In blues & plaids outfits {and post-haircut}

Thursday evening, I got a haircut, as you know. I went for a shorter version of pretty much my usual, so basically a short middy. I had a long talk with my stylist about how I'd style a curl fluff on top, and she cut my hair so that I could do that, albeit with that layer a little longer as she was worried I wouldn't be able to do much with it if that didn't work out for me. Which is good, because wow, was I all thumbs at it when I tried. I'll give it a go again but I'm not holding out any hopes. I think it was a combo of "I'm not doing this successfully" and "this just doesn't look very good on me". Ha!

In the meantime, here's two outfits and post-haircut photos in one. First, I'll show you a hairstyle you will likely not see me in very often. This was styled with sponge rollers the day after my cut.

This turned out to be a don't move, don't go outside, don't go near humidity, don't breath hairstyle. It would be lovely if I lived in the middle of the desert. I don't.

Instead, I live in humid Chicago, and it rained the day I styled this, and within an hour my hair was a complete wreck. Frizz, falling down bits, you name it. Appallingly bad! As soon as I got home from brunch and fun but fruitless second-hand shopping, I had to pile it all up on my head and adorn with a scarf. So much for a chic vintage 'do. On the bright side, the after-style was pretty cute and will be fun and casual for summer. (Sorry, I forgot to photograph it! But you'll see it again, I'm sure.)

Outfit details: Freddie's of Pinewoods jeans, red Bakelite bangles, Bass saddle shoes, 50s wicker basket purse, 50s starburst earrings from Atomixrox, reversible squirrel belt by Cassie Stephens, pullover knit by a friend for a swap on Ravelry (the pattern is Mary Jane)

So here's my hair the next (again rainy) day and much closer to what my hair really looks like, droopy curl included. I'd already had to pin one up to the nape of my neck by this point in the day. This was styled with perm rods, which my hair really is a bit too short for unless I'm just going for a bit of wave at the bottom. But sometimes I like to play with different tools.

Having gone short again I'm still not sure if I like my hair better when the length sits above or below my shoulders. I forgot that when it's this short, any rogue curls and droopy bits are way more obvious, and I do get those. A lot. But I can also leave it mostly un-styled with a little front roll for quick on-the-go days, like when I commute to work and just can't bring myself to set my hair.

The great thing is it's just hair, and by the time I make up my mind, my hair will be different...and I'll have probably changed my mind, anyway. ;)

Outfit details: Freddie's of Pinewoods jeans, mixed Bakelite bangles and earrings, the other side of my reversible squirrel belt by Cassie Stephens, 50s plaid cowboy shirt, 50s embroidered bolero from FuturaVintage

And last but not least, we're starting to see things bloom in our new yard!

Hope you had a lovely weekend! And hello to all my new followers on Twitter! I'm still getting the hang of it but I think it'll be a fun way to connect with other vintage fans.

Fake a good hair day with a beret (on a windy day)

Today I'm finally sharing a little tutorial I've thought about all autumn, as I've lazily enjoyed wearing berets quite frequently. I love berets (tams, tammys... call them what you will). They are my favorite hat to wear, and my favorite hat to knit, too. You can knit cabled ones, fair isle ones, slouchy ones, you name it. And finding vintage berets isn't usually too difficult, either. As an added bonus, felt berets haven't changed much over the years, so you can buy modern ones that look just as vintage.

One of the reasons I love berets is that not only can they keep your noggin warm, but you can use them for lazy or bad hair days, to hide all or a good portion of your hair. So that's what this tutorial is about, being lazy while looking put-together and fetching at the same time! I'll show you one simple way to fake a good hair day with a little 1940s-style front roll and a beret. It's also great for blustery autumn and winter days, as you won't have to worry about your pretty hair turning into a bird's nest in the wind. So it's a two-for-the-price-of-one hairstyle. :)

You can use any kind of beret—vintage, modern or hand-knit—but you'll only be able to do the little shaping trick I do with the brim with a knit beret. If you're using a felt beret, just skip that step when you get to it.

One way to fake a good hair day with a beret (on a windy day)

Supplies: a bit of laziness, your head of hair, a beret, a few bobby pins, a few bun pins, two hair clips and a little pomade.

How I do it:

This is so quick and easy. We're talking 5 minutes, tops.

Part your hair like you normally do. On the lighter side of your party, twist that half of your hair up onto your head, and secure with a hair clip. If you have longer hair, you will probably need to place the clip higher than I did.

Do the same thing on the other half of your hair. This time, leave out a front section or long bangs if you have them. That's the hair you will turn into a front roll.

(In general, twisting your hair up like this may be hard to pull off with hair several inches longer than shoulder-length, but you may be able to make it work with one or two more strategically placed hair clips, or more than two twists of hair. But you don't want it to look like you have a growth coming out of the back of your head, so try and spread out the bulk of your hair as best you can if that's the case.)

If your hair is prone to flyaways or is ornery, use a few bobby pins anywhere you need them. For me that's behind my ears, and sometimes at the base of my neck now that my hair is shorter.

Now we're going to work on the front roll. Put a small amount of pomade on the fingertips of one hand.

Run the pomade along your hair.

My tip for a good front roll is to keep the hair getting rolled relatively taut while you're rolling. If I relax my arms too much, the hair tends to get floppier and the result is crappy looking. So as you roll, keep slightly pulling on the hair away from your head.

Start off by pulling the hair in the direction you will tilt your beret. In my case that's away from my part. (No particular reason, just habit.) I don't backcomb this hair first, but if you need a bit of fullness, go right ahead.

And now, we roll. If you get a few loose bits hanging out like in the middle photo, just tuck them up into it as you go. (Obviously I use two hands to do this, but only am showing one hand so you can see.)

Once you get it tight to the base of your head, insert a bobby pin into the opening on each side of the roll, securing it to your head. (If you used a larger section of hair, you might need another pin or two.)

Now it's a roll, yay! But don't get frustrated if it takes you a few tries. And if you just can't get the roll to work, here's a tip from my hair stylist: wet down the section of hair you want to roll first, then put in the pomade, then blow it dry. It changes the texture of the hair somewhat and makes it a bit more stiff, so it's easier to roll.

Time for the beret. Now a lot of people say berets don't look good on them. I think that's sometimes because they put a beret on and without fiddling with it, immediately declare that it looks bad. The trick is that you need to spend a moment or two orienting it on your head just the way you like it to get it to look good. Because otherwise yeah, it will look bad.

Put the beret on, making sure all of your hair except the roll gets up into it. (And if you don't want to do a roll you can pull the beret further forward onto your forehead if you'd like). Play around with it until you're happy with how it looks. I often like to tilt it pretty significantly to one side, and pull the brim rather flat and forwards, as I've done here.

(Oops, my roll looked bad here so I re-did it later.)

You could consider yourself ready to go here, but I like to add in a couple of extra steps to secure the beret for windy days. (This is the part that won't work with felt berets.)

If you're wearing a knit beret and have the brim placed the way you like it, you can use one or two bun pins to keep the nice shape. Simply push the pin in and back out just under the edge of the brim, and push it into the part of the beret against your head. Push the pin back away from your face. You won't be able to see it at all.

For extra wind resistance, I also use a bobby pin above each ear. With a knit beret you can insert the pin through the fabric so only a little bit shows, but you can secure a felt beret this way, too. Just keep in mind the bobby pin will show more on the outside of the beret since you can't poke it through the fabric. (Which is just fine, and perfectly vintage.)

Now that your beret is on and secured, if you'd like to maneuver your roll a little bit, do so now. You can gently tug on it to move it lower onto your forehead, or further down the side of your head, or widen it (you might need to move a bobby pin or two). Once done, give it a good spritz with hairspray.

That's all there is to it! Here's the finished results from all angles.

So that's my quick way to look stylish and put-together while being lazy and dealing with a blustery day. It's great when you don't feel like setting your hair, or maybe your hair needs to be washed, or you just can't stand the thought of wind gusts wreaking havoc with your locks.

Hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. Now go be lazy, wind-resistant and fetching in your beret, all at the same time!

Trying a slightly different vintage hairstyle

I've been so busy! We've been running around and trying to accomplish pre-vacation things, because on Thursday we're leaving for one of our favorite places, New Mexico. We'll spend a few days with my family and then head to a cabin in the mountains near Taos. Point being I haven't had time to write up any blog posts!

So I thought I'd just post a couple of photos of when I tried something a bit different with my hair. With the shorter hair I thought I might be able to try a hot stick set again with Conair hot sticks (I think they're called You Link & Curl now). Probably like many of you, I first heard about them through Fleur's video tutorial. I was only ever able to use them very sporadically, because my hair doesn't last well in a hot set, and the curl I got with my longer hair was nowhere near the same look as I'd get with my usual sponge rollers. Well necessity is the mother of invention, as they say, and recently one afternoon I found myself with sudden evening plans after having just taken a shower. While still damp, I spritzed my hair with setting lotion. Once it was completely dry, I set it with two rows of hot sticks at the base of my neck, two on the light side of my part and two on the heavy side. My bangs were rolled back initially in sponge rollers long before my hair had dried, but when they didn't dry in time I had to switch them to standing pin curls and blow dry them, which gave me better results, anyway.

My bangs are very fond of falling in the front, so the only way I can get a nice wave is using a duckbill clip (like these) backwards, so the curved part faces out, going in the direction of the wave, spraying the heck out of it and basically letting it stay there as long as possible. Which is almost until I walk out the door... sooner if I'm leaving home myself and am worried I might forget about it, lol.

And yes, our bathroom really is that orange, and that plus a lack of good lighting is one of the reasons I've never done a hair tutorial. I'm not sure you'd be able to see it all that well, and we don't really have any other strategically located mirrors.

Anyway, I left the hot sticks in at least an hour, figuring longer couldn't hurt. Once I took them out, I didn't brush the curls out completely, brushing more down without gripping each section to really work through the curls, which is what I usually do. It kept a tighter, kind of more late 30s/early 40s look. And it lasted all night!

So if any of you shoulder or chin-length hair gals out there would be interested in a little tutorial on this quick and dirty vintage set, I'll see what I can do!

And here's a gratuitous cat photo just because. Can you tell I'm planning some fair isle knitting for vacation? :)

Don't forget, tomorrow is the last day to enter the That Clever Clementine Giveaway #2!

Finished project: scalloped collar Pendrell blouse

This weekend I finished up a sewing project, and I'm so excited to reveal it!

I started my scalloped collar Pendrell blouse back in early July and got it about 80% complete, then life got in the way and I didn't pick it back up until this weekend when I finished it up lickety split. I was tired of it taunting me from my dress form every time I walked past it!

I'm kind of over the moon about this blouse!

First of all, I want to say how nice the Pendrell blouse pattern was to work with. This was my first time using a Sewaholic pattern and I loved it. Tasia's instructions and diagrams are very clear and easy to follow (okay, and I totally love how it ends with a big "THE END!"). The fit was fantastic, too, and ran true to size. I didn't do a muslin and the entire time wondered how I was really going to get it over my head with no closure without it being a super baggy fit, but it was perfect. The only change I made (other than the collar, of course), was taking several inches off the length of the bodice pieces.

I could totally see making different collared versions of this pattern now!

I used Casey's 30s scalloped collar tutorial (part 1, part 2) for the collar. This was so much fun and a good challenge for me. Ever since I saw her post I knew I wanted to make my own version because I just absolutely fell in love with the collar. I'd been daydreaming about making my own version for months. The tutorial was very detailed and I was able to follow along with each step with no prior drafting experience. And I'm ecstatic with the result!

Don't get me wrong, there are a few minor quibbles I have with it, but it's all due to my own drafting, sewing skills and fabric choice. I realized that I must have been a bit lax in the placement of my scallops on my template as the two that sit on the back of each shoulder are slightly closer to the white inner collar than all the others. Overall the entire collar was the slightest bit uneven and even more slightly too long, but I was able to even things out when sewing it all together. And while you can't tell in these photos, the fabric is a bit darker and due to the busy print the scallops kind of fade away into the background when indoors. I anticipated this before attaching the under piece of the scalloped border, so I re-cut it out of the white fabric to give it a tad more 'pop'.

This project had two firsts for me: first time drafting my own collar, and first time making French seams. The navy floral is cotton lawn (the white is a cotton/poly shirting) and so I knew French seams were probably the way to go, since it was a tad on the sheer side. I loved the result.



I was happy with how my collar came together. I pretty much followed Casey's instructions exactly. The only real issue I had in the construction process was pressing the scallops, which I knew would be hard. My first try at it they looked terrible, so I cut out a little cardboard template that was a teensy bit larger than the scallop, inserted it into the scallop, pressed with the template in it, then carefully removed the template and pressed the daylights out of it. While some are still not perfect (this fabric didn't like to hold creases), it was a big improvement.

Below you can see the difference between a scallop on the left, pressed normally, and a scallop on the right, pressed with my handy dandy template. It made such a difference that I slipped the template into my pattern envelope!

Oh yeah, and you can see I got a haircut Saturday! I did end up going a few inches shorter. I'm really liking the ease of this length, and I might even go for another inch or two off next time so I can do a pageboy sometimes. It's one of my favorite vintage hairstyles. (By the way I've been meaning to do a bit of a hair tutorial for awhile, I need to get my butt in gear!)

Anyway, I'm so pleased with this blouse! It's really comfortable and lawn was a great fabric for it, and I can't say enough good things about this collar. I'd like to sew a pair of light trousers to wear with it, since jeans were the only thing I had in my closet that it worked with. I definitely will make a couple more of these blouses as it's the perfect summery top. But I'll probably wait until next year since I'm thinking more about fall sewing at this point!

I would highly recommend both Casey's 30s scalloped collar tutorial and the Sewaholic Pendrell blouse pattern. Both are big winners in my book!

Vintage Renaissance

No, not a vintage renaissance, vintage in the Renaissance. The Renaissance Faire, that is!

This past Saturday we went with our friends to the Bristol Renaissance Faire, which has become somewhat of a tradition for us. It's just across the border from Illinois in Wisconsin. The weather, while sunny in the morning, wasn't going to stay ideal for long. But we were been running out of weekends to go, so it was a "now or never" kind of thing. I didn't take very many photos due to rain later in the day, and I am so sorry I missed getting a picture of us all in our very fetching $2 plastic ponchos!

It was the perfect day to wear my medieval novelty-print vintage rayon blouse! I adore this blouse, but it had a sad little disaster the moment I put it on the first time. Age and stress ripped a more than 2 inch long hole in one shoulder! I mended it the best I could, but I could tell the fabric in that location was doomed to rip more. In fact by the time we arrived at the faire, I had another hole right next to my mend. Fortunately with the busy print and wearing my hair down it wasn't that visible. I'm not sure what I can do to mend the shoulder in a more permanent fashion. The blouse is fairly long so I could theoretically re-hem it and cut a portion of fabric to make a patch, but I think that would look really obvious on the top of my shoulder. So I don't know what I'll do. Worst case scenario, I am not above wearing it with a cardigan so you'll never see the problem area. :)

It was so humid that day that my curls completely fell before it ever rained! This was the first day I wore my hair down in months and now I remember why. I'm getting a cut on Saturday and have been going back and forth about either just a minor trim or chopping off a few inches... after seeing this photo, I'm leaning towards a chop! My hair is so finicky that at this length when it's hot and humid out, my sets don't last very well and it just falls flat (literally).

I'm wondering how I'd feel if I had it cut it to a length that sat above my shoulders when set. I guess I still have a few days to decide! I'm a bit nervous about the idea. I love that length on others who sport vintage 'dos, but of course you never really know if something will work for you until you try it. My hair fear is getting a cut and then being unable to style it successfully with my trusty sponge rollers or perm rods. Eek!

Anyway, isn't the print on the blouse amazing?

A mandarin collar, shields, turrets, swords and knights on horseback!

You can see why I'm reluctant to call this blouse a lost cause! Fortunately it's only one shoulder that seems to have issues, so I hope there's more life in this one yet.

Here's to great vintage novelty prints!

Post-haircut photos

I am busy breaking all my previously set rules about not sewing for Viva since I suddenly found myself in desperate need of a blouse to match something, so I'm just going to quickly post a few photos post-haircut. Sorry, they're pretty anticlimactic actually. The cut went pretty much just as I expected. It's so nice to have a hair stylist who I can have a conversation with about setting my hair. I don't feel like the length looks dramatically different but it feels a lot lighter and was definitely easier to set and is easier to brush out, which was one of my main goals. It's probably pretty close to a (long, long) middy haircut.

So, a few photos. The first is from Friday night before going out to a friend's art opening. I worked from home Friday so I set my hair that morning.

 A close up at the bus stop of my latest pair of vintage eyeglasses...

The photo below was on the same set yesterday before going to an awesome vintage clothing party. Still hadn't washed my hair, I just set my curls back in sponge rollers Friday night. Not as many rollers, and kind of haphazard with a slight spritz of setting lotion and water (that mostly hit the mirror and not my head). I had to add a clip on the side because I had a really bad dent from my hair flower the night before. Oops!

And here's what it looks like from the back. (Now you see the angle I always avoid in photos, the dreaded ugly cat post. Ha ha! So mid-century, huh.)

And today, same set still (messy bangs since I'm not planning to go anywhere). I'm really impressed how well it lasted with fairly minimal effort.

Probably the best part of the haircut other than the cut itself was that my stylist taught me a trick that works really well for my bangs. I usually roll them with really small rollers with mixed results for trying to get them to go to the side when I side part my hair, which is more often than not lately.

With my bangs wet and unstyled, she put Layrite in them, then blowed them dry. That gave my usually roll-resistant flyaway hair just the perfect texture to create a roll with my bangs. I'd literally never been able to successfully do that before and now I know just the perfect trick.

I know it's not just a fluke, either. You know when you have a hair fluke: you do something awesome, and are cursed by never, ever being able to repeat it again. But I've done this a few times now so I'd call that a success. In fact, it worked so well I'm tempted to try it out for side rolls. If it works I might do a tutorial for it since there must be others who have pain-in-the-ass hair like mine. I rarely do rolls because they always come out like crap.

Now back to the sewing I swore I wasn't going to do. Hope you've all had a lovely weekend!