Vintage at the Office

This is what I wore to work today. When I first started I did try and tone it down a bit, but I don't feel like me unless I'm wearing multiple floral prints. I did wear a blazer over the top to make it marginally more corporate.

The pleating on the bodice is what made my buy this dress. I'm a sucker for drapey bits. It goes around the back and has a couple of hooks and eyes to close it over the zip.

Don't know what I'm giving the side eye to there

Vintage dress: Trademe
Tights: Kmart, maybe?
Shoes: Tony Bianco

Me and my Bobbie Brooks

I bought this late 50s/early 60s cropped jacket when I was in Nelson a couple of weeks ago. It was one of those things that I didn't know I'd been missing until I saw it. It's getting hotter here, but there are still days when you need something against the wind. It's perfect because it's light enough for the warmer weather and it's a good length to wear with full skirts.

The colour looks greyish here but it's an apple green

 
It isn't lined but all the seams are finished with bias binding. Bobbie Brooks is an American clothing manufacturer that started in 1939. The label in my jacket is similar to some of the ones on Vintage Fashion Guild that are from the 1950's and early 1960's. It came with a belt. I assume there was a matching dress at some point because the belt can't really be worn over the top of the jacket.

Jacket: Eclectic Antiques Centre, Nelson
Skirt: I made it
Bangles: Etsy and Ebay
Shoes: the Warehouse

The Last Chintz

Yesterday, I went out to Tai Tapu (a little village close to Christchurch) to visit Last Chintz. It's a new shop that sells "upcycled furniture" (quotes because I think the word 'upcycled' is stupid) and vintage fabrics. The furniture was gorgeous, but I was far more interested in the fabric, obviously. There was floor to ceiling shelving filled with lots of lovely, old material. I was pretty restrained and only bought two pieces.

This lovely, soft rayon is going to be turned into a 1940's style dress. It's nice and drape-y so something with gathers would be nice. The whole piece was $18 and there's about 4 metres there.

This one's a rayon too, but I think it's a crepe so it has a completely different texture. I'm not that great at dating fabrics, but it's probably quite old because it's not very wide. Fabric these days tends to be 45 inches or wider. Before the 1960's fabric usually came in widths of between 36 and 39 inches. This one's 39 inches.  

The print looks like the sort of novelty prints that were popular in the 1940's too. It has medieval-type coins on it. There's about 4 metres of it, and it was $6/metre. 

I'm probably going to make another dress with this because, let's face it, I pretty much only make dresses. That is, if I ever get around to sewing. I'm still getting used to fitting sewing in with working full time. I used to sew pretty much every day when I was at uni, but I'm lucky if I manage to sew once a week since I started working. 

Mash-up

I bought this blossom patterned quilting cotton on sale a couple of weeks ago. I'm trying to stop buying new fabric, but I couldn't resist the print. I knew I wanted to make a slim skirted dress that I could wear to work but also just wear generally.
 

I've made both these patterns before so I knew they fitted reasonably well. I used the bodice from the pattern on the right and the skirt from the pattern on the left. 

I cut the bodice out on Thursday and then didn't do anything else until about 3 in the afternoon yesterday. It was quick and easy to sew up and I finished it in time to wear it to work today. 

This was my attempt to take a picture of the zip. I used an op shopped vintage metal zipper. I have a huge stash of op shopped zips. They're mostly still in their original packaging. I hardly ever use them though because I never have the right colour or size. I was excited to finally use one.  

This is what happens when I take pictures after work/around sunset

Dress: Butterick 8459 skirt and Vogue 4260 bodice

 Belt: Op shopped

Tights: Kmart

Shoes: Tony Bianco