I often feel inspired by the looks worn by college students in the 1940s. It really appeals to me as a casual style of dressing which nonetheless still looks groomed and not sloppy. I often think that casual vintage looks are harder in some ways to put together than dressier looks (frock, hat, heels) but such casual looks allow me to still look very vintage or classic but avoid the elements that people often think look costumey.

Recently I've been wearing the two bracelets shown in the final picture as a bit of a nod to the stacks of ID bracelets (is that what they are?) worn in several of these photos by Nina Leen from Life Magazine, 1944. They give a few quotes from the original article and I particularly like this part:

"It is a world of sweaters and skirts and bobby sox and loafers, of hair worn long, of eye-glass rims painted red with nail polish, of high school boys no yet gone to war."

One of my favourite things when cooking is finding new and interesting ways to use up any leftovers. It's a great way of avoiding waste, stretching your food budget, and discovering new recipes. Recently I had some leftover pearl barley which had been used as an accompaniment to a chicken casserole, and I wanted to use it up the following day.

I went online and found this great recipe for a pearl barley salad. Although I didn't quite have all the ingredients, I was able to make a couple of substitutions and produce a really delicious dish. I'm presenting this to you less as a recipe (though by all means you can copy exactly what I did here if you wish!) and more as an example of how you can make a lovely dish out of leftovers and cupboard staples. I suggest you read the original recipe if you want to make your own, as I didn't really measure any quantities - I just threw in whatever I had. Also, my ramblings below might make a little more sense if you do!

After I did my last shoot with Jacqui and Steve, I was feeling super inspired by 20s styles again. I'm not really as into the styles of the 1920s as I am later decades, but sometimes I can't help but be drawn in by the bobbed hair and sense of fun that comes with a flapper-inspired look. I keep getting an itch to have all my hair chopped off but it's a big commitment and I do enjoy the versatility that you get with longer hair. Nothing wrong with a faux bob though, and I will keep on looking out for some more 1920s style things for when I'm feeling more turn of the century than mid-century.
 



I doubled up on the fur for this outfit, with my fur coat which seems to have been the coat for this winter in my wardrobe, and the grey fur collar which did a good job of keeping my neck warm and looked sweet peeking out of the top of my coat while I was out and about. It originally came off a jacket - I've had a couple of items in the past with this type of removable fur collar, and I seem to remember preferring them without the fur, although I do wear the fur sometimes with other things. I see a lot of ladies wearing these at re-enactment; I guess it would make a reasonable alternative to wearing a real fur if that was the look you wanted to go for. Because it was originally buttoned onto the jacket that it came with, it has these nifty little loops which make it easy to affix to cardigans etc. I use the tiny safety pins that are used sometimes to fix tags or the little bags that spare buttons come in onto new clothing:



Save those little pins, girls, they are handy for all kinds of wardrobe modifications or malfunctions. As well as using them to pin my fur collar onto other items, I also find them useful for pinning bra straps in place if they insist on slipping out, or making a quick and non-permanent alteration to a waistband that's too large (works best on lightweight fabrics, though).




It was really great as well to be able to actually smile on these photos. For the photoshoot, I painted on some tiny 1920s doll lips, and then didn't dare smile at all (or even hardly talk!) for the duration of the set because I was worried I might not be able to stop smiling once I got started - and smiling totally looks really silly when you have a little lipsticked flapper pout. Since this outfit wasn't for a photoshoot, I just wore my lipstick as I would normally, and apparently smiled a whole lot. It felt a bit weird to be smiling whilst wearing this look after all the definitely-not-smiling at the shoot.



I'll post the photos from my shoot as soon as they're all edited; I can't wait for you to see some of the hairstyles and outfits!

A couple of weeks ago we visited Wollaton Hall in Nottingham. The hall is an Elizabethan mansion, completed in 1588 - the same year the Spanish Armada was defeated. Following a fire, the building stood empty for 40 years in the late 1600s; it was then restored and became the home of a naturalist. Much later in its history (1926), the hall was reopened as a Natural History Museum before being used as a base by the US Army 508th Parachute Regiment in 1944, prior to them leaving for the D-Day landings. Today the hall is open to the public as a historic house and Natural History museum , and includes galleries of animals, birds, insects and minerals, as well as rooms furnished in Regency and Tudor styles.

Obviously I took a lot of photos, historic houses and Natural History museums being two of my favourite things in the whole wide world ever, so I hope you enjoy my photos and maybe learn a little or at least get a little insight into how much I love this kind of thing (um, just in case you're new here and haven't experienced that before!)

Wollaton Hall was also used as the filming location for Wayne Manor in the film The Dark Knight Rises, so of course I had a bit of fun with that too.









The stunning jellyfish above is a Blaschka model. Blaschka models are anatomically correct glass models of marine invertebrates or flowers created by father and son Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka in the late 19th to early 20th century. Originally they were scientific models sold to universities and museums, created because the organisms depicted are difficult or impossible to successfully preserve. Some of their models were also popular as ornaments in private residences. The Blaschkas kept their techniques a closely guarded secret and never took on an apprentice, so sadly on Rudolf's death in 1939, the method was lost. If you want to read more about Blaschka models, I recommend Wikipedia or the website of the National Museum of Scotland, but if you do nothing else then I would urge you to look on Google images where you can see the diversity of organisms that were modelled - but also how incredibly delicate a lot of the models are. I don't envy the museum conservators who get the job of moving the models without breaking them!





I will take any excuse to dress up of course, and I was a huge Batman fan when I was younger so that's an added bonus. What do you think, would I make a good superhero? Not sure about the wisdom of doing any Dark Knight-style crime fighting in a pencil skirt.


I AM THE HERO GOTHAM DESERVES.

(perhaps not).







This little fellow was pretty tame and I got several photos. Look at his little furry butt!



The skirt I'm wearing is one of the most-worn items I own, but as far as I can remember it's only made its way onto the blog once. It's one of my staples for work and although I used to wear it a lot in my own time as well, it's somehow something I think of more as workwear now and I don't reach for it when I'm not working as often as I might. Looking at these photos I'm reminded how much I want to increase my hat collection. I've promised myself I won't buy anything like that for a while though (essentials only!) but gosh, I feel like my head looks kinda bare. I love how much a hat can bring an outfit together; such a shame they've fallen a bit by the wayside over the years. I'll be on the lookout for some new headgear when I have some money to spend though.

I was pretty on the fence about this hat until recently. While it's nice enough, it's not one that I reach for on a regular basis, at least in part because I don't have an enormous amount of 1940s (or 40s style) black clothing. I wasn't even convinced it really suited me; I've sometimes put it on and ended up taking it off again but I've managed to get a few more wears out of it recently and it's been nice to have the extra option for something to keep my head warm while the weather's cold. After seeing these photos I think the hat will be staying in my wardrobe a while longer. Sometimes I think photos can be more useful than a mirror in deciding whether an item really works for you.


As you can see, still getting some wear out of my 40s Fashion Calendar brooch and I've been getting some lovely compliments on it. It seems lots of people appreciate the splash of colour when the weather is drab.





 

With some money I had at Christmas time, I bought a bullet bra from What Katie Did. I love the shape it gives under vintage dresses; it's amazing how much difference it makes to how the dress fits. Since I find What Katie Did lingerie to be a little pricey on my budget, I decided that I'd also like a cheaper everyday bullet bra to wear so that I could keep my What Katie Did bra for best.

When I had an afternoon to spare, I grabbed some scrap fabric and worked my way through Brittany at Va-Voom Vintage's bullet bra tutorial. I found it pretty easy to make even with my own minimal sewing skills, and a great way to practice some basic techniques. The hardest part I found was getting the spiral stitching on the cups even - you can see if you look closely that it's a little wonky in places.


I sewed the smaller size available which is the C-cup pattern. I also happened to have some straps which came from an old bra where the straps were interchangeable. I'm pretty happy with the fit of the bra overall (especially considering I sewed it myself) although I could have done with making a smaller cup size. I am on the lookout for a pattern to make some pads to improve the fit, although the site I found which looks like it had a good pattern redirects to an adult site, so I don't know if it might have been hacked or something.

As it is, the bra won't be totally wearable until I've sorted out some sort of padding for it, but I'm really looking forward to wearing it at some point. (I did consider the What Katie Did bullet bra pads but having read the reviews I am not certain they will be the right shape to help in this case).

Did anyone else have a go at this during the original sew-along?

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Handmade 1940s style skull cap

Recently I've been out several times with my camera, only to find that I've left the memory card at home. Because I use my camera so often, I've a tendency to plug the card into my computer and then forget to put it back into my camera later on. I'm definitely going to buy a second memory card to keep in my camera case so that I've always got one with me!

Fortunately thanks to modern technology, I'm still able to take photos on my phone, although my phone camera is only 2 megapixels so obviously not the best quality.

These (phone) photos were taken one afternoon recently when we went for a potter about the shops for something to do. My boots as you can see have been mended - I am so lucky to have access to a proper cobbler to do all my shoe repairs as the prices are cheaper than at a heel bar, the work is very good quality and I also trust them to do a good job on my vintage shoes.



Winter is probably my least favourite time of year, at least as far as getting dressed goes, because for the last few years I haven't really felt like I've got an adequate winter wardrobe - although this year has been the best for a while. I really dislike layering for warmth (as opposed to layering for the look of it) because I find it really uncomfortable, but I do at least try to make sure I'm wearing a few layers to keep warm. One little tip I have if you prefer to wear seamed stockings is to layer a pair of tights underneath your stockings - that way you still get the look of having the seams, but it is warmer than just wearing one pair of stockings on their own.


Hopefully next time I take my camera out anywhere I will actually remember my memory card and not have to rely on my phone! Perhaps I should make a late New Years Resolution to try and be less forgetful.

Today I have some photos to share with you that I have scanned out of our family albums. I spent some time scanning quite a few photos, but here I have included the ones which I think would be of the most interest to others.