French Costumes (1912)

Women and Puppets (Marionette) 

River Fantasy Costume 

Birdcage Dress

Versailles Garden

Serpent 

Shepherdess 

I just adore these Edwardian costume ideas! I'm not really sure which is my favourite. The "river fantasy" would be easy to replicate, but I quite fancy the Versailles Garden or the Birdcage dress too. 

My own costume this year will be much less exciting, although even with Halloween fast approaching, I'm still undecided as to what to wear. I have a few ideas, but I don't think I will make up my mind until the day. I'm just handing out candy, so I don't want to spend too much time/money on my costume. Hopefully next year I will have a fancy Halloween party to justify a more extravagant costume! 

That's All

Vintage Shopping

 Hello everyone! I've been stuck in bed with a nasty cold for the last couple weeks, but I'm finally on the mend. I haven't posted any Youtube videos because, with my cold, I was not a pretty sight! My normal video schedule should resume this week (tip of the week on Monday, and longer tutorial on Thursday). I also bought my first autofocus lens for my DSLR, so expect lots of outfit photos and just random photos of anything vintage-y I want to share. And yes, I've had the camera for 8 years and have been manually focusing the whole time (or opting to use my cheap point and shoot instead). I feel kind of silly for not buying a proper lens earlier.... 

I've been super busy catching up with everything I fell behind on while I was sick. I did take today off though, and went for my annual shopping trip to Toronto with Britt. I bought a cute vintage coat, a vintage style cloche, and Britt bought me a couple awesome vintage garments for Christmas. I can't wait until I can share them! For now, here was my outfit for the trip:

The dress is from a 1930's pattern, and both the blouse and dress were constructed from vintage fabric. I paired it with my new grey glass pearls, and Alfred, my faux fur stole I made a few years ago (if you look close, you can see his little face!).

I actually changed my footwear to a comfy pair of boots and added a coat before we left. It was much too cold to go without (it snowed today!), and even comfy flats are not good for a lot of walking.

Britt and I on the train

We started the day with coffee, just outside of Union station:

Of course we needed another by mid afternoon!

As I mentioned, I've been busy this week catching up on all the things I couldn't do when I was sick. This includes working on a lot of new clothing for the shop. I been making a ton of organza snowflake scarves for winter, and working on developing some more clothing designs. 

I've also been testing out my "new" 1920's hair clips. Aren't they awesome!? I used them to do my hair today for the trip, and the results looked great and lasted all day. I bought these clips cheap because they were damaged, bent out of shape, and rusted. A little steel wool, pair of pliers, and 30 minutes and I had them back to near original condition! I love the look these give. It's a perfectly authentic 1920's wave and super easy to do. There is also no need to worry about heat damage (unlike marcel waving with a curling iron). I plan on posting a Youtube video showing how they work, but for now here is a quick snap taken first thing in the morning (after sleeping with them in all night):

I have a busy couple weeks coming up. I'm planning on filling my shop with a ton on new clothing, as well as preparing merchandise for my booth local Christmas Market (anything that isn't sold will then also be available on my Etsy!). I'm also going to be filming a bunch of youtube videos, so next time I get sick there will be a nice little buffer of videos I can continue to roll out! Also the room makeover continues. My studio space is almost done, but I'm moving some of my stuff into my bedroom (and vice versa), which has turned into a mini bedroom makeover as well! Yikes! I better get working on all those things!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

That's All.

Fainting Sofa ~ Completed~

It's finally finished!! Yeah, so that took longer than the few days I originally assumed it would. The project was side-lined for a while (due to health problems and other projects that had priority), but last week I got to work and finished her. 

Isn't she a beauty? I snapped a few quick pictures to share, but I will post some better pictures when my sewing studio makeover is completed. Everything is a bit of a mess at the moment, but it is starting to come together. The chaise was the first step in turning my old "hobby room" into a proper work space. I've been making do with a multipurpose space for too long and need a space dedicated solely to the business.

Anyways, the chaise was certainly an ambitious project for my first major re-upholstery project, but I am quite happy with my results. 

Before: 

(Brown painted wood, discoloured and faded fabric)

After:

I picked a turquoise blue fabric and light grey paint. When I took off the old fabric, I realized just how massively faded it was and rather icky. The new fabric is so much better! (The lighting in here was weird when I took the photos; the new fabric is less shiny and smoother than it looks in the photos.) The fabric has an almost velvet like feel and is super soft. The colour also looks great with the green walls of my studio. I had originally planned on making trim to finish off the edges, but I went with a grey gimp instead since I didn't have enough fabric left. I think the gimp actually looks better than the trim I was going to do! 

Final price for this one-of-a-kind beauty? With all the material, paint, etc she ended up costing about $230. My goal was to spend less than the $340 it would have taken to replace my cheap Ikea sofa. I think I succeeded there! It always surprises me how antiques can often be less than buying from a big box store. Normally one thinks antique=expensive, but that really doesn't have to be the case. Some antiques are pricey, but there are still plenty of bargains to be found. 

Speaking of bargains, I also just bought a Victorian chair to replace my old desk chair. My previous chair was also from Ikea. The Victorian chair I ended up replacing it with is solid wood, with soft green velvet (which doesn't need replacing, yay!!). Price difference? The Victorian was $10 cheaper than replacing the Ikea chair. I mean, which would you rather have?!

Old vs New

Well, I should get back to work on my studio makeover. I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

That's All.

Victorian Brilliantine Recipe (plus a couple new videos!)

(Brilliantine bottle from my vintage bottle collection)

Today I thought I'd share this great Brilliantine recipe. Brilliantine is a men's hair product used as a hair tonic to add shine. Here is a simple recipe from an old Barber's Manual (circa 1900):

For "alcohol" I used Vodka. The book doesn't give instructions, so I just poured everything into a jar and gave it a shake. It worked out well! While I haven't tried this recipe on myself, I made a batch for a friend of mine and he loves it. It doesn't have enough hold for him to use it alone, but he likes to use it in combination with a little hair gel or as an aftershave (he loves the smell). I thought it might be a bit drying, despite the glycerin, but he hasn't had any issues.

I've also posted a few more Youtube videos in the last week:

That's All.

Opps, I'm back!

I'm back after a month's break from blogging. I hadn't intended to take a break at all, but life got busy and something had to give,

However, I come back with (hopefully) exciting news! I decided to relaunch my YouTube channel! I haven't made videos for ages but I really missed it. I'm planning on posting two videos a week for the foreseeable future. The first video will be a quick vintage beauty tip or recipe (mainly Victorian and Edwardian), and the second will be a longer tutorial. Instead of just hair, there will be a mix of hair, makeup, beauty recipes, and testing historical hair products (including recreating a 1920's marcel curler!). I will still be blogging as well, but supplementing my posts with videos. My videos will be posted on my blog, but if you would like to subscribe to my channel as well that would be much appreciated!

So far, I've posted a channel trailer (which includes a bit of a sneak peak for upcoming videos) and one hair tutorial. A new video will be posted tomorrow, as well!

If anyone has any requests let me know! 

That's All.

~The Vintage Vegetarian~ Grapefruit and Walnut Salad

It's been a while since I've done any "vintage cooking", so I thought it was about time to try something new! My health is still a bit of an issue at the moment, therefore I picked a recipe that was relatively straightforward and quick to prepare. I selected a salad recipe from a Victorian cookbook that sounded (hopefully) yummy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Grapefuit and Walnut Salad

From: Practical vegetarian cookery (1897)

The original recipe

My initial thoughts

Sounds easy enough. Not sure about putting cayenne pepper on grapefruit though... That might either be surprisingly good or really weird tasting. 

The Ingredients

(Makes approximately 4 servings)

• Two Grapefruit
• Walnuts
• 3 Tbsp Oil (I used a light olive oil, but I would suggest trying grape-seed oil if you have it)
• 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• A pinch of salt
• A pinch of cayenne pepper

Cooking Instructions

1. Cut grapefruit into pieces. The recipe doesn't specify what size/shape, so I cut mine into bit-sized chunks.
2. Measure out walnuts. This doesn't need to be exact, but you should have roughly twice as much grapefruit as walnuts. I crushed my walnuts slightly to make them easier to eat. Add the walnuts to the fruit.
3. Mix the oil, lemon juice, salt and cayenne pepper together. Pour over the fruit and nuts. 
4. Chill in the fridge for a couple hours.

The Result

Hmm.... I'm still not quite sure about this one. I was expecting to either love it or hate it, but the end result was just "meh". Not bad, not great. It was very quick to make, with total prep time only being about 5 minutes. But the end result was just so surprisingly bland! The taste of the vinaigrette disappears under the taste of the grapefruit (though I did notice a slight aftertaste, which I suspect was the oil). Toasting the nuts a bit might help this recipe, but I don't think I'll bother to try this one again. I'd rather broil my grapefruit with a bit of honey , instead of wasting any more on this recipe. 

Let me know if there's any type of recipe you want me to try next, or a specific ingredient (or alternatively a recipe that doesn't include a certain ingredient, such as dairy, eggs, etc)!

That's All.

The infamous 3-hour sweater

Hello everyone! I've been MIA for a while due to work (it's exam time for summer students), but hopefully life will be back to normal by the end of the week. I am very much looking forward to kicking my feet up for a few days before diving head first into all the sewing I'm behind on.

The only project I've managed to complete lately is another 3-hour sweater. This is my third one, and possibly my favourite. I love the soft minty green shade of the yarn and I extended the bottom ribbing which I think gives a more flattering fit for my body type. On my last sweater, I made the mistake of not switching back to small needles for the top ribbing (the pattern doesn't actually tell you to), but I fixed that on this one and am much happier with the neckline. I opted for a little yarn tie at the neck instead of a button, but I may change it since the tie doesn't like to stay done up. Other than that, I followed the original instructions (a lot of the "3-hour sweater's" you see use a modified version of the pattern). 

Anyone else tried the 3-hour sweater? (If not, you can get the pattern for free here). I've never heard of anyone actually completing it in 3 hours, but it is a very quick knit. Perhaps the 10 hour sweater would be a more correct name. It's my go-to quick vintage knit at the moment. I'm torn about what to knit next though. Any suggestions?

That's All.

Swim Suits (1926)

Whoops, just realized I haven't posted in a couple weeks. This short little post will have to do until work slows down a bit! Aren't their bathing suits adorable?! I'm not sure which is my favourite. I think I'm torn between the checkered one and the spider web one.