Wearing bold prints and bright colors this summer

This summer, I've found I would much rather be wearing separates than a dress. And bold, beautifully colored ones are really catching my eye.

I have several patterned separates that need coordinating solid pieces to put together outfits rather than wardrobe orphans. So I'm trying to fill in where I can this summer! Unfortunately I haven't had a lot of time to sew lately, so a couple of the gaps I've filled in with a recent purchase from Trashy Diva.

I'm wearing their new Trixie top, which I included in my halter styles inspiration post. I ordered two because their shipping is high, and sometimes you have to maximize shipping, right? That's what I tell myself, anyhow.

The top is cropped, hitting just at my natural waist (the skirt is actually a little big on me, so sitting just below). With a skirt or shorts sitting right at your waist you'd occasionally get peeks of midriff as you went about your daily business.

I'm quite pleased with it. I don't buy a lot new these days, so I'm pretty choosy! The quality is very nice, and the fit is great, with wide elastic panels on the sides. There are two straps that button in the back with three button holes, so you can tie the straps into a halter, wear them straight as I am, or cross them in the back! I love adjustable straps since they're often too long on me.

The top is made from stretch cotton poplin, is fully lined with self-fabric and has a covered center back zipper with hook and eye closure at the very top.

Take note that you may need to size down. The elastic sides are quite stretchy so the fit is forgiving. I'm about a 34/35" full bust these days, and I'm wearing a small which is meant for a 32"+ bust.

I'm wearing it with a 1950s novelty print skirt that's like a full-on carnival.

This skirt is just crazy. Hot pink, yellow, orange, turquoise, lime green and black on white. There's flowers, Native Americans, cars, marching bands, guns, lemonade stands, balloons and more.

It's like a Rube Goldberg machine met a carnival and had a skirt baby.

Did I mention the hot dogs? I know, I know. I don't get it, either. Is this scene supposed to mean something, or is it just 1950s lunacy??

I paired it with some orange and green Bakelite bangles and vintage flower earrings.

The heat of summer usually finds me growing tired of setting my hair and dealing with rollers and drooping hair and I don't even feel like wearing scarves, so I've been sporting braids a lot lately.

I didn't wear this outfit anywhere, just a day working at home. Like I said in my last post, I'm trying to make more of an effort... and I'll be talking about this in the future, too!

I paired the outfit with emerald green sandals, a color I'm loving right now. I'm not all clogs and wedges in summer... when it starts to bake outside I want as little as possible on my feet, and at least these let me do it in style. (Even if I think they could lose the little blingy metal plate...I forgive them that because of the color.)

Everyone knows about the stereotypical shoes women favored in the 40s and 50s, but if you look at a variety of resources, you'll see plenty of examples of sandals similar to this! I've been wearing these practically everyday.

(I was standing near a pot I didn't use this year but then discovered there were some volunteer petunias in it from last year's flowers!)

I think full skirts are great to beat the heat as they're roomy and breezy, much more than my usual preferred A-lines. So I'm definitely favoring them lately. Especially in cotton, which is my most favorite fabric to wear, you have a perfect match for summer. Can't beat it!

Summer is a great time to enjoy novelty prints, bright colors and fun sandals, don't you think??

outfit details:

top: Trashy Diva Trixie Top

1950s circle skirt: Secondhand Wonderland on Etsy

vintage earrings: gift from my mom

Bakelite bangles: here and there

sandals: Zappos

hair flowers: Ruth Nore Designs and Details by J. Lynn

New spectacles

No, it's not vacation photos yet. Soon, I promise!

Now you may recall sometime in May, I mentioned that I got new eyeglasses. A few astute readers noticed I was wearing them in my last post. And if you follow me on Instagram, they're not new to you at all, as I've been sporting them in photos for awhile. But this is the first time I'm introducing them on the blog.

Meet my new specs!

I've been wearing vintage eyewear from the 1950s for years, much longer than I've been a daily vintage clothing wearer. So I was looking for a pair of glasses for when I wanted something other than my 50s specs. And while my wardrobe often leans more 40s, I think 50s glasses will always be my main love. They are just. so. awesome.

But! I wanted a more 40s-looking pair as a change of pace. So I went with modern glasses that have a pretty 40s feel, with the round lenses and keyhole bridge. I ordered them online from Classic Specs (this pair here), and I'm quite pleased. I have a strong prescription so I need high index lenses, and these were hundreds of dollars cheaper than I've sometimes had to pay for eyeglasses (even bringing in my own vintage frames), including anti-reflective coating. I was very pleased with the quality of the frames and lenses. It's a gamble ordering glasses online, but if you find a place with a good return policy, you're not out anything if you're unhappy with the results!

Today, I'm wearing them with a dress I made this time last year. I was kind of meh about actually wearing it last summer as I felt it was a little too cutesy and young for me, but I'm not currently minding it. Age is just a number, right?

Lately, I've been sporting this Rita Hayworth-inspired updo a lot, though mine is never nearly as glamorous as hers or other vintage gals, as my patience for hairstyles is admittedly quite small. In fact I noticed uncurled sections on the back of my head in these photos, counteracting the lovely wave I achieved in my bangs. So just look at the front of my head, deal?

Regardless, I'm planning to wear this style a lot to beat the upcoming heat this summer. And what a great way to show off hair flowers! I'm going bananas for hair flowers right now, so expect to see them adorning my noggin a lot in the upcoming months.

I'm wearing my new Lime Crime lipstick in Retrofuturist, too. To me it has a slight pink undertone when worn without a lip liner, though I usually opt for orange-reds or blue-based reds. But with a liner (how I'm wearing it here) it's more the true red they say it is. I'm pretty pleased with the wearability and creaminess, so it's already gone into my regular rotation of reds.

It's hard to get used to seeing such a change in eyewear style on my face, and especially odd to me that they aren't vintage specs for the first time in so long, but I'm enjoying them!

outfit details:

eyeglasses: Classic Specs

1940s dress: made by me

hair flowers: here and there

Bakelite earrings: Etsy

Bakelite & fakelite bangles: here and there

shoes: Lotta From Stockholm
lipstick: Retrofuturist by Lime Crime 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas pullover time

December marks the month I whip out all of my winter-themed pullovers. What can I say, I just have a thing for them. They naturally make a great casual outfit with trousers or jeans, but it can be hard to dress them up, which I like to do from time to time. I went for a bit of sparkle and gold in my accessories to do the job.

(Sorry for the dead yard photos. That's one caveat of a tiny city yard, there aren't a lot of options for where to take photos. I'm not complaining, I'm happy to have a yard at all.)

Anyway, I just adore this vintage sweater. When I got it last year, the neck was bound off so tight I couldn't pull my head through. I knew I'd never find wool to match a vintage sweater perfectly in order to unpick the bind off and make it more stretchy, so instead I unpicked it and one more row, then bound off much more loosely. That was enough to juuust get it over my noggin.

The belt is one of my latest purchases and I love it so much I can't believe there was a second when I held it in my hands at the Vintage Garage that I contemplated not buying it. Admittedly, it was only a split second.

I don't know the exact era of this sweater. The deep welt is very 40s, but the design reminds me more of similarly-themed winter sweater patterns I have from the 50s. You can see from the label it's hand-knit, and presumably for the Quebec tourist trade. I love the thought that someone probably brought this home from a winter adventure as a memento of their holiday. Apparently that person was Linda, whose name was stamped on the label.

I paired it with a brooch and earring set that were my grandmother's. For years I had the brooch and just one earring because my mom couldn't find the other earring at the time she gave them to me. Then a month before our wedding, I called her up and told her to hunt down the other earring. Of course, being a dutiful mother, she found it, and so I was married in them.

Gratuitous pet shot!

 Doesn't the sweater remind you of this 1946 tourism ad for Quebec? Crisp tonic air, dry power snow...

{ Source: My Papered Past on Etsy, ad for sale here }

It's getting chilly again here after a warm spell, and wearing this cotton skirt is making me think I'd like to sew a 40s style gored skirt in navy wool for winter. Oh yes, I think it shall be done.

outfit details

knit sweater: can't recall

50s brooch and earrings: my grandmother, via my mom

 watch: Ruby Lane from absolutely ages ago

belt: Dena at Vintage Garage

skirt: The Black Pinafore

shoes: Remix

Fall day trip

Last weekend, it was so warm that we decided to get in a small road trip to Wisconsin. It's one of our favorite things to do, and this year with buying the house and settling in and everything that comes with that we've had very little opportunities to do it. So with temperatures 20 degrees warmer than earlier that week, we hit the road in style.

Outfit details

dress: made by me

1940s alligator shoes: Randolph Street Market

cardigan: knit by a friend

belt: Gidjit on Etsy

scarf: somewhere or other

locket bracelet: handmade by Made with Love SV on Etsy

modern wool coat: bought in Ireland on the high street

We spent the day in and around Kenosha, and had lunch at a cute little café, the Secret Garden Café and Gallery. We found it thanks to sitting in a parking lot by the lake and looking for Yelp reviews nearby... ah, the wonders of technology.

I had tasty tomato basil soup and a grilled cheese sandwich which looked like a heart.

They had something called a Little Free Library in the entrance way. I love projects that promote literacy. You can even get plans from them to build your own!

Along with a used bookstore stop, where I found a 1960s copy of the Bishop Method of Clothing Construction, we went to an antique mall and picked up an ornate mirror and a few small antique prints for our bedroom. I'll have to photograph them when we eventually paint and decorate the bedroom and hang them all up, but the room is quite lackluster still.

Did I mention what was outside the antique mall? Actually this pig had a couple of friends with him as well (not including Mel of course).

We also took the opportunity to revel a bit in the amazing autumn colors in a park. This is one of my favorite pair of shoes lately, 40s alligator pumps.

The bench just matched the leaves so perfectly.

We saw a jeweler in town that had amazing relics in the window from its long history.

I loved these vintage ring boxes in particular. I definitely need one like in the middle or on the right!

I couldn't miss the chance to pose on the stairs of this amazing side entrance to a church, it looked right out of Europe to me.

All in all it was a lovely way to spend one of the last hurrahs of fall!

I hope you've been finding ways to enjoy it, too!

An autumnal outfit

One thing I have been downright terrible about this year is outfit posts. I really need to be better, in part because it gives me an excuse to wear something on days I don't otherwise have a reason to force me out of casual jeans and a sweater. So here you go, a little outfit post, inspired by yesterday's post.

This is one of my favorite skirts. In fact, it was in part re-discovering this skirt in my closet that sent me cooing over skirts, blouses and trim little cardigans. Actually this cardigan is my single entry in the 'trim little cardigan' department, believe it or not. But I'm working on that, here's one of the ways...

I'll be knitting up a cardigan with two strands of fingering weight in a yummy color for fall, which coincidentally matches my skirt. And back to that skirt. It's the perfect fit, the perfect length and a fabulous print. Aztec? Or inspired by ancient Rome? Who knows. Boy did they do novelty prints right back in the day.

The skirt is pleated all along the waistband and I have a vintage sewing pattern exactly like it, which I sewed up into a novelty print skirt that I wore to Viva Las Vegas last year. I was disappointed with how that skirt looked in photos so much I've never worn it since, but now I think I can chalk it up to a bad bra and belt choice, believe it or not. Amazing how simple things can make such a difference! And now I totally want to sew up that skirt pattern again.

You can't tell how craptastic my hair is looking lately. Grow or cut? I can't seem to decide. So I've been wearing a casual ponytail a lot, but it's now warm hat season here, and the two don't mix. I'm tempted to cut it short enough that I don't have to bother setting it when I don't want to, but fear I'll regret it.

Yes, it's warm footwear season as well.

These booties were purchased last year when I was desperately trying to find non-ugly early winter boots. I think they're pretty darling, though the warmth is mostly just for show—the faux shearling is only on the outside. My feet get cold easily and sadly I know we'll soon be sinking into the season where I'll be wearing mostly fugly-but-toasty sheepy boots. Although inspiration just struck: I think I should knit some warm ankle socks to hide inside these!

Ah, the joys of a Midwest winter. At least I can look cute on top!

Outfit details: 50s skirt from Knee Deep Vintage, cardigan from Simple Thrift, acorn charm bracelet from eBay, blouse and belt from somewhere or other, me-made earrings from vintage cabochons, Sam Edelman boots