Modern Girl, Vintage Style

 Still working from home full time but who needs a commute to inspire a great outfit?  I do have an office mate.  Minor detail she weighs 13 pounds and barks at the deliveries we get.  I can still dress to impress. The Fitbit always looks so terrible but I'm lost without it This is a favorite office outfit of mine.  The 1940s looks were so practical that they really lend themselves to office wear.  A-line skirts and trousers keep life simple when dealing with office chairs that have arms.  This is a chiffon blouse and wide leg trousers in a 1940s style.  I finally got my Besame order that the USPS lost and was delighted to see my new Besame Red lipstick matches these pants perfectly.  No more excuse needed to pull out my favorite pants.  I've been slacking on rolling my hair while dealing with school so just tucked up out of the way. Trying to not tip my head the exact same way every time I take a picture Weather has been in the 40's and...

 I had the most amazing day of mail deliveries yesterday.  I got a bunch of patterns I bought on sale, knit fabric for some new tops, cotton for a new skirt, all of the pdf patterns I ordered from a print shop, and my brand new sewing machine!  I couldn't have timed that better if I tried. She's not much to look at but I'm incredibly excited.  I fussed over what kind of sewing machine to get for a long time.  My old machine was a 20 year old beginner level Kenmore.  I got that in college as a Christmas present after my mom took her really fancy and fantastic sewing machine back.  That poor Kenmore was used to make a bunch of medieval reenactment gowns (SCA).  Those Tudor gowns have 7 yards of fabric in a skirt so it went through a lot of abuse.  Trying to get those massive skirts in upholstery weight fabric attached to a reinforced bodice was a bit much to ask of a beginner machine.  I asked anyway. The machine was starting to groan and ...

 We're still in a pandemic so date nights aren't what they used to look like.  Living in the middle of nowhere, we don't have delivery as an option so if I want dinner, I make it or I drive out and pick it up.  Driving out to get something is a pain so we save it for special occasions.  Like anniversary dinners.  Cue me deciding that we were going to have a fancy dinner from our local winery and make it a date night.  After being stuck at home for almost a year, I'm pretty desperate for reasons to dress up.  I went all out for my trip to the winery to pick up our dinner in boxes with some bottles of wine. I got this dress at the end of December and hadn't even put it on.  I finally had an excuse.  I also did full What Katie Did foundation garments with the corslette and stockings to keep the lines smooth.  Wiggle dresses are not forgiving, there's a reason I usually wear poofy skirts.  Vintage necklace, usual hair, and plenty of red...

 The irony is that I decided to start a new blog dedicated to me dressing up in poofy dresses and the first thing that happens is a big damn winter storm.  Most of the country has it worse than us to be honest.  I'm close enough to the coast that the polar vortex didn't really happen.  The downside to this is that we got a wintry mix.  That's a polite way of saying it's a hot mess. We already had about 20" of snow on the ground.  This storm brought snow, sleet, freezing rain, and now just plain old rain.  All of the usual drainage is frozen solid so we now have running water where running water doesn't belong.  Like the driveway and the garage and my three season porch.  Temps are dropping overnight so everything should be freezing into perfect glaze ice by tomorrow. This is not weather for poofy dresses.  I can usually tough it out with some tights, canvas underskirt, sweaters, things of that nature.  Since I have to help get this ...

 Why a vintage style blog?  Because if I'm going to spend this many hours trying to get my hair to do anything approaching 1950's waves, I'm going to write about it.   I started doing vintage style when a friend threw a party with a 1950s theme.  I didn't really know anything about the 1950s so I hit Google.  I didn't want to wear a costume with a cheap, satin skirt with a poodle on it.  As soon as I did a search for 1950s women's fashion, I saw this: The New Look.  Odd hat aside, that is one heck of a silhouette and a level of glamor that I'd never aspired to in my life.  I've always been a jeans and tee shirts kind of girl.  That picture, though, that convinced me that I wanted to wear a skirt.  A poofy skirt.  And no, I didn't look a thing like that for the party and I didn't even get a picture of myself but I was wearing a Pin Up Girl Couture dress, a petticoat, What Katie Did corslette, stockings, heels, and my hair was cu...