Instagram Friday

Adorable! From 1933, collection of tips from housewives!

A photo posted by Stephanie Lochet (@slochet) on Feb 6, 2015 at 2:22pm PST

Saw this at the store where I have a booth, it was a hoot!

Little Fashionista Costume Aprons

Remember the Old Hollywood Costume Aprons? Well apparently they were a hit at my client's theme party store! The only problem was, she had younger girls wanting a similar product, and these were meant for teen sizes. So she ordered 10 aprons for younger girls, and their party will be called Little Fashionistas! I just sent off the order yesterday, but was able to snap a few pics first. I was in a hurry to get them packed up so apologies for the sub-par quality.

These were super fun to dream up and make, I just love a fancy non-utilitarian apron purely for the fun of it! :-)

Pinspiration Monday - Vintage Tops & Blouses

I love dresses. I love them so much  because you throw on a dress and it can be a whole outfit! There's no deciding what goes with what or should the top be left tucked in or out. For me, the less decisions to make the better, so I love a complete all-in-one outfit. Unfortunately my great love of dresses means I tend to neglect tops in my wardrobe.

The good thing is, I'm always pleasantly surprised when I make a blouse at how quickly it goes and how little fabric it uses because I'm so used to making whole dresses. So as inspiration to think about more tops to add to my wardrobe, here are some lovely vintage patterns of various tops and blouses!

 

 

 

 

 

Instagram Friday

More play aprons in the making! This time for younger girls.

A photo posted by Stephanie Lochet (@slochet) on Feb 17, 2015 at 4:27pm PST

My Vintage Middy Haircut

 

Have you ever had a haircut where you suddenly feel like, yes! This is the hair I am supposed to have! Well I'm pleased to say I think I finally have that cut.

I've been toying with the idea of getting the actual middy cut for a while now, reading all the blogs of others who have done it, watched youtube videos and more. (Just Google it and you should find quite a bit!) The only thing that kept me back was knowing it isn't a wash and wear style, it needs to be styled and shaped. But, I've been wanting to do vintage styled hair more regularly, and I knew this would push me to have to do pincurls more regularly. So, I decided to go for it!

As I mentioned on my Vintage Hair Pinspiration post, I was lucky enough to have my long time friend as my hair dresser for many years, but she's moving away! So I thought it would be fun, for my last cut with her, to go a little crazy and go for the true middy cut. I sent her an overload of info the week before my cut, lol, with videos and links and diagrams, and explained what I was looking for. She did an excellent job of extrapolating from that what we needed.

I came in with my naturally curly hair brushed out, it tends to do a little flip on the end. The cut I've had for a long while is an inverted bob, longest in front. Here are my before pics!

This is how I'd pretty much always wear it, pulled back.

Because of this cut, it was a bit shorter in the back at the nape of my neck than the traditional middy, which is about 4 inches and longest in the middle, so we just had to work with what was there. What I have is probably closer to the Baby at this point, but I plan on growing it a bit longer. Mostly, I wanted the rounded shape towards the front, and blunt layers for the pin curling.

We had a good laugh during the cut as the super straight across, blunt layers looked a little crazy unstyled, especially in my thick, course hair. But once we were done with the cut, I actually went ahead and did a dry pin curl set (with some spritz of water here and there) and sat under a heater to set it a bit. Then the fun part, we took it out. I LOVED the results, the curls fell just as I had always wanted them to without much effort at all.

I took these pics as soon as I got home!

 

 

You can see the drastically different shape compared to my inverted bob here!

 

 

 

This was the next day

And then that night I did a wet set of pin curls (not completely wet, of course, just damp after having washed my hair.) My hair really loves to hold onto curl, so I knew these curls were going to be pretty tight, and therefore short.

I was not wrong, lol.

It felt SOOOO short, but I love how easy it is to just take out pin curls and voila, curly vintage hair!

Another great thing about this cut, PERFECT hat hair (in a good way, lol.) It's flat on the crown so a hat will sit just right without smashing curls. Yay hats!!!

I'm still playing and learning what else I can do, but overall I'm so so pleased with this cut, and with how it takes the pin curls. I really feel at home with this cut, it feels like me! I love it!

Pinspiration Monday - Hair Accessories

I'm still on a hair kick right now, enjoying the honeymoon with my new cut. I am just beyond thrilled with it, and I can't wait to share more details in an upcoming post!

One of the things I'm getting used to is having shorter hair in the front. For the longest time, I've had an inverted bob type cut, with the longest hair at the front. That allowed me to do a lot of fun things with the longer hair (victory rolls, etc) but I could never really figure out ways to use those small little clips and barrettes that looked good with it. Now, though, with the shorter hair in front, I'm loving small little dainty hair accessories that can just clip right in the front to hold up a curl with no fuss and look adorable. Here are some fun hair accessory ideas I've been eyeing!

 

 

 

 

Of course, I still love my flowers too, they look just as good as the little dainty clips in my new 'do. :-)

 

 

 

 

 

Instagram Friday

Pretty Valentines Ranunculus, thanks to Trader Joe's. :-)

A photo posted by Stephanie Lochet (@slochet) on Feb 13, 2015 at 7:22am PST

Wishing you all a lovely Valentine's Day!

Pink Pencil Skirt

I'm excited to have finished this little project as it represents several firsts! It's my first make of the year that counts towards my Vintage Pledge. It's the first time I've made anything out of either of Gertie's books (I have both). It's my first time sewing a lapped zipper, which, thanks to online tutorials was fairly straightforward. It's also the first time I've made a pencil skirt, since I tend to gravitate towards the opposite extreme of very full skirts.

I was able to wear it out this weekend and found it to be very comfortable! I went shopping for several fabrics to use for pencil skirts and happened upon this stretch denim in a perfect shade of pink, and it was on clearance! I really loved the weight and feel (was surprised that it was a denim, actually) and so I bought the rest of the bolt, heh. I fully lined it with a scrumptious houndstooth, isn't it fun???

I love peeking inside and seeing this staring back at me! I paired it with a cropped sweater and black belt this weekend, and had the perfect matching pink flower for my hair. :-)

 

Here are a few pics I took along the way while sewing. I did use boning above the waist, which helps keep such a nice shape while wearing it.

Took this pic after having just finished my first lapped zipper, the bottom part was machine sewn, top part is hand picked (and I clearly have room for improvement when it comes to even/straight stitches!)

 

I really like the look, I'm sure I'll be doing more of these.

 

 

Here's a peek at the inside!

You can see some of my stitches on the top here, this was also my first time understitching any garment by hand! It was recommended in Gertie's book, and it was just simpler than trying to machine stitch over the bulk of the boning and several layers.

I also sewed the hem by hand, it's so nice having a nearly invisible hem from the outside!

All in all it was a very pleasant sewing experience, the pattern was perfect for me, didn't need to make any alterations to it at all.

It was also pretty quick to sew up, especially for me, even despite all the hand sewing involved. It's amazing how quickly a garment comes together when you don't have yards and yards to hem, haha! I see about 34 more of these in my future... :-D