>Summer Sewing- a Sailor Blouse and Pleated Skirt, and some books!

>Hope everyone had a great holiday! Ours was good, just hanging out with the family and going for bike rides and laughing a lot.  Good times :)
I’ve been sewing a bit! Hubby says I’ve been working too hard, so part of my de-stressing is to take some time out to do things for me.  I tend to feel bad if I’m not using my free time to work towards something for the shop, but no more!  I make a resolution to do things that make me happy, including some summer sewing, reading old magazines, and enjoying the summer.
Sadly it’s been pretty gloomy here! Even the 4th didn’t feel like a holiday with the gloominess and cloud cover.  I had planned on wearing a skirt and wondered if my wool would be too warm, but I ended up in trousers with my Pendleton hiding my patriotic blouse!  Keeping with the patriotic sewing, I had bought supplies to make these before the holiday and just finished yesterday.  I made the sailor blouse from a cute vintage pattern from 1941 (which is now in my shop).  It is meant to be a tunic but silly me forgot to shorten the torso as I’m a bit short waisted, so now I’ll wear it belted.  The skirt is from a darling McCall pattern from my collection from 1940.  I love the way it turned out and really want to make some of the shorter version for wearing this summer when it warms up again!

In other news, I now have another vintage hair book up in my Lulu store! This one is on 1950s hair cutting and is really fun, with step by step photographs of different period hair cuts.  I’ve just ordered a print version to make sure the alignment is all good to go so hold off on it until I give the all clear sign, but the digital download is ready to buy and I also have a digital download now available for the 1930s hair book I put out last year.

Something interesting about the 1950s book- last week my mom and my husband and I were out together and happened upon an estate sale.  The place was somewhat cleared out, but there were all sorts of plaques on the wall and hairstyling things.  It ends up the estate was of Grace Doran, who co-authored the repro book I have up! She started doing hair in Hollywood in the 1940s and 50s and went on to open a beauty school, and on to tour around the world with her different techniques.  So interesting!  We picked up a few odds and ends- some 1950s hatboxes which I was in desperate need of- I have a somewhat unnatural draw to chapeaux.  I also found a copy of the Westmore Beauty book which was signed by one of the brothers, Perc Westmore, who did makeup for Casablanca, Now, Voyager, and other of my favorite classic films, and even plays himself in Busby Berkeley’s Hollywood Hotel.  You can pick up a copy of this book from Bramcost Publications, as well as a repro of another book from Comer and Doran on 1950s Hairstyling. I also took home some of her plaques with her name on them.  We plan on redoing our guest bathroom to be reminiscent of a 1950s hair salon! Fun stuff!  One of them needs a new coat of paint, but the design is just so neat.  Of course we didn’t even realize who she was until we came home and looked her up.  And the whole time she lived right around the corner! I wish I could have known her.

Hope you all are having an excellent week so far!