Sunday, September 23, 2012

New Books

I am really excited about my new purchases! I am an avid reader of Gertie's blog. If you have never heard of her head on over to her blog and check it out. She is awesome! Anyway, she has come out with a book and I was sooooo excited to receive it in the mail yesterday. I have been flipping through it all weekend. She covers a lot of topics that beginners as well as experienced sewers can learn from. I love her projects in the back of the book and I appreciate the fact that she included patterns in the book as well. Then I also received "Bias Cut Dressmaking" by Gillian Holman. It has some very helpful instructions on drafting patterns on the bias! I am so excited to add these to my sewing library!.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

New Job= New Clothes


Last week ended my never ending job search. After 6 months of going without a job I am happy to announce that I am now gainfully employed! Now all I have to do is make new clothes. I have some things to start me off but not nearly enough. I am going to start with a dress that can double for work and also for a wedding I have to sing in. I hope i get it done by next week. My first day at work is Monday!


This is the dress I want to make. Even though I have my own shop on Etsy  where I sell vintage patterns, I don't have anything like this. I bought this from Omega at Embonpoint Vintage. She has some lovely stuff. Both my patterns and hers are draft your own size variety. The pattern pieces come really small  and you draft your own size using a special scale that is taped to a tape measure. I will post a tutorial on how these patterns work later.





Tuesday, August 7, 2012

How To Fill a Vintage Compact

Since I have been gone this week and haven't worked on anything new I decided to do a tutorial. I like flashy things, jewelry, handbags, shoes...etc. But when it comes to makeup containers, like powder compacts, I just can't find anything that I like. So I bought an empty vintage compact and decided to fill it. I used to make my own mineral make up and I remembered that I could just mix a little alcohol in with the powder and let it dry...and Voila! A "pressed" powder compact. Here is the step by step.


1. Assemble the necessary items: you will need a bowl or something to mix in; your powder; alcohol; and of course your compact. Make sure to clean the compact of any powder residue. I would recommend that you disinfect it with some alcohol.


2. Put a small amount of powder in the bowl. I like to mix my mineral foundation with some translucent powder for a little color.


 3. Mix the alcohol with the powder one spoon full at a time until the mixture resembles a moderately thick paste.



4. Take the mixture and put it into the compact. Make sure that you cover the bottom adequately so that it will adhere to the bottom of the compact and not form air bubbles. Let this dry, leaving the container open, for at least 15 hours. I like to leave mine for 24 hours just to make sure its dry. 

Your done! Enjoy your "new" vintage compact!

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

First vintage hair attempt

Since I am still working on my wardrobe, I have decided to go ahead and work on hairstyling. Today I decided to try some rolls. They came out ok but I still have a long way to go to perfect them. I took a few pictures but cringe at the thought of putting them on here ( I am not very
photogenic). But alas, here it is...

The rest of my hair is in a hair net. I don't have any snoods finished yet so I am using hair nets for the moment. My hair is incredibly thin so the style doesn't have the height that I would like for it to have. In the future I will probably have to use a hair rat or something since I refuse to tease my hair. I mean I hardly have any as it is, so I am not going to intentionally rip it out by tangling it and then attempting to comb through it. I also don't think that it helped that it wasn't curled first, so I will definitely do that next time.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Ooh Lulu Panties

i have finally fulfilled part of my quest into vintage fashion. I finished two pairs of panties! I used the Ooh Lulu pattern for high waist panties ( graded up of course) and they turned out great! Here is a picture of them.

Did you think I was going to show you the whole thing? No sir! My britches are embarrassingly large and I will not show them to anyone! So now I only have two more to make. However until I can get the elastic I need I will have to start on something else. So I think I will start on the corselet next.

Stay tuned....

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Pro Curler and pin curls tutorial

So I have been playing around with the Pro Curler I bought on ebay. I figured it would work for pin curls, and guess what?! It does! Granted it does take a little work and practice to get it just right, but it does work. Here is how I did it....

The tools


First of all lets talk tools of the trade...I like to use setting lotion( I like lottabody with olive oil), satin covered sponge rollers, and bobby pins. However for the sake of the tutorial I am using a curling iron instead of rollers. Normally I would sleep on the rollers overnight because I get a better curl that way and also those curls tend to last longer into the day.

So section off a small portion of hair and spray with setting lotion. Since my hair is naturally curly and I have to straighten it with a hot-comb I don't use much setting lotion. So for the quick set, I curl the hair because it is easier for you to roll if it is curled a bit on the ends.


Once I have curled the hair I then take the Pro curler and with the lever on the top facing the ceiling place the end of the curled hair in between the clamp. 



Then I proceed to roll the hair toward my scalp. It is important that when you do this that you roll it loosely because the curl will not slide off easily if you don't. Once you have reached the scalp, slide the hair off of the pro curler and fasten with a bobby pin or with a metal clip. Your finished curl should look like this...


Another way I like to do pin curls for those of you who don't have a nifty tool to use, is to wrap my hair around two fingers like so...



Then I take the index finger of my free hand and place that on the inside of the curl and roll upward..



I finish the sides of my head in pin curls and then in the back use rollers or "standing" pin curls if I am setting it in the morning. This is what it typically looks like when I am finished...


I hope that this little tutorial was helpful!


Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Pro Curler



So today is not such a great day... I had to put my undies on hold because as I got closer to the last step I realized that I had forgotten to by fold-over elastic! AARRGGHH! So here I am trying to find something else to do. Luckily I got something in the mail yesterday that I had ordered on eBay.



Two holes in top to hold bobby pin open



This is called a Pro Curler. When I bought it on eBay it was mislabeled as a pin curling tool, however after some research I have found that to be incorrect. This tool is actually used to make really tight curls at the head as shown here in this picture...


I guess you could use it for pin curls and I do intend to try it that way. I doubt I would ever where my hair like she is in the picture. Anyway here are the instructions on how to use it...


I found it interesting that they put the two little holes in the top to hold the bobby pin open. Its a nifty little gadget and, (after some much needed cleaning) I can't wait to use it!





Saturday, May 26, 2012

Introductions Please

Hello friends! I am a little apprehensive about starting this blog. I mean there are hundreds out there about vintage style so why do we need another one! But, as redundant as the vintage movement may be to some blog readers I feel that everyone's story about why and how they started on their vintage journey is both unique and relevant. As for me....well...

(Que sentimental music)....

"It all started in a one room cottage located on the outskirts of Savannah, Georgia. I was born in the fall of 1980 to a single mother who worked as a housekeeper for a rich family in town. Life was hard then........"

( chirp, chirp).....

OK so not all of that is true. I was born in 1980 to a single mother but she wasn't a housekeeper ( she worked for J&J) and I was born in New Jersey not Georgia. I just thought it would sound a little more interesting if I started my story that way. Any-who, my mother would tell you that I was always into the "old days". I was the three year old that preferred to watch old black & white movies over cartoons. I would memorize the songs and dance around like Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. I was enamored with the glamour that the on-screen ladies had in those days and wanted to be just like them. As the years went by I developed a flair for the dramatic and eventually started acting in high school, but never had the courage to bring my love for "playing dress up" from stage to real life.  Now that I am in my 30's I no longer care what anyone else thinks of me and now want become one of those elegant ladies myself. This is my journey.... follow me!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Welcome to Anna Sue's Closet blog... stay tuned for upcoming blog posts