Vintage inspired skirts in retro prints

When I began thinking about this post I very much had Dita Von Teese in mind.

Image from Betty Le Bonbon

I just love her style of big flouncy skirts in vibrant colours or tweeds and sometimes with exciting prints. It is a look I have always liked and the feature skirt and classic T-shirt was a staple of mine in my undergrad days.

I have really struggled lately to find good skirts. Especially when it comes to vintage. I'm not sure if skirts were just worn more so they haven't lasted as long as the more available 'special occasion dresses' of if skirts just weren't as popular (I lean towards the former).

So I decided that the best way to get hold of a 50s style skirt was to make one myself. I wanted to go for a gathered skirt rather than full circle as circle skirts can sometimes look a bit cliche. I used Simplicity 1369 in the longest length with a few minor tweaks.

I found an amazing fabric shop in Scarborough that was selling beautiful print cottons for less than half RRP! So I gave myself a treat and bought some cute fabrics so that I could make some skirts.

The first skirt I made was in the black apple print fabric. I made the size according to my measurements however I found that the waist was too big, so I had to take it in :S whoops... Sorry I don't have a better picture of this one.

The second one I made was in the leaf print. I also interfaced this one with more stiff interfacing around the waist which I found I really liked. I did make the really stupid mistake of having the leaves face up on the front and down on the back however... whoops. Thank goodness the pattern hides it quite well!

The skirt even has a pocket!!

I also decided to make the dress in a really amazing 60s/70s red and blue print. I made this skirt extra full.

I took quite a lot of care with this skirt to pattern match which is not something I've done before. It was quite a bit of a faff, but I think it was worth it when I considered the finished look of the whole skirt.

In these last pictures I wore the most amazing shoes. A pair of Rocket Originals in red leather. The style is called Judy and they are so comfortable and amazingly retro looking, but that is because they are designed based on vintage shoe patterns. I never thought I could wear a pair of sling backs, but these are perfect!

Outfit details:

Skirts: Home made

Shoes: Rocket Originals and Clarks

Top: Laura Ashley t shirt/Primark tshirt

Cardigan: GAP thrifted

Have you ever got an item of clothing in several different colours?

Covering rollers with a vintage headscarf... or looking like a washer woman

I was deleting nonsense from my phone, when I came across these pictures that I never got around to sharing... Oh well, here goes:

What do you do if you've got your hair in rollers and you need to go out?

Hide them under a head-scarf of course! I have no idea if this was actually done, but wearing this type of headscarf it something I associate with my grandmother and house work. It seems I'm not the only one either as a delightful 'gentleman' in the street took the time to point out to me that I looked like a washer woman.

So thanks for that.

I actually don't think it was such a bad look. I am a big fan of the plain (often gypsy-style) top and print vintage skirt. I've seen quite a few pictures of Dita Von Teese wearing a similar look, although minus the head scarf... I reckon that she has one of those fancy vintage style dryers so she never needs to leave rollers in.

Image source (complaining about the outfit of all things?!)

Maybe this whole look is subject to debate? I'm not sure.

What do you think?

Outfit details:

Skirt: Vintage

Top: Gap via charity shop

Belt: Primark

Headscarf: Vintage

Glasses: Fossil

Charity shop find: A vintage Jaeger skirt

I have been looking for a tan/camel skirt for a while. It has been a bit of a difficult one to find, I don't know why, it just seems that this is not the kind of style that has been very popular recently.

Anyhow the other day I lucked out in a charity shop while killing time waiting for the train! I came across an amazing tan Jaeger skirt in my size! Now given that the skirt is a size 16 with a 30 inch waist I would suggest that it might be from as early as the 1970s but I find it really hard to tell with styles like this. The Vintage Fashion Guild website is really helpful when dating clothing that has labels in it though -  mine definitely looks like the 1970s one.

It has a huge set of pleats with a really swingy style so I'm sure one day it will be great for dancing in :)

One thing I really love about older Jaeger is that the quality is fantastic. This one still has the original buttons and two sets of hook/eyes for fastening inside and a full lining, for which I'm grateful for as 100% wool can get a bit itchy.

I'm a little stuck in a rut at the moment though as I'm not very good at dealing with the winter-spring transition. I left home without a coat for the first time today and I was so afraid that I'd get too cold. Not that I had any problems with being too cold as the weather lately has been pretty nice.

I decided to take this transition slowly though and I teemed this skirt with a jumper from M&S that has a little bit of an 80s vibe to it biut I simply adore the sequin birds on the top of it. I also wore some blue opaque tights that I got for £1.80 in the Accessorize sale. I would highly recommend Accessorize tights, especially the opaque colours - they are simply amazing in quality and fit. They are my favourites.

Lastly came the clogs. They have been on here briefly before but they got a proper outing today. I truly believe that clogs do not need to be limited to summer, I think they look perfectly good with opaques!

Skirt: Jaeger

Jumper: M&S (via eBay)

Bag: Sue Ryder

Tights: Accessorize

Clogs: Clarks (thrifted)

My eyeliner in this post is also slightly different, I tried using a different mac gel liner. This one was blue and called waveline, but you know, its just not as good as the blacktrack, it smudges much easier and doesn't last as long. I wonder if its something to do with the blue pigment?

I'm currently trialing the collection 2000 gel eyeliner and my experience is all good so far :)

Do you have any Jaeger? Is it any good?

Casual Cosplay: Frozen, the cold never bothered me anyway...

And now its time for the second instalment of my frozen double bill.

After that amazing effort by Liz to make a costume for her daughter (see more on that here), I was inspired to have a go at a frozen inspired look. I didn't go into full cosplay mode, but rather picked outfit parts that I felt were part inspired by the films signature style. I call it Casual Cosplay.

Of course let me start off by saying I am far more of an Anna than an Elsa and as such I tried to dress accordingly.

I actually started with the hair. I felt like after spending the pervious day with a double Dorothy plait (more on that later) I thought I'd have a go at Anna's up do from the coronation party act.

I'd like to add first that it was way more difficult than is realised and my hair would not play ball. I think I've gotten used to styling a certain way and now anything else seems impossible. The biggest issue was that it was simply too short for the back section to work properly, but oh well, I made do. Let's just say my husband was hysterical at the faces I pulled while trying to do this particular hair style - here are some of them:

I separated it into sections making sure to leave enough for the plait. I then plaited the top bit and pinned it under a high pony that I made into a bun using a hair doughnut. Anna's hair is more complicated than that at the back but mine was way to short to cope with anything more than a bun.

In terms of rating I'd say it was satisfactory, but requires improvement.

As for the rest of the costumes, I loved the folky themes of the heavy skirts with stripe and print details and I adore the light blue/green/pink/black colour palate. Here are a few examples:

Signature costumes:

Image from KidzWorld

Coronation costumes:

Image from Disney Wikia

The outfit I went with was very blue overall. I have a folk style vintage skirt in blue and black with a lovely embroidered stripe that really fits in with the Scandinavian and Nordic feel of the films.  In fact, had it been green, I think it would have been quite like Anna's skirt.

Of course I needed a cape too! And my vintage cape in blue was a perfect choice as the colour matched so well.

I think the overall look was okay-ish, although perhaps not the combination I would usually put together all at once...

Skirt: Vintage shop in York

Cape: Sue Ryder York

Boots: Clarks

Blouse: Monsoon (thrifted)

Pearls: Thrifted

Suede gloves: Accessorize (thrifted)

What do you think of my frozen style look?

Have you tried to dress a bit like Elsa or Anna?

   

                                                       

A home made tartan skirt

I love braces, I love pinafores and I even love dungarees. In short I like anything with shoulder straps. I caught sight of someone wearing a swing skirt with braces at a dancing event some time ago and since then I have coveted something similar.

After much failed searching and some close calls (mainly from Vivien of Holloway and Collectif) I decided that I would have a go at making a pinafore skirt myself. Since its winter I found some bargain plaid/tartan fabric on ebay for around £2.60 per metre!

I did struggle to find a pattern though. So I used some of the skirt pieces from a dress pattern I have moved the zip, changed the hem, added pleats and then added a waistband and straps from my own design. It is mainly a simple skirt with two pleats at the front and two at the back to give it a bit more volume.

Unfortunately I did not think to save the pieces so if I want to make another skirt like this on I'll have to work it all out again. Silly me. I'll never make that mistake again!

When taking the skirt for its first outing, I decided to wear it with a simple black jumper with a lace collar that came from Primark.

And here are the straps at the back, they fasten with hidden buttons in the front waist band. Oh and my beret too :)

These red shoes came from Topshop and a so darn ADORABLE, they seem to have cashed in on these babies and they have had the same design available in tonnes of different colours on the website in the last few months (I have found them a bit big fitting in case you were thinking about getting them).

Of course with a skirt I was so proud of, I simply had to do my hair. I did that really silly thing where you wash your hair and don't quite get all the conditioner out and it looks like crap, thing is, what that does is give your hair a bit of extra texture so you can get a bit more height.

So I did two asymmetric victory rolls with a beret. I think I did pretty well at building height. I bought a teasing brush, tail comb combo that really helps smooth and create the rolls. 

One more sot of the skirt with gloves, my coat and bag. I think it may have looked a little better with a neater coat but anywho.

Skirt: Home made, original pattern

Shoes: Topshop

Gloves, Hat & Scarf: Accessorize

Satchel: eBay

Jumper: Primark

The best part is, I got 3m of fabric and managed to make a whole other skirt out of the leftovers :D I'll show you those another time!

What do you think of this one?