Why I love the Lily of the Valley Kitty dress from Vivien of Holloway

If you follow my instagram you will have certainly seen me in a Vivien of Holloway dress. They are one of my favourite vintage reproduction brands (although I must confess there are plenty of brands I haven't tried yet!) which is why I decided to get their Kitty dress for my graduation last summer.

Good ol' Viv then decided to remake the Kitty dress in a new, and I believe limited addition, range of fabric and I knew I had to have another Kitty. I decided to go with the gorgeous green Lily of the Valley print and I think I managed to snag the last one in my size as they are now out of stock in most of the sizes. Mind you there are plenty of other bloomin' gorgeous print dresses in the same style.
Trust me if I had all the monies I would have one in every colour!!

I ADORE this dress. Here are all the reasons why...

Pockets: It has huge roomy pockets for your gloves, trinkets, money and (in the winter) handkerchiefs. Meaning there is no need for a handbag. I love the freedom of a dress with pockets and when the print blends perfectly with the dress you simple can't go wrong.

Skirt: It has a super full gathered skirt with a length of 30 inches so it is perfect for dancing as the skirt won't swish up and for dressing with that mid-century modesty.

The fit: As with all Vivien of Holloway dresses, the fit is based on vintage patterns so the bust/waist/hip ratios are a better for someone with a 'vintage figure' (someone with more than 10 inches difference between their waist and hips). The 16 is perfect for my 30 inch waist and frankly enormous hips and I found that the bust was ample enough for my bust without gaping at the buttons.

Being a bigger girl (size 12/14/16 ish depending on the brand) I find Vivien of Holloway a magnificent way of getting vintage style clothing as I find to difficult to find genuine 40s/50s vintage in my size (just means I have to try extra hard).

The Print: Come on. It's beautiful. 'nuff said.

So yes I absolutely love this dress...

I also think my hair ended up looking pretty good this day. I bought some nylon scarves from Vintageous on youtube and they are a great vintage style hair addition. I'm so pleased that my hair is finally long enough at the front to roll. I much prefer my hair this way than with the fringe. Would you agree?

Dress: Vivien of Holloway

Necklace: Vintage

Shoes: Doc Martens

A Vintage Hibiscus Style Print Dress

As we approach the end of summer I've been reflecting on how obsessed I've been with tropical prints lately. Hawaiian, tropical, hibiscus and tiki are great summery prints and they come in lots of different variations on colours and styles.

The repro shop collectif usually have a bunch I great designs in tiki (and more) for the summer months and this can be a great place to look but, as usual, I was after a bargain.

I found this dress on eBay (as always) and it was not very loved with only a few bids. It's. It's not often that you find anything vintage with its accessories intact so the fact that this one came with a belt too was very appealing. So I decided to take a punt and buy the dress (for just under £10  in the end).

 I have always loved the colour teal and turquoise so I was immediately drawn to this dress and I think the huge pinky orange flowers are charming (are they hibiscus?). I also really love the fact that there are buttons on the back of the dress so that you do t see any fastenings at the front or sides!

 I don't really have any idea when this dress is from and it has no labels that I can see so who knows. 

I was quite concerned about the fit. It is not often that I am able to find a more fitted dress that has a large enough skirt in which to fit my very ample arse :( But when it arrived it was near perfect! A tiny bit tight at the bust but generally pretty spot on! I also adore the patch pockets. It is a tad shorter than I'd like but there is quite a bit if hem I can let down so that's a problem easily solved.

I took these pictures on SUCH a windy day, as you can probably tell from the blustery hair so I felt that I had to tie my hair up and out of the way.

But now my fringe is on the way out!! Yes!!!

It is finally long enough to put in to rolls (although not long enough to not be a real pain when doing them). So I have been practising to try and get back into the swing of it again.

These are just 3 asymmetric elevated pin/barrel curls to get me started. They're far from perfect but it's a start!

Do you have a favourite summer dress this year?

A Summer Princess Daisy Cosplay Costume

I went to the Street Pass Brighton event a few weeks ago and I decided to dress for the occasion (you can read more about the event here). Since they were playing Mario Kart 8, I thought it would be a great change to get out my Princess Daisy costume again. The only thing is, that dress is big, it has poofy sleeves, its long and its all round too warm.

So I decided to make a summer version of my Daisy dress, a somewhat toned down version that I would be able to wear without dying of heat exhaustion.

I took inspiration from two of Daisy's looks. Mainly this fan picture showing her shorter dress and the top and shorts combo from all the Mario sports games.

I took the pattern I made for the other Daisy dress and widened the neckline and added binding to the arm holes instead of adding sleeves. I also did a flared gathered skirt rather than one with knife pleats to give it a bit more of a swishy fullness. I tried to make the orange trim a little more subtle as well by using a ribbon rather than making a full ruffle.

I used the same earrings, gloves and crown from the previous costume.

It was such a beautiful day, just windy enough to not be unbearable, and swishy enough to get some nice photos showing how swishy the skirt is. The band stand on the sea front is a lovely regal backdrop too!!

We also tok a few photos on the beach itself. We had to wait for it to be quiet enough, but eventually...

I have to say, walking around Brighton dressed as a princess was pretty fun! I think I want to have a go at a Disney princess costume too soon. Until then...

A modern Laura Ashley dress

From some of my previous posts, you might have figured out that I am a fan of Laura Ashley, especially the vintage style numbers from the late 1980s, however this time I've been wearing a floral dress that is a little more recent.

This dress is fairly recent Laura Ashley, although I'm not sure when exactly it is from as I bought it from eBay (as always). I originally saw it about 5 years ago and have been watching out for it ever since. I thought the shape looked pretty flattering with a fitted waist and a slightly flared skirt. The shoulders and arms are a little big for me, but I  so regularly have this problem I've learned where to sew to fix it.

Since it is cold lately however I added a long sleeve shirt underneath the dress but I think it works okay.

I really love the colours of this dress, the shades of pink and yellow remind me of the psychadellic 60s, but with a more subtle style floral version...

I decided to wear one of my favourite beret with this outfit. The colour doesn't quite match, but I think I just about get away with it. I'm not sure I like my hair in this straight way, I think it looks better a bit curlier, but hey, we have to experiment with these things.

Finally I had to do the swish test, although the skirt is a little bit slim to get a good swirl with...

80s Laura Ashley vs. now, what do you think?

Winter is coming: a red autumn leaves print dress

Oh how the weather is changing, longer nights are coming in, the temperature has dropped and as Eddard Stark would say, Winter is coming.

So what does that mean for me? Well it means breaking out the opaque tights, the cardigans, coats and bringing out the winter hats and gloves. I felt I really had the perfect dress for this.

 

I found this 1050s dress on eBay and I absolutely fell in love with it. I thought it was the perfect dress for the autumn but was a little expensive for my budget. I did my best haggling with the seller and managed to get a reduction by £10! Meaning at £35 it is the most expensive vintage dress I own, but I don't think that is a bad price for a 1950s dress.

It is always a bit of a risk when buying anything online when you aren't sure of the fit. I have a fairly good idea of my measurements and I know what style suits my shape so I think I can usually get a fair idea of what should fit. This dress worked out better than I ever hoped, it fit like a dream! I'm not sure it could have been any better - as you can tell from my face, I felt like a million bucks in this dress.

The dress also passes the twirl test as the skirt is huge.

Now because I was wearing such a nice dress, I had to do something nice with my hair. I used a bit of Batiste dry shampoo to clean up my fringe and give the top a bit more texture, but because I hadn't washed in over 2 days it meant it was much easier to work with. I split my hair into sections and had flowing swirls down from above my right ear to the nape of my neck. I added a little flower to the other side to even out the style but I thought it worked out pretty well, its the first time I've managed to do one of those shorter flat curl styles. I need to work on trying to get the look a little more sleek and hair grip placement but I was pretty pleased with the results.

There is, however, a reason that these pictures were taken inside. Outside the weather was rainy and miserable. I only have one coat here as I didn't really expect the weather to turn so quickly. I really need to head home to pick up the others, but luckily the coat I did bring was a black rain coat. Its not the best style to go with this dress, but it kept me dry!

Dress: Vintage

Shoes: Clarks

Coat: M&S

Hair Flower: Accessorize 

If you are eagle eyed you might spot the M&S bag in the above picture? Well in that bag is something I've been after for some time. As part of the Percy Pig anniversary event M&S produced a few styles of piggy banks, my favourite was the matching Percy and Penny set that I thought would be great for my husband and I to get saving!

Naturally I had to have Penny Pig since I had a flower in my hair.

Anywho, that's it for today.

Sewng: Home-made Dress from a Vintage Pattern

Hello everyone! Just a short post to show you something I've been working on this week.

Before I start I wanted to let you know that I added a Bloglovin' button over there -->

so you can follow on there when whatever happens to Google reader finally happens.

Anywho. A little while ago I had a phase of ordering some vintage patterns and vintage fabric. I managed to get a few bargain things but until recently I had not taken the plunge and actually made anything, that is, until this week!

I made a dress! A whole dress! It even fit me :)

I bought a long piece of fabric (6m x 1.5m) from eBay thinking it would be enough for maybe two dresses and it only cost £6 so it was cheap enough to be able to practice on (although it was pretty so I wanted to make something nice). I chose a Realm pattern, I'm not sure when from but it expect 1950s based on the packaging. It turned out to be fairly simple to make, I think in total I spent about 6 hours on the dress which isn't too bad going.

The skirt turned out to be a little less full than expected but that may be partly because I didn't believe the sizing and sewed the darts a bit bigger than I was meant to. Consequently the dress came out a little bigger than I'd have liked but on the whole it only needs mildly tweaking.

I can't describe quite how proud I am of this first dress, hopefully there will be many more to come (I have already picked out my next pattern and fabric to try).

Have you ever made anything?