the only time I sewed one of their patterns, it came out way tiny! As in my husband had to cut me out of my first muslin. So I haven't quite figured out the ease for their patterns but lots of people have had good luck with them and I'm planning on giving them another go sometime!

Wearing History

Even more Wearing History love!

I love Wearing History! I have 9 or so patterns and have sewn them all. Some several times! This company focuses on 40s and 30s patterns but has recently been branching out into historical patterns as well. There are two pattern lines, Resto-Vival and Signature Styles. The Resto-Vival patterns come straight from vintage patterns but with modern markings. They include original directions (but not a photocopy!) and retain the original vintage fit. Some are multisized and some are not. The Signature Styles are based off of vintage patterns but with reworked step-by-step instructions and many also have been adjusted to reflect a mix of vintage and modern fit. Recently, Wearing History has been re-releasing patterns in e-pattern format for those of you who love e-patterns.