Dress from an old pattern and seven things you didn't know about me, part 3

I finally got around to making something based on patterns from the old booklet I found last summer. But for some strange reason I just cannot seem to make anything these days without adding some sort of personal twist to it. This time I couldn't stick to just one pattern, but used two, one for the skirt and one for the top part.

The skirt pattern was a simple "put together 8 identical pieces"-kind of thing and the top part is based on the top of the jacket below...with a twist too, as I wanted a different collar.

 

 I should have made a muslin first, I admit, but the dress didn't turn out too bad. But I have learned not to trust the patterns in this booklet too much without fitting...

 By the way, check out what I found on my last trip to the thrift store;

 

I've been looking for a suitable not too modern looking hand bag for ages, and this one only cost 80 cents! I was also very happy about the belt buckles (20 cents each) and the fabric in the background wasn't such a bad find either...Anyways, I've still got some facts to spill about myself;

Fact number three is that I haven't shaved my legs for over a year. I'm not kidding! Zoom in enough on the (original of) the picture of me above and you'd be able to see my hairy legs...The first reason for not shaving is that my sensitive atopic skin can't handle it. I've tried using moisturizing hair removal stuff but nope, my skin still gets so dry and itchy that I have literally scratched til it bleed. So I thought better to be a bit hairy than bloody, right? 

But I didn't stop there. My thoughts went on to wonder why women shave their legs in the first place? To please...who? My man doesn't really mind, and I don't really care either as long as there's no itchiness or stubble. Or blood. Thankfully I've never been one to care to much about what other people think about me either, so I decided to stop shaving. I admit to trimming the ehem, "lengths" every now and then, but the plan is that hopefully, soon, I won't feel the need to. I'm working on that confidence still...

By the way, have you ever thought about what a great way to make money hair removal product are? It's a never ending need...as long as our beauty standards make us do it. Ever thought about how much waste the industry produces? All those disposable razors going in the bin and hair removal creams going down the drain...I'm quite glad not to be a part of it anymore. And I'm saving both time and money!

Do your beauty standards require being hair free? Why/why not?

By the way, me and my hairy legs are probably lying on a beach without internet access when this post goes out, just in case you're wondering why I'm not replying to any comments...I'm of to Playa Del Ingles!

Good hair day

I was rather pleased at the way my hair came out on Saturday. For once, I got the fringe to stand up a bit, just like in the pictures of old movie stars...

And then I went and covered it all up with a hat. I don't think I've showed this vintage hat before, even though I've had it for quite some time. It's made from a really warm and soft and wintry material, but only covers a small part of the head, so it's a bit tricky to know when to wear it. On Saturday I wore it tho the antiques and vintage fair/market held in Kokkola, and got a few nice comments about it...

The fair had very little vintage, only two sellers who sold vintage clothing and no retro furniture whatsoever (which is what I was looking for). But among all the antique porcelain, glassware, books etc I did find something with a fifties style to it. It is quite possibly the first piece of art I have ever bought, it's about 30 cm high and it looks like it could be made of teak...And I absolutely love it and pretty much go "Oh" every time I see it;

How was your weekend?

Back on track?

The past few weeks have been pretty stressful at work, leaving me with very little energy to be creative or go shopping or blog. But things are looking up, and I'm starting to feel more like myself again. On Saturday we had our work x-mas party, but as I had less than 2 hours to get ready when I got home from work, I didn't exactly have the time to take any outfit pictures...But this is the dress and shoes I wore;

I combined them with some black patterned stockings and this purse;

All vintage! I also tried my hand at making a Joan from mad men-inspired hairdo (following one of the many tutorials on youtube). It turned out pretty well, but as mentioned, no pictures to prove it...

Now that my energy and inspiration levels are more or less back to normal, I'm at a loss for what to do on my day off, (today) or rather, what to do first. Should I sew? Go to a flea-market? Just do housework? Try to do it all at the same time? Well, sitting here certainly won't get anything done, I'm off, have a nice day!

Lady in Gray

Sometimes when I go thrifting I get lucky (or stick to tight rules perhaps?) and I end up bringing home a bunch of clothes that all seem to magically match...

Jumper+skirt, looks good with red accessories (bought or thrifted earlier).

Same gray skirt matches black shirt with white stripes, black shoes and red hat+jumper.

And would you believe it, the old ladies at the charity shop gave the dress above (again matching gray) to me for free, after I discovered a small hole at the side. However, this dress is quite big on me (and a bit itchy) so I thought I'd ask if anybody else is interested in it, they were going to throw it away! Waist measures 43 when lying flat, bust 52, hip 55 at widest part. The collar also looks big on me, so this might not look good on other petite ladies either...But if anybody is interested I'd be quite happy to for example trade it for something else, make me an offer!

Pair 60-something of shoes (closest to camera) cost 2 euros and came home with me from a thrift shop last Saturday. They are lined and warm, great for winter and the sort of temperatures we are having at the moment (there's even some snow!) On Saturday we also began the winter bathing season, but before we went my hair looked like this;

This is day five of the same set of pincurls, no need to wash often when you don't use shampoo anymore! But after this picture was taken my hair had to handle hydro-cortison-creme to fight my scalp rash, getting sweaty in the sauna and getting dipped into sea water when winter bathing...

And for some strange reason I decided to use considerably less baking soda than normal when I got home and finally washed it. Needless to say, my hair didn't feel quite as clean as I would have liked it afterwards...But now, after I've washed it again with more baking soda, rubbing it into all of my hair and not just the roots, and rinsing with the apple cider vinegar-mix, it feels as if I'd washed it with shampoo. I've also gone and gotten myself a different medicine for my atopic scalp rash, which hopefully won't interfere with my hair experiments.

My conclusion is that baking soda is indeed very likely to wash away all sorts of products from your hair, if you use enough of it (!) and spread it out from root to tip. However, I will be trying this again with hairspray or something to make sure, and report back...

Glenn Miller Dance

Here's what I wore to the dance;

The dance was quite fun, although on a smaller scale than what I expected. There was however enough people to fill the small dance floor and push you in all directions... But mostly the dancing was ok, and the big band was really quite good. So I enjoyed it. And a girl in the bathroom thought I looked very french?! She'd probably seen some WWII movie where they wear rolls and red lipstick and all that...

Anyway, for once I'm actually wearing only one piece of second hand goods, the skirt, everything else I've bought new. Still old stuff though...How was your weekend?

New hair

Despite being very happy about my hair last weekend, I've gone and cut half of it off! The main reason being that I hadn't had it cut since...I can't even remember! So when mum came over last week I asked her to cut a bit of the back...and the 3 following hours I spent cutting the rest. And about an hour the next day...I don't know if I can really recommend cutting your own hair. It's difficult and time consuming and difficult.

I went for a slightly modified middy plus, with slightly longer top hair, so that I can get it behind my ears. I don't know if I did it right, but at first it looked awful and choppy (hence the second day of fixing). Now it looks okay even when not curled. But I feel like a boy when it's straight, and it's not even that short!

This is second day hair, so I've slept on the curls one night. When styled like this it looks more 50's I think, but I've got lot's and lot's more experimenting to do!

Anyway, it'll all grow back before I know it.

Kitten does blues festival

So I couldn't pass up the chance to listen to some blues and rockabilly music so close to home, so I dressed up and did my hair and convinced a friend to join me. My hair;

My outfit;

My brand new shoes; (from Anttila)

While I waited for my friend to pick me up, I quickly looked up the basic step for jive on youtube, just to sort of get a feel for the rhythm of it. We were among the first 5 people to hit the dance floor, both my friend and I enjoy dancing and just could not sit still. All the bands were really good so there was a lot of dancing going on. We had a great time, but, I'm still too shy to go up and talk to strangers, so even if there were a few people with rockabilly style there, I didn't make any new friends.

However, at the end of the night this guy (normally dressed) comes up to me and starts talking. He asks if I take dance classes and if I have a dance partner and all sorts, turns out he's a dance teacher at the local dance club, which I didn't know existed. Apparently my dancing was so bad that he thinks I should learn to do it properly, ha ha. No seriously, he had noticed my attempt at jiving (I guess no-one else was jiving) and saw some kind of potential. So he invited Mr Kitten and me to come and learn to really dance (all the dances you see in Let's Dance/Dancing with the stars/Strictly come dancing on tv) and maybe, possibly compete at some point...(!)

So I'm going a bit crazy at the moment. Was he serious? Had he had to much to drink? Did he realize that we are complete beginners? But...he did say he prefers teaching people who don't know anything but has the will to learn...? So. I don't know. I'd love to learn, Let's Dance is the only thing I really watch on tv, so why not? I have no idea what will come out of this, if anything at all...Just have to wait and see!

New year, old pictures

A while back when me and Mr. Kitten went on our extended weekend trip to Turku, I found some old photographs in a fleamarket that I thought I'd share with you;




I just love the hair in these pictures! More pics to follow another day...

So, how's the new year been so far? Me, I have finished knitting one leg warmer and the other one is coming along shortly, I'm also crocheting a hat! Oh, and I went to my cousin's wedding wearing this dress and a fascinator I made just hours before the wedding (which is why there was no time to take any outfit pictures, sorry!). Tomorrow I've got the day off so hopefully I'll have the time and light to take some photos of my recent creations...

Hair

I've been doing alot of pin-curls lately, and thought I'd share some of the results;


And yesterday my hair looked like this when I went to my friends tupperware-party;



I looked through some older pic's of my pin-curl attempts, and noticed they weren't always that good. Thankfully, I feel I'm getting a little bit better at getting them too look okay now...

I'm not very keen on the constant darkness that seems to be the default weather at the moment. Apart from the effect on my mood, it's too dark to take any decent pictures! So it might take a while before I can photograph my latest finished sewing project...

Something for fall

One of the biggest problems fashionwise living up here in the north is to stay warm during the cold parts of the year and still feel stylish. Unfortunately pretty and practical seldom go together...A problem (a least for me) which I am trying hard to solve.

In order to wear these pretty but not very warm shoes, I came up with the idea to make myself some spats. Basically a piece of cloth (or three per foot sewn together) to keep my feet warm and cosy. Or at least warmer. I used a piece of elastic underneath to keep in place, and velcro to open and close. Very simple. I might do a few more in different fabrics and colours, maybe with buttons going up the side, for some other semi-warm shoes I happen to own...

Staying dry and looking good can also be tricky. Lucky for me, I found this stripey rain-cape in a charity shop not too long ago. Now I just need it to rain!

I've got more ideas on how to stay warm and look good, but I haven't put all of them into practice yet. I'll show you once I get that far...If you got any tips or tricks you use yourself you are welcome to share!

Finally, here's my latest attempt at pincurls;

This time around I went to work for three days looking like this, and got many compliments and even more enquiries as to what special occasion was coming up which required this hairstyle...It appears that the people Iwork with only make an effort for special occasions, so the looks I got when I said that I just felt like it were a bit pussled. I guess I've taken my first steps down the road of being "the strange one that dresses up/does her hair for no reason". Oh, well, as I'm already on that road, why not go full throthle? On the third day with this hair, I put on some red lipstick...

Happy Holidays!

Whatever you may celebrate, I hope you have a nice break from work/study or whatever keeps you busy. I'll be at work for 5 hours tomorrow and then head off to see family and spend my christmas with the ones close to me. Perhaps I'll wear my hair like this?

If it's not too cold I'll also wear my new knitted gloves, but I doubt I'll wear the stocking I found at a fleamarket a while back, they were a bit too big and long.

By the way, I won a digital SLR in an online action last week for roughly 240 €. It should have been posted to me this morning, I'm very excited and I hope I get it before the trip to milan! I leave you now with a christmassy pin-up and wish everyone a merry christmas and a happy new year!

Dressing gowns and hairdo's

Last week I found theese two dressing gowns at the fleamarket. I was pretty happy as I've look at dressing gowns before but never found any nice one that would fit me and my taste. But when it rains it pours, two in one go, both in colours I feel at home in. Even matches my pyjama bottoms!

And check out my hair! I played around with my home-made hair rat again...

As I was in my neigbouring town touring my favourite fleamarket, I couldn't help but to stop by H&M as well. Pleased with myself for only buying 3 items, all on sale, I walked out of the store only to realise that I had completely forgotten about the second floor...Which was where all the goodies were, the 50's inspired dresses, the fake fur jackets and the polka dot umbrellas. None of which I can really afford or justify buying. Because I don't really need a 30 euro dress that I will only try on in front of my mirror at home...Dreaming continues.

This is the top I did buy, to go with any waist high skirts I might decide to wear. The jeans cost me 2 € at the fleamarket, as new.

Below my failed pin-curl attempt from the other day. I took the pins out to soon, so it didn't stay curly for long. Great patience, huh?

And finally, as requested, the back of my leopard print dress. Happy december!

Kitten goes curly

Yesterday on my day off I decided to try pin-curling. I washed my hair, and stubborn as I am did not put any product in it, and with hair still damp I got to work. 25 bobby pins and half an hour later my hair looked like this:

I didn't really have a plan for how to arrance the curls, thay just ended up where ever. I have never been into using hair product so it felt a bit risky but hey, I used to braid my hair when wet when I was a kid and got waves from that, so why not give it a go. Plus I had no product to put in it in the first place.

A few hours later, after runnig around with a scarf round my head looking like rosie the riveter, I opened the curls. Some of the ends hadn't curled properly, most likely coz I hadn't had enough patience to really make sure thay were perfect...

Well of course I couldn't leave it like this, but gently combed through the curls with my fingers and shook my head a couple of times and voilá! Movie star curls. Kinda. (If you wanna see my curls up close you can click on the pictures.)

The curls did last for quite some time, even through a walk ouside in the wind, but as time passed the curls became bigger and today they look more like waves. But the result was better than anticipated, so I might try it again. Maybe even use some product to see if it makes any difference!

And now for some vintage hair inspiration! These are the sites I checked out before I got to work:

Rita SueEmpire Vintage

and Beauty is a thing of the past

Be sure to check out all the other stuff on these pages as well, lot's of inspiration! Have fun!