There are a lot of things I love about vintage and retro styles. It hits all the fashion high notes for me... the clothing, the purses, the shoes, the jewelry, and other accessories. Swoon! When it comes to jewelry, while I love lots of different styles and types of jewelry, the plastics have long been my favorites. New, old, I love and collect it all! Source: LIFE Magazine, April 28, 1941 found via Pinterest, original ... Read more »
An outfit for doing something and going somewhere
Hello hello! First off, thank you for all the sweet sweet birthday wishes! ♥ ♥ It was a wonderful birthday and a great weekend spent celebrating with friends. Just perfect! I have to say, the longer I go not blogging as regularly, the easier it becomes! It's been a struggle to try and get back the desire to hang around these parts, write, and catch up on all my favorite blogs lately, I have to admit. :) But today I ... Read more »
Victory Gardening birthday dress
Hello hello, my friends! Lots of things to say today! And it's my birthdayyyy! I don't usually go three weeks between posts, but I've been extraordinarily busy lately. We were already having a very full early spring and then about the same time as our friends who moved to Wales have been in and out visiting for the last couple of weeks, I've also been unusually swamped at work, which has meant I've had very little time ... Read more »
My tweed Cascade duffle coat
Wee heeeee, my Cascade duffle coat is complete! And this is a big post, because hello, I sewed a coat and it took me from January to March, so there's a lot to share! Right off the bat let me apologize these aren't the greatest photos... it was as bright as could be the day we went up to northern Illinois to walk around and take pictures, and honestly it was such a beautiful day (omg spring came for the ... Read more »
Knitting pattern release: Sprigs and Berries
I'm very happy to announce that I've just released my latest knitting pattern! It's a unisex mitten pattern in four sizes and two color palettes, and it's called Sprigs and Berries. You can buy it and read more about it on Ravelry (you don't have to be a member!). I actually did a lot of the work for this pattern over a year ago, and only recently brushed it off to iron out some details and finish everything up. ... Read more »
Sparkling up any ol’ winter day
As I've mentioned on occasion, I mostly work from home. This is something that developed slowly over time at my job to where, several years later, we work remotely 99% of the time. The few of us from my department that are actually located in the same city sometimes pop into the office to be reminded what each other look like, for the Christmas party, etc. So I went from thinking a lot about business-very-casual clothes ... Read more »
Coat toggles until the end of time
Friends: do you ever have a piece of a project that absolutely paralyzes your ability to make a decision? I don't care if it's a craft-related project, but perhaps it's writing, work, whatever. When it's a hobby however, I personally find it's very easy and sometimes fun to let myself fall down into the rabbit hole of obsessing over making a decision over minute details. Enter my toggle hell. It's the first peek ... Read more »
Light on the bottom
Hi, friends! Before I move on to today's post, I have to stop and say how much I've been loving all your comments on my last post about my new hair color and more importantly, about celebrating yourself. Thank you for all the lovely compliments, but REALLY thank you for sharing all of the things you love about yourselves!! It's been refreshing and inspiring reading what everyone wrote. Honestly if you need a little dose ... Read more »
Blue eyes, black hair, and celebrating yourself
So I mentioned in my last post that I went back to black hair last week. I'm enjoying the much more carefree routine, including using our fancy rain shower head again, woo hoo! Prior to red, I had dark brown hair for awhile, but I've had black hair more often than not over the last decade or more. And I forgot something about it—it reminds me that I have blue eyes! It's the feature I really like about myself, ... Read more »
And then there was Snow White in a glass casket on a dress
At the end of last fall I was really excited about sewing knit dresses. Until I realized that sitting around wearing knit dresses a lot meant I'd gained a few pounds and hadn't even noticed. Whoops! So that kind of soured me on them for awhile. But there's one I never shared that has a great print, and I felt like busting it out recently since I don't know about you, but I could use a bit of fun in the dark days of ... Read more »
My pattern stash interview for Vintage Pledge at Kestrel Makes
Hi everyone! If you sew, you probably already know about Vintage Pledge, which is the vintage sewing challenge being hosted this year by Marie and Kerry. I'm tickled to say that Kerry interviewed me all about my vintage sewing pattern stash, and today the interview is up on her blog! So if you'd like to see a bunch of my favorite vintage patterns, and read what draws me to vintage patterns and the like, pop on over to ... Read more »
Tour of our retro kitschy kitchen!
Ready for our kitchen reveal?? Okay, "reveal" makes it sound like we did a big remodel. We didn't. We really we just painted, hung up some new blinds and installed a new doorbell. But if you've seen my previous two kitchen posts (where we painted and the "before before" photos), you may agree it's a pretty big change! Especially since that old paint kept me from ever sharing the kitchen on my blog. And now, a little ... Read more »
A technical look at my Innsbruck pullover
Hi everyone! I'm back with some details on my Innsbruck ski pullover. Like I said in my first post, I knew I was going to have a lot to say about the construction, so I wanted to dedicate a separate post to it for the folks who like the dirty details. As you may recall, I was initially planning on knitting the pattern exactly as written. It's an unusual construction, particularly for a vintage pattern: you knit the ... Read more »
Kitchen painting, by way of attic insulation
It took 2 years and 8 months of living with a disgusting kitchen color to finally DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. You never saw proper photos of our kitchen before, because I was embarrassed over the paint color. I would literally apologize to new guests about it. Wait, you saw me stand against one of the walls when I posted my Emery dress a year ago, and I even apologized for the color in that post! I filled it with cute ... Read more »
Innsbruck ski pullover
I wanted a comfortable, over-sized vintage ski pullover for winter, and now I've knit one! I have a good bit to say about the construction of this pullover, so I'm actually going to save that for a separate post on Thursday. I knit this from a pattern from a 1956 issue of Bernat Handicrafter magazine. Pretty wonderful look in the magazine, isn't it? I didn't knit the turtleneck quite long enough to double as ... Read more »
Knitting a new version of something old
I thought I'd share a little bit of details on a kind of fun project I've been working on lately! I've owned this red 1950s bolero for at last four years, and it's probably one of my most frequently worn articles of clothing. I wear it in the summer to cover up when I'm chilly or just want my shoulders covered without getting too hot, I wear it in the spring and fall, I sometimes will even wear it in winter with ... Read more »