A New Era

It's time for more vintage enthusiasm, dancing, sewing, thrifting, surface pattern designing (pictured: Bubblegum Calico), European adventures, and *wait for it* my first home, built new to my design specifications! Keep an eye on my Instagram @creativelygraceful for all the exciting, inspiring things! As always...Make Everything Beautiful!

Looker

I was recently talking with a dance friend, swooning about how another dance friend just gave her a dress, and then the following weekend I had the same blissfully benevolent fashion experience. Check out this new-to-me Stop Staring dress. It fits perfectly, is a very flattering cut, the fabric has a nice stretch to it, and its circle skirt is light and twirly. It could pass for 1940s or '50s. I am so excited to wear it!

On the Fringe

Here on the exhilarating brink of the '20s I am in full flapper outfit planning mode. I am browsing these stunning inspirational images on Pinterest and collecting any bits of fringe and glam textiles I can find. Charleston-friendly couture coming soon!

Pumpkin Satin

I have finally come across some pumpkin-hued satin in my second-hand perusing! The texture and colour are dreamy. My plan is to turn this scrap into a spaghetti strap shirt with a ruffle neckline. 

Silky

I am so in love with this silver-backed iridescent rust and violet patterned silk shawl. It looks like it could belong to her. Vibes of layered oriental rugs, leather ottomans, precious treasures, and starry nights...

Pumpkin Spice Blazer

Latest find! Rust velvet blazer for mere cents at the local thrift! To make this even sweeter, it's Marjorie Hamilton, vintage Canadian made. I'm drooling over the fact that I get to wear this!

Bronze and Brass

I carried this purse at the wedding I recently attended. Finally, after a long childhood of it lurking in the dress up box, I put it to real use! It was my grandmother's, circa the '70s, though it could pass for the 1940s. I love its metallic beading and bronze satin interior.

Grey Goddess

Here's a detail shot of my latest sewing success! I'm wearing it to a wedding this weekend. This is one of those projects where I really wish I had remembered to take a before photo. This dress started as a voluminously large skirt from the local thrift (less than $1) that I chopped up and concocted, using every last scrap. As per my impulsively creative norm, I busted straight in to trial-and-error sewing, though that error was seemingly non-existent as this project was the most delightfully smooth, seam ripper-less sewing endeavour I have ever experienced. I just kept stitching along, chunk by chunk, and everything worked. The fabric was a dream to sew--it is the softest, flowiest, rayon-like cotton. I love the subtle sheen of the pattern over it. Creating that quilted bust panel, the puff sleeves, and the satin-meets-silk convertible sash were the highlights. In my mind I was imagining '30s/'40s glam meets Classical statue, and voilà, that's how it's sewn up.

Vogue 1922

Sneak peak! I found this dress and plan to alter it into flapper frock inspired by this June 1922 Vogue cover.  

Liberty Scarf

Loving the pattern and flowy hand of this Liberty scarf! Also the blue and orange contrast is so cheery. I dug it out of a scarf pile at the local thrift store and was not surprised to see the name. That iconic illustrative style!

Strawberry Pin

A freshly picked pin straight from the ripe fields of the local thrift store...on William Morris' Strawberry Thief, naturally. 

Strawberry Shirts Forever

As per June tradition, the strawberries outside are flowering and I'm working on various strawberry themed creative projects. Here's a dress from Joe Fresh I found at a thrift store, shown partially deconstructed. I already own it in blue, so I decided to turn this pink version into a shirt. It will likely be a peplum crop top with puffy sleeves. I wish I knew the name of the surface pattern designer, as it is the fabric I love. It's like a fusion of my Strawberry Blonde and Splashy in Watermelon! Thank you, anonymous creative!

All that Jazz

I have been on the hunt to find or make a neon sign that says "jazz" but have not yet found what I have in mind. So in the meantime I have decorated a shirt to suffice. I found this cropped navy sweatshirt at the local thrift store. It originally had large white bell sleeves sewn under the sleeve ruffle. It was a cute design, but it looked absolutely dorky on me, and wouldn't be practical for working or dancing anyway, so I cut them out. I knew this navy was going to be the perfect background to have text stand out on, so I just needed to find some embellishment materials in the form of ribbon. In my stash I dug out some vintage poppy red lace bias and gold rickrack, both in their original packages. First I trimmed the sleeves with the lace, mainly to keep the raw edges of the knit from rolling, and to give the ruffle a highlight of the poppy red. Then I wrote with ribbon and sewed it on and voilà! As improvised and vibrant as the music itself. Off to spend the weekend dancing to vintage jazz!

Minxy Vintage

I found this book (or it found me), rather appropriately, at the local thrift store along with some clothes to repurpose. I highly recommend! It was exciting for me because there were so many moments of "Wow, this lady crawled inside my brain!" in terms of fashion philosophy and winging it to produce some sartorial statements. Here's a particularly well-expressed tidbit of fashion philosophy I have to share: "I can attest to the importance of finding clothes you can integrate into your existing style. I'm not about stridently holding up the ideals of other eras--the modern world is grand. It's precisely the mix of old and new that I love...And who wants to be, or slavishly replicate, a woman in the pre-feminist 1940s? Certainly not me...Long live our love for cherry-picking the best bits from the past, and making them new again: reinvention, rather than nostalgia. Whatever you do, just make sure you own it. Individuality is a quality to be admired."--Kelly Doust, intriguing point.

Solemates

Behold these shoes. 

Sturdy Italian leather oxfords, peanut butter hued, equally smooth, with pretty perforations.

I have stalled on this post because there is so much to say. Conveyed poorly, it could seem like materialistic worship, but oh the depths of how much these shoes and I have gone through. I will keep this as concisely explanatory as possible because my real tome is going to be an epic tale crafted through much praise and reflection. This is actually pair N°2. The original pair now looks like this: 

Now, I found these well-loved beauties at Value Village for $13 in fall 2013. They carried me through 6 solid years of constant use, innumerable adventures and places and monumental life events. The irony of ironies is that a week or so after buying them I was at the very same Value Village and saw the very same pair, but, not having worn them yet, I smiled and strolled on, amused by the thrifty happenstance of seeing the same item I had just purchased. Little did I know I would fall head over heels in love with these shoes and spend the next 6 years kicking myself for not buying that pair that got away. I wore these shoes with everything and walked everywhere in them. I have hot glued their toe seams at least 3 times, and, for the past couple years of their life, the left heel has been entirely supported by gravel that packed itself into a hole in the rubber sole. Amusingly, the sheer laces I replaced the original laces with stood up to all that constant wear! Who knew sheer ribbon was so indestructible?! Anyway, I even recently took them to a cobbler to see if they could be resoled and all that jazz, and he said they could, for $60, as he lovingly admired the quality leather. So I contemplated facilitating a shoe resurrection as I simultaneously kept kicking myself for not buying that second pair when I saw them. Rationally, in their current state, I have had the urge to flat out chuck these shoes in the garbage on several occasions, but as oddly materially sentimental as it sounds, they truly are like old friends and I just couldn't. These shabby suckers deserve a proper burial if and when they leave my closet. I actually started a massive memory document, a shoe narrative, the aforementioned epic tale, about all we have been through, complete with photographic evidence of those past 6 years. Until that is complete, they shall stick around for inspiration. 

So the other week I was at Value Village and my jaw dropped to the floor when I saw the shoes, MY shoes, MY solemates sitting on the shelf in my size in perfect condition. No more grief about the demise of pair N°1 or regret about the pair that never was! I picked them up in amazement and said a laugh-filled prayer of blissful thankfulness about how beautifully life is weaved together. God never fails to circle things into life right at the perfect time, at the end of an era, to seamlessly blend one beautiful phase into another. So here's to chapter 2 with pair N° 2 and all the adventures we will, stroll, frolic, and bound through together these next 6+ years!

Apricot Lace

I found this pretty cotton dress at a thrift store, originally from Forever 21. Though it is contemporary, it has the perfect structure to be transformed into a gloriously Edwardian gown that would fit right into a Downton scene. I love the pale apricot fabric, mesh neckline, low square back, and lace details. It is a costume project in the works for whenever I next discover an outdoor tea or the like to attend! It shall be lengthened and embellished. 

Mustard Moment

Have you noticed the quantity of mustard items in décor and fashion shops this spring? I had a good chuckle when I realized that I had subconsciously caught the mustard-on-the-mind wave in February (and I will add, before I went shopping, I had the front vignettes of the store thoroughly, cheerfully embellished with the hue). Naturally, I am currently sitting here fixing some buttons on a mustard cardigan. It's everywhere!

'40s Military Dress

This past weekend I attended Swingfest and swing danced surrounded by tanks and planes! This is the WWII inspired dress I tweaked and wore for the event. I found the original dress in the summer for mere cents at the local thrift haunt. I love its military green cotton searsucker fabric with the bit of stretch. The original dress was basically sleeveless so I spent months keeping an eye out for similar coloured fabric whenever I was thrifting, so as to have some material to make sleeves out of. Nothing turned up. Then one day I was trying it on again, and while taking it off it flipped inside out and I realized it had a slip! Glorious discovery! So I promptly ripped that slip out and started chopping it up to make the sleeves and lapels you see here. I also swapped out the buttons for these brassy ones. Lesson: always look under the dress' skirt for extra fabric!

Wallace Hall

I just spent the weekend swing dancing in the John Deutsch University Centre at Queen's University in Kingston for the Queen's Swing Dance Club's 20th Anniversary. Very conveniently, I have a Vera scarf that resembles Queen's blue, yellow, and red flag so that made a perfectly festive headscarf. The music by Gordon Webster and band was mind-blowing as always, and I thoroughly enjoying swinging out amidst the beautiful wooden panelling, lofty ceiling, and grand portraits of intellectual individuals!

Sewing Patterns

Guess what? I don't know how to sew using a pattern. At least, I've yet to sew a project using one from start to finish without assistance...and quite frankly, I have no desire to! For whatever reason, instructions on how to be creative just don't fly in my brain. It's much easier for me to look at the final garment, and then start chopping up existing garments or fabric chunks and sewing them together, and seeing what happens. The results are usually pretty cool. So I have a nice collection of vintage sewing patterns, but admittedly it's more for inspiration and ephemera appreciation than for actual use! Though I do like to keep a variety around as a last resort sewing weapon in my back pocket, should my usual drape-and-stitch method flop, or demand precision.