Giveaway time!

My problems with Blogger seem to be sorted out and I hope that is true for the rest of you. If you still can’t comment, please send me a mail to isis.33 at passagen.se (The mail addy is now correct, btw...) and tell me who you are and I will count you in on the giveaway. So, on to the fun stuff.

I no longer have 99 followers but a few over 100, but the more the merrier. My original plan was to give away fabric or patterns, but then I fell in love with this:



A Worth fashion print from 1943. I hope you like it as much as I do- I just adore the hats. And I feel it fits very well into the theme of this blog.

There are a few rules though… Nothing too hard, though.
1.The giveaway is open for anyone, regardless of country.
2.You need to follow this blog to enter. You can create a Blogger account without having a blog on your own, so not writing yourself shouldn’t have to stop you.
3.To enter, please comment with you contact info. I’d love to hear what you would like me to write more about, but that isn’t necessarily.
4.To get an extra chance, mention this giveaway on your own blog and come back and give me a link to it.
5.The giveaway will be open until midnight Swedish time, UTC+01 (CET) on Monday June 6, 2011.
6.The winner will be selected randomly.

A second prize will be given, but just a very small one. A felt flower of my making.



Good luck!

Nothing is new...

Recently I saw an ad for this bra.



And then I stumbled upon an ad from 1949 for a very similar one. I just love the colours and the little frill!

99 followers and an upcoming giveaway

I have a ninety-nine followers! Wow! Considering how new this blog is I'm actually a bit overwhelmed. Thank you all for reading my blog! I had planned that if I reached 99 I would have a giveaway, but as Blogger still seem to give people trouble when they try to comment I feel that it would be unfair to have it now. Just letting you know that it's coming- as soon as the commenting trouble have been sorted out! (And if you wonder why 99 and not an even 100, then it is because 99 is one of my favourite numbers- my son was born in 1999)

Once again, thank you for reading!

The Knitting Problem

Blogger grew worse on me and I couldn't even log in- still can't with my usual web browser. Superheidi gave me the tip to use Safari instead, and it works! Phew!

There are some things that I will definitely purchase for my wardrobe and knitted things are definitely among those. I know how to knit, but I’m not good at it. The question is, how to find a 1940’s sweater? Or rather, how do you find two, as I need a white one and a red one.

I'm not ignoring you

For some reason I can post and edit my posts, but as soon as I try to answer comments, Blogger refuses to acknowledge me and eternally wants me to log in again. But every time I log in I get kicked back to the log in page when I try to answer. The same happens when I try to comment on other blogs. Very frustrating as I have a couple of comments here that I would like to respond to. I promise, I have tried!

I won an award!

The Rules

1—Thank the person who gave you the award
2—Share 7 Random things about yourself
3—Tag several other blogs that you've discovered recently.


The Gratitude
Thank you to Formerly Modern. Check her out, she has some very nice outfit photos!

The Seven Random Facts
1. I have a BA in the Swedish equivalent of English and I read constantly and usually more than one book at the same time.
2. I work with public relations for a small train company. I had never planned to work with trains, but sort of slipped in on that career and found I liked it.
3. When I don’t bury myself in the 1940’s you will probably find me in the 18th century instead.
4. I love shoes. I culled drastically last year but still own more than 40 pairs.
5. I have no formal training when it comes to sewing- I have learned by trial and error, but I have some pattern construction under the belt.
6. I’m a night owl.
7. I’m a cat’s person, but despite having five cats I’m not really a crazy cat lady. It was just that I had two cats and my darling had three and you can do the math… And as I have refrained from showering you with cat pictures until now, I will now take the opportunity to show some:

Silks, pure and artifical

The third and last part on the fabric list, here are the party stuff! I hope you have enjoyed it!

Wool

I love wool! Wonderful to sew in and wonderful to look at. Here is part two on fabrics used in the 1940’s. The third and last one will be all about the silks. I must say that I think the notes sometimes are a hoot. Why does they say that wool velour is the no 1 for the French woman?

Cotton, linen and man-made fabrics

An important aspect when making clothes from a bygone era is the choosing the right fabric. It is perhaps not the first thing one thinks about, but how a fabric drapes plays an important part in how a garment looks. Just imagine a dress made of voile and then think of the same cut in velvet. This post is a list of fabric from the 1940’s. To not make it too long, there will be two additional posts that will cover wool and silk. I have translated this list from Swedish and though I hope not, there may be inaccuracies. If you spot one, please tell me! Some of the fabrics mentioned are stuff I have never heard of before, which makes it a bit tricky to translate. Sometimes I have felt to add to the original text; in that case I do so with bold letters.

Reprinted patterns

I have no inspiration at all right now, due to a really bad cold. My whole head feels like it been stuffed with cotton and I swear your IQ drops when it feels like that. So I take the easy way out and make a post that I almost finished awhile ago on reprinted patterns. Here is a little list on where you can buy some. I’m sure there are more of them out there, so if you think I have missed any, please tell me.

There are a lot of vintage patterns out there, but my problem with those is that I have a hard time finding them in my size. I am, what in the 1940’s was called, junoesque, which I think is a much lovelier thing to say than plain plus sized.

I read blogs

I read Susan´s Diary-Vintage Style Meets Heavy Music. It’s a small blog, but very cute and I really think it ought to interest more people. The focus is on the 40’s and 50’s and there are a lot of vintage photos. My favourite posts is the one where a number of Gil Elvgren's pin-ups are compared to the photos of the real models.

1940's manicure

I finally managed to make a proper half-moon manicure! We went to a big birthday bash yesterday and as I had the whole day off I spent some time on my nails. Previously I have tried ordinary tape to mask the half-moon and found that way too difficult. The main problems were the fact that it sticks too well, which makes it hard to handle and at the same time it's so stiff that it's difficult to smooth it down properly on the nail. Yesterday I tried surgical tape and it was so much easier!

I read blogs

I read Casey’s Elegant Musings . Odds are that you do as well, but if not, then you have something nice to check out. I have been following her for years, since the time she made historical clothes at LiveJournal and I have always been impressed by her ability to do beauty whatever she do, seemingly without effort. She is beautiful as well and very kind and helpful. There are always something interesting to read in her blog, among other things she do lovely tutorials, they are very informative and easy to follow. It was almost impossible for me to pick a favourite post, but as I know many struggles with pin-curls, here are a post about that. . Especially helpful if you have thick hair as pin-curls seem to behave very differently depending on your hair quality.

If anyone wonders which blog a spotlight then I can tell you that I spin my bloglist through a random generator and use that order. I will need to re-do that now and then as I add new blogs. I’ll try to do one every week, so sooner or later I should go through them all.

The Perfumed Court

After writing my last post I set out to see which perfumes I could find. Years ago a friend recommended The Perfumed Court and though I had forgotten about it I found it again when I searched for perfumes. To quote them, they:

We specialize in offering perfume samples and perfume decants of a superlative array of fragrances. What we do is spray, pour, or use sterile pipettes to take perfume from its original large bottle and repackage it in a smaller bottle (we only use brand new sterile glass bottles) so that the consumer can try as many fragrances as they desire before buying a full bottle.

Finding the right perfume

I’m a bit of a fragrance nerd. I find it a fascinating subject and I love Luca Turin’s theory (well, he expanded it) that it isn’t a molecule’s shape that determines the scent, but its vibration, like music for your nose. Humans have actually a very good sense of smell and smelling something is a very good way to evoke a memory or a certain feeling. For me a fragrance can be a way to complete an outfit and I wear perfume every day. However, perfumes are generally alcohol-based and for some reason I find such fragrances way too strong and gives me headache. Though I love perfume, I can’t stand it when it is too strong.

How to walk properly

Walking is good for you, but it is important to walk properly. If you do that you use both the muscles in you legs as those in your abdomen. The feet should be parallel, about 5-10 centimetres apart. keep the weight of your body over the foot valve. The hip joint should move smoothly, but not the hips! Make sure you upper body is held upright, don't lean forward. Keep your shoulders back, but neither keep the stiff nor swivel them around. The head should be held upright and look forward, not in at the ground.

I read blogs

I read Sew Retro. It’s not a private blog, but a blog for anyone who likes to sew retro and vintage clothes. You don’t have to have a blog on your own to post there, so if you sew and want a place to show off, but not a blog, then Sew Retro is a great place. You do need a Blogger account, but you know that you can have that even if you don’t blog, right? Being a compilation blog, so to speak, I won’t point you to any particular post. Just go there and browse. I have found a number of great blogs through it!

(Talk about repetitive use of the word blog…)

Evening gowns

According to my list, when I start to build my wardrobe I should already possess a simple evening gown in black crepe and for the spring wardrobe an evening gown in a dotted fabric should be added. For the next spring, a blue evening gown is to be acquired, as the dotted gown clearly just lasts one season before it is to be made into a short dress. The blue one though, it is pointed out, is suitable for all seasons. Now having two evening gowns to change between, the authors clearly feel that the evening wardrobe is filled and for year three and four these two gowns will be used as well.