· Fairy Queen ·

In celebration of finally getting back to this blog (I've missed you all and blogging!!), I had to share my favorite new photos first....  At the height of my estate sale excursions a year ago, I came across a sale with this lovely organdy dress in just my size!  I am not usually a purple person, but when the dress fits perfectly... you just roll with it.  I'm so glad that I did, because I am in love with this delicate orchid/lavender color and I honestly don't know why I haven't worn this color before!

I was afraid that I would have to hem this dress because the original owner was quite tall, but with heels and good posture I manage to just barely avoid tripping! ;-)

Has anyone else been loving the show "The Crown"? I know I'm late to the party, but it's sooooo good!  The clothing/hair/makeup is so perfect and such a delight to see!  This outfit makes me feel like I could be in that show, which is one of the best feelings ever. ;-)

This vintage hat was part of a large collection that was generously given to us by a stranger my mom met in a hotel lobby while traveling.  She was part of a historical museum that was running out of room and she shipped a giant box of hats across the country to us.  That's one of the reasons I love vintage and am so passionate about wearing older styles boldly- vintage appeals to such a wide range of people and has a wonderful ability to inspire conversations with total strangers. I love the interactions I have on a regular basis with just about anyone and everyone! :-)

The dress is made of a stiff cotton organdy (why, oh why is organdy not a commonly available fabric?? this stuff is Amazing.) and lined in taffeta. The inner bodice is a simple rectangle with an elastic casing at the top.  It's remarkably still stretchy after 70ish years.... They really don't make elastic like they used to!  The dress closes down the bodice with large covered buttons and on the side with a zipper.  The sash is attached on one end to the zipper, but there was no fastener visible? I've made do with safety pinning the other end in place for each wearing, but I'm not sure what the original plan was! I think I'll end up sewing snaps for an easier way to get dressed. ;-)

The skirt isn't terribly full, but the fabric still makes it feel elegant and dramatic.  The huge tuck in the skirt also adds lovely weight and body to the skirt!

My lovely gold Chelsea Crew shoes are the perfect touch to peek out. :-)

For such a simple dress, it does have some fun unexpected details like the top buttons which are attached by a thread chain and each placed through bound buttonholes at the neckline.

I decided that this dress had a simple elegance of its own, so I kept the accessories super simple for this dress and only wore a pearl necklace. :-)

Thanks for hanging in there during my prolonged absence! While I'm continuing to figure out how regularly I can keep up with blogging, I do have several more posts already on the docket to share. :-) See you soon!

· photos by Kathryn ·

· Estate Sale Score! ·

My apologies for neglecting this blog of late!  Life has been a new kind of busy lately and I'm still working on settling into the new normal :-)  I've had several posts waiting in my drafts folder and I'm super excited to share them!  Of course, I've been enjoying the anticipation of sharing these for the past few months, but that only does so much for you...  This post has been waiting too long to share, but in my defense- it's only just now seasonally appropriate again. ;-)

This was one of our very first vintage dresses that actually *fit*!  We happened upon it at our first estate sale and didn't have the opportunity to try it on before purchasing, but it ended up fitting like a glove. :-)  We've picked up several vintage pieces that we can wear in the past couple years and like I've said before, it really has had a big impact on my personal style and mental process of creating new garments.

It's also funny what I'll wear for the sake of vintage- I'm really not a big fan of navy.  I've never been fond of it and I don't think it's a good color for me.  It's something I'm definitely willing to overlook in the cause of wearing an amazing and fun 1940s dress though!

This dress was also one of my first steps towards building up a tolerance for high, high necklines.  Oh, the mid-century love of choke-y necklines!  I've become quite adjusted to them by now, thankfully. ;-)

Can we just take a moment and admire that awesome neckline?!!  I think it's so clever to use just the smallest hints of a contrasting color to add interest to this dress and the zig-zag neckline gets major cool points in my book.  The overall styling of the dress is just enough different from my usual designs that it is a great inspiration to think outside of my usual rut!

GAH. Miss L Fire wins again.

These great shoes were a purchase from Royal Vintage last year, although they're out of stock now. :-(  RV has more Miss L Fire styles in stock, and the detailing of them is always superb!  I adore the shape of these and that little curlicue is the icing on the cake!

My only caveat is that I think MLF's peep-toe styles fit me better than the closed toe...  These shoes don't live up to an all-day outing, but that just means I have all the more reason to wear them on partial-day outings. ;-)

And then vintage dresses have funny little quirks like this!  A back neck zipper, 5" of seam, then a back waist zipper.  This is a subject I'm pretty ignorant on- anyone know why they did that?  I always thought it was because a zipper going all the way down a back seam ends up bubbling due to the extra bit of bodice length for ease.  Is that true?  I've come across long vintage zippers before, so I don't think that was the deciding factor.  Pipe up if you have any insight!! :-)

Since I don't gravitate towards navy or maroon, I didn't have any accessories in those colors.  I do have lots of black, though!  This 1940s hat was a surprise find at an antique store when I was least expecting it, but it's become such a staple for my 40s looks! 

Sweet scalloped gloves!  And also- why do I ever wear black?? So. Much. Lint. :-P

Until I had this dress, I was under the impression that peplums and larger hips didn't go well together.  Now that I've dispelled that notion, and I'm excited about the options that have opened up! :-)

Dramatic vintage poses are always a good idea.  Until you're posing in front of a public building and then discover that you've attracted an audience of spectators inside.

Ahem. I may or may not have this experience frequently during photoshoots... "Carry on! Nothing to see here!"  Just yet another chapter in The Awkward Life of Lily. ;-)

· photos, as ever, by the remarkable Kathryn! ·

*I received my shoes at a discount in exchange for posting online and all links to RV are affiliates- thanks for helping me indulge my love of shoes! ;-)

Estate Sale Finds · Glassware

When I was home for Easter weekend, my mom and I were able to take advantage of several different estate sales/thrift stores.  Many goodies ensued!  And basically, I just realized yet again how much I love old stuff.  It's kind of a weird thing to enjoy when you think about it, but I'm glad there are so many others like me in the world and that we now have the internet to feel connected in our love of old. ;-)

It rekindled the desire to share this post- it's been floating around in the drafts folder for nigh onto a year, and it's high time it finally saw the light of day!

I have a few different collections that I purposefully keep an eye open for (luggage, globes, cake plates, attractive books...) and- glassware!

I've admired pink depression glass for years, and it's always been a secret desire of mine to have a set.  I must admit that its current extreme popularity in the antiques community has made my pocketbook reluctant to comply with my desires, so I've been on a mission to bide my time and wait for super great deals.

Last spring, I came across 2 cups at an antique mall severely discounted due to their lack of matching saucers.  I realized how dumb that idea was after bringing them home.  The chance of finding the saucers for sale separately is like finding a needle in a haystack.  There are SO. MANY. styles of depression glass!  A few weeks later, our town was having town-wide garage sales; we never go, but with our new-found love of estate-saling, I thought it might be fun!  A crunched time schedule and threatening rain meant that we only hit 5 or so sales, but as it would happen.... one of them had pink depression glass!  The prices were amazing.  I picked up 3 cups and saucers, a platter, and.... they had 2 cups and 4 saucers in the same pattern I had at home!  That means there were exactly as many loner saucers as I was in need of!  Amazing!!

 I'm beyond thrilled with how the whole situation worked out, but I have learned my lesson not to randomly add loners to my collection without *very* good reasons. ;-)

I currently have "Queen Mary", ''Coronation", and "Old Cafe" in my collection.  I love the idea of a slightly mismatched set, but I'm hoping to contain my collection to just these 3 styles.  The hope is that this measure will keep my collection to a managable level. ;-)  One thing about estate-saling is that it exposes and encourages the dark side of hoarding, so I'm trying to only aquire (semi)wisely. ;-)



I suspect that these goblets aren't originals, but nevertheless, we couldn't really resist sipping out of pink goblets. ;-)

My very favorite style of china has long been china in the Royal Copenhagen design.  As far as I can discern, the design originated as "Blue Fluted" in the late 1700s with the, well, Royal Copenhagen manufactury.  The style has been picked up by several other china manufacturers, so there are lots of versions of it with slightly different variations!



I stumbled across a set of 7 cups and saucers and a creamer and sugar set last May in an antique store in Texas, so I am now commited to the Myott "Finlandia" style.  This is another set that I'm going to add to slowly and I'm open to getting less than a complete set.  I think it's a great set for mixing-and-matching with other blue-and-white or plain white china pieces. :-)

I am just so thrilled to finally be starting the 2 glassware collections I've admired so long, and since part of the enjoyment of the process is the thrill of the hunt, I'm excited about slowly adding in pieces!

Do you have any glass/china collections that you're always on the look-out for?  Have you ever come across fabulous deals you just couldn't pass up? (Ha! Who am I kidding?? We've all done that before.... ;-))

· A Practically Vintage Plaid Skirt ·

Several months ago, I posted about some fabric I found on our first-ever estate sale trip.  I'm pleased to report that I have indeed finally done justice to it!

The fabric originally came with some magazine clippings that were very inspiring, but it soon became apparent that the quantity of fabric was so limited that I would need to use very judicious cutting to even manage a skirt from it!

I had a few different options for the skirt style, but I wanted to be certain that whatever I chose would do justice to the fabric and be something I'd love. :-)  It was so fortunate that one of my tried-and-true skirt patterns fit perfectly!

To add interest to the skirt, I made decorative welt pockets.  Whew.  That single element was more work and stress than the rest of the skirt combined, but considering how simple the rest was- I think I could manage a bit of extra mind work. ;-)

My cute little brooch from Switzerland!  My mom has had a similar one for years, so when we went to Switzerland I knew a brooch like this would be on the top of my souvenir list!  One of the charms is inscribed with the town of Murren, which is where I purchased it.

My shoes are from Amerimark- an "old lady" store with a remarkably large amount of classic styles at affordable prices!  This style is almost sold out, but a few sizes are still remaining!

One thing is for sure though- I have no previous experience with stiletto heels!  I haven't quite reached the appropriate level of gracefulness yet. ;-) 

At an estate sale this past fall, we found a treasure trove of old metal zippers from the 1940s- this was one of them.  I never realized how wonderfully thin and garment-appropriate metal zippers used to be!  I always thought of them like the chunky versions for sale today, but these have a very low profile (less obtrusive than modern plastic "regular" zippers) and are so smooth!  I'm a fan. ;-)

This hat is among our collection of "rarely worn" hats.  Its demure little bow is charming, but not quite my usual, and the overall shape works much better now that I have shorter hair!  Time will tell whether it becomes a new favorite or whether this was just a good opportunity to give it a bit of love. ;-) 

Matchy, matchy!  This fabric was so obliging and willingly submitted to matching the plaid on the *first* time.

I'm enamored.

· Photos, as always, by the wonderful Kathryn! ·

· Perfectly Autumnal Mexican Skirt ·

A month ago now, I was able to get together with Kathryn to finally grab some shots of my fabulous vintage skirt I found this past spring, and we had a splendid location for them!  I absolutely adore it when we can get photos like this of outfits that so perfectly mirror their surroundings!  The coordination was totally unplanned, but the photos turned out better than I ever hoped for. :-)

Ever since starting our estate sale habit this past spring, we've been adding to our collection of old odds and ends around the house- most frequently jewelry, it seems!  Clothing tends to be few and far between, and I'm in a place right now where I'm perfectly happy making my own clothes so I don't feel the need to be a truly aggressive shopper.

All that being said, we have been able to add a few things to our wardrobes, and this fabulous skirt is one of them. :-)

It's a hand-painted mexican circle skirt!!  To be honest, this was never a "holy grail" item for me- in fact, I'm not entirely sure I knew they were a thing.  However, I adore this skirt.  I was planning on making a summer-y blouse to go with it, but that just never panned out this year... I think the color scheme transitions quite nicely to fall though!

The skirt was in impeccable condition; the painting is done in metallics and gives the skirt a nice stiffness that makes it feel almost formal.

An added bonus to the skirt is that it's exactly my size!  I'm not as small as the usual offerings we come across, so I was fully prepared to alter the skirt to fit but it's nice to not need to. ;-)

As a side note, I actually ended up getting a black crinoline a few weeks after these photos, and it's both fuller and more color-approriate-when-glimpsed than this one and thus more suited to a photoshoot....  Ah well, can't win them all. ;-)

Oh, and can I just say YAY! for the weather being non-humid and cold enough that I feel like wearing my hair down!!  I enjoyed the break from setting it every night over the summer, but I'll be honest... I was actually missing the process by Sept.  That surprised me, but hey, I'll take it!

After my (mis)adventures with a middy cut last year, I decided to play it straight this year (no pun intended. No really, it's not intended...) and get a plain bob with just a little bit of layering.  So far I think it's a vast improvement, but I'm still open to a little more tweaking... ;-)

I paired it with my stand-by, why-in-the-world-didn't-I-make-this-years-ago blouse and a sweater I got from Kohl's last year and altered for a more vintage-appropriate fit. (but hooray for that vintage-esque beading!)

Thanks for visiting!

· Photos by Kathryn ·