- vintage-esque blouse: thrifted
- jeans: owned too long to remember!
- scarf: thrifted
- shoes: Remix Vintage
- bracelet: Forever 21
- 40s Navy “sweetheart” pin: gift
Though the weather is far from appropriate (or maybe it’s just my outfit that isn’t?), I was suddenly struck with the desire to pull out my jeans last weekend. Now, this is highly unusual: not only am I decidedly more of a skirt-type, but I also rather hate my sole pair of jeans (2+ years old and in sad need of replacement. Yes, I’m planning on just making or buying a pair of 40s/50s style jeans this fall!) which also happen to be skinny jeans (quite possibly my least-favorite style. Don’t ask me why I bought them–I think I was desperate and these were the only ones that remotely fit my curvy backside at the time.). But, aside from that, I really wanted to go around Saturday with my jeans rolled and wearing the tropical shirt I thrifted earlier this summer. Some kind of pseudo-rockabilly/1950s look, I guess (also unusual for me–hmm… do we sense a pattern?), I think it can be attributed to watching this adorable video that Rachel posted. Anyway, it turned out to be an incredibly comfortable outfit–and I ended up wearing it *ahem* three days in a row (though I switched the shirt out). Oddly enough, it also prompted a large number of people to ask whether I was a model? Which was a bit mystifying, seeing as I do not have model proportions (don’t let the photos fool ya!), but I can only attribute their reactions to the coolness of the faux bang and headscarf–obviously it blinds people with it’s awesomeness. haha!
[ being silly! more pictures here, if you'd like to look. ]
Hope you all are having a lovely Tuesday! I’m planning on uploading the circle skirt instructions I mentioned a couple weeks ago tomorrow, so stay tuned…
August 31, 2010 ·
23 lovely thoughts
posted in casey's musings,outfits + wardrobe
· tags: outfits
Hello everyone! How was your weekend? It’s good to be back in the blogging world–I missed you all and writing posts quite a bit! I didn’t get as many projects done as I had hoped (mostly due to my slightly unrealistic expectations about how much I can accomplish in a 24 hour period!), but I did end up having some time to just refocus on the why of my creative processes. It was wonderfully refreshing to be able to gain a bit of perspective about why I had been feeling a bit apathetic in the creative/projects department lately. I also was able to get some planning done on my fall sewing list! But more about that a bit later… I’m just excited to returning to blogging this week–I have a bunch of new ideas for posts and such. Thank you all so much for your lovely comments and emails throughout the week–knowing that I was missed was rather sweet!
So for this week’s scans, I have a smattering of coats from 1944. I know–it’s far too warm and early to even really start thinking about such things, but I decided to participate in Gertie’s Lady Grey Jacket sew along, and have been scoping out ideas for my version of the Lady Grey pattern. So of course I flipped open the Sears catalog to take a peek for inspiration! I think what I love most are some of the lovely colors that coats were available in–the light blue is especially catching my eye! Hope you enjoy looking through these as much as I did!
I love these topper style jackets.
Check out some of the details on these, like trapunto quilting.
August 30, 2010 ·
11 lovely thoughts
posted in misc,vintage inspiration
· tags: 1940s, vintage inspiration
[ please click the image to view the sources for these inspiring images! ]
Hello everyone! I hope you’ve been having a good weekend. I wanted to not only post this week’s links and Flickr collage, but also a little note. After much contemplation (I always feel like Pooh Bear sitting around with my arm’s crossed over my tummy and thinking hard. lol.), I decided to take a bit of a blogging break. The end of summer (at least in the calender sense) is nearing, and I think I could use a bit of a general internet and blogging vacation. If nothing else I want to spend some serious time working on the miles long list of projects I wanted to work on, but haven’t (yes, this is partly my own fault for not ignoring the internet more and making things happen! Need to brush up on making some good internet habits again–I got lazy over the summer!). I also want to spend some time thinking about the direction of my blogging and exploring some ideas I have. I’ll still be checking my feed reader and email once-a-day, and probably fill up the Tumblr queue this evening before I “officially” sign off (and I might be found lurking around Twitter). I’m hoping for a super productive time away filled with projects, forming some new plans for this blog, and listening to lots of music and podcasts to fill my ears and re-inspire me. I’ll only be gone for a week though–just enough time to take a breather and get my head on straight about ideas and directions again!
- I’ve been meaning to write something on the topic of working with vintage patterns for awhile, but hte New Vintage Lady put it far more eloquently than I could have!
- I’m itching to make myself a big, luscious bouquet of these coffee filter flowers.
- I read about half scale design years ago in Threads and was delighted to see a recent post about just that!
- This post on the idea of our bodies being “good”–in the sense that they’re what we’ve been given–is just what I needed this week.
- Could anything be better than a knit sailor scarf?! { via }
- I love these whimsical children’s book illustrations from 1914 that Francesca shared!
- This post by Sarah on trying to take her cat for a walk is hilarious!!!
See you all in a week!!!
August 22, 2010 ·
20 lovely thoughts
posted in casey's musings,links
· tags: weekly inspiration
[ covering the buckram crown with braid. ]
I took a bit of a break over last weekend from stitching the braid to the buckram form. Between stitching tiring to my hands and constantly pricking my fingers on pins, my hands were sore and needed a rest! But I was back at it Tuesday evening (it’s great for keeping my hands busy while spending time with Sailor Husband watching Sherlock Holmes mysteries). I finished the covering of the upper and lower brim pieces, and only needed to tackle the crown. I decided to stitch the braid from the sideband up to the tip (top of the crown), rather than from the tip down. Mostly because I was having a hard time getting things centered just right as I started the coil and spiraling around towards the sideband.
[ the finished brim pieces. ]
While I was working on the crown, I also took the opportunity to adhere the upper and lower brim pieces together. The reason I had two brim pieces is so that the underside is also covered in the braid, rather than lined with fabric. If I had been working with a stiffer straw, I could have probably forgone the buckram foundation; but the softness of the paper braid required the buckram, which needed to be covered up! I used my trusty art-school supply, rubber cement, for gluing the sections together. I applied the rubber cement to the backside of each piece, let it get tacky, carefully glued them together, and the pieces are presently weighted underneath a stack of heavy books for 24 hours to dry flat. (I’m chafing at the bit to see what it’ll look like once it’s dry! Oh! How I am so bad at being patient… lol.)
[ for the super-geeky: the backside of the buckram brims prior to gluing. ]
I’m still working on the crown–it’s been a bit slow-going this week. But things are starting to shape up and I’m excited! I still need to find a source for the ribbon for the ties and possibly edging the brim (my sketch is included in this collage if you’d like to take a look again!). I want a really wide (3″ or so) ribbon for the tie, but I haven’t found anything that I like–I really don’t want to go with a synthetic since it tends to be so stiff! So I think that is one of my missions this weekend–source some suitable ribbon and finish the crown. Hopefully I’ll have a finished hat soon!!!
August 20, 2010 ·
11 lovely thoughts
posted in casey's musings,creativity
· tags: hatmaking
