Dolled Up In My Glad Rags

I went to an evening showing of “Oklahoma” at my local theatre a week or so ago, and obviously I dressed up to the nines!  I wasn’t sure about wearing my one-and-only vintage hat, but I am glad I did as it really finished off my outfit.  Plus, I don’t get to wear hats that often, so any chance to pull them out amIright?

Although my sisters think that my hat looks like brains…  Cute brains, but brain nonetheless!  ヽ(≧0≦)ﾉ  I just pretend that I don’t know what they are talking about, even though I kind of have to agree with them!  Ah, the first world troubles ~ when your fashion sense comes across like a cosplay!

Also, I do have to apologize for the lack of smiles.  Apparently I was much more tired than I realized, but hey, that IS kind of what happens when your new baby is kickin’ around with bright blue eye that just. won’t. shut. until 11:00pm or later every night.  (-_-‘)

Speaking of, I have to say adieu and tuck my family into bed.  Goodnight!   ♥ ♥ ♥

xox,

bonita

~ * ♥ * ~ * ♥ * ~ * ♥ * ~
Vintage “brain” Hat  ~  Love Vintage Show, ‘11    Fab Faux Fur Swing Coat  ~  Winter Canberra Vintage Show, ‘12    1940’s Darling Day Dress  ~  Etsy    Black Gloves  ~ Etsy    Cream Cable Stockings  ~  ??Old   Swingin’ Kitten Heels  ~   Thrifted

New Mom Me

 

I thought I’d try out something new, so I took these outfit shots with my phone.  I actually really like how they came out ~ the iPhone 5’s camera is pretty decent and you can get some super editing programs on it that create some lovely results.

I really like how easy and quick it is to snap, edit and go with this method ~ though I am wondering if the picture quality is a little low?  I don’t know ~ what do you think?  iPhone photos a yay or nay? Would you be able to tell they are phone photos if you didn’t know? Do you care?  Should I care?  Oh, so many questions!  (￫o￩)

Please don’t mind that I don’t have the full range of shots though ~ I don’t have any shoe shots or full length pictures because I just set up the phone on the dresser in my room and snapped away while the baby was napping and Little T was running around! 

Speaking of Little T., I just have to mention that last photo; he’s hamming it up for the camera already and he’s not even two yet!  Haha ~ he must take after his mama…  (~￣▽￣)~

xox,

bonita

~ * ♥ * ~ * ♥ * ~ * ♥ * ~
Filigree Hair Bow Barrette  ~  Old; Target   Custom Portrait Broach  ~  Giveaway Gift  40’s Basic Black Knit ~  Thrifted    Spotted Spot Skirt  ~  Old; Modcloth   Dotty Tights  ~  Old; Target

Link Love ~ Setting Lotions for Pin Curls

This is a great post from Lisa of Snoodlebug on the different types of setting lotions you can use for pin curls.  Check it out ~

Ready, get SET go!:


Yep, another bad pun – I do love a bad pun. 

I’ve had a lot of questions about setting lotion lately – both online and in real life - so I thought a quick post on what it is and what it does might be useful. Back to basics for a lot of you I’m sure but that never hurt anyone. 

So. Let's begin at the beginning...

What is it?

Well, somewhat obviously, setting lotion is product that is applied to hair in order to set styles. i.e. to make them neater and last longer. It comes in many forms – liquids which do or do not need dilution, crèmes such as boots curl crème, foaming products and even gels. Some people even make their own. Some are best applied to wet hair and some to dry – some can be used on both. Finding the right setting lotion for your hair can be a little like finding your Holy Grail foundation, but once you have found it you won’t ever want to change....

xox,

bonita

Holidays in Lavender

These are old-ish snaps are from our Christmas holiday to South Australia ~ taken in various locations.  The tumble-down Victorian mansion is just outside of Rutherglen, Victoria, and the amazing pink hydrangeas are in a garden in the bottom of a sink hole in Mt Gambier, South Australia. 

I wore this lovely lavender 1940’s maternity dress quite a bit while we were away, but unfortunately the stitches keep breaking in the seams, so I have to keep on mending it.  That’s one of the problems with vintage wear, although I must say I haven’t had as much trouble with my other vintage pieces as I have with this one.   : /  

Of course, then I don’t want to wear it as much, even though I do love the colour!  That’s one of the challenges of wearing vintage while having small children, but I’ll keep pegging away at it.   It makes me even more keen to sew my own vintage clothes, because then I don’t have to worry about them being ruined. 

Speaking of…. 

That will be my next update ~ I’m finally able to show you the dress I made before we went away.  Yay!  There’s a bit of a story as to why it’s taking me so long to post about it, but I’ll keep that for later.

xox,

bonita 

~ * ♥ * ~ * ♥ * ~ * ♥ * ~
Lavender Lace 1940’s Dress  ~  Etsy   Painted Floral Broach  ~   Thrifted   Dot Flats  ~  Way too old!

Sailor Me Away

I’ve been hankering for a nautical inspired outfit for a while, and this 70’s-does-a-little-late-30s/early 40s maternity dress fits the bill nicely!  It’s been my outfit of choice for the past few weeks ~ easy to slip on and go as the dress does a lot of the work so it doesn’t need much in the way of accessories and fancy do-dads.   Yup, do-dads is a word.  I’m sure of it.   ~ _ ^

During this insanely hot summer weather, the less fuss the better! 

Now les’see, I think Bump Watch makes me at 28 weeks in this outfit?  Wow, I can’t believe how quickly the time is flying by!  Not long now and we’ll actually be able to meet little Bump ~ how super thrilling.  : D

Anyway, apparently this heat has sapped any and all witty, intelligent, thought provoking, and extremely interesting post content that is clearly my usual standard of fare to offer, so feel free to insert said writing here:

xox,

bonita

~ * ♥ * ~ * ♥ * ~ * ♥ * ~
Pearl Earrings  ~  Christmas Gift from Hubs   Nautical Navy Dress  ~  Etsy   White Tooled Belt  ~  JayJays   There’s No Place Like Home Heels  ~  Rivers

Link Love ~ Casual 1940s & 1950s Style Inspiration

It’s been a while since the last Link Love, no?  Still, when I saw this post on casual vintage style by Miss Virginia of Retrospect, I knew I had to share it.

Talk about the perfect out-and-about outfit inspiration!  I love the elegant touch of a neat blouse and Capri pants; in fact I’ve actually bought two new pairs of Capris recently that I can’t wait to show you in an outfit post.  In the mean time, however, enjoy these lovely looks from the past, and don’t forget to hop on over for the rest of the gorgeous pictures.

Kelly Casual

~ *  My favorite vintage lady: Grace Kelly naturally…  * ~
  ~ *  I positively adore this outfit ~ I will be trying to replicate it very soon!  Mind you, it might very well be minus the white blouse, as white and toddlers really don’t mix with happy results...  > u <  * ~

xox,

bonita

Link Love ~ The Story of the ‘Liquid’ Nylon

More fascinating history from the past ~ this time detailing the advent of the famous ‘liquid’ stockings of the WWII 1940’s era.  This in-depth article on Cosmetics and Skin was linked by Penny Dreadful Vintage, and as always, tootle over for the full post.

Cosmetic Stockings

…As silk and nylon stockings vanished from the shelves, women looked to alternatives. Depending on the occasion, what was available, their degree of patriotism and their economic situation, they substituted with stockings made from other fibres, wore socks, covered their legs with trousers, went bare-legged or used leg make-up – also known as cosmetic stockings, liquid stockings, bottled stockings and phantom hose – to give the appearance of stockings…

xox,

bonita

How to ~ Crochet a 1940’s Snood

For some time now I’ve been eyeing off various gorgeous hairstyles around the place that have involved lovely snoods, but I have hemed and hawed about purchasing one for myself.  Why, the ease alone of popping one on and waltzing out the door for the day is very tempting for a busy vintage mother.  The only problem ~ $16.00 or more seemed like a lot to spend on one snood….

And that was the local ones!  Overseas shipping cost a lot more.   I decided to whip out my Google fingers and see what I could turn up, and et voila!  I present to you the “Perky Snood” pattern.   A vintage 1940’s crochet snood pattern for a medium sized snood. 

~ *  Please click on the photo to download the full pattern  * ~

The pattern is very simple, but calls for a long treble crochet stitch which is rather old fashioned and not used that often these days.  Here are the instructions on how to do it:

Long Treble Crochet (long tr.) -  YO 3 times before inserting the hook into the work, YO and draw through 2 loops on the hook 4 times.

Decreasing Long Treble Crochet (dec. long tr.) - YO 3 times, insert hook in next long tr. and YO. Take off  2 loops 3 times in succession, leaving 2 loops on the hook. YO 3 times, insert hook in work (6 loops on hook), YO, take off 2 loops, 3 times in succession, YO and take off 3 loops at once.

Yarn Over -  YO

Now, I have to warn you that although I found this pattern easy to get the hang of in terms of stitches, it doesn’t seem to be easy to put together the right sized hook and yarn ply to get a large enough snood.  I actually repeated this pattern three times before I finally turned out a snood that was large enough to wear!

So I’ll give you my notes so that you don’t make the same mistakes that I did. 

~ *  Second snood on the left compared with the third snood on the right.  The first one was even smaller, can you believe!  More like a bun net than anything else…  * ~

First I tried using a small 1.50mm hook like I thought the pattern called for, and the yarn to match.  That turned out all wrong ~ it was far too small.  So was the next one, with a larger 4.00mm hook and the yarn to match.  I looked like I was wearing a lunch lady’s hair net rather than a snood!  So then I went back to my original yarn, which was actually 2 ply cotton, with the 4.00mm hook and somehow that worked.

I still think that the pattern ended up a little shorter than what I would have preferred, but in this case that’s ok, because my hair is quite short at the moment and won’t really suit anything longer.  If you want a longer snood, simply add more rows in the middle before you start your decreases and you will be all set!

Last, but not least ~ here’s the finished results in action. 

 

Remember to swatch your work, as the gauge is crucial, and enjoy your snood making ladies!

xox,

bonita

P.S.  ~ Pictures are from this outfit post ~  Wet & Windy Spring Days

Link Love ~ How to wear 1940’s Lipstick

Glamour Daze comes out with another handy, era authentic post on “The Lipstick Decade”.  Find out the history and discover how to do the 1940s red lip from this handy guide. 

1940′s Make-up – The Lipstick Decade

The 1940′s, despite a world war, saw a huge leap in women’s use of daily cosmetics. If ever there was a decade for lipsticks then this was it.

With more and more women working on the home front and as army nurses, the convenience of the roll up lipstick – rather than a brush and palette, established the lipstick tube, once and for all ,as the main cosmetic accessory to have in your handbag.

xox,

bonita

Link Love ~ 1940s Collegiate Fashion Video

Amazing 1940s fashions!

I love this fashion video from the archive at Glamour Daze ~ the clothes are really cute and I do so like the circle skirt playsuit!  I am thinking I shall have to see if I can sew up a set for myself come summer.  If you want a better look at some of the outfits, there are some neat stills from the video here.  Enjoy!

xox,

bonita

My spectacles ~ how to find vintage frames to suit you!

~ *  Vintage 1950 advertisement for spectacles ~ I quite like pair number 4  * ~

Finding glasses frames that look good, suit your style, and don’t overwhelm your face is difficult at the best of times, but what do you do when you have a very distinct fashion style?   I am currently facing that problem ~ my script has changed {again!… } so I am shopping around for the perfect pair of vintage glasses to suit my look and my face.

The first place I went to look for glasses was Dead Men’s Spexs Vintage Eyewear.  You may have already heard of this site ~ they sell vintage frames that you can fill with your own prescription lenses. 

I couldn’t find a pair that I liked there, but I think that visiting their site is really handy.  You can use a “browse by period” feature to check out what style of frames where popular for the era that you prefer.

Now I tend to prefer to dress either 1940s or 50s, but I soon found out that I don’t really like either of the more common glasses frame styles from back then.  Before the 1950’s everything seems to be pretty much round ~ either thin gold frames, {which I could wear, except that I don’t like gold} or heavy black/tortoiseshell acetate.  Neither of those appeal to me ~ so onto the next era, 1950.

 

~ *  The classic pre-1940s/1940s spectacle shape.  The lenses rims can be gold, silver, tortoiseshell or black as seen here, and the arms can be either the same colour as the rims or a different colour like the picture above.  * ~

Everyone knows the classic 50’s look ~ cat's eye glasses!  I am not a real fan of the extremely pointy kind, although I have seen some vintage ladies looking absolutely fabulous in their sharp cats eye frames.  However, after searching around I decided that a nice deep cats eye frame, preferably two toned {dark on the top and light on the bottom} and in some shade of tortoiseshell or chocolaty brown would probably suit my style and my skin tone. 

So like these:

Or these:

At the end of a long hunt through all of the websites listed below I finally found a pair that I like, so we’ll will have to wait and see how they go when I get them!   I’ll show you the big reveal later…   Happy spectacle wearing!

Tips for purchasing vintage spectacles:

• Figure out which era you wear the most, or that suits your style the best.
• Look for frames that are similar in shape and colour to your favourite vintage pairs ~ you may be able to find a modern look-a-like for less.
• Try on styles at the optometrist to get a sense of what size/shape suits your face.
• If you have a complex script ~ bifocals or trifocals, buy the frames you like and get your optometrist to replace the lenses and don’t forget to ask your optometrist what size you need to get to fit your prescription.
• Shop around! There are many places to buy your perfect pair of frames, so if you can’t find the ‘just right’ pair, keep looking. 

Places to buy vintage eye glass frames:

• Ebay
• Etsy
• Dead Men’s Spex

Places to buy vintage reproduction/modern vintage look-a-likes:

• Bonlook – reproduction vintage glasses
• Zenni Optical – modern, but have some great vintage look-a-likes
  

xox,

bonita

Link Love ~ 1940’s Dress and Style Guide

Glamour Daze is a wonderful source of authentic vintage style inspiration.  I love their latest mini series on 1940s fashions, it’s chock full of fabulous original material.  Swing by and check out their style guide post for a full run down on how to achieve an authentic 1940s look. 

Easy Guide to a 1940′s Woman’s Dress and Style

I wouldn’t call it a costume, but this video still has some helpful tips to start off your 1940s style.

… First of all, before you go looking anywhere else, try your own wardrobe. The 1940s day suit is a little harder to create, so keep it simple and find a frock ! A calf length or knee length will do, preferably pleated, and buttoned up at the front, with a fitted waist. If you can’t find a dress with a fitted waist, then a nice belt with a bow tie, can cinch your waist quite adequately. Shoulders were padded or ruffled, so remember that…

xox,

bonita

Clicky~Clack, my baby’s come back

Tortoiseshell Alice Band  ~  Sister gave it to me    Hearts for You Cardigan   ~  JayJays    Stitch Me Black Top ~ Thrifted   Red Red Beads  ~  Hong Kong, ‘08   Tie Up Belt  ~  Old fabric  Mad for Plaid Skirt  ~  Thrifted   Dotty-Spotty Tights  ~  Target   Deck Wedges  ~  Thrifted

~ * ♥ * ~

Golly, there’s an icy wind a’ blowing up from the south!  I had to forgo my coat for these pictures, but in reality, I really would have liked to be wearing it.  Still, my lovely thick tights helped to ward off the worst of the chill.

I found these the other day in Target and I was really stoked.  Most of the time the thicker, knit-type stockings are only in children's sizes; you don’t seem to find them much for women. These however, were full sized, plus had an added bonus of a cute dotted pattern.  This is a win for grey and gloomy winter days.  : )   It makes me happy.

What also makes me happy is the date planned for tonight with my ever handsome Husband!  I am excited as we are going to go to dinner and then to see ‘Brave’, the movie I mentioned I wanted to see.  He is so sweet as he planned this date, knowing I wanted to see it. I have the best man in the world! 
Love you sweetheart!  > 3 < ~ ♥ 

xox,

bonita

Link Love ~ A Darling 1940’s Head Scarf

There’s another awesome guest post over at The Girl with the Star Spangled Heart ~ this time by Brittany of Va-Voom Vintage.  I adore this precious DIY she has for us, so do stop over and have a look.  : 3   

How to Sew a 1940's Hair Scarf

Hello everyone! This is Brittany from Va-Voom Vintage here, to show you how to sew a 1940's hair scarf.  I am so excited to be a part of the guest blogging series while Stephanie is on vacation!

Many months ago, I found a little pink 40's hair scarf at an antique mall. It's so sweet that I was determined to make a few more in different colors.  I wear my head scarves to keep my hair out of the way while I clean, to protect my pin curls while I sleep and to wear as a fashion accessory.

This is a great project to use some of that scrap fabric in your stash. You can use pieces of vintage sheets, feed sack, table cloths and other household  linens. Today's tutorial uses shirring. Shirring is very easy to do and looks fantastic!…

xox,

bonita

Link Love ~ Back in the Day; Photo Archives

I adore these sneak peek snaps into the day–to–day wear of the 1940’s!  Betsy Hatter does a lovely guest post for Retro Chick, so hop along and check it out.  ^ _ ^

Vintage Inspiration - Photo Archives

I want to use my guest post on Retro Chick to introduce you all to brilliant, under used online historical picture archives which everyone can access. These amazing resources are local newspapers picture archives. Many of the pictures in these collections are wonderful day to day snapshots of life from the 1940′s onwards (sometimes further back but those pictures are rarer). You come across pictures of people at work and children playing as well as people all dressed up in their best for royal visits and official openings. You can see what people were really wearing and use the images to help put together your own style….

xox,

bonita

Link Love ~ Make Many Dickeys pattern + post

More reformatting!  Instead of going for the “Quick Share” on Fridays I thought I’d call it how it really is:  “Link Love”.  Links that I love - get it?  Anyway today we have a guest post from the amazing Angie of Quality Time on Stephanie’s blog The Girl with the Star Spangled Heart. 

*whew!* Got that all straight?  Anyway, do hop on over an check out both these lovely ladies’ blogs if you haven’t already.  Lots of vintage sewing goodness to be had!

In the mean time…

Make Many Dickeys...a Vintage Pattern

 

Hello Star Spangled Readers!  My name is Angie and I blog over at Quality Time. I was so excited when the very sweet Stephanie asked me to guest post for her here on her blog….

…I've been poring over my recent purchases of vintage sewing and pattern magazines looking for the perfect thing to scan and share with you all here. My own blog is more miscellaneous sewing adventures than vintage clothing adventures, but I do like to combine the two when I can.

This pattern I'm sharing is from a dressmaking booklet from the 1940s.  Some of the pages were missing, but luckily not this cute article about wearing a "dickey", or a "faux" shirt.  (Basically, a dickey is a partial bodice but usually a full collar, to wear under sweaters, cardigans or other garments).
I hope you enjoy the article! …

xox,

bonita

Don’t Leaf Me Lonely

Reel Red Cardigan  ~  Thrifted   Nautical Navy Top  ~  Thrifted   Vintage Leather Belt  ~  Thrifted  Blue Sails Skirt  ~  Thrifted    Tan Penny Loafers  ~  Big W

~ * ♥ * ~

Autumn is here, and it is holding the rest of us hostage.  Seriously, 2 degree lows over night?  *brrr*  That’s cold.  Usually there’s a tradition in Canberra to only start lighting the fires/heating your house up after Anzac Day, but we really couldn’t wait that long this year.  I think it’s going to be a cold one.  

Yay for the snow season!  The Hubs and I have season passes again this year, so we are absolutely looking forwards to that.  Another thing that is making me smile is that my new loafers match the colour of the fallen leaves.   How epic is that? 

I have been wearing these shoes a ton.  Partly because I had been looking for a decently priced, cute pair of heeled loafers for the better part of a year and a half, so now that I’ve found them, I am super excited, and partly because I find myself turning more and more away from my ‘boring’ black shoes and going for the more colourful, quirky pairs. 

I don’t know what it is, but I am feeling so anti-black at the moment!  That is fairly interesting considering at one stage my entire wardrobe was in shades of monochrome – ranging from white to black.  Now I’d say it’s more 45% black and 35% colour, with about 20% being white or grey.  Hmm.  Maybe I’m just growing out of my emo-teen years.  ; P

xox,

bonita  

Small Town Trucker

 

Cream o’ Green Crochet Top  ~  ICE   Gladys Owl Fakelite Broach  ~  Acorn & Will, Gladys Owl   Fakelite Carved Rose Bangle  ~  Dotti   Jadestone Bangle  ~  Hong Kong  Sailor Side Button Jeans  ~  Freddie’s of Pinewood ~ Note:  They don’t have the exact pair anymore, but these are close ~ 1940's Work Pants   White Sandshoes  ~  Thrifted

~ * ♥ * ~

I looooove this old ute!  It’s parked in the ‘back yard’ of the tumble down house I take photos by, and it’s got such character!  This outfit shoot was literally a ten minute “drive by”, but the truck makes it so full of win.  I am really, really happy that we live where we do!  So many interesting places to take snaps…  > <

Incidentally, do you all like the change of formatting to my outfit post?  It’s kind of subtle, so you may not have noticed, but basically I’m not numbering outfit posts anymore; I think it’s getting too crazy and what happens if I start getting into the hundreds?  What if I hit 1,000 outfit posts??  That would be nuts, but it could happen!  

I’ve also decided to cut down the picture content.  While I love outfit posts that have lots of details, I felt like 5 – 7 photos is just getting too repetitive.  I also noticed that a lot of my favourite bloggers only do a couple of pictures, some of them only one!  Because I’m not posting outfit posts that frequently though I decided to cap it at 3 main photos and one details shot.  What do you think?  Should I do even less photos, like just one or maybe two, or should I go back to my old format?  Feel free to let me know!
^ w ^

xox,

bonita

Doing an Authentic Cut ~ 1940s The Middy Plus

The other day I went to my hairdresser to get a trim.  Initially I was planning to get my usual cut done, but at the last minute I found a diagram of the Middy Plus cut and popped it on my phone, just in case. 

I have been thinking about getting that cut for a while, but when I asked my old hairdresser{whom I love, but she went to the coast to set up a new salon}, she pretty much said that she didn’t want to do the cut like that because she thought I wouldn’t like my hair being that short.  All well and good, but I sort of wanted to try it anyway!

So when I went back to the salon to have my first haircut with my new hairdresser I bit the bullet and rather haltingly asked her if she would do this “retro 1940s haircut for me because I sort of like to wearing vintage-y style outfits and I know it’s kind of random, but it’s fun and….”  Yeah.  I was embarrassed ~ particularly after last time! But she was super sweet and loved that I had brought in an actual hairdresser’s diagram to show her.  {I took page number 3}

 

 

I won’t lie; when she made the first cut into my hair, I died a little inside….  I hadn’t realized just how short 41/2 inches at the back is!!  Still, I reasoned with myself that my hair does tend to grow quickly to a certain length{and then it just stops… : P } so if I really hated it, it would grow out.  Anyway this is the finished result:

I didn’t use any pin curls or rollers; just my natural curl with a bit of wax combed through it while it’s wet to control the frizz.  Overall I am happy with the cut, but there are some downsides to getting the authentic cut.   Here’s my list of pros and cons.

~  Deciding on a Vintage Authentic Cut  ~

Pros:    

1. It’s very easy to look vintage with your hair out.
2. It’s super quick to do a pin curl set, or rollers.  And a lot easier!
3. It’s cute and it’s different.
4. It helps to keep era-ambiguous outfits period correct.  What I mean by that is that even though back in the 1940-50’s there would have been fashion cross-over, you can look a bit ‘muddled’ if you don’t try to stick fairly close to one era when you dress vintage now a days.  Fleur de Guerre once commented that vintage styled victory rolls was her best accessory for looking vintage and I agree.  Get your hair right and the rest follows ~ little things like correct make up, shoes, etc, don’t tend to matter as much then. 

Cons:

1. You most likely will need to learn specific techniques for updo styles. I don’t know how to style my hair, besides wearing it out.  I think I need to see if I can find some instructions on 1940’s short hair updos.  The Middy Plus is supposed to be “a convenient length for updos” but I really haven’t found that yet!!
2. It’s short.  As in really short.  I can’t pull it into a ponytail which is a bit frustrating.  I have heard that a way around that is to ask the hairdresser to add length to the cut, so for instance, if the Long Length Femme Fatale cut is still too short, ask them to do the cut but add 4” all around, making 6” at the back 10” long and the 3” at the side 7” and so on. 
3. If you don’t want to look vintage, it’s a bit hard.  An authentic cut will vintage-ize any outfit.
4. Sometimes you think you look like a grandma….  And in an old way, not the good way.

So that’s my experience so far ~ I am writing this two weeks after my trip to the salon and I think I like the cut a bit more now that it’s grown out a touch.  Still, I am not sure if I want to let my hair grow out completely and then try a Long Length cut.  For now, the Middy Plus is working for me most of the time and I do like it….  I guess if I can figure out how to put it up then I will be totally happy with it.  : )  We’ll see.

xox,

bonita