Thursday, November 29, 2012

Cakes and Audrey and Nighties! Oh My!

Back in July, my group of girls and I went to the inaugural Love Vintage Show in Brisbane. All of us bought frou-frou nightie sets and made promises of having a slumber party in said nighties.

Two good friends were in need of cheering up so Sassy D and I decided the time for our grown-up girls slumber party had come.

We planned and shopped, cooked and decorated until our own special brand of retro party came to fruition.

First we had a lovely afternoon tea with the room decorated in sweet pinks and blues.  A bouquet of gorgeous white peonies was our centerpiece.  Keeping our music to the theme we had a playlist of Doo-Wop songs, Dean Martin and some of Billie Holiday's less mopey stuff playing in the background.



Isn't that a lovely spread of food?  We were catering for two gluten free people, one of whom is also dairy free as well.  They were both able to eat most of what was on offer.


Then our guests began to arrive and we all settled down for some congenial chatting over tea or pink bubbles.




Then someone pointed out that with a storm threatening we aught to take outfit shots outside while we still could.   We all refreshed makeup and tottered outside for these outfit shots (in order of arrival on the day).


 Dress:  1950s floral crepe dress  (Gypsy Bazaar at Paddington Antique Center)
Shoes:  Target
Hat:  Black 50's half hat (Love Vintage Show - unknown seller)
Bag: (Sassy D's) 50s handbag (The Vintage Advantage - BVFF)
Gloves:  Vintage black gloves, borrowed from Sassy D as I couldn't find mine!


Dress: 50s brown cotton eyelet sheath (Denisebrain Etsy)
Hat: Ostrich feather 50s New Look hat (Deja Vu Vintage Rose - BVFF)
Gloves: Ebay bulk purchase
Bag: (Mama L's) beaded bag from 30s (?)


Dress:  Handmade from a Vogue Vintage 40's pattern (rerun)
Hat and gloves:  Vintage from past Vintage Fashion Fair.

Gloves: 30s - 50s family-owned gloves.
Dress: (poisonedkitty's) 60s/70s daydress
 

Dress:  Handmade from Butterick Retro Pattern B6307
Gloves: Kitten D'Amour
Bag: The One Stop Pin-up Shop, Chermside
Hat: unknown seller - unknown vintage fair. 
Other:  Horn-rimmed glasses (The Vintage Advantage)


 Dress:  Handmade handmade 50s dress with peacock print Japanese fabric.
Hat: 50s Green feather bandeau. 


Dress:  handmade 50s dress with Japanese fabric. 


Skirt:  (Mine) 50s cotton skirt (Recycology - Love Vintage Show '12)
Hat: 60s hat (bulk Ebay purchase)
Gloves: (poisonedkitty's) vintage pair from her collection


My favourite shot of all of us except Little L would be this one that I convinced everyone to do...


And of course the obligatory shoe and fabric shot. So colourful!



After we had finished confusing the neighbors without our outdoor shenanigans, we went back inside and got into 'something more comfortable'.  That is, we changed into our vintage nighties.

We started an Audrey-a-thon, a movie marathon of Audrey Hepburn films.  We started with Roman Holiday, then Sabrina.  Breakfast at Tiffany's was next but I don't know if many of us made it that far into the movie.


We drank tasty things.  We ate gourmet pizza.  We did hair.  We did nails. 


We ate mocha cheesecakes made by poisonedkitty, who is a goddess in the kitchen.Then one by one we left or resigned to bed.

It was a wonderful night.

Note - There are no photos of us in nighties because we all agreed to post none on the web. They can be a tad see-through. ;)

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Online Resources: Australian Women's Weekly Magazines

The National Library of Australia has an excellent newspaper digitalisation project with scans and searchable OCR texts from Australian newspapers back to the earliest years of first prints.  Honestly, it can be rather fun reading through some of the old papers.  I've seen articles about the opening of the brand spanking new Treasury Hotel in Brisbane, a letter of complaint about the noisy youth in Spring Hill playing pranks with tin cans in the late 1800s and read a report about two men who were running a con-job by showing people the world's only 'dancing duck'.

But if trawling through papers to find the odd interesting article is not to your interest, perhaps the latest addition to the library's digitalisation projects will excite you a little more.


Australian Women's Weekly Magazines 
1933 - 1983 Digitisation Project

Might you want to read a juicy romance serial story? 

Do old advertisements promising weight loss from laxative 'Ford Pills' give you a giggle?  Perhaps you get a kick out of seeing old ads for familiar products or companies still around today.

Would you want to see hundreds of photos of people, both celebrities and everyday folk, from the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, sporting beautiful fashions and hairstyles?

Perhaps you might be needing a recipe to rock the socks off friends at a dinner party.  After all, who could say no to macaroni stuffed peppers or carrots arabella?

For the crafty knitter there is no end of knitting patterns available....



If, like me, you are saying "Yes! Yes! Yes!" then head over the the digitisation project at Trove, accessible through this handy landing page.

Outfits in Temperamental Spring

The weather in Brisbane keeps swaying to and fro.  Cold enough for cardigans and light jackets one day and humid and hot the next.  First we had a dry spell and now we've just had a number of Summer-type storms, including a bit of hail.  It is often cold in the morning as I get ready but by the time I get to work it's warmed up significantly.

All of this makes it hard to know what to wear in a day!

Here are some vintage outfits from the last two weeks:



 Dress: 70s pink dress (It's Vintage Darling)
Shoes: Target
Jacket: Lovers
Necklace: barely visable pink cut-glass necklace (Recycology- at the Love Vintage Show Brisbane) 







 Skirt:  60s mustard pleated skirt (Cassie's Corner)
Blouse:  Sheer black blouse with pussycat bow from Barkins
Hat:  Black 50s Juliet cap (Love Vintage Show - seller unknown)
Shoes:  Target
 



Dress:  60s Lickity Split summer dress in maroon, hot pink and mustard (Bess Georgette Etsy)
Collar:  Pearl beaded collar
Shoes:  Wittner suede red platform sandles.
Headband:  Mimco



Links out to stores mentioned in this post:

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Brisbane Vintage Fair at the Gold Coast!

The Brisbane Vintage Fashion Fair has run twice annually at the Eagle Farm Race Course for some time now.  This year the fair organisers decided to expand to run a third at the Gold Coast.

Though the coast is more than an hour's drive Sassy D and I were keen to see what new stalls the new location would bring.

We arrived not long after 11am (taking a minute's silence for Remembrance Day).  The venue was a good choice with plenty of parking,  sufficient space inside, air conditioning and a stage for the fashion parade.  The usual lucky door prize of $200 credit to spend at a future fair was being run.  I filled in my entry thinking that the smaller attendance numbers over one day only must surely give me more of a chance to win than at the bigger and longer fairs in Brisbane!   My email inbox remains empty tonight but I live in hope! 

There were some negatives. The music played for the fashion show was loud, modern pop which really wasn't to my liking (nor a few of the other shoppers who were browsing near me at the time).  The Gold Coast stores catered to those interested in later vintage from the later 70s and 80s, which unfortunately isn't my thing so I ended up doing all of my shopping with the usual Brisbane sellers.

I must apologise for not taking photos at the event.... I didn't even get a photo of Sassy D's fabulous outfit which was a pair of high waisted vintage style jeans, white shirt and a 1950s brown gingham bolero jacket from Atomic Martini Vintage.   She looked wonderful and this was proven by a fashion blogger asking her to pose for a photo.

The time we didn't spend taking photos was spent ooooohing and aaaahhhing over some of the lovely pieces there today.   Some familiar stalls were at the event including Vintage Advantage, Cassie's Corner and Deju-vu Vintage Rose and Hobohemia.  We also ran into Lisa, the lovely owner of Atomic Martini Vintage who was there as a shopper rather than a stall owner.   She looked amazing and I hope she entered the best at the show competition which was due to run after we left.

As for my own outfit...  

 
Blouse:  1950s embroidered organdy blouse  (Atomic Martini Vintage)
Cardigan:  Hollister 
Skirt:  Handmade from original 1940s pattern (Hollywood Patterns #1145)
Shoes: Whittner
Bag:  Cane 60s purse (La Bella Donna Vintage)

I went with the main goal of buying a 50s dress to wear to a party Sassy D and I have planned for next weekend.  I came away with the desired dress from Gypsy Bazaar.   I really should learn how to barter...

My purchases:
  • semi-sheer 1950s dress - ($180 ouch!) Gypsy Bazaar
  • Mustard 50s skirt suit - ($50) Cassie's Corner
  • Brown feathered half-hat - ($45) Cassie's Corner
  • Sweet pink vintage petticoat ($30) Unknown Logan based seller

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Simplicity 4699 - Mockup Finished

After almost 90 days without a decent rainfall Mother Nature has decided to grace Brisbane with a few days of drizzle.  I'm sure she has a sense of humor because it also happened to be the weekend my husband planned to go camping. Undaunted by the rain he went off this morning leaving me with the house to myself.

It was the perfect weather to stay inside and work on projects so I put myself to work on finishing the mockup for my 1940s dress.

It's now all sewn together and I can gladly say that it fits rather well without any alterations.



I must confess that I make very neat mockups.  Sassy D can't believe I make such tidy and complete mockups but my theory is that if I sew it entirely the once then I'll have done a practice run of sorts and will know all the points to look out for when using my good fabric. 

I also now have a very nice and serviceable house-dress as well as the one I'll make as the finished product.  Well... I will once I hem the skirt and sew a zip in the side.  In the photo above it is just pinned, which is why the hemline looks a little puffy. 

My fashion fabric and lining is now cut out and ready to sew.   Hopefully I'll have something to report soon!

Friday, November 9, 2012

What a Hat for Melbourne Cup!

There is one annual event in Australia that is almost synonymous for words like 'hat' or 'fascinator', that being the Melbourne Cup.   It's the one time in the year that I bet on horse racing (if you call a $2 bet in the office sweepstakes betting!)

My sweeps horse, Precedence, didn't win but to make up for it I had a fabulous (though slightly silly) hat to wear to the occasion!



It's an extravaganza of ruffled tulle passed down to me by my grandmother's sister in-law.  I'd place it in the 60s.  To be entirely anachronistic I wore it with a 40s silk jacket and a 50s floral sundress which you can also see in the above photo.

I hope any Australian readers out there had a more successful Melbourne Cup than I!

Outfits from Last Fortnight

It has been a very busy fortnight with my little sister leaving us all to venture forth to a new life in London.  Parties and breakfasts and an airport trip later and she's now off on her exciting adventure.   I really do hope to be able to visit her when she's settled.


But all that aside, here are some of the vintage outfits I wore in the last fortnight.



Dress:  70s salmon coloured dress (Atomic Martini Vintage)
Jacket:  Valley Girl
Brooch: Coral Brooch (Atomic Martini Vintage)
Shoes:  Wittner



 
Blouse:  50s sheer blouse (Atomic Martini Vintage)
Cardigan:  50s Darlene cardigan (Denisebrain Etsy)
Shoes:  I love Billy
Headband:  Mimco
 Jeans:  Jeans West. 



 
Dress:  40s black dress (Denisebrain Etsy)
Shoes:  Naturalizer

 

Blouse:  Jay-Jays
Vest:  70s (maybe earlier?) knitted vest (Atomic Martini Vintage)
Skirt: Handmade skirt  (1940s pattern Hollywood Pattern  #1145)
Shoes: London Rebel ballet flats
Headband:  Mimco
Teacup:  Noritake. 
 


Links out to vintage stored mentioned in this blog:

Atomic Martini Vintage
Denisebrain