Easter Circle Skirts

This year I decided to make matching skirts instead of dresses like I did last year. I used Casey's circle skirt sew a long and Patty The Snug Bug's circle skirt tutorial to make our Easter skirts. Patty has an easy to use circle skirt calculator! You can even calculate 3/4 and 1/2 circle skirts using her calculator page. I love Casey's longer blue skirt with hand embroidered bumble bees that she made! So cute!

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Casey's Circle Skirt Sew A Long

I messed up my hem and in order to even it out my skirt ended up shorter than I would have liked it to be. The skirt was very easy to put together. I made mine and Amelia's circle skirt in about 1 1/2 hours. I used Heather Bailey fabric for our skirts. She has great fabrics! I am definitely making more because they are so easy. I want to make a half circle skirt next. I feel like it will be more flattering on me than a full circle skirt. Below is Casey in a half circle skirt she made.  Looks great and it has a very vintage look.

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I opted not to wear crinoline or a petticoat. :-)

Vintage dresses

I found this 1950s dress for about $20! It's in great condition. It fits really well and is so soft and flowy. I would like to hem it though. Right at the knee or a little above the knee would feel better to me. I want to make a matching belt with the fabric I cut off the bottom. I may take in the bust a little too. Who knows. I'm hoping to get an adjustable dress form for my birthday or mother's day. That would be a tremendous help!

Vintage Eyeglasses

I've been neglecting my need for vision corrections. I wore glasses most of my teen years and then stopped wearing them about 8 or so years ago. I got contacts after my daughter was born but never wore them regularly. Since then I've been squinting. I promise I have not been a danger to the public. I've always passed my DMV vision test. I had an eye exam on Saturday and the Dr told me I would no longer pass the DMV vision test if I were to go in today! Yikes. I knew I needed to get glasses so I started researching vintage inspired eyeglasses right away. I wanted glasses that went with my style. I was happy to find that more and more designers are catering the vintage/retro style. A few people pointed me to Coastal Contacts and I found Frames Direct and Eye Bobs after a quick google search.

Most eyeglasses in the 1940's were more round in shape and very simple. In 1947 the style, Browline was invented and designed by Jack Rohrbach for the Shuron eyeglass company. The name Browline seems like an obvious name because the design at the top of the frame mimics that of the eyebrows. Browline eyeglasses gained popularity in the 1950's and are still made and sold by the Shuron company. I am ordering these brownlines made by Shuron! My optician said she would put lenses in a pair of vintage frames if I found some I liked! Make sure your Optician will do that because some will only work on frames you buy in their office. Ebay, Etsy and some other online stores have lots of original vintage frames for sale. I'm going to keep an eye out for vintage frames the next time I go thrifting or antiquing.

Shuron Nusir Royale Eyeglasses

I am so excited. They are having a 40% off sale on all prescription glasses until Nov 18, 2011! 

The famous Cat Eye frames! Order a pair at Frames Direct or Coastal Contacts.

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Besides today, I think the 1950's and 60's was the most popular time for wearing eyeglasses. The frames became more fashionable and fancy.

(Both of these vintage inspired frames can be found on Frames Direct!)

These round frames remind me of the pair John Boy from The Waltons wore. You can see this type of eyeglasses in late 30's early 40's movies. Usually worn by a geeky boy or girl. Funny how they stereotyped eyeglass wearings with intelligence back then too.

 

 

New Hair Cut!

I finally went for it! I went back and forth for months trying to decide if I wanted to cut my hair. I was originally growing it out. My goal was waist length.  I was a few inches from reaching my goal when I started to get the itch. The itch to cut my hair. I loved my long hippie, Renaissance hair but I also missed my 1940's hairstyles. After Casey from Elegant Musings cut her hair in a modified middy I knew right then that it was time for me to cut my hair again. I decided to get a modified middy as well since I wasn't ready to commit to a true middy cut. I asked for my hair to be cut in a U shape with the shortest part of the cut to reach the top of my shoulders and the deepest part of the U to lay a few inches below my shoulders. Lots of layers were cut in. About 8-9 inches were cut off of my length. I haven't had my hair this short since 2001. My stylist kept asking if I was sure and I assured her that I was. My hair grows quickly and every time I get home from getting my hair cut I usually regret not cutting it a few inches shorter. This time I was serious and have yet to regret cutting it this short.

The next day I used hot rollers instead of sleeping in pillow sponge rollers. I think the hot rollers gave my hair cut a nice relaxed 50's look. Very Elizabeth Taylor.

I prefer setting my hair in pillow sponge rollers with a little setting lotion. I bought Lottabody setting lotion and a small spray bottle. I followed the direction on the bottle to dilute it with water. The small spray bottle is perfect.  My hair is so thick I couldn't imagine how long it would take for me to pin curl my whole head!

I'm glad my husband doesn't mind me going to bed with my hair in curlers and a scarf around my head. ;-)

The more hair I put in a roller the less tight the curls. Obvious right?

 

I clearly used more curlers in the picture below. My curlers were tight and lasted all day. The next day my curls were just right. I could easily get three good hair days from one setting!

Matching Easter Dresses and a Tie.

I'm finally getting around to posting about our Easter dress! I followed Casey's Sew A Long to make my dress.  If Casey had not done a sew a long for the Swing Dress pattern I may have never been able to put the darn thing together.  I'm pretty good at figuring out sewing patterns but I think that the hand drawn directions and the way they explained the dress constructions was hard to follow.  I know I'm not the only one who felt that way. Casey did an amazing job explaining different techniques and methods. I will definitely make this dress again. I think a black rayon would make a pretty version.

I found this lovely pattern on etsy at StillSewStylish.  It was very easy to put together.  A lot of the little girl's dresses were shorter in the 70's and I didn't know that until after I tried the dress on Amelia. Next time I will add an extra inch or two to the hem line.

She didn't let a dress slow her down.

Easter egg hunt!

Amelia found the golden egg!

She won a giant chocolate Easter bunny which I was able to sneak out of the house untouched. lol She had enough candy that day.

My husband was such a good sport about the matching tie. I used this pattern that belonged to my Nana and you can definitely tell that she used this pattern often to make ties. It was so easy to put together and the only thing I would change would be to make it longer.  Vintage ties were much shorter than ties today.

We shocked people as we walked into church with our matching outfits.  So fun!

I loved making Amelia's Easter basket!

This was her first Easter where she was old enough to dye Easter eggs.  She loved it.  I'm glad she likes hard boiled eggs because we had lots of them. Maybe next year we will try fancier Easter egg decorating.

Vintage Scarves

I found these colorful scarves at a thrift store while in Va during Christmas.  A few dollars a piece and in great condition. I have a few that belonged to my Nana and I love to wear them so I thought I would start collecting a few here and there. I need to find a better way to store them.

{From Vintage Postcard Gallery}

This little girl looks adorable with a scarf on her head!

{Factory workers warping their hair up with simple scarves. From Michal Hadassah Flikr}

I think one of the reasons I, as well as many others associate headscarves with the 1940's is because of it's use during the war efforts.  Women went to work at the factories and fields when their husbands, brothers and fathers went off to war. In order to keep their hair safely out of the way while working on machinery they would wrap their hair up in scarves or turbans. Women also wore headscarves while cooking, cleaning, swimming, gardening, putting on make up, riding a bike, setting pin curls, etc. Practical yet feminine.

I LOVE this WWII advertisement. The many hats of women during the war.

{From zombielace}

{From vintagelabels}

A side note. Have you noticed that most of the scarves in the pictures are red and white polka dot?! I did not plan that! lol

Super Kawaii Mama has a video on how to wear a headscarf.