Buttons

I finally finished my outfit woohoo! It was sitting around forever because I thought buttons and buttonholes were going to be sooo hard to do, but once you get the hang of it, they're really not! I was practicing by hand at first, and they were just turning out so sloppy and took forever, and then my Granny showed me the magic of the sewing machine once again and they turned out so nice! Now I have a skirt I can wear without safety pins keeping it together! :P

Here is a close-up of the buttons. I just used a simple white style for both pieces; a smaller one on top and slightly larger one on the skirt. 

I'm so excited to have made a pocket! Even though it was the simplest thing ever, I managed to have to do it twice because I forgot to fold the top under a whole inch and was wondering why it looked so disproportional. But I eventually figured it out...

This is what I love so much about vintage patterns. I think a gathered yoke looks so cute and feminine. I think this is my favorite thing about the shirt.

This shirt originally had sleeves in the pattern, but it is so hot here in Florida, I decided to make it sleeveless. Now I have a really light and summer-y outfit to wear out without dying of heat stroke, lol!

Show & Tell

My granny's neighbor is moving from her house to an apartment and left us a box of things to either sort through or give away. Looking through it, I found some really great treasures that I'm going to hold on to...

These roller were on my list to go out and buy, but I hadn't gotten around to it yet. They are going to make it a lot less painful to sleep through the night. :p And I love the way they snap together to hold in place.

I love how bold and simple this canister set is.

My granny has a set of these dishes by Corell too. I love the color and little graphic icons around the edge.

Just a cute candy jar to fill with colorful things such as gumballs or jelly beans  :)

I have always wanted one of these. This one is in pretty much perfect condition and it is so cute! Ahh! I can't wait to start using it in my kitchen!

The Woman in Black and White

I've just started watching an excellent old series of Sherlock Holmes movies from the 1940s that my Grandma told me about. She'd seen them when she was younger and I agree with her that Basil Rathbone makes an amazing Mr. Holmes. Not that I have anything against Robert Downey Jr in particular, but that adaptation of the story—in my opinion—was practically a mockery to Sir Authur Conan Doyle's brilliant work. In this version, I love the interactions between the characters and the quietness of some scenes as Holmes is deep in thought or plays his violin as Watson smokes his pipe. I guess what bothers me about many modern period movies is that they basically dress up a modern man in old clothing. They don't capture the character and atmosphere of it all. Today's movies can't spend more than two seconds of quiet...perhaps because they fear the audience will be bored? But that was such an integral part of their lives back then. The pace of life was so much slower. Holmes should be an extremely intellectual and clever man, more concerned about a difficult mental challenge than looking suave in a ten minute gunfight. But I digress...

We saw "Dressed to Kill" the other day (about a trio of music boxes that are hardly worth money but mysteriously worth a life), and just now finished "The Woman in Green" (where a serial killer's trademark is to keep a severed finger from his victims).

The best part is that if you have Netflix instant, you can watch many of them for free! I definitely recommend it. They're really well done, extremely entertaining, and capture the true brilliance of Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

Here are some stills from "The Woman in Green" :

Sew Much Fun

This past week I decided to start a new sewing project. The outfit consists of a shirt, skirt, and shorts set, but I decided to make them into three separate pieces. This (Simplicity) pattern didn't have a date on it, but judging from the look of it, it seems to be a little newer than the 40s dress I did; I'm guessing it was from the 50s. The shorts were actually the easiest thing to make so far and are so comfortable I've worn them almost every day since I've made them :P The opening is held together by snaps except for the top which is a hook and I added this awesome button that my granny gave me to decoration. (I still have a little fixing up to do with that corner, but I wanted to show the button so excuse the messiness of my sewing.)

These pictures are taken in my Granny's back yard. She had a little storage shed made and decorated it to look like a small house; it's so cute. The sign that says Florence Nicholas on it is her actual beauty parlor sign from when she lived up in Pennsylvania! It was made back in the day when they used to hand paint signs and it is an amazing work of craftsmanship.

This is the skirt that I made. I love the big pockets and all the gathering. I'm still practicing my button hole stitching, so currently it's being held up by safety pins, but I wanted to show it nonetheless.

I really wanted to show the shirt also, but unfortunately I started to get eaten alive by mosquitos again by this point, so it will have to wait. I still have the buttons to go on that one too. Anyway, that's all I have for today!

Holding On By A Thread

I had bought a crinoline skirt awhile back, and since I had nothing to match it, I thought it would be worth an effort to try and make my own matching sweater. I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics and out of all the yarns they had, was able to find one that matched the perfect blend of magenta and red from my skirt. And to keep it old fashioned, I am trying the cable stitch, from a pattern that I found on the Vixen Vintage blog. It's awfully stressful trying not to miss a single loop. This is my second attempt and I'm doing okay so far! I work on it a little bit each day, but hey no rush...I have several months til I can wear it anyway, right? ;)

Vintage Flat Brimmed Hat

Oh and since this has nothing to do with the Renaissance, I decided to give it its own post. I have been looking everywhere for a vintage hat. I don't know how many antique stores I've been to and not been able to find "the right one." Either its much too expensive, damaged, or oddly shaped. But a few weeks ago, I found this one which was just right and goes really well with this dress, I think. Of course all my outfits can't be green, sooo lets just say this is the first of many hats to come. 0:)

Renaissance, Man

I haven't had the camera in quite awhile, but my friend took me to a Renaissance Festival the other day in Wisconsin and it was so fantastic, I took pictures even though I know my phone is terrible.

This was my very first Renaissance Festival and it was a lot to take in! At first I thought everyone was a little crazy, but after a few hours, you really get sucked into the world they create and feel like you are a part of it. By the end of the day, I was surprised that we left for our car and not to our little peasant cottage somewhere to wake up next morning and mingle again. Above is a picture of a procession for the queen and some aristocratic women. They had such beautiful dresses...(but I imagine it was pretty hot under all those layers!)

This was an armor store, auctioning off a replica of Sauron's suit (from Lord of the Rings).

Here is the sign with ye old jousting schedule. 

And here is our knight at the joust. My friend was chosen to be his lady. Unfortunately his pride got the best of him, which we all know, is not a characteristic of an honorable knight. 

Oh and of course The Doctor was there. I wonder what sort of alien mischief went on in the 1500s?

Playing Cards

Just to keep things interesting, here are some leftover photos from John's last visit, when my mom and sister were here and we were all playing with cards. These are some really old cards that belong to my granny, and they are very photogenic.

Carnival Dress

After setting aside my dress project for awhile, my Granny and I finally picked it up again a few nights ago. We had a lot of adjusting to do, and a lot of learning on my part—such as the zipper and how to take in the skirt without skimping on the fullness of the bottom. Granted, it's nowhere near perfect, but I think it turned out extremely well. But I couldn't have done it without my Granny's help. 

I took these pictures today in Auburn when I went to visit John. I was wearing it when I went into a gas station and got a lot of funny looks. In Alabama, most of the girls walk around in short shorts and T-shirts, so my outfit was—needless to say—quite unusual. But I'll put up with the weird looks since I am excited to finally have it finished I couldn't wait to wear it. And with all the work I put into this dress, I am definitely wearing it. :) Even if it is 101 degrees outside.

The hardest part, I would say, was attaching the top and bottom pieces. the dress was a little big and it called for a lot of gathering, so it took us awhile to figure out how to trim it down. The ruffles weren't actually that hard to do, and the sleeves were easy once Granny explained to me how that seam works. The only thing I have left to do is sew down the button holes!

And this is a ring my granny gave me a long time ago. I thought it looked nice with the dress. She was really into turquoise so she will give me one from her collection every now and then. It's such a pretty color. This is one of my favorite rings. 

So there's my 1944 dress! I encourage anyone who likes vintage to take up sewing because not only will you get to customize it, but you get the satisfaction of knowing that you made it. Next project, here I come...   

:)

Stylin' Hair

My Granny's house is full of treasures. The other day her I just happened to be looking at the bookshelf when her cosmetology textbook caught my eye. She bought it back when she was going into hairdressing in 1949. It goes into all sorts of things like nails, massages, germs, muscles, pin-curls, finger waves, perms and a ton more. Here are a few images from the book. (Oh and I'm sorry for the terrible picture quality. I was forced to use my 1.3 megapixel phone, ew!)

Also, I was watching "The Company She Keeps" on TCM the other night and fell in love with Jane Greer's hairstyle. It was similar to the one she has in this picture. Oh and something funny Robert Osborne mentioned after the movie was that the infant from the train station scene was Jeff Bridges! I had to look it up to be sure; but for some reason it made me LOL! Anyway, Jeff Bridges aside, it was a cute movie! A good old fashioned classic.

Granny's Helping Hands

Here is the pattern I am working on with my Granny. It's a 1940s pattern, and much too complicated to do on my own--I couldn't have even gotten this far without her!

Seeing Spots

Hello everyone! Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted. I've been settling in to my grandma's house in Florida and didn't have a camera until John came to visit me today. I stopped by Sydney's Vintage Clothing before leaving Auburn and bought my first crinoline skirt! Since I don't really have any clothing that matches its bright pink color, I'm planning on knitting a cardigan to match, so we'll see how that goes. (It's been awhile since I've knitted anything.)

Also, my granny and I have been working on a 1944 dress pattern. I used a red and white striped material. And I didn't exactly choose the simplest one to start with either. Ruffles and buttons and gatherings oh my! I will post some pictures of our progress tomorrow :D