You can lighten your hair with honey water instead of bleach or Sun in.
2 TB honey to 12 TB room temp (distilled) water, let it sit for an hour. Glop on hair, cover with clngfilm or shower cap and towel for at least an hour.
I have used this to lighten up a henna application or even out demarcations. It has no ill effects on your hair ( au contraire, it conditions!) and can be used as often as you wish. It takes a couple of applications -2-3 to get a dramatic result. After 5-6, the result is really dramatic, but always soft and natural with no brassiness. Most people use it to take out a henna that has gone too deep (too many whole head applications) or for a summer fling.
A few helpful things to know, which may be obvious to you but which I really didn't think about:
This is sticky
and messy
and drippy
so you really need that towel covering, and another for your neck
forget clingfilm; a plastic bag or shower cap is necessary
And if you add cinnamon - which is supposed to boost it - did you know cinnamon creates hydrogen peroxide? - make sure you're not allergic.
How do you know if you're allergic? You add cinnamon EO or powder to your (daughter's) henna and it burns your (her) scalp. Oops! How else to know? She's not allergic to eating it!
Forget spray bottles they just clog up, (especially when using cinnamon)
The best way is to do like an old fashioned chamomile rinse (or nettle or whatever your granny used) - just like washing your hair from a pitcher and bowl -keep pouring the stuff over your head (with a small container- or pitcher) and let it fall into the bowl. Repeat til hair is saturated.
What? Your assorted country relatives did not have errant pitchers and bowls lying about for your use in the back-to-nature 70s? (Complete with charming pictures of modern girls in Edwardian underwear washing their hair with grandma's soap and rinsing with chamomile) You had relatives who had some other form of indoor plumbing? Don't know whether to pity or congratulate you.
Anyway, keep pouring till the hair is saturated, wind your hair into a knot on the top of your head and grab that shower cap. Hurry with the towel(s) too. And delight your family by announcing (in a rather sticky voice) that it's done.
Clean the lav. Don't want to draw ants. Well you've got an hour, might as well do something productive....
Seriously, I've done this before - without the cinnamon - using a different (earlier) dilution and a spray bottle and it was drippy but not quite such an adventure. THIS practically cries out that one read the Foxfire books to while away the time.
12 October 2010
09 October 2010
Unmentionable Obsession
The following is from an article on corsetiere.net that answers many questions about 'unmentionables' - like why adverts had the knickers (and chemises for that matter - as the world can see in my FB profile pic) - underneath the corset/girdle which nobody did; when panty girdles were invented (1935), the creaking of corsetry (it's not just me!) and other such tidbits.
My ballet pink cotton 1930s number from Sears has arrived! It's very complicated with a busk and skirt hooks in the front, and enclosed lacing at the back - very ingenious! No loose ends! Breaking it in last evening and today I wore it with my bell-bottoms on errands. Haven't looked like this since I was 12!
My panty-girdle pattern arrived as well, so I'm going to order some extra-firm powernet and satin for that and making an all in one, and for the back of the strapless longline bra (all dyed ballet pink of course.) I have become as obsessed with underwear as Janie Bryant - the costumer for Mad Men. I now look at girdles and corselettes and say 'Oh that's a Spirella' or 'a Rago'.... It's like knowing wineries.
I think of my mother-in-law, a stout lady who nevertheless always had a gorgeous figure and looked marvelous, because she wore this sort of thing. I think too of Jane Russell, who when asked in late middle age about the secret to her lovely figure, said 'underwear.' And Princess Diana. Later in her life when she was once more no longer a stick figure (and people seemed to have forgotten that she was once a healthy English girl) her dressmaker was asked if that was all really HRH in that dress. He said 'yes, but she has some help in the structure of the garment.'
Now I look at women out in the world and think 'Poor thing, she would look so smashing if she had proper foundations.'
Here's to structure!
1) Were girdles regarded positively by most women or seen as something necessary but unwelcome?
The girdle, which became worn by younger women in the late 1920’s, really became popular in the post-War era as the development of reliable elastic materials, and latterly Lycra by DuPont, allowed for a supporting garment other than a corset. For the vast majority of women until the late 1960’s, there was no alternative to a foundation garment, which by then implied a girdle. Corset wearers were already a small percentage of this population.
The girdle was neither positively nor negatively regarded, it was just worn; it was a ’way of life’. Certainly, some women would rather have died than been seen un-girdled and whether the girdle was tight, effective, pretty or just plain badly fitting and uncomfortable; it would be worn, whatever. A woman will suffer agonies for her looks.
The typical point of view would be that the girdle was positively regarded because it enhanced (really or in the imagination) the wearer’s looks. After 18 hours (despite Playtex’s claims) most women would have regarded their foundations as both unnecessary and unwelcome.
In Herman Wouk’s ‘The Winds of War’, there’s an interesting comment as the hero ‘Pug Henry’ observes his wife dress for dinner. “..I'm bulging a foot. I look six months' pregnant and I’m wearing my tightest girdle. What shall I do?” cries his wife. Pug can see no difference from normal but wisely avoids interjecting. If a woman feels she is bulging, then in her mind she is. No lady in the 1940’s, when the novel was written, would have dined without a girdle.
2) Were girdles generally worn for the entire day or only for going out?
Girdles were worn all day, from getting dressed to go out, say to work or do the shopping, and they wouldn’t be removed until going to bed which might be 14 – 16 hours later. Special girdles, meaning more expensive and tighter (because of less frequent wearing) might be worn for a party, a special dinner or wedding. However, the regular girdle would normally be worn all the time. By the end of the 1960’s (in Britain), the girdle for the younger generation would indeed become an object worn only for something special.
3) Would girdles have been considered mandatory under pencil skirts of the early to mid 1960's?
Definitely! The pencil skirt, or any fitted garment looks far better when fitted over a foundation. Until the late 1960’s most well-dressed women understood that their bodies fluctuated in shape depending on many influences. Well-fitted clothes were fitted to the figure confined by its foundations which limited such fluctuations. The corset was, of course, the ultimate foundation, but clothes in general hung so much better on a figure correctly girdled. As Jane Russell (in her 60’s) breathed candidly to a reporter, the secret to maintaining her good figure was “underwear”.
4) What distinguished light/ medium/ firm control girdles and at what point/age did women generally move into firm control girdles?
The levels of control have decreased through the years. In the 1970’s, a woman born at the turn of the century would probably have retained her corsets or a firm control girdle, however, that girdle would be beyond anything marketed today. In the 1950’s, a firm control girdle would be similar to a corset without the lacing. One of the strongest girdles of the 1960’s, yet best designed, comfortable and remarkably glamorous in appearance was the Marks and Spencer all satin-elastic girdle. This girdle was a design based on the Dior girdle of the late1940’s and would have been described as medium/firm control at the time but by today’s standards such levels of firmness no longer exist outside the traditional corset.
This brings us to the item referred to as the ‘roll-on’. This un-boned girdle has its origins pre-War, however, it was a softer post-War variation of the standard boned girdles, so part of their Mothers’ life, that daughters adopted in the 1960’s. Tights had not yet caught on and a girdle, if nothing else, was required to hold ones stockings up. In Britain in the 1960’s, a light control girdle would have implied a roll-on (see next article).
The invention of tights (UK), panty-hose (USA) probably have far more of an influence on the girdled woman than is commonly realised. At the turn of the last century, the corset was a shape-maker and incidentally, it provided a position from which to support the stockings by means of suspenders (UK), garters (USA). When the corset was replaced by the girdle, the function of the garment as the only support for the stockings was still highly important. With the invention of inexpensive tights (UK; late 1960’s, USA early 1960’s), suspenders became unnecessary and thus so did the conventional girdle. Panty-girdles afforded the support that would ultimately become nothing more than the elasticated underpants that girdles have become today. For more than a decade, panty-girdles carried suspenders (either internally within the long legs or externally if shorter legged) almost as a comfort to those woman who disliked tights, however, latterly it became a sort of throw-back to a dying era in the same way that the traditional bow of material in the standard brassiere represents the lacing of the corset.
So firm and light control definitions have varied through the decades as has the age when women might wear them. In the early 1960’s, a woman in her early 20’s would wear a medium control girdle as standard and firm control for special occasions.
5) "My girdle is killing me!" is the typical anti-girdle comment. In practice, how comfortable was a properly fitted girdle? Was the wearer always aware of wearing it, or did you just forget about about it during the day?
"My girdle is killing me!" was not so much of an anti-girdle comment. It was a very feminine expression handed down from mother to daughter at the end of a long day when the desire to look one’s best was being over-ridden by the constriction of the garment. This was not an everyday girdle; this would be the girdle for that ‘special occasion’, and because it was rarely worn, it would indeed be uncomfortable after a day’s wearing.
A properly fitted girdle is very comfortable, however, even the best will make their presence felt at the end of a long, hard day. It is very similar to a good pair of shoes.
Roll-ons, Step-ins and Belts
According to Elizabeth Ewing (Dress and Undress), BT Batsford Ltd, London 1978: "The most notable immediate result of the process of extruding rubber elastic was the introduction of the 'roll-on', the most famous corset of its time, with the additional distinction of having added a word to the English language, as well as a new item to the history of underwear. The first roll-on dates from 1932 in Britain and probably a year earlier in the USA. It replaced the hook-side or busk-fastening corset for the younger and lighter figures, and for many more too, so great was its comfort. It dominated the 'light control' market for many years. If you belonged to that market you didn't talk of a corset anymore; you said a 'roll-on' and got rid of what was already an unpopular word."
The panty-girdle was introduced in 1934, and was very popular in 1935. My reading suggests by the mid-50s it had largely displaced the roll-on in the USA, though I gather it never achieved the same popularity in the UK. I think that by then all the prewar roll-on wearers would have graduated to something heavier in the USA, while the new generation went straight into panty-girdles.
In the Fifties I don't think girdle wearing was as universal in Australia (and even in England) as it was in the States, and I think Australian girls were somewhat slower to switch to panty-girdles than American girls.
The term 'Roll-on' also served a euphemistic purpose as a letter from Dene suggests:-
At a time when any mention of ladies underwear in mixed company, was very questionable, this term could provide an allowable and slightly light-hearted solution. I heard an older lady saying “At my age I need something more than a roll-on.” Again on expressing my amazement at the change in appearance of a lady acquaintance, I was told “Yes, but that time she was wearing her roll-on”. Finally, there was the amazement of a boy friend to be told “Sorry, but I can’t hurry as I have a new roll-on“, to be followed remarkably soon afterwards by “I have to go shopping on Saturday, I need a new roll-on.”
Whether the euphemism was used through coyness or guile, the woman wishing to understate the power of the foundation that she actually wore, I do not know.
'Step-in' seems to be an expression like 'roll-on' which never achieved the same popularity. It referred to the standard girdle or pantie-girdle that could be donned without lacing, zips or hooks. It is mentioned in Tom Sharpe's humorously anarchic book 'Indecent Exposure'. The girdle in question, however, has been borrowed by a man from his wife, which moves us towards the topic of 'the Other Side of Corsetry' . In Mr. Sharpe's book, the Major's wife's step-ins are also referred to as corsets and as a girdle in successive paragraphs.
As for 'belts', this seems to be another euphemism, that developed in the 1940's and 1950's, to divert the client's attention from the fact that they might be buying or even needed to wear, a girdle.
By 1965, Twilfit had dropped the 'girdle' word entirely from their catalogue unless the construction of zips, bones and hooks demands that one 'bites the bullet' and admits that, indeed, this is a girdle and nothing you can call it will persuade one otherwise. The Twilfit catalogue only mentions the 'girdle' word when it becomes a hook-side model. At the end of the catalogue, Twilfit's usual selection of corsets are called corsets. After all, it was the younger clients that needed convincing, not the older ladies that had been wearing corsets for many decades.The term 'belt', even as early as 1965 in the halcyon days of girdle sales, reveals that the marketing department had a feeling that sales of foundation garments to the younger generation needed a new image, and the girdle was not part of that image.
By today's standards, this Twilfit girdle would hardly be described as a light garment worthy of the 'belt' appellation.
Spencer was far more specific. Their 'belt' was a six buckle corset designed to return the post-natal abdomen to its former proportions.
One interesting consequence of the 'roll-on' was due to its mode of removal. Let me explain. The classic zippered girdle often had an un-zippered equivalent, very flexibly boned at the back and sides (left M&S - 1979). The only effective way to remove this garment without stretching the elastic was to roll the top down against the tendency of the bones to remain straight. As the bones folded over, the top of the garment would invert, and then be quite easy to pull down. Like all M&S garments, these girdles would last for years, and turn up like new with regularly washing (that’s why so many appear in the auctions today). The only give-away sign of this regular inverted removal would be a tendency of the bones to become concave with the girdle in repose. This is clearly evident on the girdle shown. The Berlei Gay Slant was notorious for this, however, it did not diminish the power of these classic foundation garments. Even zippered garments, if rolled-off, would display this permanent set of the waist bones (right - USA 1972).
My ballet pink cotton 1930s number from Sears has arrived! It's very complicated with a busk and skirt hooks in the front, and enclosed lacing at the back - very ingenious! No loose ends! Breaking it in last evening and today I wore it with my bell-bottoms on errands. Haven't looked like this since I was 12!
My panty-girdle pattern arrived as well, so I'm going to order some extra-firm powernet and satin for that and making an all in one, and for the back of the strapless longline bra (all dyed ballet pink of course.) I have become as obsessed with underwear as Janie Bryant - the costumer for Mad Men. I now look at girdles and corselettes and say 'Oh that's a Spirella' or 'a Rago'.... It's like knowing wineries.
I think of my mother-in-law, a stout lady who nevertheless always had a gorgeous figure and looked marvelous, because she wore this sort of thing. I think too of Jane Russell, who when asked in late middle age about the secret to her lovely figure, said 'underwear.' And Princess Diana. Later in her life when she was once more no longer a stick figure (and people seemed to have forgotten that she was once a healthy English girl) her dressmaker was asked if that was all really HRH in that dress. He said 'yes, but she has some help in the structure of the garment.'
Now I look at women out in the world and think 'Poor thing, she would look so smashing if she had proper foundations.'
Here's to structure!
04 October 2010
Paris Frocks at Home
from Vintage Sewing Info
1930—Paris Frocks at Home
Lesson XI—Keeping Paris Frocks Up-to-Date
Make a Parisian wardrobe from your good American dresses.
As each new season approaches you will want to survey the possibilities of the clothes you have on hand. It seems a pity to discard a favorite frock. We would suggest that you hold over promising frocks to study what can be done to make them conform to the new season's fashions.
It does take ingenuity to modernize one's old clothes successfully. Don't tackle the problem alone. Consult the Butterick publications, Delineator and Butterick Quarterly. In every issue you will find suggestions that can be applied to your frocks to bring out-moded garments up-to-date.
Last season's frocks can look like a million dollars.
As long as it is the fashion to combine two materials in one costume, remodeling is easy. The idea is this. Select a smart pattern combining two fabrics. Use your old frock for the part that takes the most material and then buy a little new material for the rest.
Figured materials combined with plain of a harmonizing color are stunning in wool, silk or cotton. To contrast textures in matching colors is another smart trick, and there is little danger of producing lines which cut the figure in an unbecoming place. Combine wool with silk, crepe and velvet with chiffon, or georgette, chiffons with lace or tulle and cottons with batiste, handkerchief linen or voile.
Tunics and angel sleeves.
Last year's afternoon frock that is too short for this year of grace can be dropped low from a yoke of lace to make a stunning Sunday night frock with angel sleeves. The vogue for tunics is a blessing to those of us who have hoarded knee-length frocks. Skirts that seemed a total loss can now be lowered to decent length on bodice tops and combined with a new tunic blouse of lame or satin, or you can reverse the English and make a knee-length tunic of a too short frock, combining it with a new skirt. (Ill. 154.)
You can make an ankle-length dance frock by cutting off last year's dipping hemline evenly below the knees and adding an 18" band of tulle.
Reclaim worn sleeves.
So often sleeves wear out before their time. Butterick has prepared special patterns to replace them.
If a sleeve is worn at the elbow, cut it off here and combine it with lace or chiffon (Ill. 155), or add a flare below the elbow (Ill. 156). If it requires a whole new sleeve, give it dolman sleeves of contrasting fabric in matching color—chiffon sleeves for a velvet frock or velvet sleeves for a crepe frock.
The lingerie touch.
It is surprising how much a fresh lingerie touch in the form of a bow or a collar will do to modernize last season's dress. The Deltor is full of unusual suggestions for making the little collars and cuffs, bindings and chic lingerie bows that look so casual and so truly French.
The mannequins on this page show two smart versions of the lingerie bow. Cut a straight strip of organdie, voile or batiste. Roll and whip or make a narrow hem around the four edges. You may have them picoted if you wish but hand work on lingerie details is always more desirable. Now make two bound vertical slits on the front of your blouse and gather your hemmed strip through the center and thread it through the slits. (Illustration 158.)
The French bow knot.
This same type of strip may be tied in a soft knot and used at the point of a V neckline with a collar of similar material tucked at the neckline to fit around the curve at the back of the neck and over the shoulder. (Illustration 157.)
Fresh touches for little girls' dresses.
The Deltor will show you how to cut a shaped facing for the neckline of a child's dress with ends to cross in front, and how to stitch it to the inside of the neckline and fold it over to the outside. The ends of the little tabs are turned in and the right tab is lapped over the left one and the whole stitched down.
Illlustration 160 varies this by lining the two ends of the facing and making a bound buttonhole in each tab. The tabs are not stitched down to the frock but are buttoned down with buttons sewed on each side of the center front.
There are many clever little touches that you can add to the necklines of last year's frocks and jackets that will make a youngster's eyes sparkle. Illustration 161 shows two little buckles posed each side of a neck with a band threaded through them. This doubled band is stitched down across the back to form the tailored collar.
Sport clothes demand tailored necklines.
An effective use of the straight tie for blouses is shown in illustration 163.
Do this to any old blouse.
Make your tie, double and cut the ends slanting. Slip the tie over the neckline and draw the ends out through two horizontal bound slashes and loop or tie in a bow.
You'll see this finish on many smart frocks.
A shaped facing applied to the neckline of a sports blouse is often used with a little suggestion of fullness at the center front over which is tacked a softly made knot. (Illustration 164.) Stitch the right side of your facing to the inside of the blouse. Turn it toward the outside, gather the center front of the facing and draw it up slightly. Baste and stitch the turned-in edges of the facing down to your blouse. Make a knot, tack at the center front, and stitch the turned in edges of the ends down to your blouse.
Occasionally the ends of the facing are cut long enough to make the knot in one with the facing. The Deltor will show you how to do this.
Capes and bertha collars are rejuvenating.
Have you ever considered removing the sleeves from your last season's dress and adding a capelet at the armhole or a cape collar or a bertha at the neckline? One of the most successful Sunday supper frocks of the season is an inspiration for just this treatment. Full capelets of net are set into the armholes of a black satin frock, a net yoke fills in the neck and the hem is transparent net for at least 13 inches.
The Deltors of new Butterick patterns will show you how to cut and apply these touches to your old frocks. Patterns Nos. 2996 and 3004 were the source for the good looking capelet collar on this page and the smart bertha on the next. The little tie, in both cases, adds a soft flattering touch at the point of the V. These collars and berthas are particularly good in chiffon, georgette or soft silk crape.
Butterfly bows are effective.
If you like a perky touch, try a butterfly bow at the joining of your bertha collar in the front. Illustration 168 shows you how to make it, gathering it through the center. It may be inserted through two vertical slashes or shaped in a double bow and tacked at the center front as shown in illustration 169. The tie should be cut as in illustration 165, slightly shaped through the center, and made with a rolled hem.
For true economy.
All these little remodeling tricks are only economy when your material is really worth wearing some more. If it was inexpensive to start with or is badly worn, it is no economy to make it over. But, a good frock that merely suffers from a change of style should by all means be salvaged. There is every hope in the world for its living a long and useful life if you make use of the help offered by the Butterick fashion service.
1930—Paris Frocks at Home
Lesson XI—Keeping Paris Frocks Up-to-Date
Make a Parisian wardrobe from your good American dresses.
As each new season approaches you will want to survey the possibilities of the clothes you have on hand. It seems a pity to discard a favorite frock. We would suggest that you hold over promising frocks to study what can be done to make them conform to the new season's fashions.
It does take ingenuity to modernize one's old clothes successfully. Don't tackle the problem alone. Consult the Butterick publications, Delineator and Butterick Quarterly. In every issue you will find suggestions that can be applied to your frocks to bring out-moded garments up-to-date.
Last season's frocks can look like a million dollars.
As long as it is the fashion to combine two materials in one costume, remodeling is easy. The idea is this. Select a smart pattern combining two fabrics. Use your old frock for the part that takes the most material and then buy a little new material for the rest.
Figured materials combined with plain of a harmonizing color are stunning in wool, silk or cotton. To contrast textures in matching colors is another smart trick, and there is little danger of producing lines which cut the figure in an unbecoming place. Combine wool with silk, crepe and velvet with chiffon, or georgette, chiffons with lace or tulle and cottons with batiste, handkerchief linen or voile.
Tunics and angel sleeves.
Last year's afternoon frock that is too short for this year of grace can be dropped low from a yoke of lace to make a stunning Sunday night frock with angel sleeves. The vogue for tunics is a blessing to those of us who have hoarded knee-length frocks. Skirts that seemed a total loss can now be lowered to decent length on bodice tops and combined with a new tunic blouse of lame or satin, or you can reverse the English and make a knee-length tunic of a too short frock, combining it with a new skirt. (Ill. 154.)
You can make an ankle-length dance frock by cutting off last year's dipping hemline evenly below the knees and adding an 18" band of tulle.
Reclaim worn sleeves.
So often sleeves wear out before their time. Butterick has prepared special patterns to replace them.
If a sleeve is worn at the elbow, cut it off here and combine it with lace or chiffon (Ill. 155), or add a flare below the elbow (Ill. 156). If it requires a whole new sleeve, give it dolman sleeves of contrasting fabric in matching color—chiffon sleeves for a velvet frock or velvet sleeves for a crepe frock.
The lingerie touch.
It is surprising how much a fresh lingerie touch in the form of a bow or a collar will do to modernize last season's dress. The Deltor is full of unusual suggestions for making the little collars and cuffs, bindings and chic lingerie bows that look so casual and so truly French.
The mannequins on this page show two smart versions of the lingerie bow. Cut a straight strip of organdie, voile or batiste. Roll and whip or make a narrow hem around the four edges. You may have them picoted if you wish but hand work on lingerie details is always more desirable. Now make two bound vertical slits on the front of your blouse and gather your hemmed strip through the center and thread it through the slits. (Illustration 158.)
The French bow knot.
This same type of strip may be tied in a soft knot and used at the point of a V neckline with a collar of similar material tucked at the neckline to fit around the curve at the back of the neck and over the shoulder. (Illustration 157.)
Fresh touches for little girls' dresses.
The Deltor will show you how to cut a shaped facing for the neckline of a child's dress with ends to cross in front, and how to stitch it to the inside of the neckline and fold it over to the outside. The ends of the little tabs are turned in and the right tab is lapped over the left one and the whole stitched down.
Illlustration 160 varies this by lining the two ends of the facing and making a bound buttonhole in each tab. The tabs are not stitched down to the frock but are buttoned down with buttons sewed on each side of the center front.
There are many clever little touches that you can add to the necklines of last year's frocks and jackets that will make a youngster's eyes sparkle. Illustration 161 shows two little buckles posed each side of a neck with a band threaded through them. This doubled band is stitched down across the back to form the tailored collar.
Sport clothes demand tailored necklines.
An effective use of the straight tie for blouses is shown in illustration 163.
Do this to any old blouse.
Make your tie, double and cut the ends slanting. Slip the tie over the neckline and draw the ends out through two horizontal bound slashes and loop or tie in a bow.
You'll see this finish on many smart frocks.
A shaped facing applied to the neckline of a sports blouse is often used with a little suggestion of fullness at the center front over which is tacked a softly made knot. (Illustration 164.) Stitch the right side of your facing to the inside of the blouse. Turn it toward the outside, gather the center front of the facing and draw it up slightly. Baste and stitch the turned-in edges of the facing down to your blouse. Make a knot, tack at the center front, and stitch the turned in edges of the ends down to your blouse.
Occasionally the ends of the facing are cut long enough to make the knot in one with the facing. The Deltor will show you how to do this.
Capes and bertha collars are rejuvenating.
Have you ever considered removing the sleeves from your last season's dress and adding a capelet at the armhole or a cape collar or a bertha at the neckline? One of the most successful Sunday supper frocks of the season is an inspiration for just this treatment. Full capelets of net are set into the armholes of a black satin frock, a net yoke fills in the neck and the hem is transparent net for at least 13 inches.
The Deltors of new Butterick patterns will show you how to cut and apply these touches to your old frocks. Patterns Nos. 2996 and 3004 were the source for the good looking capelet collar on this page and the smart bertha on the next. The little tie, in both cases, adds a soft flattering touch at the point of the V. These collars and berthas are particularly good in chiffon, georgette or soft silk crape.
Butterfly bows are effective.
If you like a perky touch, try a butterfly bow at the joining of your bertha collar in the front. Illustration 168 shows you how to make it, gathering it through the center. It may be inserted through two vertical slashes or shaped in a double bow and tacked at the center front as shown in illustration 169. The tie should be cut as in illustration 165, slightly shaped through the center, and made with a rolled hem.
For true economy.
All these little remodeling tricks are only economy when your material is really worth wearing some more. If it was inexpensive to start with or is badly worn, it is no economy to make it over. But, a good frock that merely suffers from a change of style should by all means be salvaged. There is every hope in the world for its living a long and useful life if you make use of the help offered by the Butterick fashion service.
03 October 2010
Ladies of a Certain Vintage
There are all sorts of emotions attached to this sort of contraption - wildly varying emotions, rather like the climacteric: from weepy nostalgia for my elegant mother, to a lingering hippie disgust because I never thought that I of all people would wear such a thing (and before having children never needed it as I had a stick figure), to a certain unmentionable delight in the sheer Old Hollywood seductiveness of it.
So I put it on, a feat in itself, worthy of corsetry (to which I am well-used). A few adjustments later - it was too large in the waist - and... vavoom baby! Oh I was hooked. Hooked zipped and sunk for life. What else do you say when it looks marvelous and feels splendid? I rushed to put on a vintage 1940s knit dress. Glory Hallelujah! It was smashing. The kind of look that makes you want to rush to put on stockings and scarlet lipstick.
What I found over the next few days of breaking it in is that I missed it when I wasn't wearing it. The hippie child who used not to wear brassieres (because I really didn't need to) had become a fully fledged pin up girl. Eek!
I found myself thinking, Obviously, since I can't wear this with jeans (or even trousers) on the rare occasions I wear them, what do I do? Enter the search and find mission for a vintage panty girdle pattern (which I found, on Etsy, circa 1970) and a vintage pink cotton girdle - from Sears & Roebuck! - from the late 1940s.
I then searched for the heavy duty powernet to make the panty girdle (and discovered how many men were mad about them, go figure!) and in the midst of all this thought - well, while I'm at it, why don't I make some nice vintage bras too? So got an old Kwik Sew pattern on Etsy.
It has become an obsession, this vintage undies thing, and I spent the day researching and drawing exactly what I wanted, from Victorian to 70's boho. The one decade I gave a miss was the 40s as the difference between it and the 30s wasn't so great as to warrant it. Now I have several sketchbook pages of designs I like that will suit my figure, wardrobe and taste. No underwire! No elastic straps! No 'wardrobe malfunction' balconets!
In the old days a lady tended to have a signature colour for lingerie. Mine is ballet pink with ecru lace. I plan to do everything in this, in rayon, charmeuse, or batiste, as applicable. The whole show: bras, knickers, chemises, nightgowns, peignoirs. The one thing I can't make is stockings, so Berkshire is safe.
To be beautiful and elegant in and under clothes, with comfort and modesty. That's not a bad how do you do for a moment of hormonal despair.
22 September 2010
21 September 2010
Surprise! An Audrey
Wow, the "Are you a Jackie or a Marilyn" quiz said I am an Audrey (Hepburn of course) I'm over the moon.
This is also very true!
You Are an Audrey!
You are an Audrey -- "I am at peace"
Audreys are receptive, good-natured, and supportive. They seek union with others and the world around them.
How to Get Along with Me
* If you want me to do something, how you ask is important. I especially don't like expectations or pressure
* I like to listen and to be of service, but don't take advantage of this
* Listen until I finish speaking, even though I meander a bit
* Give me time to finish things and make decisions. It's OK to nudge me gently and nonjudgmentally
* Ask me questions to help me get clear
* Tell me when you like how I look. I'm not averse to flattery
* Hug me, show physical affection. It opens me up to my feelings
* I like a good discussion but not a confrontation
* Let me know you like what I've done or said
* Laugh with me and share in my enjoyment of life
What I Like About Being an Audrey
* being nonjudgmental and accepting
* caring for and being concerned about others
* being able to relax and have a good time
* knowing that most people enjoy my company; I'm easy to be around
* my ability to see many different sides of an issue and to be a good mediator and facilitator
* my heightened awareness of sensations, aesthetics, and the here and now
* being able to go with the flow and feel one with the universe
What's Hard About Being an Audrey
* being judged and misunderstood for being placid and/or indecisive
* being critical of myself for lacking initiative and discipline
* being too sensitive to criticism; taking every raised eyebrow and twitch of the mouth personally
* being confused about what I really want
* caring too much about what others will think of me
* not being listened to or taken seriously
Audreys as Children Often
* feel ignored and that their wants, opinions, and feelings are unimportant
* tune out a lot, especially when others argue
* are "good" children: deny anger or keep it to themselves
Audreys as Parents
* are supportive, kind, and warm
* are sometimes overly permissive or nondirective
This is also very true!
You Are an Audrey!
You are an Audrey -- "I am at peace"
Audreys are receptive, good-natured, and supportive. They seek union with others and the world around them.
How to Get Along with Me
* If you want me to do something, how you ask is important. I especially don't like expectations or pressure
* I like to listen and to be of service, but don't take advantage of this
* Listen until I finish speaking, even though I meander a bit
* Give me time to finish things and make decisions. It's OK to nudge me gently and nonjudgmentally
* Ask me questions to help me get clear
* Tell me when you like how I look. I'm not averse to flattery
* Hug me, show physical affection. It opens me up to my feelings
* I like a good discussion but not a confrontation
* Let me know you like what I've done or said
* Laugh with me and share in my enjoyment of life
What I Like About Being an Audrey
* being nonjudgmental and accepting
* caring for and being concerned about others
* being able to relax and have a good time
* knowing that most people enjoy my company; I'm easy to be around
* my ability to see many different sides of an issue and to be a good mediator and facilitator
* my heightened awareness of sensations, aesthetics, and the here and now
* being able to go with the flow and feel one with the universe
What's Hard About Being an Audrey
* being judged and misunderstood for being placid and/or indecisive
* being critical of myself for lacking initiative and discipline
* being too sensitive to criticism; taking every raised eyebrow and twitch of the mouth personally
* being confused about what I really want
* caring too much about what others will think of me
* not being listened to or taken seriously
Audreys as Children Often
* feel ignored and that their wants, opinions, and feelings are unimportant
* tune out a lot, especially when others argue
* are "good" children: deny anger or keep it to themselves
Audreys as Parents
* are supportive, kind, and warm
* are sometimes overly permissive or nondirective
Upcoming Events
At last online again after an unfortunate hiatus - I was ill and had to give up all of my extra-curriculars and get myself well.
The latest projects have been - a black and silver jacket (lined in apple green satin!) for daughter Bridgie, 'elvish' curtains (with a Morris type leaf print) for son Gawain, and part of a superhero costume, also for Gawain (a red fringed stretch velvet rebozo with a tear-drop motif). I did make a fabulous patchwork version of the Bolivian Milkmaid's jacket from Folkwear in blues greens and purples - with a pieced kaleidoscope on the back and beading on the front. I am in the middle of making a 'Marie Aen' bunad for myself - the dress is done, I just need to do the embroidery. My Vikings are from Skuterud, a tiny farming hamlet northeast of Oslo, and this is one of the Hedmark bunads from that region, bottle green wool with bright green trim and cream coloured piping. The embroidery is in corals and green. I'm not vain at all...
Upcoming I have a green and gold long jacket for Bridgie (lined in teracotta), and a charcoal grey 1930s tulip skirt for myself, from leftovers of a skirt Bridgie made for herself. I was very impressed at her first sewing attempt, zip and all. It was a simple pencil skirt, but with a cute seaming in front, well done.
I have a new pattern for a panel skirt (read' hippie skirt') that I can put up on my Etsy shop, along with early Gunne Sax style dresses, for women, girls and dolls (yes I bought an old Holly Hobbie pattern to do the dolls.) I also got a bunch of hippie casual clothes and baby patterns at a $1 sale, so that should keep me busy for ten minutes or so.
Because of a crop of babies at work and elsewhere it occurred to me that I should have a stash of little frocks and baby carriers, both to give as gifts and to sell on Etsy. I searched all over 'good' department stores for a white frilly dress for a wee baby, and found nothing outside of christening gowns. Every baby needs a little white dress. My daughter had several, but I'm saving those for grandchildren, whenever they happen to come around. As to the baby carriers, I have made up several patterns for slings, rebozo and maitai types, in assorted patterns for the funky to sophisticated parent.
For myself, I just missed out on having to make a girdle - I managed to find one on eBay from 1949. Now I don't creak, as I did with my 1910s corset, and can bend. And still have that lovely wiggle. I may make a 'ballet pink' cotton and lycra girdle some time for the heck of it, but it's no longer a necessity. Look out 'Mad Men'! (and I am a Jackie, not a Marilyn, for those keeping score.)
I do have a plan to make a wearable version of my mother's wedding suit, one of those early '60s waisted 'wiggle dresses' with a waist length jacket and three-quarter length sleeves. Very chic. My mother's ivory faille beauty fit me before I had babies, many hip sizes ago. It was amazing, with bound seams and organdy lining. No one in my family will be wearing this again! Bridgie is much too tall and it's not her style anyway. So the reproduction can be for a ladies' lunch or some other semi-formal daytime occasion. Do people still do semi-formal day wear? Does anyone know what this is?
So I have divided my wardrobe into work (chic, vintagey, and tailored) and play (folky, hippie, vintage, and kitsch) and am quote happy with the result. It does make a difference in how one is treated at work to dress up a bit more, unless you're a dispatcher or nurse, but it drove me spare to have plain things in the time I did only that. My soul was crying out for colour, pattern, texture, flowers, embroidery, beads. Now I have the best of both worlds. My play clothes work well when out at English country dancing or down on the suburban farm, and I have a literal and clear demarcation of one part of my life from another, so long as that is necessary.
The latest projects have been - a black and silver jacket (lined in apple green satin!) for daughter Bridgie, 'elvish' curtains (with a Morris type leaf print) for son Gawain, and part of a superhero costume, also for Gawain (a red fringed stretch velvet rebozo with a tear-drop motif). I did make a fabulous patchwork version of the Bolivian Milkmaid's jacket from Folkwear in blues greens and purples - with a pieced kaleidoscope on the back and beading on the front. I am in the middle of making a 'Marie Aen' bunad for myself - the dress is done, I just need to do the embroidery. My Vikings are from Skuterud, a tiny farming hamlet northeast of Oslo, and this is one of the Hedmark bunads from that region, bottle green wool with bright green trim and cream coloured piping. The embroidery is in corals and green. I'm not vain at all...
Upcoming I have a green and gold long jacket for Bridgie (lined in teracotta), and a charcoal grey 1930s tulip skirt for myself, from leftovers of a skirt Bridgie made for herself. I was very impressed at her first sewing attempt, zip and all. It was a simple pencil skirt, but with a cute seaming in front, well done.
I have a new pattern for a panel skirt (read' hippie skirt') that I can put up on my Etsy shop, along with early Gunne Sax style dresses, for women, girls and dolls (yes I bought an old Holly Hobbie pattern to do the dolls.) I also got a bunch of hippie casual clothes and baby patterns at a $1 sale, so that should keep me busy for ten minutes or so.
Because of a crop of babies at work and elsewhere it occurred to me that I should have a stash of little frocks and baby carriers, both to give as gifts and to sell on Etsy. I searched all over 'good' department stores for a white frilly dress for a wee baby, and found nothing outside of christening gowns. Every baby needs a little white dress. My daughter had several, but I'm saving those for grandchildren, whenever they happen to come around. As to the baby carriers, I have made up several patterns for slings, rebozo and maitai types, in assorted patterns for the funky to sophisticated parent.
For myself, I just missed out on having to make a girdle - I managed to find one on eBay from 1949. Now I don't creak, as I did with my 1910s corset, and can bend. And still have that lovely wiggle. I may make a 'ballet pink' cotton and lycra girdle some time for the heck of it, but it's no longer a necessity. Look out 'Mad Men'! (and I am a Jackie, not a Marilyn, for those keeping score.)
I do have a plan to make a wearable version of my mother's wedding suit, one of those early '60s waisted 'wiggle dresses' with a waist length jacket and three-quarter length sleeves. Very chic. My mother's ivory faille beauty fit me before I had babies, many hip sizes ago. It was amazing, with bound seams and organdy lining. No one in my family will be wearing this again! Bridgie is much too tall and it's not her style anyway. So the reproduction can be for a ladies' lunch or some other semi-formal daytime occasion. Do people still do semi-formal day wear? Does anyone know what this is?
So I have divided my wardrobe into work (chic, vintagey, and tailored) and play (folky, hippie, vintage, and kitsch) and am quote happy with the result. It does make a difference in how one is treated at work to dress up a bit more, unless you're a dispatcher or nurse, but it drove me spare to have plain things in the time I did only that. My soul was crying out for colour, pattern, texture, flowers, embroidery, beads. Now I have the best of both worlds. My play clothes work well when out at English country dancing or down on the suburban farm, and I have a literal and clear demarcation of one part of my life from another, so long as that is necessary.
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