Mix and Match for Spring

Spring has arrived in Florida! It's sunny and bright and very pollen-y. Grr! My allergies have been going haywire but it could be worse. I'm in Florida after all!

This outfit is a new combo that I've been loving lately. And I actually did a bit of sewing for it but no new pieces.

If you think this checked blouse looks familiar you're right! It started out life as a late 1940s dress (which you can see here). Since I have decided that I like war era 40s better, I decided to shorten the length of this dress a bit to help it fit an earlier look.

 A bonus of this is that the dress is short enough for me to throw a skirt on top of and wear it as a top. Surprise!

Layering does not have to be limited to your top half. This is a great way to get extra looks out of your wardrobe. Just be sure that the waist band covers the waist seam on your dress and no one will know the difference!

I also took this opportunity to bust out my Erstwilder Toucan. He is so cute and definitely adds a fun factor. A great novelty brooch is an excellent way to add personality to even a modern outfit.

I love having a wardrobe full of things that I love to wear! These shoes are one of my favorite pairs. They match pretty much everything and are so comfy. So you'll probably see them again and again but that's ok.

Mixing and matching pieces is a fun wardrobe challenge. And very make do and mend on top of it! :D

 And I'm getting super excited about my hair grow out process. It's coming along although I still have a few months to go. It seems to be growing faster this go around. Not sure if it actually is or if I've just been busy with other things (Konmari....) and it doesn't bother me as much.

 Hope you all are starting to thaw and see peeks of spring!

Just an Ordinary Day

It's been a bit chilly here lately (though certainly not anywhere near what many of you are feeling!) and I decided to pull out my favorite cool weather vintage outfit.

My Ruthie blouse is a favorite all year round. It's so comfy and breaths well during the summer. In the winter, it's perfect for layering under sweaters.

I paired it with a gray corduroy skirt that was a winter favorite from Ohio. I love corduroy for winter! It's so easy to care for and has a bit of extra warmth factor.

To winterize this outfit for colder locations, I'd add some thick tights or knee high socks and boots. Throw on your favorite cardigan and a fabulous winter jacket and you're ready to go! It's definitely possible to look cute and wear vintage in the winter. It just takes a bit more layering!

I decided to try something different with my hair since I'm stuck in the awkward grow out phase right now. I dug out one of my 1940s hair scarves and pinned up all of my hair except for my bangs. Curled under is about all my bangs can do for now so that's what I went with.

Since my bangs made my hair asymmetrical, I decided to tie the knot above my part rather than in the center as I usually wear it. It looked so cute that way! You can find a tutorial for a similar style here.

I know most of the other bloggers you follow will be posting Valentine's Day outfits today but the hubby and I are doing our Valentine's Day this evening. I did wear this cute vintage heart and key brooch as a nod to the holiday.

What I did on actual Valentine's Day is not super glamorous. Going grocery shopping, cleaning house and blogging. But such is life! Even bloggers are nonglamorous sometimes!

But if you've ever wondered what I wear for everyday life, this is it! One of the reasons that I love 1940s fashions is that they are oh, so practical for actually living life. Some other decades are much more suited to sit there and look pretty.

How was your Valentine's Day? Glamorous or quiet?

Straight as an Arrow

I was super excited when I found out that Wearing History was coming out with a new blouse. I just adore the two that I already have. And this one has the cutest arrow print!

This Smooth Sailing blouse is quite similar to the Smooth Sailing pattern (which I have sewn up a few times for myself) but has been adjusted for a more modern body shape. It's got puffy sleeves and is much blouse-ier than the Ruthie blouse. So 1940s!

It's quite comfortable to wear and has great range of motion. I love that Lauren has really put forth and effort to make her blouses very motion friendly. It's perfect for dancers and for everyday life for that matter.

I also love the quality of this blouse! It's got darling red vintage buttons and an adorable bias pocket. :D

I paired my Smooth Sailing blouse with a grey corduroy skirt for a cute winter appropriate look. It was actually quite chilly and I was wearing a thick wool sweater when I had to be outside. But I braved the chill for photos!

My hair is at an awkward length right now. I did have an adorable navy headband that had little gold dots just like the blouse! So perfect!

Another thing I just love about this blouse is the large number of colors in the print. I've paired this blouse with a red skirt which also looks adorable but you could do yellow, green, mint or blue and it would look just as smashing. This print is quite bold but being able to mix and match with so many colors means you can get a lot of milage out of it.

 Just a note on sizing: The sizing on this blouse is a bit different than any of the other Wearing History blouses. It includes plus sizes and some of the regular sizes were adjusted when the plus sizes were added. Be sure to check the size chart for this blouse before ordering. It's also quite a bit more blousey than the Ruthie blouse. And the fabric is not preshrunk and the sizing has been designed with this in mind. Lauren has included a lot of info to help you pick the right size.

For me personally, I have a large in the Ruthie and a medium in the Norma Jean and Smooth Sailing. So even if you already have a Wearing History blouse, double check the size chart to make sure you get the right size.

I'm super excited for my new blouse! It's so adorable and comfy! That's my personal secret to great vintage style-picking pieces that look polished but are just as comfortable as jeans and a t-shirt.

Emerald Jacket for Weekend Sports

Winter has finally arrived in Florida and it is cold! It's quite amazing how much I've acclimatized in just one year! Since we had what may end up being the coldest weekend of the winter this past weekend, I've been pulling out all of my cold weather pieces to help stay toasty warm.

One of the bummers about living in such a warm area is that my hand knits don't get much wear. It's really just not cold enough for all of that wool. And I do really like knitting too. :(

This also explains why this lovely knitted jacket has been lingering as a UFO for almost two years.... Fail. I started this piece in January 2014 as a second Knit for Victory project and finished it in March 2014.

And then it started getting warm and I put off sewing it up. Somewhere along the way I put together the bodice and attached the sleeves but never got the collar attached. I was quite nervous about putting a zipper in a knit but I did end up purchasing a separating zipper and even threw it in the pile with this piece.

Since it was going to be chilly, I decided to go ahead and finish this piece up so I could at least get a couple of wears out of it. Now that I'm more experienced with hand picked zippers, putting the the zip was a cinch and now I have a cozy sweater jacket!

I was very inspired by Tasha's green wool bomber jacket so I just had to knit this up in some yummy green tweed wool. My guage ended up being a bit odd so I had to do a lot of work to adjust the pattern to match my guage. (I used two of Tasha's excellent tutorials and a lot of math. Thank's Tasha! 1 & 2) But I just had to have this color jacket so it was worth it. I don't remember what I did now but I did add some notes to my Ravelry project page back when I started.

This jacket is super cozy and not itchy at all which is great because I have almost no long sleeved shirts any more. I'm really quite proud of this piece because I had to rework the pattern so much and also conquered some new construction techniques.

Don't expect any more knitting projects un the near future though. Aside from not really having a winter anymore, on my last few yarn purchases, my guage has been way off (by like an inch or more) and it's been rather discouraging. I don't know if it's bad yard or I'm knitting oddly or what but it's way too much work to rework a pattern than much unless I really love it.

At any rate, my current stash of knits will do me quite well. I do need to dig the rest of them out so they can get some wear. I have a matching hat for this jacket somewhere.....

I also wore my gray corduroy skirt and Wearing History Ruthie blouse to finish off this outfit. While I do enjoy getting to wear my summery pieces 85% of the year, it is refreshing to get to wear some more wintery pieces every once in a while.

 Either way, I'm oh so happy to have this UFO finished instead of languishing in the knitting box.

 What have you been knitting this winter?

A New Out Look

The end of the year always makes me want to reminisce and look back yet at the same time, look forward to a brand new year! At this point, I'm almost finished with my second Project 333 and I've been cheating a bit and pulling out some pieces from my storage box.

My first Project 333 was very vintage heavy and for my second one I went with a lot more modern pieces. Looking forward to 2016, I wanted to give some of my pieces another wear before the year was up to see if they still felt like me.

This outfit was one of my favorites from this summer! And I still love it! I keep coming back to 1940s separates. I love them.

The new part of this outfit is my new glasses! Although I've had some sort of vision correction since 8th grade, I've worn almost exclusively contacts since I got them in my second year of high school. But earlier this year, I switched over to wearing just glasses and I've really been enjoying them.

My previous glasses were my very first pair of vintage inspired frames and I very much enjoyed having them. I had to really shop around to find anything I even wanted to try on. But at last I found a pair I liked.

I'm much more comfortable in smaller frames which is the opposite of what is in style right now. But then I found this great vintage inspired pair! They do have a fun modern feature-the inside of the plastic parts is blue! Surprise!

I'm still getting used to seeing myself in such bold frames but I really like how they look with my retro outfits. Plus they look great with more modern styles too!

Looking forward to 2016, I'm excited to add to my 1940s looks. I really want to refashion some of my old makes to give them new life in my wardrobe. I haven't been sewing as much in 2015 and I expect that will continue in 2016 so I'm planning on starting to feature some of my other creative endeavors on the blog.

 As far as my hair is going, I'm growing it out already. I change my mind about my hair often. That's how I roll. I have no idea what 2016 will bring on the hair front but right now I'm planning on a bob. Guess we'll all be surprised!

 Are you looking forward to 2016 yet or are you still working on wrapping up 2015?