Sophistique Noir's Montly Theme Post - Vintage

 

OK, ok, ok, so I know I took waaay too many pics of my vintage stuff, but once I got going, I couldn't stop. So I apologize for all this junk, but I still blame Mrs. VictorianKitty for picking such a great monthly theme!

Yea Vintage!!!!!

One of my most favourite skirts. My old boss gave it to to me years ago, it is wool & still has it's 50's tags inside. I have a number of 50's wool poodle skirts, but only one giant pocket watch skirt!

 Two of the shelves in my dining room. I cannot fit another thing on them. Can you even see the 1870's Chang & Eng figurine, the Expo 86 bell, the 60's saccharine container & 50's swizzle sticks? I think I need to put a few more shelves & thin this mess out.

 OK, on to some of my vintage clothing. At the left is a mid-1920's orange silk and black lace dress. this fits, but it seems so fragile I am scared to wear it. In the middle is a wool 50's dress I bought at the Sally Ann for $1.50. The copper lace dress on the right is bias cut and I think it is from the late 1930's or early 1940's. Back when I was painfully thin, I wore it to a fancy dinner and people thought I was pregnant. Ever since then I've stayed away from bias!

 The mid 1920's dress on the left I think is made of rayon, not silk. The early 1930's dress in the middle IS silk and is totally fragile. The sort of 1940's dressing gown-ish dress on the right used to look so awesome on, until I ate too much Ben & Jerry's.  :( (not pictured - Victorian blouses, bright 60's mod dresses, 50's prom dresses, Edwardian summer whites, Victorian boots, flapper hats etc...)

 The wall by my tv is on the left. It features framed sheet music, postcards and prints from my editions of 1920's La Vie Pariesiennes. In the middle are are some of my tiny (mostly vintage) books. At the right are the bookcases and wall by my computer. On the bookcase are vintage shoes, hats & a posture brace. That's a framed photo of my grandmother in about 1925. My mother said my house was like Pee Wee's Playhouse meets the Haunted Mansion, so I like to think that - instead of it just being an utter schizo mess.

A few of my vintage dishes - I am very partial to pine & thistle. In glasses I am partial to Scotsmen, curling and bowling.

A little bit of my bathroom, I bought Elvis in a junk shop in Richmond, B.C. in about 1986. I have so many postcards, I like to rotate them in frames, currently I have big bum postcards up. At the right are my vintage clowns. I don't know why I did this to myself, as I am scared of clowns. The little ceramic fellow holds my tv watchin' glasses at night.

Insomniac's Attic Easter Nests

Inspired by Insomniac's Attic post about her mother's 1960 recipe for Easter nests, I decided to make some for my Easter baskets.

 Instead of jelly beans, I used Mini Eggs, but used exactly 2 of each as she did.

A too-busy photo of the finished baskets. As the nests had to travel, I wrapped them in plastic.

New Fabric - Again

New Fabric - Again - Sorry Mindless!

On the left is fabric from Michael Levine. It was ALWAYS by favourite fabric store when I lived in LA. Sometimes I have nightmares that I'm on Maple St, and they're closing in 5 minutes and I just can't get to the front door in time. From them I bought skeleton toile, osteology in black and some dia di los muertos fabric.

On the right is some Ghastlies fabric, Michael Miller Nevermore in black and some super silly pink elephant fabric. It reminds me of the Pink Elephant Car Wash in Seattle.

On the left is flocked wool from fabric.com. The picture was awful on their site, I could not tell what those ladies looked like. But thankfully they are all vintage-y and sweet! On the right is assorted fabric from Jo-Anns, some Halloween, some for 1940's blouses. The beige & black lace is from MOOD, by boss brought it back from NY for me!

 On the left are some just some black & grays I bought for trimming & accents. The one with the spider on it is beautiful & I wish I would have bought more! Max is helping me with fabrics in the middle photo. On the right are some Tula Pink fabrics, and although they are not really in my color scheme, I still like them. The one on the bottom is called "Sea Of Tears".

Osteology Dress & Cyborg Cat

Above is my new dress, made with Alexander Henry Osteology fabric. The dress is a mix of patterns - Simplicity 1699 for the skirt, Simplicity 1651 for the bodice and McCalls 6278 for the modified sleeves. Simplicity 1651 is a new pattern and while it looked smooth and nice, it was not so. The shoulder seams were so out of whack! They might fit if my shoulders were 3 inches higher and sloped upwards towards my ears! The front sweetheart neckline was also way too wide, thank goodness I cut the bodice in lining first! You can't see, but there are self covered buttons with skulls on the sleeves.

 Max went to the vet to get his last round of boosters today. When I adopted his 2 years ago he weighed 10 pounds and he now weighs 12.5! When I was waiting for his I inquired about getting him micro chipped.after I heard some scary stats about missing kitties on tv. To my surprise it was only $40!

When I got home my boyfriend insisted on talking to him like a robot, now that he's a cyborg. Then he "forced" me to sing the theme song from Small Wonder to Max, which for some reason I know all the lyrics to...

Monthly Homework Assignment: Spring!

 Well, you would never know it's Spring here in the Pacific Northwest. It hailed, rained and stormed all day. My poor kitty went in and out so many times he was practically a blur in the doorway!
When I was a kid, my mum and I attended a huge family Easter party. Regardless of my age, I was always in charge of hiding the candy all over the backyard. I think this was because I was the least likely to indulge! To me Spring and Easter mean chocolate - and lots of it! In my family I am in charge of filling Easter baskets for everyone.

My stash so far:

CorpGoth Status Report - March Forward!

 I am fortunate enough to wear whatever shoes I want to work. My boss is a shoe fanatic who is constantly ordering from Nordstrom, and being an office job I can wear heels without killing myself standing on them all day. These are some of my non-boot related shoes that I wear to work.I have a penchant for flats or Victorian/Flapper-ish oxfords.

Outfit Post - Stretch Black Satin Dress With Mourning Pin

I bought this dress a year ago to wear to D-Day Ohio, and then promptly forgot about it! When all your clothes are double or triple hung, sometimes you lose something for a while... Yesterday I found it again! I'm wearing it with my new Victorian-era mourning pin. I've bid on a few in the past but they all went too pricey for me. Finally I got one! I know it's from a child's funeral, but how would they wear it? I picture it on a black armband. As much as I want to wear it that way, I don't think it'd be appropriate for work!

 LOVE IT!