Category Archives: england wardrobe

>Wardrobe Recap- England

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>It’s about time, isn’t it? After posting all about the prep, I got lazy when it was all over and neglected to share pics from when I was there!
My husband and I went on a lovely vacation to England this summer- we were really blessed to do it- everything just fell into place little by little. A year ago we would have never dreamed it to be possible! We were invited by some good friends to come over for a week long event, circa 1938, so wardrobe planning was a bit of a challenge. We had never done a vintage event that long!
Unfortunately I don’t have photos of every outfit I wore- there’s a few that we either forgot or were busy or didn’t bring the camera along. Whoops? You’d think after all that I’d have photo proof!
Anyways, in no particular order, here’s most of the wardrobe, minus one evening gown, a day dress, and possible others that I’ve forgotten!


Here’s the little linen suit I had worked on. I’m not too happy with the way it looks in this photo (my belt was too tight, darn it!) but I’m still happy with it sewing-wise. I wore this on the day we arrived- we all piled into a 1935 Riley to arrive in style. I got the hat on etsy from Bette Be Good Vintage.

These aren’t the best photos of this dress, but it’s a blue cotton dress I had made last year. This is my second time wearing it, and I really do love it. It’s so soft and breathable. I wore this for the “Regatta Breakfast”, celebrating all things nautical.


This one I whipped up the week before the trip. Perhaps you remember me mentioning my Fiesta dress before, but thinking of it in terms of 1940s? I changed my mind and made up this little halter dress from linen from a 1937 pattern. It does have a matching bolero jacket, but I don’t think I have any photos with it on! The shoes I found on the trip- a lady who sells a lot of costumes to Poirot was there, and I purchased these amazing (and rare) 30s beach sandals from her. I’d been wanting some forever! Hurrah! When my white heels took a spill the second night there these were fill in for nearly everything. Luckily, evening dresses are long enough to cover a multitude of errors.


Here’s a group of some lovely girlfriends in evening attire. That’s me on the left in the obnoxious cotton plaid dress. I have had this dress for years and years! I purchased it from a local vintage shop that is no more- Dick, Jane, and Spike. Oh, how I miss her store! But the dress was fun. I was hesitant to bring it since it’s so loud, but everyone liked it! I love the rick rack on the little jacket, and it’s very easy to wear in summer heat.


Ah, here’s a very unflattering picture of me… I was feeling poorly that morning, but the dress is darn cute! I bought this on Etsy from Childhood Memories. It literally came the day before we left, so I popped it right into my bag since I was an outfit short. Hurrah! The little yellow hat was from the same seller there as the shoes. Unfortunately this is after my white shoes took a spill, and I was very sad not to have them for this outfit. The purse was a lucky ebay find, and the shoes I bought years and years ago from Vintage Silhouettes before they sold their stock. Art now makes amazing custom hats.

If you follow my little blog, you’ve probably already seen this photo! This is a great periwinkle blue gown I bought on Ebay. The seller had it mislisted as Victorian, so I got it for about $20 plus shipping. It’s one of my very favorite dresses now- perfect for dancing and spinning circles! I think the fur was a thrift store find, and the earrings came from a little local antique store that has since gone out of business.


This outfit was one of my favorites. It was so much fun and so comfy! The jacket I bought there from the host and hostess of the event. It’s SO amazing, and so rare! I had been looking for a real one of these for years and years, so it was meant to be. It’s a late 30s tweed jacket in a yummy color combo of purple, burgandy, and off white. It fits just like a glove, and I love the directional stripes on the pockets and the darts at the sleeve caps. The hat was a find from the Porte De Vanves flea market in Paris- old store stock and never worn. The colors are fabulous! The scarf was loaned to me from my good girlfriend over there who we stayed with- she saw the had and had the perfect color match! Hurrah! And the dress is a knit dress with fun brown little buttons all the way up that I found on etsy from WickedPen.


I can’t believe I almost didn’t pack this dress, and it was probably my favorite one I brought! This was for Empire Night, the dressiest night of the trip. This gown is a black and gold taffeta and still has the NRA label inside. The dress was from Ebay, from when a vintage seller was clearing out their stock. I think I got it for under $40! Totally meant to be. The shoes were from the Long Beach flea market. One of the best parts of the gown is the back. Unfortunately I don’t have a good shot of it, but here’s one of me talking to the Duchess- she makes all her own gowns!


Oh, I love this dress! This was probably my biggest wardrobe splurge beforehand, but I bought it when I was at the opera and making good wages so I don’t feel at all guilty! This was from the eBay seller Mill Street Vintage. It’s got little metal studs all up the front and on the sleeves, and is the softest ever wool/silk blend, I believe. It looks like it was a very expensive dress originally. These are the same black shoes from above, and the hat is gold lame with black feathers and I purchased it years and years ago from Vintage Martini when he was at the Santa Monica Vintage Fashion Expo.

Oh, dear! I was on a role and I’m all out of pics! Oh well. I’ll try to get some shots of the other two outfits I wore. I think you already saw the pajamas- I danced late into the night the last night in them- it was such fun to have a dancing pj party!

Many thanks for the overwhelming good wishes for our first anniversary! We ordered in Thai food and had a nice quiet evening. We decided to wait until friday for our “date night”, but it was so nice and romatic, with time to reflect together.
Best wishes for a lovely week!

>Some photos

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Thanks so much for the suggestions on where to upload photos! I did start a Flickr account.
Here are photos of Paris and here are photos of England, though I have many, many more to go through!
Thanks so much to everyone cheering me on for my flea market fund raising and wardrobe building goals. It was so absolutely dreamy, and I hope we can go back again!

>Suit, Circa 1937, Part II

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>Ok, the jacket is finished! I’m really pleased with the way it came out. I’m going to take a little break from the suit and try to whip up a pair of shorts for the weekend, but I’ll be back on it next week. I’m really excited about the possibilities of this suit. I can wear the jacket with a tan or white skirt, the skirt with a tan or white jacket or pretty blouse- I just love mix and match! And so appropriate for the wardrobe saavy 30s gal, too! I’m bigger than the form, but you get the idea.

>Suit, Circa 1937, Part I

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Just a guesstimate on date. The other night I got this all cut out and yesterday I worked really hard all day and pumped most of it out. This jacket is vaguely inspired by Jean Arthur in You Can’t Take it With You. Here’s a pic of her in the movie and the pattern I’m using. I’m actually using the skirt from another pattern, since I think this one’s too busy and I didn’t have enough fabric anyway. My husband gave me the fabric that we bought to make him Victorian pants at one of our garment distric jaunts. He gave me the “ok” to steal it from him and who am I to argue?

Going through how I was going to make this sent me pondering for a day or two. Would I do fully tailored like the other jacket I made, and things I made for work last season? Would I make it totally unlined and lightweight? I wanted it to have body, but I also wanted it breathable and period correct. I asked on Fedora Lounge about traditional finishes for men’s 30s linen jackets and pawed through Matt’s closet to get ideas. I actually posted pics here, but I think I’m more interested than the FL guys seem to be. heh.

In any case, here’s the pics, probably of more interest to me than anyone else. I did cheat some on the construction- I took some shortcuts and invented some more, but I think the results are pretty good, regardless, so who cares?

Attaching the cotton tape and organza to the hair canvas

Front facings with the extra hair canvas cut away and basted to the facing

Sewing the facing to the front jacket and grading the seams

Finishing the seam allowances with bias and hem facing (since I ran out of bias and was too lazy to make or buy more)

Jacket on the form without sleeves and hem

And on the form with sleeves. It fits me better than it fits this form.

Still needs bias around armholes, some padding in the sleeve caps, and fasteners and a self belt, but it’s getting there! Hopefully I’ll have that finished today and can start on the skirt!

>Busy Sewing Bee Part II

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Catch up with posting pictures! Here’s pics of the NRA era dress I made based on a pattern I recently sold. Initially I made it for the trip, but I descided it’s a bit too informal since it’s in a quilters cotton- looks more like a morning dress than something to be worn to a dinner. The striped fabric is from Joann and I bought the silk organza on ebay. Of course, instead of puffed sleeves and collar I wanted ruffles. I wired the edges with fishing line to make the ruffles have more body to the edges, but I do need a bit more practice!



This green dress I cut out last night and got together today. It’s from a pattern in my stash from 1937. The fabric was also from Joann, and I bought it last spring on super clearance. I couldn’t pass it up because it looked so 30s! My camera’s not liking the sun today, so I played with the pics to get the color and pattern to somewhat show up, but it’s still a tad off.


And finally, here’s a hat I made from Vintage Pattern Lending Library to go with my 20s dress I made a few weeks ago. This pattern was actually deceptively difficult. In theory it’s not that hard, but the fitting was very strange and some of the instructions were wonky so I made up part of it. I think with a few more tries I’d get it how I wanted it, and probably with a sturdier fabric. The linen I used for the hat is semi-sheer and soft so doing those lapped seams was a challenge! It’s not on their site yet since they just changed systems, but I just bought it maybe two weeks ago, so they should have it up soon, hopefully.

>Busy sewing bee!

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>First off, thanks so much to everyone who left such nice comments on my new haircut! Horray! I’ve been having so much fun playing with ways to dress it, and nearly every night I’ve been putting in curlers, since it’s fun to see the results in the morning and it dries so fast!
I’ve been a busy bee this weekend! It started with Friday with two of my very best girlfriends coming to visit and barbecue. We had a sew-a-thon for sure, and I got so much done! Saturday was the 4th. God bless America! I love that holiday, so no sewing but lots of flag waving, eating, and visiting with family. Sunday another sew-a-thon, with lots getting done and nearly everything from my trip finished!
Here’s a super cute pair of pjs- the tops are from CiCi of CiCi Speaks, and the bottoms are from Green Dragon Lady on Etsy. I made the belt this weekend, so one trip sewing thing crossed off the list! Hurrah for pjs! I feel very Myrna Loy in them.

Ever since I saw “The Women” for the first time, I wanted a dress like Paulette Goddard wore on the train to Reno. I finally found a hooded dress pattern on eBay, and got it and started it the same day! The skirt looked like way too much work with all those pleats and I really wanted to use my sombrero fabric I’ve been hording for a few years, so I used the skirt from a different pattern instead.


I had another pic of a dress that I actually started last week, but I deleted it on accident. Whoops? The ruffles didn’t show up very well anyway, so I’ll take more another time. And I made a hat I forgot to take pics of, too!
The last one I have photos of are the pants I finally made! These are a super lightweight denim, and the pattern is a mid 1930s one from Vintage Fashion Library. I bought the pattern probably four of five years ago and made one pair, but needed to make a larger pair. Unfortunately she’s out of stock, but maybe she’ll print more.

>playing hookie

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I totally ditched my man sewing yesterday in favor of the thrift store. Oops? But I found some fun things to update my etsy store with, and bought myself two dresses that I think do 40′s style very well! They’re EXACTLY the same dress, but one in the color I pictured and one in white. I really wanted some little cool rayon dresses for when the weather here gets warm, so I really lucked out, and they fit like a dream! I probably couldn’t even buy the fabric for that much!
Today, to those pajamas? Possibly, but I got an email about an estate sale in the next town over, so that’s more than likely where I’ll be headed. I better get cracking, however, because we’ve only got a little more than a month til we leave and I still have a long sewing list! Eep! Pants and a red, white and blue dress for me, pants and pjs for him- and I’m sure I’ve got more on there, but that’s what I remember from the top of my head.
Just for kicks, here’s a makeup ad from 1943 to help inspire your thursday!

Click on the pic for a bigger image

>Early 30s Beach Pajamas

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Continuing on my sportswear kick, here’s another pattern I’ve been meaning to make for YEARS and never had gotten around to it! The top is a yellow linen I bought at the garment district in LA for $1 a yard, and the bottoms are a printed cotton I got on clearance from Joann for $1.50. I had these bookmarked for this outfit for at least a few years! Buttons are from my vintage button stash.

The pattern is based on an original vintage pattern and is available on my website.

Many thanks to Nicole of Paper Moon Vintage for being the lovely model for the photographs above!

>Periwinkle Blue Late 30s Evening Gown

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>I have a massive pile of mending to get through for this summer. Since I had finished the blue floral dress today as well (in an earlier post with the blouse) I descided to go ahead and work on something blue. This dress, thankfully, can use the same shade, so this is the first off of the list to get attention.
This dress was bought on eBay last month for my upcoming trip this summer. It’s a late 30′s evening gown, probably between late 1937 and 1939. It’s homemade of a very strange synthetic fiber… it almost feels like a nylon, and has an under slip of acetate with a slide fastener at the side. Unfortunately the seamstress who originally made it didn’t understand how to cut things on the bias, and since the front of the dress is on true bias it became so long that it wasn’t possible to walk in it. Likewise, the sides and back of the underslip had grown and peeked out the bottom at about 4″ in the widest spot. There is one tiny hole near the neckline (that I remedied with handy dandy Fray Check), and a few tiny mends here and there but nothing significant save the hem length. Here’s the original auction photos so you can see what I mean.

I knew for a fact I needed to fix the front so I could walk or dance, so I first chopped that length off and re-hemmed it. It’s not the prettiest hem, but it will do. With these two lengths left over I simply attached them to the hem of the sides and back and although the hem is now somewhat uneven it does have the otherworldly feeling that the dress possesses, so frankly I don’t care if it’s an even hem or not. I do really love this dress. Whenever I try it on I want to turn circles, and thankfully, now I can without falling flat.