1940s bustle-back skirt

(Sorry about the fuzziness; I asked my dad to not use the flash, and this is what came of it! Sigh!)

I've been wanting to try Evadress 5569 for about a year now, so recently I finally bought it. I was inspired to use a red plaid by this fashion sketch of an Elsa Schiaparelli bustle skirt from 1948. I love this pattern -- from the front it looks like a regular pencil skirt, and then you turn around and lo! all these amazing details! You could even omit the bustle and just make a skirt with drape-y pleats in the back. Despite how it looks from the front, the skirt is quite full, with plenty of room for walking.

For a few more slightly-fuzzy-yet-better-shots-of-the-bustle pictures, click here and here.

Sisters

This is a framed painting my Aunt Joanna gave me for my birthday this summer. We were in an antique store in Ohio and I admired it, so she offered to buy it for me as a gift! It's a fitting subject, since she and I are the only daughters born into the family... AND it goes well with the excessively feminine decor of my boudoir. :)

The Box of Delights

One of my favorite Christmas-y stories is The Box of Delights by John Masefield, the former Poet Laureate of Great Britain. My dad first introduced me to it as a girl, but I didn't much appreciate it until I was "grown up." (I had the same reaction to other well-known children's fantasy novels such as The Chronicles of Narnia or Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet -- ironically, now that I am older, I can more easily indulge in the willing suspension of disbelief!)

Kay Harker is on his way home to Seekings for his first school holidays when he meets an old Punch and Judy man, Cole Hawlings, who tells him that "the wolves are running." The "wolves" are arch-villain Abner Brown and his gang, who are posing as clergymen and who will stop at nothing to get the small, black box carried by Cole Hawlings. It is, of course, the Box of Delights, and it is full of magic. Cole entrusts the box to Kay to keep for him. Cole, Kay's guardian and friends, and local clergymen (including the Bishop!) are soon "scrobbled" [kidnapped] by Abner and his gang, and it's up to Kay to find a way to rescue them before Tatchester Cathedral's 1,000th Christmas service is canceled. Kay has marvelous adventures and meets some wonderful companions along the way! The book was written between the World Wars, and contains a strong flavor of an England which is now gone.

The Box of Delights is actually a sequel to The Midnight Folk, also by John Masefield, but it stands well enough on its own. And if you do decide to hunt down a copy, make sure it's unabridged! These books have been difficult to find in the U.S. in the past; however, I looked on Amazon for the purposes of this post and I found that there is a new hardcover edition being released this year, and from the page count I think it is probably unabridged.

The BBC made a film of The Box of Delights back in 1984, which I also highly recommend, if you are not bored by the outdated special effects and low-budget look of the first Chronicles of Narnia movies -- it is very similar in look and feel. Again, this is probably going to be hard to get ahold of it you live outside the UK, but try inter-library loan if you're interested!

The Messiah begins!

The first rehearsal for Handel's Messiah took place tonight, which Dad and I eagerly attended. Dad decided to sing as a bass since he's somewhere in between the tenor and the bass sections. I'm in with the altos. We went over some familiar parts ("For Unto Us a Child is Born," "Glory to God," etc.) and some that are not-so-familiar to me. (Somehow it had escaped me that "Worthy is the Lamb" has about a zillion "amen"s at the end! It's so easy to get lost!) Our choir director is hilarious -- he not only causes laughter every three seconds, but also imparts bits of baroque musical trivia along the way. He does a great job of correcting and guiding us.

Only five more rehearsals until the performance! December will soon be upon us! :)

Jesus Christ the Apple Tree

The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green:
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree.

His beauty doth all things excel:
By faith I know, but ne'er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.

For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasure dearly I have bought:
I missed of all; but now I see
'Tis found in Christ the apple tree.

I'm weary with my former toil,
Here I will sit and rest awhile:
Under the shadow I will be,
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.

This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.

--Anonymous, from the collection of Joshua Smith, New Hampshire, 1784


(For a most beautiful rendition of this hymn, check out the CD Faire is the Heaven, which also features magnificent works by Herbert Howells, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten, and the like!)

The new Victoria

So for those of you who have seen the newly resurrected Victoria magazine, what do you think? For myself, I'm hopeful for future issues, and happy to see a return to the format of the original magazine. I haven't had time yet to peruse this new issue very thoroughly, but I was bowled over by the beauty of Tasha Tudor's antique dresses, as photographed in their feature fashion story. What inspiration!

Nursery rhymes

One of our family's favorite nursery rhymes comes from the book, Catch Me and Kiss Me and Say it Again by Clyde and Wendy Watson (though I'm not sure if it originated in that book, or if it's an older rhyme). My parents recited it to my brother and I when we were small, and recently when I did an extended baby-sitting stint for three very small children, we enjoyed pulling out this old rhyme again. It was a joy to see my mom with two small toddlers on her lap, and everyone giggling uncontrollably! :)

To recite the rhyme properly, you need at least one small child on your knees. To start out, bounce them on your knees sedately in time with the rhyme, as if they were riding a horse.

Clip, clop, clipitty-clop,
Ride a cock-horse to the fair!
All of the people along the way
Look up to see who's there.

Giddy-up, Dobbin, Giddy-up, hey!
Let's go a little bit faster.
Trit-trot, trit-trot,
The little horse minds his master.

At this point, let your "horse" go wild!

All of a sudden, a-gallop, a-gallop,
Something has made him take fright!
Up and down and all over the place,
Hold on with all your might!

And now the horse calms down again.

Whoa, there, whoa, Dobbin,
Here's the fair at last.
Corey shall have a cranberry tart,
And you shall have sweet green grass!

And there you have it -- guaranteed to elicit cries of "Do that again!" :)

Diary of a Christmas dress

I don't make or buy a new Christmas dress every year, but it is fun to plan a special new dress for special holidays. When I was a girl, my mom made me many beautiful little dresses for Christmas and Easter, and now that I can sew for myself, I like to continue the tradition.

This year's inspiration comes from a dress that J. Crew sold last year, the Justine dress (view 1 and view 2). Even when it went on sale for a reasonable price, I resisted buying it because I knew it would be a huge pain to figure out how I could make that too-low neckline wearable.

Looking through my mom's old 1970s patterns, I found a few I thought I could amalgamate into something similar. The original J. Crew dress is rather 1940s-ish, and believe it or not, some '70s and '80s patterns have a '40s look about them. I quite liked the bust and shoulder darts on McCall's 4207, and I thought I could use the midriff and skirt pattern from Butterick 3731 (making the skirt tea-length and omitting the front seam). I will probably just experiment to get the sleeves right. Here's the little sketch I did of how the final outcome should look:


I'm planning on doing some other Christmas sewing, too, so here's hoping I can get this done! My goal is to have it finished by the time my Mom and I go to The Nutcracker ballet (another yearly tradition), on December 15.

Anticipating Christmas

Every year I try to hold back my excitement for the Christmas season until a reasonable time (i.e. after Thanksgiving), but it seems I just can't do it! I've been listening to Christmas music for a couple of weeks now and the other day I started reading one of my favorite Christmas-y books (The Box of Delights by John Masefield... perhaps I will post more about it later). I've been plotting and planning my Christmas dress (cranberry wool crepe) and dreaming up ideas for our family Christmas celebration. This year we have invited some of our closest family friends to come and spend the holiday with us, and we are anticipating a joyous time together! Some of the things I'm looking forward to this year:

• midnight mass at the Episcopalian church on Christmas Eve (we are not Episcopalian, but we occasionally enjoy their services when, as Lanier says, "our High Church longings mount to a certain point!")
  
• family advent devotions and Scripture readings
  
• A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols broadcast live on the radio from King's College, Cambridge
  
• gobs of Christmas foods and smells... wassail, oranges and cloves, gingerbread, cranberries, etc.
  
• exchanging homemade gifts

Has anyone else started anticipating Christmas? :)

Vintage shoes #3

Last and final shoe post! (I'm sure you're wondering how many vintage-y shoes one girl needs!) ;) These are some brown Etienne Aigner Mary-Janes that are really versatile and go with anything remotely 20s/30s-ish. I love them!

Here's a specific description of how I go about finding these shoes on eBay. I usually search by brand name (I mentioned some suggestions in my first post). I think I got the brand names from old magazine ads or fashion stories, probably mostly in Victoria magazine.

I put an 8 after the brand name, to narrow down the results to my size range (I can wear an 8 or 8.5 depending on the shoe, but just putting an "8" will bring up both sizes). Sometimes I won't find anything at all, so be persistent and check every once in a while. If you find something good, grab it! (I probably won't wear those beige suede shoes until spring/summer rolls around again, but the deal was too good to miss.)

Happy searching!

Vintage shoes #2

These are my latest eBay find, a pair of Enzo Angiolini suede heels, à la the 1920s. I got them for $11 (including shipping)!! Again, I'm sure these date from the late '80s or early '90s, but they look sooo vintage. (Check out those Louis heels!)

Oxford shoes

(This morning I spontaneously decided to incorporate today's post into a Show and Tell. This is my first time participating in such a thing... Enjoy!)


I have had great success with finding vintage-style shoes for reasonable prices on eBay. Many may not realize this, but there was a vintage revival in footwear styles in the late '80s and early '90s. Frequently, buying actual vintage shoes from the '20s or '30s is far too expensive, and the extreme age would make me wary of wearing them, anyway. Searching for shoes that are only 15-20 years old makes the price more reasonable (I've never paid more than $20, even with shipping), and the quality is better. Vintage-style shoes like this could never be found in stores nowadays -- I've looked!

These particular oxford shoes are made by Bernard Holtzman. Some other good brands to search for are Enzo Angiolini, Etienne Aigner, or Stuart Weitzman. There are certainly others I'm unaware of, too -- if you are older than me, you might have some better ideas. (I was just a kid during the time period in question!)

Throughout the next week, I'll share a few of my other eBay finds. If you've ever shared my frustration at finding beautiful, old-fashioned footwear, I hope these posts will help and inspire you!

Advance 9512

My friend Charis bought me two vintage patterns at an antiques & collectors show she attended recently. I was surprised and touched because she doesn't sew, but she knows I like vintage patterns! This one's even in my size -- I quite like the 3/4-length sleeves and the double-breasted style.

Sugar maple

Another photo from last year...

Autumn is coming!

The Scottish fiddle

On Sunday evening, I went with a few friends to a concert featuring Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas, playing the fiddle and cello, respectively. The venue was small and intimate, and the music ranged from a mournful dirge to foot-stomping reels and strathspeys. I was hoping that they would play a dance tune to finish us off at the end -- and they did, but unfortunately the room wasn't large enough to have any proper dancing.

Now I'm longing for a ceilidh!