Medical Corsets

These two medical corsets used to belong to my 86 year old grandmother. She wore them in her younger days because she had a bad back but now they belong to me. I'm guessing they are probably about 50 to 60 years old. They are beautifully made even though they were purely for medical reasons. Unfortunately they are both far too big for me so mostly they sit in my room like this worn by Dorothea.

Today at my favourite secret op-shop I found another one very similar to the white one above and for $2 of course I had to get it. I feel the start of a collection coming on.
(By secret op-shop I mean one that the vintage clothing and antique dealers don't seem to have discovered yet, they always have really good stuff which would usually be snapped up by dealers).

Bri Nylon

Today I got the cutest bri nylon baby doll top for $3 at the op-shop.
I'm guessing it would have once been part of a set with some matching bloomers. I think I'm going to make some to go with it. Possibly some like these from Etsy seller empressjade. I'll probably make them out of cotton and just try and find a similar shade of pink. Perfect summer pyjamas.

New (Old) Nylons!

I love these nylons I recently got that are unworn and still in their original box. I got them on Trademe for about the same as I pay for a pair of new stockings now. They are fully fashioned sheer seamed stockings with a cuban heel. I'm guessing they are from around the 1950's as that is when this style was popular before seam-free stockings took over in the mid 60's.

I don't know if I can bring myself to wear them though just in case I put a hole in them. I will probably just keep them in their little box and bring them out from time to time to stare lovingly at them.

I adore the vintage look of seams so I usually wear the black pantihose from Columbine that have a faux seam up the back. These, generally, only get a few wears and then I manage to put a run in them. I remember reading somewhere that during rationing women were allowed two pairs of nylons a year. I don't think I would fare very well with that.

Cardigan DIY

The sleeves of my favourite black cardigan had started to fray so instead of throwing it away I figured there must be something I could do to repair it. I remembered that I had parts of a stripey mens shirt left that I had used for another project, so I folded up the frayed bit and hand sewed the cuffs of the shirt sleeves onto the sleeves of the cardigan. Of course not content with just doing that, I made a bow with the leftover fabric and sewed it onto the back.

I quite like it because it looks like I'm wearing a shirt and the sleeves are poking out of the bottom of my cardigan sleeves.

New patterns!

I finally conquered my fear of using Etsy and I'm so glad I did. I got three vintage patterns from sugardale, Simplicity 1192 and 3911 and Butterick 9826. All three patterns plus the cost of shipping and conversion into New Zealand dollars still cost me less than what I usually pay for one pattern here. Now I must go and decide on fabrics. I can't wait to start sewing

Simplicity 3542

I recently made Simplicty 3542. This was my first attempt at a vintage pattern and it actually wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I didn't follow the pattern instructions (but then I very rarely do) and I also left some of the pattern out. There are two different dickey (false shirt front) options for the pattern but I decided not to do either because I like having the option of wearing different t-shirts or blouses underneath the dress.

The result: