I’ve been waiting to show you this project for a long time and I finally got my hair to work out long enough (thanks to a sideways clipped bang extension) to take a decent photo of my finished hat (above) so that I could complete the post. I’m not entirely sure what you would call this style of hat exactly. I know that it resembles a “halo hat”, but a true halo hat has a band almost like a huge beret, so that’s not it. I’m going to go with “1940’s large brim hat”. I became inspired to try this out when I was at the thrift store a couple of weeks ago and saw a hat partially sticking out from under one of the racks. It was covered in dust and looked like it had been kicked all around the store before it ran and hid under some hanging sweaters.

With only part of it showing, it looked a lot like one of the 1940’s large brim hats that I see in old movies or in photos from that era like those in the images above. It also reminded me of the turquoise and black velvet version of one of these hats that I bought several years ago which you can gaze upon below. I have a small collection of hats, but only one brown one, and that’s a pill box. I thought a brown hat in this style (because the hat I saw was brown felt) would be a perfect addition to the pile. When I picked it up and saw that it was $2.50, its fate was sealed and into the cart it went.

The biggest mystery of a hat to me is how they shape the form. I can decorate a hat 20 ways to Sunday, but the actual construction secrets have always eluded me. Being able to start with an already constructed base and transforming it into what I want ended up being so easy that anyone can do it! The hat I used here was a J. Lo style floppy wool hat.

Below is a gallery with photos of the restyling process that are accompanied by instructions, which will help you form the basic “frame” of the hat. What you do to customize the hat is up to you and really, the sky is the limit. I covered mine with brown velvet (which was the leftover hem from an old pair of IKEA drapes) and made a band with a side scrunch (which was a leftover strip of wool from and old suit that I tore apart many moons ago.) I would estimate that the entire thing cost me under $4, and that was just because of the spray adhesive I used when covering it.

I’ll start by saying that some people have a skewed view of what “vintage” shoes look like. With the surge in women dressing in a mid-century pin-up style, the line between what vintage really looks like and what a modern idea of sexy is have become very blurred. Authentic 1940′s shoes do not look like they just spent a night on stage at the Pink Squirrel Lounge. If you care about authenticity, you can’t slap a bow onto some stripper heels and call it vintage. Now, if you don’t care about being realistic, then by all means… wear whatever shoes you want. If you DO care, there are companies out there that produce faithful reproductions of vintage styles, you don’t have to settle for someone else’s rather loose interpretation.

In my personal experience, I’ve found that one of the best and most overlooked places to find vintage looking shoes is at estate sales. I’m not really sure if I’m the only one who has noticed it or not, but “old lady shoes” look a WHOLE lot like shoes from the 1940′s. For example, both pairs above are from my personal closet. The pair on the left is a 1980′s pair of shoes from the estate sale of an elderly woman. The pair on the right are authentic 1940′s and were purchased at a thrift store. I’ve probably come across 45 pairs like the tan wedges in my thrifting days, but only one pair like the green. In the same manner as those above, the two pairs below are very similar, but were made over half a century apart. The pair on the left is from my own closet and were probably made after the year 2000; as where the gold pair on the right are from the archives of the Met Museum and were made in 1942. While not exact replicas, both of these newer pairs of shoes are close enough in appearance to their antique counterparts to “pass” for vintage when putting an outfit together. The most important thing is to get your SHAPE right, you can modify everything else if need be, as long as you have the right “frame” to start with. If you aren’t looking for anything too fancy, there are old standbys that have changed very little over the decades: slip on deck shoes, penny loafers, white Keds, saddle shoes and of course espadrilles!

It is important to familiarize yourself with REAL vintage shoes before you set out hunting. I recommend browsing the Met Museum’s archives, searching for period images that feature shoes and old fashion magazines are a great source for shoe pictures as well. I’ve compiled a pretty good collection of images of period shoes on my Stylish Steppin’ board on Pinterest; if you have some free time to browse, feel free to stop by. Once you are completely familiar with the shapes and details that you are looking for, it won’t take you any time at all to spot them in the “wild”. I put together a little collage below of shoes shown in photos of Rita Hayworth to illustrate my point about “old lady shoes”. Notice that many of them bare a strong resemblance to something you might have seen shuffling around a retirement home.

One of the biggest mistakes that I see with “vintage repro” shoes is that the heels are too thin and tall and that they don’t have enough coverage. The very high, thin heels with strappy, “barely there” fronts didn’t become popular until the 1950′s. It’s really fairly easy to find 1950′s and early 60′s styled shoes. Authentic examples are still pretty common in thrift stores and I see them online a lot. The basic shapes of that time period continued to be produced into the 80′s, making them still plentiful and fairly cheap today. These two authentic 50′s sets below were purchased from thrift stores for under $3 a pair.

If you are looking for something even older than the 40′s, I would suggest that you don’t wear anything produced prior to the mid 30′s. They seem to be so rare and fragile that I’m not sure that the majority of pieces would last more than a day or so. I’ve read where other experts don’t even suggest wearing anything predating WWII because of their value, I’m not that strict with it, but you don’t want a beautiful pair of shoes to fall apart on you; so be wise in chosing which ones are fit to wear and which ones are better off left on the shelf to look at. I have two pairs in my personal stash from the 30′s that are very stable and can be worn, but as I said, I wouldn’t suggest it for most examples. The brown pair below are from the late 30′s to early 40′s and the black booties are from the 30′s. Both of these were found at thrift stores a couple of years ago, so don’t lose hope, they are out there! It is easy to spot real vintage booties; most pairs of low-ankle booties that are produced now have stiletto heels, which the originals DON’T have. Another dead give away of an old shoe is the soles, look for leather and nails.

The twenties are actually more easily reproduced than you would think. While authentic examples are almost non-existent outside of museums, the basic shape was heavily reproduced in the late 1980′s and throughout the 1990′s. This shoe below is from the 1920′s and is part of the Met Museum’s collections. In the 20′s and early 30′s there were basically two variations of this, the plain ankle strap (below) and the T-strap. I love a nice t-strap myself. The 20′s saw more variety in decoration than in shapes really. You can find this shape of shoes, made in the 90′s, just about anywhere. All you need are some rhinestones, maybe some fabric paint or a curved needle and you could jazz them up to be pure jazz age with very little effort.

The Edwardian period saw the skirts rise enough to get a peek at the shoes and therefore they became a bit fancier across the board. As with the 20′s shoes, you can find a very simple pair of booties produced in the 90′s just about anywhere, and with a little effort they can be decorated to be more representative of the period. The green suede booties below came from a thrift store and are my own shoes; the white pair is from 1914 and belong to the Met. Buckles were the common closure of Edwardian shoes, but I think that in most cases you could get by with a laced version. One important thing to look for is the relatively low and flared heel style, another is a squared off toe which, from my research, seemed to be the norm at this point and had not been rounded off as of yet.

Of course we all know the Victorian button boot and there have been many companies over the years who have made them. Costuming warehouses make “real” versions that will set you back a couple hundred dollars, or you can buy a repro when you can find them. They become popular in cycles it seems, they were popular when Victoriana made a resurgence during my high school years and now they are popular again with the rise of “steampunk”. I WORE OUT my cream colored pair from my school days, but I found this nice leather pair at a thrift store for about $5. The buttons are real, although they are not the method of closure; they zip on the inside ankles; it is very well hidden when the boots are on and they look very realistic. They aso have leather soles and leather wrapped heels which add to the realism. You shouldn’t have too hard of a time finding a reproduction pair made in the last 30 years that are in decent shape for under $50.

If you are creeped out by wearing someone else’s old shoes, there are some companies that make new versions of old styles as I mentioned at the beginning. Below I’ve chosen a few pairs to share, starting with Re-Mix vintage shoes, this is by far my favorite company and they make seemingly true replica’s of historic shoes. While they aren’t cheap exactly, their prices aren’t so high that they are completely unattainable either. Buying one of their repro pairs is going to be far less expensive than buying most original pairs. In my Etsy shop I sell things cheaply because I acquire them cheaply and I want to be able to sleep at night, but for the most part, most sellers are shilling shoes from the 40′s for $200 and up regardless of what sort of condition they are in. Re-Mix’s shoes are a safer bet if you are new to the hunt, because you get an identical look and you know they are in NEW condition. Miz Mooz, Miss L. Fire, Seychelles & Chie Mihara complete the selections. On the other hand, if you don’t mind used, by all means go forth into the thrifty world and harvest! To me, part of the fun is the hunt itself, not just having the shoes. I also enjoy taking a very plain pair from 20 years ago and altering them to be a fabulous replica from days passed. After writing this post, I decided that I should finally go ahead and part with some of my vintage shoes that aren’t perfect fits for me. It was hard to do, but there is no reason for me to keep shoes that I likely will never wear. They belong where they can be worn and shown off, so I listed several pairs in my Etsy shop, even a couple of the pairs featured here in this post. If you’d like to check them out, feel free to head over and browse.

I am absolutely in love with this new Singer sewing machine! The 160 was created to celebrate the 160 year anniversary of the Singer brand. In recent years, have you seen anything as sleek and sexy as this come on the market? I love the black color, the lines, and the gold accents! It is just simply stunning and is a great modern adaptation of its sisters of past days. I would love to buy one, but alas, they are currently SOLD OUT! Listing price on the Singer website is “$500 and up.” They were never sold via the Singer website however and were ONLY ever sold by the Home Shopping Network for $375. I can only imagine WHY they chose to go that route. If they had given a few of the major craft bloggers one of these (for only a fraction of what they paid HSN I can assume) and told them to write about it, the word would have been out and they would have sold 12,000 units instead of 6,000. Once they see this thing, who wouldn’t want one? I cringe at the thought of it only being available to people who can sit in front of the TV 24/7 and watch for it, what about the rest of us? My mind flashes to all of those episodes of Hoarders where they find stacks of unopened boxes with HSN printed down the sides that have gotten wet and rotted, covered in bags of… well you know what’s in those bags if you watch the show. Just the thought of one of these meeting a fate like that hurts me inside. There is no word as to if these will ever be in stock again, although I did see Singer respond to someone else that they will eventually be available in the UK, so they must have more stashed somewhere. I asked if they had any plans for selling this anywhere else, or only on HSN and I received no response.

Now for some information about the machine itself. The features of this machine include; 24 Built-In, SwiftSmart Threading System with automatic needle threader, OneTouch Stitch Selection, Simple Stitch, Quick View Stitch, Drop & Sew Bobbin, Presser Foot, Extra-Large Sewing, Drop Feed Quick Start Guide, Machine Intro DVD, All-Purpose Foot, Zipper Foot, Buttonhole Foot with Underplate, Blind Hem Foot, Satin Stitch Foot, Pack of Needles, Bobbins (Class 15J), Thread Spool Caps, Auxiliary Spool Pin, Spool Pin Felt, Needle Plate Screwdriver, Seam Ripper / Lint Brush, Soft-Sided Dust Cove, Instruction Manual, Power Cord, Foot Control, Fringe Foot, Cut & Hem Edge Attachment, Narrow Hem Foot, Roller Foot, 1/4″ Foot, Cording Foot, Darning & Embroidery Foot, Open Toe Foot, Invisible Zipper Foot, Flower Stitch Attachment, Carry Bag with Should Strap, Sew Retro: A Stylist History of the Sewing Revolution book and The Invention of the Sewing Machine booklet.

I’m leery of new machines though, having spent a small fortune on one several years ago that resulted in total disaster and complete loss of several hundred hard earned dollars. My machine worked for just under a year, I never put heavy stress on it and used it maybe 20 times total due to some unexpected interruptions in my life. When it quit, I was able to return it for the same model, because it had been less than a year since I had purchased it. The second machine was again, not used very much, and then promptly died just out of service terms. We paid a repair man $40 to evaluate the machine, he basically walked in, saw that it had a digital screen and said that it couldn’t be fixed and would be cheaper to buy a new one. With some of my own investigations, I found that it was one of the plastic pieces inside that had broken. After hours on the phone with the company, $30 and several weeks, I received my tiny part. The machine worked for a day or two and then locked up and would never work again. Loving Husband took it out into the driveway and smashed it with a baseball bat, making us both feel MUCH better. In the process of dealing with new model machines that are poorly crafted, I had not only lost my sanity, but also an agreement with a widely distributed plus-size women’s magazine to provided enough vintage style dresses to them for an entire photo shoot.

While this heinous machine was NOT a Singer, it has still left such a bad taste in my mouth for any machine with a digital read out and lots of buttons on it that no matter how badly I might want one, I’m not sure if I could bring myself to lay out that kind of cash again. I currently have three machines, 2 of which work (the third, an old 1940′s Singer, needs the cord replaced and a new belt.) The one I regularly use is a Brother, the Project Runway limited edition machine. Although this machine is a newer model, it has very few bells and whistles. It does need to be cleaned VERY frequently and jams often, but for the most part it has served me well, costing only $130 when I purchased it new. I grew up with my father’s industrial Nelco machine that sounded like a helicopter taking off, but would sew through a tin can. It is goldenrod yellow and the case is taped together. As the story goes, someone was robbing the building that my father’s office was in when he worked in Hollywood and they fell through the ceiling, landing right on his machine and busting the case, but not even scratching the machine. My most recent machine is an aqua Singer that I purchased at a small flea market for $24. The lady was quite snotty about the fact that she had a new machine and no longer needed this one even though it worked perfectly, so I was fine with taking her abuse and the machine. It is a basic unit and makes a lot of noise, but as a backup machine it works in a pinch. The big question is, I squeak by with the machines that I have, and as much as I would ADORE one of these new Singer 160’s, am I willing to put myself (and my money) out there again, only to have my heart broken?

***Update***
Singer did finally reply to my inquery as to when or where these will ever be available to the general public by saying: “Yes, The SINGER 160 sewing machine will be available in other retailers in the future. We will be updating our website soon.”

I have been very much in need of a vacation as of late, and since that isn’t feasible with Loving Husband’s work schedule, I have had to pacify myself with looking through our photos from vacations past. One of my favorites was to Colonial Williamsburg in the fall of 2009. I had always wanted to go and even though I lived 30 minutes south of it for a year, I was never able to make it unless I wanted to go alone. During that time LH was always on deployments and had very heavy work schedules when he was in port, and it would have been no fun to go by myself. I was so excited when I finally was able to go see it for myself. While seeing it on line and reading about it in books is pretty great, it still is nothing compared to being in the middle of it all. When you are surrounded by it, it’s like having been sent back in time.

The first really impressive building that you see as you enter via the farm side is the Capitol building (both above). This structure sets the tone for a lot of what you will see reflected in the government buildings. Williamsburg is full of so many interesting and educational experiences, we just loved it! I wish that we had more time there, but the Navy called and we were unable to visit for any longer than we did. Some of the places that you can’t miss are the museums (housed in one building), The Cheese Shoppe, the milliner’s, the gardener, the Palace kitchen (and garden) and you must take the Candlelight Ghost Tour that meets at the William & Mary Bookstore in Merchants Square (we loved it!) We were lucky enough to arrive just as the newest edition to the collection of buildings, R. Charlton’s Coffeehouse, was being opened to the public. Make sure you stop in and try the authentic period hot chocolate; we bought a whole bag to take home with us! On the subject of period treats, there are several restaurants on site that serve period correct foods. We tried a few of them, but our favorite was The King’s Arms Tavern. I had a delicious prime rib and LH had the lamb chop. The atmosphere in the evening is so unique, very romantic. If you plan your visit out before you go, you’ll be able to hit just about all of the displays, parades, lectures and demonstrations that you’d like. You are not allowed to enter ALL of the homes, as some of them are actually privately owned residences, but there are several buildings, especially along the main street, that you are allowed to poke your head into. Some places, like the printer and the farmer, are a little tucked away, but worth investigating. Even if you don’t enter any of the buildings, the area is laid out and planned so well that there is something picturesque and charming around every corner.

The tour of the Governor’s Palace (above) and its formal gardens (above also) is something that you have to do if you are as interested in how the other half lived 200+ years ago as I am. They take your through the main house, the gardens, the kitchen garden and the kitchens. If you like taking photos of yourself, I would suggest doing this here early in the day before you get messy from walking around the dusty streets for hours. There are so many picturesque backdrops here, including tunneled tree avenues! Loving Husband and I took a few of ourselves while we were there and they came out so pretty.

These gorgeous white pierce work dishes are part of the massive and amazing collection of the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. If you ever visit Colonial Williamsburg, you absolutely have to visit. Their permanent collection is full of so many beautiful objects. I was unable to take very many photos, because by this time my camera card was completely full and my spare was malfunctioning. Perhaps if LH and I are ever able to return, I will have an empty card! I know that these images below look like they are very scratchy, which they are somewhat because of the museum lighting, but they look the way they do because I have uploaded them in full size so that you will be able to click on them, and enlarge them to really see all of the gorgeous hand stitching covering every inch of them. The items are part of an exhibit called “Quilted Fashions” that was featured at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum. Most of my photos did not turn out well; these four below are the best of the ones that I took. The display included many quilts, jackets, vests, coverlets and several quilted petticoats. The stitching was truly amazing!

If you can’t make it all the way to Virginia to visit in person, their website has so much information that I have never been able to get through all of it. Most of their museum collections are on line, there are videos, podcasts, recipes, costume information, maps, and thousands of articles on countless historical subjects. It is well worth looking around!

I haven’t been writing my regular thrifting posts as I used to, so I have a few months worth to catch up on with this entry. I figured that I had better not wait any longer before I became overwhelmed trying to remember what everything cost me. Items that I have bought for the shop are not included in this (or any) of my thrifting posts. Yesterday morning we went to a nice estate sale. I was after a couple of mid-century modern Dansk pans, but the guy who’s wife sent him to sit in the freezing car at 5am so that he could be the first on the entrance list got to them WAY ahead me! We still found some pretty interesting things though. The best part was the house itself; it had 1950′s appliances in the kitchen and a section at the back of the library that was a step down into an area of loose gravel flooring. Often times the house can be more worth waiting in line than the contents that are for sale. I was overjoyed to not only be able to get this shelving unit above before any other thrifter did, but to get it for only $10! Each shelf is slightly larger than the dimensions of a piece of paper and they start out at the bottom being 3 or 4 inches apart and slowly graduate to wider separations at the top. There are 28 shelves not counting the bottom. It is all handmade and meant to be recessed into a wall. All I need is a little paint and to put a back on this and it will be the PERFECT edition to my craft room at the house… especially when paired with my vintage pattern case below!

I’ve had pretty good luck finding awesome and inexpensive craft room items. Take this aqua blue 1967 Singer 347 sewing machine made in Great Britain for example; it still works great and is used as my back-up machine. I bought it at a little local flea market for $24 and it cleaned up brilliantly!

If you are interested in seeing some of the other great finds I’ve made, I’ve provided a gallery below.

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I do LOVE these vintage “See America” posters! I’ve already voiced my love of vintage travel posters and of course, American destinations are some of the coolest. The depression era art style of these posters below is beautiful. The originals are worth a small fortune if you can find them, but you can buy reprints from several places on the internet. One of those places gave this little snippet of background info on the pieces:

WPA Posters ( Works Progress Administration) were made during the WWII Era between 1936 and 1943 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal. They were designed to publicize health and safety programs; cultural programs including art exhibitions, theatrical, and musical performances; travel and tourism; educational programs; and community activities in seventeen states and the District of Columbia. The posters were made possible by one of the first U.S. Government programs to support the arts.

I liked these images so much that I made them into a set of four bookmarks that I printed out from my computer. I’ve posted them below for anyone else who would like to make them as well. Right click and save the image to your computer for future printing. All you’ll need is a color printer, scissors, a whole punch and some baker’s twine. Once they are printed out, cut along the edges to separate them. Punch out the hole where it is shown at the top. I laminated mine, which I would recommend, especially if you have an ink jet printer and not a laser printer because if it were to get wet the ink would run. Once they are laminated, you can loop the twine around once and tie it or you could tie on a tassel or something decorative. For step by step instructions for making a tassel, visit this page at Martha Stewart Crafts. If you would like to use ribbon instead of twine you can. I preferred the look of the unbleached cotton twine for this project, but please feel free to make it your own. The image is larger than it displays here and will print as a full page.

I posted about these lovely vintage-look t-strap heels by Chie Mihara a while ago on another blog. I love the fabric, color and overall look of these shoes. I wanted to update the article because of a post I recently read on Elegant Musings about vintage shoes. In her post she displayed a vintage shoe ad that pictured a pair that I immediately recognized. The first pair shown in the top image of her post are strikingly similar to these Rosette lovelies you see here. I LOVE seeing clear vintage influences in modern fashion! These are available at Neiman Marcus and have recently been marked down from $390 to $175.

One of my favorite desserts is Black Forest Cake! This chocolate & cherry cake is known as Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte in its native Germany. Schwarzwälder, meaning “Black Forest”, describes the region of Germany where this dessert originated. The Black Forest was named by the Romans who referred to it as such because the forests were so dense that they blocked out most of the sunlight, making them very dark. The Black Forest region is in the southwestern corner of the country in the state of Baden-Württemberg. I’ve marked the forests on the map below with red stars. The Kirschtorte half of the name comes from the traditional inclusion of an alcoholic liquid called Kirsch, made from distilled cherries. A torte is a cake. When you put it all together you get Black Forest cherry liquor cake, and in fact, in Germany you can’t market the cake AS a Black Forest Cake withOUT the liquor. Our recipe contains no Kirsch and is completely non-alcoholic, but feel free to add it if you’d like. This Americanized version still contains the chocolate cake, cherries and whipped cream that make it so delicious!

I know that a lot of parents read my blog and can be very busy or sometimes have restrictive schedules; because of this we made our recipe with a boxed chocolate cake mix. If you have ample time and wish to make your cake batter from scratch, we recommend Martha Stewart’s basic chocolate cake recipe. More time saving measures would be to skip the fresh cherry preparation and the homemade whipped cream frosting and to instead use canned red tart pie cherries (1 & 1/4 standard size cans should do) and/or pre-made whipped cream. However, for best results you should always use fresh ingredients and start from scratch!

Ingredients

• 1 boxed chocolate cake mix – prepared to bake or one recipe homemade chocolate cake ready to bake
• 2 Cups fresh cherries or 1 & 1/4 cans cherry pie cherries
• 1/4 Cup granulated sugar (if using fresh cherries)
• 2 pints heavy whipping cream or pre-made whipped cream
• 2/3 Cup confectioner’s sugar (if making your own whipped cream)
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

You Will Also Need…

• non-stick baking spray or baking cups (paper or silicone will do)
• cupcake/muffin pan
• melon baller
• pastry bag with your choice of tip
• hand mixer (whisk beaters are a plus)
• glass mixing bowl

Directions

If you are using fresh cherries, pit and half fruits the night before you prepare the cupcakes. Sprinkle 1/4C granulated sugar over 2C of cut cherries and mix to disperse evenly. Cover with plastic wrap or lid and refrigerate overnight. This process is known as maceration and is intended to soften or break down the fresh fruit while drawing out the juices at the same time.

Prepare chocolate cake batter as instructed based on which type you chose to bake; box mix will have instructions and ingredients list on the packaging. Once batter is ready to bake, either spray the cupcake pan with non-stick spray or line it with baking cups. I personally find the cups easier to clean up after as the spray can tend to bake onto the pan. Fill the cups evenly 3/4 of the way and bake at temperature and for time suggested in respective instructions.

When finished baking, remove the cupcakes from the oven and allow them to cool. While cakes are cooling, place macerated cherries in a medium saucepan along with the extracted juices (and Kirsch if you are using it) and sauté until fruit is soft like pie filling. If you are not using fresh cherries, this would be the right time to open your cans of cherries. Right now you should place your mixer beaters and your glass bowl in the freezer for approximately 30 minutes to get it nice and cold before you start your whipped cream frosting. If you are using store bought whipped cream then skip this and go on to the next step.

When cupcakes are cool enough to handle, remove part of the top center of each cake, leaving a cavity into which you will put the cherries. I have seen many people do this using a small cylindrical cookie cutter; however, we have found that the quickest and most efficient way to remove this part of the cupcake is to use a melon baller. We save & freeze or snack on the removed parts of the cake because it’s a shame to waste good chocolate!

After you have made space in each cake for the cherries, spoon the fruits into each opening until the top is level and ready to be frosted.

Remove the chilled beaters and the glass bowl from the freezer. Place heavy cream, vanilla and 1/3 of confectioner’s sugar into chilled bowl and whip with mixer set on high. Once combined, slowly add the rest of the sugar until soft peaks begin to form.

When you are satisfied with the consistency of your frosting, spoon mixture into pastry bag and pipe desired amount onto each cupcake. Decorate however you wish, I use a little shaved chocolate.