Category Archives: events

A Fashionable 1930s Wedding

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The weekend before last we were fortunate to attend the wedding of our friends Robert and Ashley (of Miss1940sVintage).  They are quite the couple from the past- and totally immerse themselves in their chosen eras of the 1930s and 1940s.  When they announced that their wedding was “Garden Party Circa 1930s” themed, we were not in the least surprised.  Given the lovely and creative dressing of the vintage scene in Los Angeles and San Fransisco (as many of the guests came down for the wedding) , the guests relished in the chance to dress the part to celebrate the union of their friends.

The bride wore vintage, with a borrowed lucky veil which belongs to talented singer and pianist Sara, of Sara & Swingtime.  All of the bridesmaids are clad in gowns created by the talented custom couture dressmaker and Simplicity pattern designer Theresa LaQuey (whom I finally got to meet for the first time at the rehearsal dinner).  The bride and her bridesmaids were picture perfect and the setting at Forest Lawn looked like it was just right out of a real 1930s film!

The Bride looked gorgeous and her flowers were period perfect!  They were made by Sharlene of LA Deco Flora.  The bride’s makeup was done by the talented Katharina of GoForKat (who also did the makeup of several of my photo shoots for Wearing History patterns).

The groom and all his groomsmen looked impeccable in vintage morning suits.  The joy of the groom in this photo, taken just after the ceremony,  makes me happy.

And, of course, all the guests looked fabulous!

The talented up and coming music artist, Mary Simich.  Her outfit was created by her own personal couturier, Mr Tiny of Wacky Tacky.

All the old cars were parked in front of the church for a fabulous photo op.  Here’s my husband’s top hat he wore at our wedding is perched on top of our friend’s Packard.

Of course, when you get old cars together you sometimes get the…. unpredictable.  In this case, we watched some of the groomsmen and guests give a friend a push to get it started.

En route to the reception we had fun following our friend’s car and seeing two of the European visitors getting a kick out of riding in the rumble seat.

The reception was held at our friend, Nathan’s, beautiful Edwardian home.  Here’s some snapshots from the reception.

Guests listening to toasts.

My husband looking very distinguished in the library.

And hamming it up, as usual.

I wore a vintage 1930s dress I had held onto for several years, waiting for just the right occasion to wear it.  This fit the theme perfectly!  I made the hat to match by converting a horsehair hat I bought at the thrift store to a more 1930s style.

Many congratulations to the bride and groom!

Great Los Angeles Air Raid, 2013

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Wow! It’s been about a month since this event! How did that happen?  Well, I’m a bit late, but here’s my favorite photos I took at an annual event in San Pedro, CA, at Fort MacArthur Military Museum.  This event is called The Great Los Angeles Air Raid and is a WWII themed dance and re-enactment that happens once a year, commemorating the time during WWII when they believed they spotted foreign aircraft over Los Angeles. Panic broke out, and in the end it was a weather balloon (or a UFO, depending on who you ask). You can read more about the real event here on Wikipedia.

This was my first time donning a real WWII uniform.  I was fortunate enough to come across an original British ambulance driver’s uniform. I guess you can tell where some of my heritage is from, as it fit me to a “t”!  We couldn’t find a helmet, and finding other parts of this uniform is proving somewhat impossible, so my husband and I made the hat to go with the jacket by looking at real WWII photos of women ambulance drivers.  I actually also have the matching overcoat, but for once this event was too warm to need it!  We all usually freeze at this event!

Here’s some photos of friends and I at the event.

Hope your week is going wonderfully!

Adventure at Fort Rosecrans- Remember Pearl Harbor

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It’s a tad late posting these, but I wanted to share photos from one of our last vintage outings.  My husband and I went to a WWII re-enactment public display at the beginning of this month at Fort Rosecrans, San Diego, in remembrance of Pearl Harbor.  They recently restored an underground bunker, and they do a small WWII public display once a month.  You can find out more on the Cabrillo National Monument website and by calling the park to see when they plan on having the bunker open to the public.  There’s also a Victorian lighthouse, a military cemetery  and tide pools at this park, but we ran out of sunlight and camera batteries, unfortunately!

Here’s some photos of the day.

Being the sucker for adventure that I am, I could not resist the opening of the bunker!  Who knows what untold fun awaited us?  But in WWII I’m sure there was a heavy dose of fear that accompanied the need to go into these bunkers.

I’m on the lookout.

And some shots of the inside of the bunker.  The re-enactors brought most of these with them to set the bunker up to how it would have looked at wartime.


My husband and I.  I’m wearing the 1940s jerkin I made a while back and a new shirt I made especially for this occasion.

And our beautiful San Diego coastline.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and Happy New Year!  Be safe while you celebrate!

High Adventure- Indiana Jones Style

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Last weekend we went to a very fun event- one of the ones that we look forward to the most every year.  In fact, last year was the first we had missed in a long time, and so we were anxious to go back and check it out again.

This is an adventure day- part of the several day long IndyGear Summit for the Club Obi Wan message board- an Indiana Jones fan board.  I am a huge Indiana Jones nerd, and I love the excuse to dust off the adventure gear.  This day is our favorite- a day we all get together for some sort of adventure at Fort MacArthur Military Museum- the same museum that hosts the Great Los Angeles Air Raid event once a year.

This year was different than some years past.  Where previously we did a sort of scavenger hunt all around the fort, this time we did a mock archaeology dig, and the fort was transported, via WWII British re-enactors, to 1942 England.  Quite fun!  We met up with several friends there, including Beth from V is for Vintage blog, and had a great day out.  Here’s some of my favorite pictures. Warning- there’s a lot of favorites, so lots of pics ahead!

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My friend, above, made her entire outfit and Beth and I were highly tempted to kidnap the jacket, especially.  So picture perfect that I thought it was actual vintage!

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 My outfit was composed of different finds and out of the whole outfit I only made my blouse.  The breeches were from Wear It Again, Sam, when they had a vintage shop in San Diego, and they are vintage 1944 dated British military jodhpurs.  The boots are vintage and were an eBay find.  The belted back jacket is vintage 1970s (but I think it passes well for 1930s) and was bought on Etsy from JLVintage.  The military belt and gun holster are vintage and were borrowed from my husband.  And the pith helmet is vintage and was bought at Fort Mac at their military timeline event that happens yearly.  The scarf was borrowed from Beth’s husband just for photos, and promptly returned.

I love adventure style! I really need an excuse to wear it more often.  It feels more “me” than dressing up in fancy clothes :)

You can see the rest of my photos here on Flickr.

Hope you’re having a great week!

A Vintage Visit to Disneyland

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The other day I started thinking about photos and adventures that happened over the last few months that I never got a chance to share.  Well, this one sticks out in my mind because it was an absolute blast!  One of my best friends, Ginger of the Scene in the Past blog, was out visiting around the time of Costume College this summer and we decided it would be a blast to go to Disneyland in 1950s clothing.  Ginger had never been to Disneyland before, so this was a perfect excuse for me to get a chance to go back to one of my favorite places.  I invited our good friends Teresa and Kat, who joined us for part of the day, and the four of us had a really great time!  Here’s a few pictures.

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Ginger just looked so picture perfect with these lovely 1950s style patio sets I just had to take a snapshot!

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Our little group in Frontierland.

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Two girls in vintage patio dresses in a tree house (it will forever be Swiss Family Robinson tree house to me.. I love that they still play the song at the end of the “attraction” on a makeshift phonograph)

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Two Indiana Jones nerds at the exit of the Indy ride with the truck from Raiders.

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The traditional Fantasyland castle shot!

I just love Disneyland, and it’s SO fun to go with friends in 1950s clothing.  It just feels *right* somehow :)

Of course we had to do all the old-timey rides like the train ride through the “grand canyon”, the Tiki Room, and all the other fun vintage things that makes Disneyland so great for vintage lovers.

The Vintage Marketplace- More Vintage Goodness

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In the last post I shared our set up at The Vintage Marketplace, but I had a great time looking around and shopping as well.  Luckily my husband was along to help mind the booth so I got to go take a gander and get some shots of some of the other offerings of other vendors.  Here’s a few of my favorite shots of what others had to offer.  I didn’t get every vendor’s name down, so apologies for that.  If you know who’s booth an image is from please leave me a comment so I can amend my post.

The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012
Christie Repasy of Chateau de Fleurs (one of the two ladies who runs The Vintage Marketplace) makes gorgeous paintings inspired by antique roses. She shared with me that her inspiration is often rooted in the 18th and 19th century. Here’s something I thought were darling- prints of her roses made into necklaces. Her sister in law, Rita Reade of Mammabellarte (who is the other lovely lady behind this show) makes these necklaces with prints of Christie’s roses. Christie also offers original paintings at the show, and Rita has her own booth with her furniture, necklaces and handcrafts, and even real life baby chicks at this show!
The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012

Tea and vintage finds- two of my favorite things!

The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012

I love these fun pieces by Vintage Bruja.

The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012

Beautiful Victorian celluloid boxes

The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012

Pink Depression glass.

The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012

Edwardian actress postcards from Paris Cowgirl

The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012

An antique vanity that seems like it would be right at home in the Norma Shearer version of Marie Antoinette.

The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012

A rather creative way to store and use glass glitter.

The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012

Beautiful two-tone antique boots

The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012

Creative sign art by Junk Art Gypsyz

 The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012

A fun vintage kitchen cabinet from Touched by Time

You can find the rest of my photos here on Flickr.

The next show will be November 30th-December 1st. Mark your calender!

And later I’d love to share two of my new friend’s works. So posts about them will be coming up.

Back from The Vintage Marketplace!

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Hello!

We had a blast at The Vintage Marketplace “At the Oaks” on Friday and Saturday.  Thank you so much to everyone who came out!

I just love this show.  There are so many kindred spirits.  Speaking with the shoppers and the other vendors is half the fun.  Of course, the shopping is great fun, too!  I did pick up some goodies, but I will share those in a later post.  For now, here’s some shots of our booth
Wearing History at The Vintage Marketplace

The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012

The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012

The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012

The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012

The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012

The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012

The Vintage Marketplace- Sept 2012

My husband was an awesome help through all of this. I couldn’t have done it without him!

I have more great photos coming up of other vendor’s booths, plus I’d like to share a highlight of two of my favorite vendors at The Vintage Marketplace, so you’ll get a peek at their wares :)

Thanks again to everyone who came out!

The 1939/1940 Vogue Outfit

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I want to take some more photos of this at a later time, but I wanted to share this outfit I wore (very briefly) at Costume College on Sunday.

I made the blouse for this ensemble because I saw a similar outfit in a 1939 issue of Vogue magazine that I wanted to imitate.  It was made using a vintage McCall blouse pattern from 1940.  The red scarf belt was made of silk which I had made for a prior outfit, but it worked out perfectly.  The shoes are ones I purchased several years ago by FarylRobin (the style is called Canary).  The glasses were recently purchased from ASOS and are very reminiscent of the ones on the July 1939 cover of Vogue magazine.  The skirt is vintage and was bought from Top Tottie Vintage.  The purse was a recent garage sale find.  The necklace and earring set is new and was bought on Ebay.

I hope to get more photos of this blouse soon, but my friend Ginger of Scene in the Past blog took this shot and the staircase was perfect for the late 30s streamlined look so I had to share :)

Finished Project: The 1930s Gold Classic Film Dress

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Wow- Another project to post! I must be on a roll.  I have two more to post, but both of which I didn’t get *terrific* photos of, or no photos of, so this may be the last for a while.  Or maybe I’ll just borrow photos from friends.

The theme of Costume College this year was “The Golden Age of Hollywood.”  If you remember, last year I made a gold satin 1930s dress with a cape.  Well, that was before the theme for this year was announced.  Obviously I had to repeat the vintage theme… and the gold… and a cape… ;)

In all reality, this project didn’t completely come together until a few weeks before Costume College.  I was being indecisive.  Couldn’t decide on pattern… couldn’t decide on a fabric.   I just knew I wanted it to be sparkly.  Bought a fabric that didn’t work out.  You know why?  I thought “surely, 4 yards will be enough for a 1930s evening dress.”  But then I remembered a skirt I drafted based on dresses worn by Ginger Rogers in the Fred + Ginger movies and pulled it out and laid it down on the fabric.  In the end the dress took over 10 yards.  The previously bought fabric is marinating in the stash until it becomes something else (and right now I’m thinking that something else will be a 1920′s evening dress.  I blame Katherine/Koshka of The Fashionable Past).

One of my all time favorite 1930s evening dresses was one worn by Harriet Hillard as Connie Martin in Follow the Fleet (a Fred and Ginger movie).  Although I really don’t like the musical number, here’s a video clip from YouTube showing the dress in motion.  I think I was subconsciously thinking of this dress when I made this one!  In the end it looks rather similar.  In fact, I’m now determined to make myself a pretty spray of gardenias to wear across the front next time I wear the dress:

But enough chatting!  On to pictures!

What’s a dress without a cape, right? The cape was made from a 1940 McCall pattern of “scale” sequin fabric with a faux fur trim at the hem.  The dress itself was made from a strange almost netted fabric with gold spangles all over it.  The slip was made from gold lamé crepe bought from SewHallie (aka Couture Allure) on Etsy.  I was trying to harken back to the fabulous gowns of Hollywood yesteryear with this dress.

The dress itself was a combination of many patterns.  I drafted the skirt based on Ginger Rogers’ dresses (as mentioned earlier) and the top of the dress was cobbled together from three different vintage patterns.  Luckily it fit perfect after the first mockup.  The hem has horsehair in the edge to help give it extra body and “swirl power”.  I added fishing line to the edge of the sleeve to help it have a little more body at the hem as well.

The best part about the dress is the swirl power!

So that’s it! This was my secret Costume College Gala project.  It’s very fun to dance in, so I hope I get to trot it out again soon :)

Finished Project: The 1870s Green Plaid Bustle Dress

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I’m back from Costume College, my good friend is on her way back home to Texas, and it’s time to get back to real life. Woe!  But I have some fun photos to share coming up, and the first of which I want to share is the 1870s plaid bustle dress project I posted about previously.

I finished it all up for the most part by the time my friend arrived, but since she had some extra sewing to do I started doing trimming.  And more trimming.  And more trimming.  Someone on the American Duchess Facebook album of Costume College photos said it looked similar to old fashioned ribbon candy- and you know, I have to agree!

This one was lots of fun to trim.  I love this time period.  I can trim, and trim the trims, then trim the trim with trims.  In this case the most fun things to make for trimming were the ruffles which were finished with a bias binding in the peach. Over the top of the ruffles at the side I ran a braid which was made of three tubes of bias made into cording and then braided.  The bows that are accented with tassels at the end were lots of fun to make, too.

This outfit was made using Truly Victorian patterns.  The bodice was made with Heather’s new 1872 Vested Bodice Pattern, TV403.  The skirt was made with the 1875 Parisian Trained Skirt Pattern, TV216 (you can see my previous version of the skirt in their website photo).  I’m a huge fan of Truly Victorian patterns- they make these Victorian patterns so accessible, and they make up really well!  I documented working on this bodice in prior posts here, here, and here.

Capturing the correct colors of this outfit has proved quite difficult.  In reality it’s probably a combination of the photos here in front of a blank background and the photos above.

The hat is actually a 1930s hat I had in my vintage collection.  At the last minute I remembered I didn’t have appropriate headwear so I pulled out this one, which just so happened to match perfectly.  I pinned little accents of the green onto the hat, added a pink feather and a few dress clips, and it suddenly became passable for 1870s.  The entire dress was made from polyester taffeta (gasp!) but the fabrics looked so much like authentic silk taffeta, even in person, and had the same hand to the touch, that I was able to make the dress look passable on a much better budget than by using a more authentic silk.  For a dress I’ll only wear on occasion, I decided it was a good sacrifice for me to make and it helped out my pocketbook ;)

That wraps up this project!  The End ;)