Our Engagement Photos

We finally got around to doing our engagement photos last weekend (read: Superbowl Sunday). We've been engaged for about 9 months now so I guess it was about time to get around to these. We're "frugal" and we didn't want to spend too much on these. I want all the extra cash we can manage to go to the honeymoon and the reception or as I like to call it the "after party." We opted out of getting a professional photographer and instead dragged toted my best friend all over Roswell with us.  Cost $0.

These are just a sampling of the rough photos. There's plenty of photoshopping to be done, but I must admit that I am very happy with these proofs. I wore a vintage inspired dress from Pinup Girl Clothing that I had received for Christmas. Cost $0 (thanks Mom).  Mr. Fiance wore one of his favorite suits that we bought during a 60% sale at Dillards a few years back. I can't remember how much we paid, but he's worn this enough times to work that I can hardly justify it as a cost.

We did all of our photos outdoors at public parks and in public spaces. So that also cost us $0.

Hair was done with my awesome set of hot-rollers (under $25 I might add). I was once a sponge roller girl myself, but Mr. Fiance doesn't let me wear them around him. Apparently they're a bit unattractive and I can't say I disagree with him.

My make-up came from a smashbox make-up kit which was also a Christmas gift (Thanks Mr. Fiance's Mom).

In total these photos cost us about $2.00 and about half a day of walking around. We ended up snagging some books at a thrift shop we happened to pass in case you're wondering where that money went.

I'll be sure to post the final photos once I've finished the photo editing. I just love my engagement photos and I'm so happy we decided to do them on our own. So what do you think, Readers? Did they come out okay?

Woah.

So I'm like totally only a few posts away from 100 posts and that not including the very very very old college posts still attached to this blog in some fashion or another. When did this happen? Crazy talk! I'm going to have to think of some special way to celebrate this occasion. Anyone have any thoughts? Pattern give away was one thing, but... mmmm.... not really feeling it. I'm leaning more towards custom made 1940s blouse. Any objections to that?

It'll give me an excuse to get myself sewing again. This has been a crazy month at the house. Our roommate moved out leaving us with an entirely empty room. At first I thought I would take the room for myself as a sewing suite, but it's at the back of the house and there isn't much natural light. I wasn't really feeling it until Fiancé offered to take that room for his office and give me the room at the front of the house that had previously been a den/office. Bigger room? More natural light? Hello. I was so there.

So first step... move all my junk out of the room. So far so good. Next step spend two weeks obsessing over paint. I've had this problem before with our dining room. It takes a long time for us to finish a room, mostly because all of my lines have to be PERFECT and the fact that we have to figure out what to do with our tray ceilings which are a pain and a half to paint. I'm not going to deny that I may have possibly kind of gone over the walls with a half inch artists brush again...

I did manage to convince Fiance to let me use fancy VOC free hippy paint on his walls. We chose these colors.

I always love paint color names. The darker color was "Pinecone Hill" which we used for the wall and the lighter color was called "Shaded Path." We used that for part of the tray ceiling and a beige for the rest. The trim is standard bright white molding color. I think the name was something boring like "snow" so I didn't care to remember the name. These are not the colors I would have chosen for my sewing room, but they work very well for Fiance's home office. I'm a bright crazy colors kind of a gal and Fiance is a traditional, earth-tone, somber color type of a guy. He doesn't find bright colors very relaxing and this is a man-cave we're talking about after all. I hope to add some fabulous art to the walls for a little pop of color later on. We'll see if I can get away with that.

We also moved a mahogany colored desk we've been using as a table in the hall into the office. Imagine a desk being used as a desk instead of a place for me to pile things. Awesome! Next step was to move all the DVDs and our personal records over there. It's amazing to realize how much paper we actually have stored in our house. I felt like a tree murderer :\

I've also been doing some other projects that need doing around the house. Cleaning, winterizing, scrubbing the weird green algae off my back patio. My poor sewing machine is sitting with a giant pile of fabric scraps and notions, just waiting for the sewing room to go together so it can get some use again. Oh the joys of making a house into a home.

I have a few color combos in mind for my sewing room once we get Fiance all moved into his new office. I'd love to do a vintage look that says "this room belongs in your Grandmother's House.". Maybe a fabulous 1950s blue/pink combo.

Think wall colors rather than tile. Also no knick-knacks or weird fish. 

Or we all know how much I love avocado green and harvest gold!

Hotness.... utter yellow doored hotness.

I was leaning towards the pink and blue until Retro Renovation.com posted Benjamin Moore's 1969 paint pallet. Oh be still my beating heart.

I may be in retro heaven. Loving the Sea Foam greens and Powder blues. Yum. Oh the trials and tribulations of picking a darn decade to model my sewing room on.

Dissecting the Bunny Costume: Price Totals

Time for the Dragon*Con bunny costume totals! You too can dress like a vintage Playboy Bunny Girl on the cheap.

I will admit that this is not the first time I've worn this costume. It made it's debut last year around Halloween 2009. My Besty, Fiance and I decided that this would be a good group costume to wear to party that was being hosted in Atlanta. We found out about it about 2 weeks prior to the event so we had come up with something easy and quick.

Halloween Party in October 2009. Besty Stacey, Fiance, and Nancy (that's moi, with much shorter hair)

For me there are three important rules of costuming.

1. It has to be cute
2. It has to be cheap 
3. People must be able to instantly recognize who or what you are. 

The costume doesn't need to be completely accurate, but people need to "get it." So I always start off with lots of research. You know me by now. I'm a research whore amateur fashion historian. So the first step was to figure out what those Bunny Girls actually wore. Cue slides.

All Images pulled from The Independent

So after looking at waaaaaay too many pictures of scantily clad women I was able to determine the key pieces that really made the "look." I do this with every costume I make, but the bunny costume was easier to dissect than most. First you have the cuffs and collar. Next you have the strapless body suit. After that comes the ears. If you look at the images above you can see that the ears are different in each one. What that told me was that I didn't have to pay too much attention to those. The actual Bunny ears changed style and shape over time so no one would care if mine were a bit off.  The next element was the tail which had to be big. None of these little tiny cotton balls you see in costume shops. As you can see in the photos above the girl's tails were quite sizable. I knew I wouldn't find the tail I wanted in a store so I would need to construct one from scratch.

We had limited time so the best option was to make some pom-poms. Each tail took a whole skein of Caron Simply Soft (acrylic yarn you can snag at any big box craft store). It worked like a charm. The tails were nice and fluffy and thick. The yarn was $2.95 a skein, but for the purposes of this blog we'll round it up to $3.00.

Boy do I look hideous in this picture. Yikes. Stacey looks great though. 

The body suits were made from corsets already in our collections and cheap high waisted panties from Kohl's (about $3.00 each). The bunny ears, cuffs and collar were a set we found on the internet. I splurged here and spent $15 on those. The last steps were to add some black pantyhose (I wore tights for Dragon Con) and some black everyday/office heels that we both had lying around.

Fast forward back to Dragon*Con 2010. Oh yes, I look much better here.

So the Grand Total for the Bunny Costume.

    $15.00 : Ears, Cuffs and Collar
    $3.00   : Bunny Tail (Yarn)
    $3.00   : Black High Waisted Panties
    $4.00   : Black Tights
    $0.00   : Already had Corset
+  $0.00   : Black Work Pumps
    A little under $25.00

Sweet!

Happy costuming. Anyone have some great ideas for Halloween this year? I still haven't decided on costumes for myself and Fiance. If anyone has any suggestions for us let me know!

First Photos of Guys and Dolls

Scan from the Performing Arts Agenda

Top Row : Left Some Hot Box Girls. Right Sarah, Sky and Adelaide 

Second Row: Left Aggie the Ox and Hot Box Girl/Sarah for the second week of performances, Right Big Julie and Lt Brannigan. 

Third Row: Left Adelaide, Right Save-a-Soul Mission Gals with Sarah (center)

Bottom Right: Benny Southstreet, Sky Masterson, and Nicely Nicely Johnson. 

Show opens this weekend. I feel that the costumes are not too shabby for having two weeks to costume 42 characters. Most of these costumes were not finished when these photos were taken, but with such a short deadline and the fact that most publicity photos need to be sent in to print publications two weeks before they run I'm pretty happy with the results. These costumes were very hurried, but they give you an idea of what the show will look like.

I really had a good time coordinating these costumes for Guys and Dolls. It was a stressful, busy, crazy two weeks, but good. I wish I had had a little more time so I could have done more, but if wishes were fishes the sea would be full. (I also wish they would have asked me to make the photo spread for them... but I suppose I wouldn't have had time for it either. My inner art school self still rebels against this spread.)

I made a few things for the show, but those time limitations got me again. There just wasn't any time to making anything from scratch. Most of the costumes were made by Frankensteining other costumes together, dying thrift store pieces, or digging through the theater's costume vault. BTW, if anyone knows a good way to dye a man's jacket without shrinking it too much let me know your secret. I had little success with that endeavor this time around.

But in any case full dress rehearsal is tonight so I'll be taking lots of pictures of the costumes in action. I'm so glad that this project is finished so I can get a little sleep. Hope you didn't miss me too much and I promise to give you all your regularly scheduled vintage goodness in the weeks to come!

It's hot.

When your air conditioning breaks in the summer it sucks. When your A.C. breaks in Georgia it really sucks. 

Let me tell you how my day went. My parents were visiting from New York this weekend. It was about 10pm or so. We were all sitting around chatting and generally enjoying our last evening together before they headed down to Mississippi to visit my Grandmother Bixler. 

As we're talking I hear something dripping. Thinking it was a facet that had been left on I went in search of the sound. As I walked up the stairs to the second story the sound became louder and louder. At the top of the stairs I noticed that our light fixture was leaking. What ensued next was a frantic search for buckets and towels. With that disaster under control my Father and Fiancé braved the attic to see what was amiss. 

The air conditioning unit's condensation overflow drip pan was overflowing with water. The men folk probably removed about three gallons (at least!) of liquid which we poured down the bathtub drain. Fun times. 

No one ever warns you about certain parts of homeownership. Certainly no one ever warned us that our attic might flood in the middle of a drought. Go figure. So we're without A.C. until Thursday when the HVAC people are coming to dismantle, clean, and flush out our A.C. unit's condensation drainage system. 

The whole incident got me thinking though. How did the folks in the the first half of the 20th century keep cool down here in the south? They certainly must have had some way or you wouldn't be able to live here year round. So I did a little research and found some neat things; specially designed houses, massive attic fans, hallways and of course vintage electric fans! 

Wouldn't you rather have one of these lying around your home instead of those ugly white plastic things we all have? 

Vintage Eskimo Fan - $24.95

Vintage GE Table Top Fan - $9.99. Display only, not functional. 

Now finding vintage fans for under $25 takes a bit of searching. There is a very large contingent of vintage fan collectors out there that you're going to need to compete with. Still, there are a lot of vintage fans out there and you're bound to find one that fits within your budget. 

1920's "Jack-Frost" Art Deco Desk Fan - Ebay Currently $5.00

Vintage Brown Art Deco Westinghouse Fan - Ebay Currently $9.95

I also picked up a few things while investigating vintage fans. As with all vintage appliances check to see if the fan actually works. If the listing says something like "great condition" or "looks like new!" but does not expressly mention that the fan works properly it's a good idea to contact the seller. Most likely the fan doesn't work or rattles and shakes so much that it's virtually unusable. A good seller will give you the lowdown on your fan.

What do you do to cool off in the summer heat? Would you buy a vintage fan? Do you collect vintage fans? Let me know!

The Rubys!

Tada! I'm so happy to get to present these! What is it they say? The victory you work the hardest for tastes the sweetest? And I worked for these photos lemmi tell you. Someday I might tell you about the 3 hour downloading ordeal, but not today. Love my shorts, and sooooo perfect for the beach. Actually Fiance's office is having a fun summer boating trip in August... can you guess what I will be wearing? Loving the fit around the waist and the hips.

 I'm digging these rubies un-folded. I like the longer shorts feel. Yes, big floppy hat is mandatory.

Think they look anything like my 1947 Vinspiration?

They definitely have a good flair out to the sides.

And if I'm not feeling super retro-esque I can wear them the way they're supposed to be worn. Here's the traditional Ruby fold, but as you can see I did not iron these into a crease. Also cute, but not really loving them as much as I do when they are long.

First summer essentials done and posted. Sew-a-long completed. Phew.

Pool Side: 1980s Chic

I've been talking a lot about the 1930s lately so I thought it was time for break. We're fast-forwarding 50 years. Today we're totally going 80s, Dude.

Here in Atlanta we love the 1980s. Why wouldn't you? Modonna, Olivia Newton-John, Bowey, Come on!. We Atlantans love our 80s proms and some of us even host some snazzy 1980s pool parties. Of course going to all these events gets pretty pricey if you're shopping at vintage stores. A vintage bikini can sell for upwards of $50 and I don't know about you, but I get freaked out at the idea of wearing someone's used swimsuit. It's like buying used underwear.

Here at $25V we strive for that vintage look while keeping our wallets (and significant others) happy.  So where to turn? Why, to your local department stores of course! And if that doesn't work do a quick shopping trip around the internet. There is a lot of 1980s style in swim wear right now. Don't you just love cyclic fashion?

I've pulled together some fun 1980s swimsuit looks that we'll give you that vintage look while still looking chic. All $25.00 and under for a 80s pool party near you. Hopefully the party will be in a pool and not a giant mud-hole Encino Man Style.

Dude, I just totally found some rad pottery. Woah. 

The Deep-V

Art Deco Monokini From Forever 21 - $19.80


The Bandeau

Stripe 2 pc. Bikini Swimsuit  from Target - $24.48


The Crazy 80s Print

Dolphin Winner Suit from Swim 2000 - $25.00

The Fringe Bikini

Fringe Top from Venus - $13.00, Rio Bottom from Venus - $6.00


The Baywatch

Lifegaurd Flyback from Swim and Tri - $25.00


The Border Print

Red and Black Floral One Piece from Amiclubwear - 19.00


And now, I leave you with this not quite 80s inspiration. Wig Wam Bam.



PS. Camera cable came in the mail this morning. Now I can finish this Ruby business and get back to my sewing business. Expect those photos within the next few days!

MADE at Whipstitch

Apparently the blogging world is also in wedding mode right now! Lucky me!

Couture Allure has a great post on stepping outside the box to find your own vintage wedding gown. She even explains the importance of finding the proper undergarments to wear under those gowns (a woman after my own heart).

I also wanted to post about something fun I did this weekend (before the big proposal). Saturday I headed up to Whipstitch in Atlanta (above photo from their blog) for a sewing demo by Dana of MADE. She makes the worlds cutest children's clothing and she was just the sweetest person ever.

Dana was so cute and so entertaining! I just adore her! And I only wish some of her creativity wore off on me during the demo. Look at some of these skirts from her blog!

Just darling!

Her demo was about drafting patterns and making up children's tee-shirts from old men's shirts. It was super fun and super easy. I almost wish I had a little kiddy to make clothing for, but one thing at a time. Her and I definitely shared a common love of thrift store fabric "harvesting." I felt a little silly taking pictures with a cellphone, but until my new camera comes from my Mother in the mail it's all I've got. It's gotten bad, friends. My Fiancé and I took our engagement night photos with a disposable camera.

Some more of her creations that she let us pick up and play with after the demo. Totally digging that bag.

I had never been to Whipstitch before, but don't think I won't be there again! They had some of the cutest fabrics I had seen in a long time. Lots of retro patterns and some great deals on bolt leftovers. I saw a package of nearly 3 yards of bolt leftover for $8.50.

They also had a rack dedicated entirely to tea and coffee themed fabrics. I could barely resist. You can more than likely expect to see the tea pot fabric above in a vintage styled apron or belt sometime in the future. It was a bit pricey at nearly $9.00 a yard, but it would make a great accent fabric.

I Vinspired myself

I had a bit of a lazy morning today. Spent most of it working on some graphics for my Beau's business twitter account. So I had plenty of time to set some hot rollers and create a look inspired by the photographs from yesterday.

So I fired up my $24.99 set of hot rollers and went to work. I call this look my Quick and Dirty retro look. After curling the whole look only took about 15 minutes or so. When I'm going for that accurate look I take more time with my hair and usually use sponge rollers set over night. Girls of those days always seemed to have every curl and hair in line, but I wanted this to be fun, a little bit messy, but still recognizably retro. Yay or Nay?

I went with the flat faced 40s make-up routine that I mentioned yesterday. A very flat base foundation with a mineral powder. Combined that with dark eye shadow liner. I've been having a serious allergy issue with eyeliners lately and have had to settle for black eyeshadow and a wet brush. Seems to be working out pretty well, but I miss my thick smooth liquid liner lines. I used some shimmer dust around the eye which seems to show up a whole lot more in the photos, but just believe me when I say it's not that defined in reality. Not too shabby for a 5 minute make-up job.

And on another quick note. I have 7 followers! Oh! Em! Gee! I know this is like nothing to most of you, but I've never had followers before. Thanks so much for your support and comments! It makes posting things like this really fun and awesome.

Just noticed I forgot to fill in my beauty marks! I'm running to do that now. Best!

Vinspiration Tuesday: The Photography of Victor Keppler

For those of you who don't know me too well I have a terrible addition to vintage films and photographs so you'll be seeing a lot of those floating around the blog. This addiction was only increased when I worked for George Eastman House; International Museum of Photography and Film. GEH is home to one of the world's largest and most diverse photography collections and is the oldest photography museum in the world. They are fabulous and I had way too much fun working for them. I no longer live in the snowy world of Rochester, New York but I still like to browse the collection from time to time.

George Eastman House (or the "e" as I used to call it) has a huge collection of advertising photography. I just love looking at the sharply dressed women in those photos. They're fabulous hair, frocks, coats, and hats make me swoon. And since this is a vintage sewing/styling blog I thought I'd share some with all of you. It might provide some useful "vinspiration!" So without further ado, the photography of Victor Keppler from the 40s and 30s.

This lady looks fabulous in her red automobile and matching red coat, scarf and red gloves. She's a free spirit who loves the open road, the feel of the wind in her tightly curled hair and her smooth delicious camel cigarette.

I love the large flowers matched with the beret in this picture. This is a great reference for vintage make-up circa 1940. Look at the smooth face. One tone, very unlike our modern make-up which strives for multiple hues and a "natural finish." The lips are a deep red with a very strong line and there's just a slight highlight under the eye. Love the blond curl that sits in front of the barret (technically I think it is called a "tam" today, but I believe they were referred to as berets at the time).

How about some winter wear circa 1945? That knitted bonnet type cap and mitten are so cute and look super warm. And look at the sweet heart detail on the cap. I've seen similar bonnets in other photographs and they all tend to tie under the chin with cute little knitted ties. I'm assuming this bonnet hat has them as well. I also am completely in love with her fitted red wool coat. The black lace edging around the neck is gorgeous! I really need one of these skiing outfits for my next family ski trip.

Here's some menswear. I've always enjoyed the men's hat. I suppose that's why I've been on my bring back hats crusade for so long. Sure I like woman's hats, but how could you not want to see your man in one of these handsome chapeaus?  You'll hear more about the hat crusade in the future, so look forward to that.  Another thing to note is their thick neck ties. I want to bring those back too! There's something so manly and retro about the thick tie with the three button suit.

And here we come to my most favorite Keppler print of all time. This photo was taken in 1939 and so graciously hangs in my kitchen. It is one of my main sources of "vinspiration". I know some of you gals from Sew Retro have this exact same dress or you want it-- admit it. Those puff sleeves are so cute. They're not really something petite little me can wear without being dwarfed by my dress, but if only I could! I also love the fitted red apron. I may make one of these, it doesn't look too difficult to copy and OMG yellow cookware! Yellow is my favorite kitchen color. Still working on convincing my Beau to let me buy a yellow dish set.

The sign says "No Swimming Allowed" but who would want to swim in that cute gingham dress? This photo was shot in Aug 1946. I normally HATE gingham with a passion, but this dress does it right. I love the summery off the shoulders look with the pink print. This is definitely a great summer trip dress. Maybe I'll consider making something similar for myself. I'll add one of my oversize sun hats and call it a day.

All these prints are available from George Eastman House Photo Store, and the 8x10s sell for $25.00 so they fit in the 25.00 budget of this blog.

Hope this post gave you some fabulous Vinspiration!