Perfect Day

Today was beautiful! The sun was shining. It was a solid 80 degrees so I said, "Self, what awesome dress should I wear today?" I realized I have a lack of cute dresses but I did find this dress in my closet. Now, this dress is probably from the 1970s. It's a Gunne Sax dress I got at a garage sale my best friend was having when we were little. It belonged to her mom and she was getting rid of it. I wore it as a dress-up dress when i was little and it used to be floor length but I have grown a bit since then. :)

So, I decided I'm going to replace the sleeves because there's some wear and tear around the seams. Fortunately I have a pattern that has a blouse with sleeves like this so I can just whip up a set. :) Yay!

1940s Hair

So I bought this book - Vintage Hairstyling by Lauren Rennells - a couple years ago at the San Francisco Vintage Fashion Expo and I have attempted only one hairstyle that was a complete failure - pincurls.

Anyways, I decided to try something new this morning. This is what I was going for:

Now, I have short hair so it wouldn't reach to the other side of my head for that large curl in the front so I just put it at the top of my head. I used hot rollers on the whole front section of hair and then a curling iron for the back. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I need mor practice on the rolls to get the side to be a better shape, but overall, I think it came out pretty well.

eek! You can see the bobby pins.

 And the back...

Not bad. And working with my short hair was not as big a challenge as I thought it would be with this style. Yay!

How I made a fascinator

So, I watched a few tutorials on Thursday about how to make a little fascinator for your hair. So, as it was a rainy day, I went home and dug out our craft bin with all the leftover stuff from years and years of crafting, and then I made myself a fascinator clip/ feather hair accessory thing. So without further ado, here is my picture tutorial. :)

my kitchen table with the crafty-bits spread :) (my mother would have a fit if she saw this)

Things you'll need:

fabric or something to use for a base

feathers

ribbon

decorative button, charm, or whatever you want to use :)

hot glue gun

a hair clip

waxed paper

Start with a circular shape with a flat bottom - I used some leftover fabric from a skirt I made a while ago

Start hot gluing your feathers onto your fabric base. Put the larger ones in the back and smaller ones on the front. Just put a strip of glue down the center of the feather. Let the quill of the feather hang off the edge of the fabric base. 

When you're done gluing on the feathers, cut the quills off straight across the bottom.

I made a straight bow by bringing the ends of a ribbon in towards the center and tacking it.

Glue the bow on the bottom of the feathers - straight across.

Then glue a decorative button or charm or whatever you like to the center of the bow where the stitching is.

For the clip, I used one of these - I have a million lying around. I put a piece of waxed paper in the clip so it would come free from the glue easily and not glue the clip together by accident. This worked, but not as well as I had hoped.

Hot glue the clip to the back of the fascinator's fabric base. And you're done!

I wore mine to work the next day. I'm really pleased with the way it came out.

Happy crafting!! :)

Pin Up Hair Attempt

Today, I attempted the front half of a "quick and easy" pin up hair tutorial I saw on youtube. You can watch it here. 
I have short hair so it's gonna look a little different, plus I didn't curl it cause once I straighten it, it won't curl. Also, I was in a hurry so I didn't wash and dry my hair this morning.
Anyhoo...
Here's how it turned out:

Now if you watch the tutorial video, you can see that my hair kinda did it's own thing but that's ok. I have really thick hair and it doesn't always cooperate but I think this is a good start. I'm just kinda learning how to work with my hair to get more vintage looks.

Anyways, hope you are having a great day (and I hope it's dryer where you are than it is here - it hasn't stopped raining all day). I made a really cute fasinator type dealy-bob today so I will have pictures of that and how I made it posted tomorrow (hopefully).

Until tomorrow!

Welcome!

Welcome everyone! This blog is meant as a way to share my many projects with you all, get your feedback, and maybe teach you a new technique you didn't know. I would also like to learn from you! So if you've got a great vintage find, or made something totally awesome, I'd love to hear about it so please leave a comment and/or link to pictures. Also, if there's anything you'd like to learn to do or learn more about, leave a comment and I will try to post about that topic. :)

Until next time!