Fifties fashion from Australian Home Journal advertisements

You may like to do your Vintage Wardrobe Research using original source materials. In Australia, Australian Home Journal magazines from the forties through to the sixties are easily obtainable for under $20 on eBay or in Junk shops. They are a rich source of inspiration for your wardrobe, hairstyles, and make up.

This ad has has it all.

* Divine fabric
The diversity of fifties fabric never fails to surprise me.
This print features what looks to me like a night scene of fireworks over a Chinese village.
The cornflower blue with the pink background really appeals to me.

* Five cute fifties looks:
- two simple buttoned up blouses
- what would have to be a pleated or gathered waist skirt
(but is drawn as a circular skirt)
-and a classic button front skirt for whipping off at the beach
- revealing a pinstriped sun suit
- a shirt using the border print over the hip region,
just like a menswear style!

* Period make up – heavy, unplucked, brows,
winged eyeliner, pink lipstick

*Three hairstyles

* A palm tree – love!

If you can’t get your hands on Australian Home Journal – you probably have a local equivalent in your country.

Source: Australian Home Journal September 1959

New Shoes

Hi !

There has not been a lot of sewing going on lately but here are some quick snaps of my new shoes from Target!

It rains a lot in Sydney and your shoes get ruined – gumboots (or rainboots) are a must.  Aren’t they cute?!

Also in the photo is some of my collection of concrete pots. My collection continues to grow – I love the one with the little “atomic” legs and the boys were keen to help spray paint them.

They are addictive and they will form part of our garden design when we get some landscaping done (one day!),

I have been selling lots of things on eBay lately so I can buy more!  Just as an drug addict turns to drug dealing this is how I am funding my addiction!  Well, it’s not hurting anyone is it?

Actually – with joining the gym and the eBaying – there has not been much time for sewing – that, and it’s been so hot!  I can’t even think straight, let alone sew in the heat and humidity !!

Roll on Autumn I say – then I can wear these:

Platform wedge heeled shoes have been readily available in the last few years – they add an authentic vintage look to your vintage or retro outfit and if you don’t do stilettos – they are a more comfortable option which look great – and feel more stable wihch is important when you are 175cms tall (or almost 5’10″)!

I can’t wait to feel some cool breezes instead of sweat trickling down my back.

Are you so over summer (or winter as the case may be)?

School Dance 80′s style

This is really embarrassing

.

This is the pattern mum made my 6th form School Dance Dress with, complete with the big bows on the shoulders and all.

It was a very 80′s shade of electric blue – which I don’t think I have worn since – polyester moire taffeta! Noice!!

I am not sure where the photos from that night are – must dig them out!

We are back from almost a month in New Zealand – I am calling it the best time ever! Great to catch up with many friends and family and we traveled every tip/op shop we could find.

Thanks Mum and Dad again for the amazing hospitality – we all loved it and thanks to my brother Gavin for making it from Scotland!!! to be there with us!

The “I Love You” Apron

I am dedicating this weeks sewing to my husband of thirteen years, Mark.

He is so great.  He is a humble man.  He takes our marriage seriously.  I appreciate how hard-working and responsible he is and how he loves our boys.  That I was able to stay home with them for seven years and that we have a lovely home.  He doesn’t mind my mad op shopping and the mess in the sewing room.  Well, he minds sometimes!

Waiting for my man

He works really hard as a Tiler – making other people’s homes absolutely beautiful.  Those tiles behind me he did them – aren’t they great!?  And he let me have exactly what I wanted – to go with our recycled country-style kitchen that I designed.  I had to wait a long time for him to do them but it was worth the wait!

Last time I made one of these novelty aprons I swore never to make another one!  But how irresistible are the hearts?  And it seemed like the perfect use of this Cherry Print fabric that has a quite a clichéd fifties look to my eyes now, but that I adored when I bought it a couple of years ago.  It was good to use up some of the pink Ric-Rac in my stash and the Rose Print and  that was left over from my “Coming Up Roses” Gypsy Blouse, which is still one of my favourite items of clothing.

Sorry about the heavily airbrushed legs and fake tan.  No, actually  I’m not!  This week I learn how to do that on Pic Monkey (photo editing software) – I might get them out again for you!
Let’s see if he reads this:  “I love you Bubba!”

70′s Rug Heaven

So super excited to show you what came into my hands this week!  “Rugmaking and Macrame” by Anna North and Noreen Gladwin, straight out of 1974.

I have been on the lookout for a rug that features the colour palette in our living room – lime green, turquoise and browns. I want wool for all of its amazing inherent properties. But is it just me or are rugs expensive?! Especially wool.  So I thought I’d love to try and make one myself.

I adore the pink toned rug with the Saarinen chair – what a great look!

When I was at Wellington Polytechnic I remember the Textiles Students manking rugs with a gun like tool that shot the yarns into the base cloth. It look liked great fun and seemed easy! I am sure it was not – given the price of rugs – or perhaps the equipment is prohibitively expensive?

This one is pretty but my boys would have biscuit crumbs embedded into that shag pile before I could blink.

Although its having a come back I don’t. think I’ll be attempting a macramé over skirt anytime soon!!

Has anyone out there made a rug? I’d love your advice please.

 

The Fifties Fair – What People Wore – Part 3

Here are few more outstanding examples of great outfits from the best day of the year.

The Dress! This is the lovely Deborah from The Vintage Drawer, shop 14 at the Sydney Antiques Centre who I bought a dress from back in March. We chatted about how she, as a retailer, as realized that women are not all tiny! Smart woman! She is making a concerted effort to seek larger sized vintage clothing. If you are not a size 10 person, and love vintage, you need Deborah in your life! Now why can’t all Australian Designers take a leaf out of her book?!

I do hope this beautiful woman will forgive me for cutting off her head, but my camera caught her pulling a funny face, and I wouldn’t like it if it was me doing that!  I really want to talk about her dress.  I had serious dress lust at Laura Ashley last summer over this baby and have recently haunted the Birkenhead outlet store in the vain hope that I could pick on up on the cheap.  Alas – it was such a great dress that it sold out last summer.  There was a sweet little cardigan with Bunting (I know! Bunting – so cute!) embroidered on it that was in the same story, an another dress or skirt, with different print still in the travel theme.  I just love vintage postcards – but I just can’t spend nearly $200 on a dress.  I just can’t.  Especially as I still have this lurking about in the sewing room – waiting for a new yoke!  Promise I will get it out for summer!

Burgundy ensemble, with lovely hair and accessories!

Hottest couple !  Aren’t they cute!

I thought this woman looked so effortless and chic. Is she about to go overboard by buying a fur coat? Look! Her mouth is open!   Think I might tone it down next year and dress like this. Who am I kidding -  I will no doubt overdo it again!

The gorgeous Michelle over at Ravishing Retro has just done her blog post on the Fifties Fair and she very kindly mentioned me.  And used my photo of us, from Instagram up.  She looks immaculate, me – not taking Coco Chanel’s advice at all that morning.  Oh well!

So that’s it for my pick of the sartorially splendid from the day. The next few blog posts will show you merchandise available!  Get ready for piles of vintage fabric – so exciting!

The “I know it’s silly” Dress

My reality is that I don’t really have anywhere to wear a LBD, or a BBD in my case given that I am a size 16 and just under 5’10 (175cms).

The reality is that I have a tonne of washing to do every week.  My husband is a tiler – he gets absolutely filthy every day.  You can imagine, dust from cutting hundreds of tiles, glue, grout and building site filth come home with him.

We have two washing machines and two clothes lines.  Don’t forget the two boys.  My laundry mountain is only obliterated a couple of time a year!

So I was thinking about how silly it was that I was prancing about my courtyard taking these photos, with my clothesline in the background – mocking me with its “I’ll be seeing you later!”, while wearing my big black 50′s dress with it big petticoat underneath.

But you know what?  After weeks of fulfilling everyone else’s expectations of me – two weeks of running the kids around for the holidays, one day spent at the hospital after Noah had a terrific trampolining accident and put a tooth through his face (he’s all better, now thanks to the plastic surgeons), it felt good to do something for me.

This was a UFO – I think I started it first four years ago – it was my the first attempt using a 50′s pattern   I decided I would use some of the wool that had sat around since my student days – and that yes, it would be a great idea to use some for a toile!  Lookey, lookey – perfect fit – love that!

This has become my favourite dress pattern  and I have made a the skirt many times (omitting the front pleat).

The best thing about this dress IMHO is the “Bosum” piece, it is a Crescent shaped piece which is gathered and gives you a little “more” in that area if you are lacking!! The skirt also covers all my flaws. The little cap sleeves are kind to plump arms. I believe it is the perfect dress for pear shaped women!

To finish it I had to overlock all the seams, insert the zip, and bind the neckline and sleeves.  I did the binding in a Cotton Lycra Sateen – it’s not sitting quite flat – but I can live with it.

Thanks to my lovely friend and sewing buddy, Toni for help with the hem – we decided we should buy one of those chalk puffer hemming devices.

The 1950′s Whimsey I am wearing is a present from my friend Rozie, she bought it for me on my Birthday from Mint Condition for $25 – bit of a bargain. I love the little birds on the veil.
So now I have a black dress on standby for any occasion – not silly at all is it?

The Facts

Fabric: Wool from stash from a million years ago and some Cotton Lycra Sateen $14.95/m

Pattern: McCalls 9400

Year:  1950′s

Notions: Zip

Time to complete: It’s been years!

First worn: For the photos

Wear again: Can’t wait

Total Cost: I’m calling it nothing

Little girls didn’t wear pink in the 70′s

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I have been thinking about the clothes I wore as a kid. Growing up in Wellington – there were many layers, lots of corduroy, skivvys and tights. Roman sandals and stubbies for the boys. Oh and another thing – there was very little pink. I had one dress – which was a mauvy/pink – I loved it. But I wore a lot of green, red and brown, and rust!

I bought mini sized pieces of the below fabrics – I think I thought I might make something for a friends child – any interest?

If not I might end up with a waistcoat in the corduroy – but I don’t really like sleeveless things – my arms get cold – isn’t that weird?

 

Navy Trees

 

The above owl print is genuine 70′s fabric – and indicative of the colour palette – very earthy. With owls again popular, this proves “There is nothing new under the sun”.

The Living Room Tour

 

Do you like checking out other people’s houses?

I love it – I buy quite a lot of home dec. mags and all my Christmas’s came at once when the lovely Ms. Lynda moved overseas and gave me a stack of international house mags as tall as me!  What a good woman!

So here is a mini tour of our living room – showing a few of the details that I LOVE! All photos taken via Hipstamatic on my iPhone for extra grainy goodness.

The Storage – Love a Retro Buffet – the tall ones are quite cheap – we have two in our living room. Great for glasses, napery and platters, also Xboxs, DVDs and games!

The Art – my collection of Papua New Guinean masks – the dearest one was just $40

The View – The Australian Bush – it changes with the seasons and the weather, the mist rises early in the morning, thunderstorms play there, from where the cool breeze comes. It’s such a joy to have a view

A Bitossi bowl and sixties lamp with original fabric sit atop a Parker Studio table, all you see in this little vignette cost under $60!  See the Oregon wall panelling (one timber feature wall – groovey baby).

So grateful for our home – we are truly blessed and we love to share it with our friends and family. Hope you can see it one day!

The Colour Scheme

Fabric cushion I made in Designers Guild Asolo – Moss – from www.NoChintz.com

The “Like a Table Cloth” – but in a good way patchwork skirt

I just stumbled across this little beauty from Anthropologie – while wasting time, I mean researching, over on Pinterest.

Source: anthropologie.com via Trish on Pinterest

Could be a great way to upcycle those vintage table cloths (and scraps) that I have been hoarding, but don’t have enough morning teas with ladies to use every day.  Cos I work, that’s right, to keep myself in vintage table cloths!

It would be so easy to make up:

DIRECTIONS

Arrange the patches to your liking

Sew together into a big rectangle

Sew a centre back seam leaving a gap in the centre back for a zip

Insert the zip

Gather the top to your waist measurement, attach a waistband in your size

Finish with a button/hole or hooks and eyes!

Wear it out somewhere fun and receive compliments!  Yay!