movie rec: Roman Holiday

movie rec: Roman Holiday

Betty Grable

Betty Grable

jayne mansfield

jayne mansfield

Marilyn Monroe, 1951.

Marilyn Monroe, 1951.

Vintage art: Super crafty book design

Hands down the coolest story I've seen on the internet in a long while: secret fore-edge book paintings revealed at the University of Iowa.

all images copyright Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Iowastory by Collosal

Now I want to go to the flea market and play art detective.

School's almost out!

This picture does a pretty good job of displaying my exuberance. 

One more week.

Swing Time.

Always my favorite.

Happy Birthday, Fred Astaire

The Night Witches

In 1941 when Germany invaded Russia, a female aviatrix named Marina Raskova worked to form regiments of women fighter pilots. There were three: the 586th, the 587th, and the 588th.

The Germans came to fear the 588th so much they called them the Nachthexen, or the Night Witches.

Most of the pilots were approximately 20 years old.

They flew militarized crop dusters, a pilot and a navigator, open cockpits with no radio or machine gun. 

Largely due to the simpleness of the planes they flew, they were often undetected by German radar.  On approach, the pilot would kill the engine and float silently until she dropped her bomb. On the ground, there was no warning. 

Their planes' slow speeds and ability to make tight turns made it next to impossible for German fighters to catch them; the Witches had far more maneuverability. 

Over the course of the war, the 588th alone would fly more than 24,000 missions. 

Thirty-one members of the regiment died in combat. Twenty-four were made Heroes of the Soviet Union. 

The Night Witches. 

Not lost to history. 

Not today. 

"The bravest are surely those 

who have the clearest vision

of what is before them,

glory and danger alike,

and yet notwithstanding,

go out to meet it."

~Thucydides

Vintage Patterns: Wiggle Dresses

I'm a tad enamored of "wiggle dresses" right now, and I've had some fun packages in the mail over the past few days!  It's like Christmas came early!

My favorite may be this Advance shirtwaist, in wiggle form. Love love the pockets and the simple shape.  So cute!

I also won this McCalls 6778 wiggle with keyhole neckline (and bonus gored skirt) but it didn't arrive. :(  I don't know if the seller forgot to mail it or if it was lost somewhere.  I have decent luck on ebay and etsy, so I'm hoping this seller still pulls through for me!

This Simplicity 3109 suit is so cute!  It's a skirt, jacket, and pussy-bow blouse.  Love!

This isn't a wiggle, but an adorable dress nonetheless, in an unusual larger bust size.  I had to snag it!

And now for the ones I didn't win or I'm too cheap to bid on (doesn't mean I can't set up an ebay saved search for the future though!)

This mail order pattern is sooo gorgeous.  It started out really cheap but quickly escalated.  I think the final bid was $65.  Whoa.

But it's definitely gorgeous!

This is a basic wiggle with raglan sleeves and a cute little jacket.  You could make a million dresses from a pattern like this and let the fabrics and trims disguise the fact that they're all from the same pattern!

I never win the Prominent Designer patterns.  They're ALWAYS too pricy.  But beautiful.

Wiggle dresses are so fitted it's a little risky for me to start one as a new project since I'm in size-fluctuation.

So of course I want to make half a dozen RIGHT NOW.

The little Advance shirtdress is definitely on my radar though, it's exactly my current size!  That should be permission enough, am I right??

Happy Thursday peeps!

Collar Inspiration

I've got 4 woven blouses in the "UFO" pile that just need hems and buttonholes/buttons.  It's always the little things, isn't it? I can set in a sleeve and attach that collar and I stall on the EASIEST PART!  Argh.

Anywho...4 unfinished blouses isn't enough to stop me from dreaming about a whole slew of new ones (especially since all 4 of these will have to have the darts taken in so they fit now!)  Currently, I'm especially taken with collars.

Like this lovely from Puttin-on-the-Ritz:

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A wide peter pan with keyhole:

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Another scaled down peter pan:

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lace...

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And whoever said I am not appreciative of subtlety has clearly been hitting the sauce. Subtle shaped collar right here folks..

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If you can figure out this next foldy origami-ish collar and send me the instructions, I'll give you ten cookies. And some tasty fudge.

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Another simple lace collar...easy to substitute allover lace for fabric! Probably backed in organdy or another sheer (I'll take organdy over chiffon any day).

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Speaking of organdy...I don't think there are words for how much I love this organdy collar with faggoting. Over a vintage 30s print.  No. Words.

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This layered almost-collar is so very 1930s too:

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Pintucked velvet..

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Pintucked velvet seems like a proper place to stop salivating.  And could I get any more dainty and girlified?  No?  Oh you just wait.  I saved all the bows and tie collars and necklines for a post all their own!

You're welcome.

And in the spirit of gratitude in this week of Thanksgiving, I'd like to say...I'm thankful for all of you. Your visits and comments and emails and snark add much to my days.  Without you I would be convinced that the world out there is not fit for the me in here. Or vice versa. So thank you.

wednesday wisdom.

Call the Midwife: 50s Inspiration

Kristine got me hooked on Call the Midwife last week when I had a long weekend and total control of the television.  Have you been watching??

Set in the late 1950s, the story follows Jenny, a young nurse who takes a position as a midwife in very poor East End London.  Jenny discovers on arrival that she will be living and working with the nuns at Nonnatus House.

The fashions and hair are very period accurate, so it was pretty much love at first sight.  Then the storyline sucked me right in annnnddd... it's all over.  I'm hooked.   

street fashions

I love Jenny's sweet style.  They all spend most of their time in uniform, but you get glimpses of everyday fashions from their patients and the people on the street, and when the girls are "off duty".  Jenny is a cardigan and swishy skirt kind of girl.

Isn't she adorable?  Her hair is so cute too.  I'm very tempted by this hair.  And her wardrobe. When Jenny arrives to Nonnatus House in the first episode, she's wearing this beautiful suit:

I am now very nearly obsessed with finding a vintage pattern to duplicate it. I read a blog that speculated the suit was from the 40s, not the 50s, but I disagree.  I think it is very period appropriate.  The nipped in jacket, with shortened sleeves, and the tiny bow accents all speak 50s to me. Check out the suit in the illustration below, which is from a Progressive Farmer catalog, 1957:

And this sweet tailored suit from 1953 is very similar. I'm feeling knockoff inspiration!

My love for Jenny has very nearly been eclipsed by her friend and fellow midwife Trixie.

Trixie is sassy and fun and a big old flirt.  She's also gorgeous and has more of a "bombshell" vibe than our sweet Jenny.  She drinks and smokes and wears pants (occasionally) and strips down to her skivvies and jumps in the pool! With boys!

The awesomesauce that is Trixie is best told in full animation: 

Then there's Chummy, the very tall, very awkward, very amazing latecomer to their small group.  Who pretty much steals the show.

Chummy sews!!

(I don't remember that part.  Kristine??)

I don't even have space left in this post to tell you about the nuns, who have their own special quirks and adorableness.

Or the tiny midwife, whose name I can never remember (sorry, tiny midwife).

 

The only quibble I have with the show has to do with the American PBS broadcast, which has been editing out 7 minutes of each episode.  SEVEN MINUTES.  Ugh. I was hoping my Amazon On Demand episodes would be the full British broadcast, the way my Downton Abbey eps are, but nope. 

Are you watching???