Vintage haircut and style

Readers, it was time.  Time to get my hair cut.  It had gotten to an awkward length that made doing pincurls difficult.  My stylist had gone on maternity leave and I was too scared to go to anyone else!  But luckily she came back! YAY!

I get my hair done by the vintage stylist, Ariana at Miss Dixiebelle's Retro Boutique in Edinburgh.  This is definitely one of my favourite places in Edinburgh.

I mean leopard print cover? Flamingo wallpaper?  Vintage hair dryer? Amazing vintage stylists?

Yay! It's exactly what I wanted!!  Didn't she do an amazing job? Perfect length and nicely layered.  I can't wait to play with the new hairdo!

B is for Border Prints

I am super excited that I managed to get at least one summer dress out of summer this year!  Not that we really had a summer here in Scotland, but that's besides the point.  The best part?  I got to use some delicious border print fabric that I got during our Crafters' Ceilidh meet-up last January!!

My mind automatically associates border prints with 1950's dresses.  So that's exactly what I made.  I used Simplicity 4209 which was a gift from a lovely reader and fellow seamstress.  I just love the gathered skirt and the drape of the neckline.

My border print fabric is a medium-weight dressmaking cotton--so it's a little heavy for the draped neckline but holds the skirt gathers beautifully.  This border print was fantastic in that half of the fabric was pure white and the other half was the border print--making it super easy to make a dress out of it.  While white isn't a colour I usually choose, I was sold on the bright teal tulips with brown accents.

The dress closes with a full bodice length zipper down the back.  I followed the directions and inserted a lapped zipper which I am pretty chuffed with.

Oh--I just love this hairdo!  This was part of my Dixiebelle's Vintage Hair and Beauty Parlour treat to myself.  Ariana, my lovely hairstylist, put it up into the most beautiful 50's inspired hairdo.  I even like how it looks in the curlers :)

Here is a photo of Ariana and I! Can't you see how pleased I am with my new 'do?  So much fun to properly celebrate a new dress!

We found a golden patch of flowers and thought that was perfect for the tulip inspired 50's dress!  YAY! Super happy to be back sewing again, especially since the last garments I made were for the mammoth graduation project.  Sometimes it takes awhile to get back into the swing after such a big project but this was the perfect summer sewing interlude!

Dixiebelle's Vintage Hair and Beauty Parlour

Let me tell you about the most awesomest place in Edinburgh, Miss Dixiebelle's Hair and Beauty Parlour.  This gem of a place features a fabulous boutique full of retro clothing and a vintage hair salon.

You see, my hair was getting long...too long.  It was becoming cumbersome to do pincurls and when I did, it was too heavy to hold them.  So, I just sort of went for it and got my hair cut short (well, short to me anyways)!

This is just part of my hair...I think we were only halfway through at this point.  I got a short middy cut which is basically a layered cut with the back creating a nice 'u' shape.  It's fantastic because you can style it in so many ways (30s, 40s, 50s or even 60s).

Ariana, a master vintage stylist cut my hair.  She is absolutely amazing. She does all sorts of cuts and styles so if you are ever in the area, definitely treat yourself to a vintage updo at the hair salon!

I absolutely love it!!!  I was hoping to get some more pictures today but it's been raining like crazy here.  I've been trying out some new pincurl sets and experimenting....more pictures coming soon!

In love with a snood...

I am so excited!  I just got a lovely flamingo pink snood from Arthelia's Attic on etsy (her etsy shop with reopen after her holiday at the end of next week).  It is handmade from an early 1940's pattern.  Naomi from Arthelia's Attic also has a blog.

Here I am wearing the snood with my hot pink blouse and navy trousers:

And here's a closer shot:

I love the snood because it took all of 10 minutes to do my hair this way!  The snood has elastic so I didn't even really need a lot of bobby pins to hold it in place (only 1).  The bow on the top is removeable.

It reminds me of this picture from 1944 in the Everyday Fashions of the Forties: As Pictured in Sears Catalogs: 

Another lovely day...

It is such a lovely day today that I decided to put on a vintage spring dress I have had in my closet for a long time and take some pictures in our beautiful village.

I tried a new hairdo, loosely inspired by the "4 ways to wear it short" hairset featured on one of my favorite blogs, Beauty is a Thing of the Past.  I took inspiration from the hairstyle "for the home-maker".

My favorite hair set to date...

Yesterday's blog posting on Beauty is a Thing of the Past featured four different hairstyles for short hair.  I was so excited to see this that I tried the "for the woman in uniform" hairstyle.  But instead of doing the pincurl set, I used small to medium sized rollers and slept in those overnight.  I used rollers instead because: 1) my hair is already wavy and pincurls make them CRAZY curly and 2) pincurls take forever to do and I found I could do this with just 10 foam rollers and 3 pincurls to catch the stray hairs.

I positioned the rollers where I saw the curls in the photo.  Once I got up this morning, I did not brush the curls out (again crazy curly hair goes everywhere!) instead I sculpted the curls with my hands and bobby pinned them all in place.

I am very happy with how it turned out:

Here's the back....still hard to control some of the hairs ...

I love how it looks with the DuBarry blouse I made:

New Haircut Day 2

How am feeling about my new haircut?  I'm loving it!!  Though, I must admit that it feels really strange to have such short hair.

There was still a lot of body left in my hair from the hot roller curls done at the salon so I put it up in two small rolls:

And here's a picture of the hair without any curl or styling:

You can definitely see all the many layers but it is pretty short!!

I'm trying a pincurl set tonight (sleepin' in a 'do rag) :-)  I just have to say that I have no idea how anyone can do straight rows of pincurls.  I feel very pincurl challenged because they are all over the place!

My vintage inspired haircut!

I've been wanting to cut my hair for awhile--it's just gotten too long to do some of the vintage inspired hairstyles that I adore!

Today I went and got my haircut and styled at the fabulous Scott Robb Hairdressing in Falkland, Scotland.  Alex, my stylist did such an amazing job!!

Ok, here's a photo of my long locks before the cut:

 

I decided to get the "Middy" haircut.  The 1940's Hairstyles book gives directions for the cut and says it is... "a very versatile length, the hair is cut 4 inches long.  This length became popular during the war with women who refused to cut their hair too short but still wanted to show support for the war effort.  Considered a medium cut, this was the most popular length of the decade.  It offered the most flexibility in styling techniques and could easily be worn up or down without much effort."

Here's more details on the cut (again from the 1940's hairstyles book):

 

 

Alex did an amazing job styling my hair with two reverse rolls (joining as one) in the front and two rolls on the side and a couple in the back:

 

  

  

I can't wait to play around with pincurls and different 40's styles!!!

1940's skirt

I've been working on a 1940's skirt to match the blouse I recently made.  I decided to use the skirt from this Hollywood 1521 pattern:

I had to shorten it about two inches to fall where it does in the picture (just below my knee).  I made it out of a wonderful purple cotton fabric that has a bit of stretch to it.

Here it is with the blouse:

 

 

 

And here's a fun shot:

 

I did my hair up with criss-crossing braids:

 

The best part (besides having a lovely purple skirt to match my blouse) is that I think I have enough of the purple fabric left to make the matching jacket from the pattern.  Which of course, will lead to making a new blouse (like the one in the pattern).  The possibilities are endless!

Best of 2009: Book and Blog Find of the Year

I came across Gwen Bell's Best of 2009 Blog Challenge and decided to give it a go.  Each day there are prompts to reflect back on some of the best parts of the past year.  Thanks to Mandi at No Apathy Allowed for inspiring me to do this. Like Mandi, my favorite part of this challenge is that you are free to only choose the prompts that really inspire you and since only some of them are relevant to sewing or vintage fashion--that's good!

December 4th: Favorite book of the year.

One of my favorite books to come across this year is a book my Dad bought for me from Powell's bookstore in Portland, OR called "Forties Fashion from Siren Suits to the New Look" by Jonathan Walford.

It's a great history of forties fashion and includes tons of interesting facts and pictures!   It follows fashion through the war period with chapters such as "Kangaroo Pockets and Siren Suits: dress, patriotism, and propoganda in the first year of the war" to another chapter on "Zoots and Zazous: Anti-fashion in the time of crisis" to "Occupation Couturre: Paris ignores the war" to "New Looks: Rebuilding fashion in the post-war world".  It's a must read and includes lots of great pictures!

This is a blouse made from a military surplus silk map.  "Often called 'escape maps', these were made for airmen in case they were shot down over enemy territory. Silk was warm, durable, resisted creasing, and could be concealed under clothing.  Pectin added to the ink kept the dyes from running or washing out when immersed in water, even sea water.  After the war the maps were applied to various uses, including blouses and headscarves."

December 7th: That gem of a blog you can't believe you didn't know about until this year. 

There was definitely one blog find that started it all.  Sew Retro is a community blog where anyone can post their vintage sewing projects.  It is very inspirational and great to see all the talented sewers!  It has also lead to me finding some of my other favorite blogs such as: Ancien-Nouveau, Veronica Darling's Crafty Adventures, Wearing History, and Whipstitch Sewing just to name a few.  Check out the links to all my favorite blogs on the left.

I just recently followed a 1940's hair tutorial from another one of my favorite blog finds of the year: Casey's Elegant Musings.  I really like the way my hair came out.  Just goes to show you can do a vintage hairstyle with even really long hair (mine is near my waist!):

 

View the original hair tutorial that inspired this look.