#anAWWyear: August 1947 - Fashion, Jewellery and early Capsule Wardrobe advice

I'm kicking off my journey of a year through the Australian Women's Weekly with a tour through the fashion pages of August 1947.

Chic matching beret and jacket on the cover of Aug 23 1947

This month is dominated by French fashions, as the Women's Weekly was promoting their French Fashion Parades. While the parades were running twice daily in Sydney for the first half of August before moving on to Melbourne and Adelaide, showcasing over "100 frocks suitable for any occasion", the magazine was presenting pages of the frocks and shoes and jewellery for their readers.

My stand-out favourite outfit is this stunning wool suit by Robert Piguet -the details of the drape of the jacket are a little lost in the photograph but the curve of the jacket edge and the way the lapels sit pleases me greatly.

Gorgeous wool suit from the AWW French Fashion Parade
Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 9 1947, p5

Then at the other extreme of formality is this casual yachting outfit  with cute shorts, a belt "with pouches for powder, handkerchief and cigarettes" and those shoulders! I am very tempted to see what shorts with the "impudent notes" of rounded hips look like on me, as my hips are my proportionally smallest part. The original ensemble features a white and burnt orange striped top with green shorts.

Yachting costume, Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 2 1947, p11

The jewellery shown here was designed to accompany the fashions from the "great dress houses of Paris" and heavily features beads and pearls. I think the single strand tied into a bow high on the neck is rather charming, although I try to avoid such high necks myself.  I'd be far more likely to wear the two strands brought together in a large cluster just below the collarbone in the other picture below. 

Just two of the jewellery fashions on this page.
Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 9 1947, p21

As well as the more aspirational fashions from overseas, every issue of the AWW contains details of more achievable frocks and patterns which can be ordered through their fashion service. Some of the August highlights for me include this scalloped neckline dress, which looks amazing but would, let's be honest, be nerve-wracking and/or tedious to sew. Those scallops would take ages to sew accurately, and with the prominence around the neck and on the short sleeves you would definitely notice any flaws.

Dress featuring scallops from the Fashion Patterns service
Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 16 1947, p30

There is also this "Rita" frock which looks striking and more original than many such offerings, but I slightly worry one would end up looking like puzzle pieces.

Rita Frock from the Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 2 1947, p30

The advertisements this month didn't yield much fashion that I coveted, but there was one sketch of a coat in an Australian Wool Board advertisement that caught my eye

Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 30 1947, p17

Recently I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking about a capsule wardrobe (verdict: has been very useful in narrowing down what I want my style to be, but I am no closer to implementing it) so I was interested to see some advice in Dress Sense by Betty Keep to a reader asking about basic rules to help her make sure she had things to actually wear from her 'plenty of clothes'.  The response is very simple capsule wardrobe advice

The way to organise your clothes life is to buy only clothes that do harmonise. 

You should plan not only for the moment, but for the season ahead.

Never buy any garment without thinking "Have I the necessary accessories, or can I afford new ones?" 

Always select a basic color and be sure it is becoming. 

Lastly, take into consideration whether the greater part of your life is spent out-of-doors, in an office, or at home, and plan the biggest part of your wardrobe for that purpose.

Which, sadly, means that both the chic wool suit and the yachting outfit really shouldn't be making an appearance in my life any time soon! 

Post-Christmas present round up and resolution scorecard

Absolutely the worst thing about crafting presents is being unable to show them off until after you've gifted them. Sometimes, if the recipient is either very young or a Luddite, you can share it early, but not when the gift is (for example) for your sister who follows you on every social media platform. (As I do her, to be fair!)  I have been BURSTING to show off some of the gifts I've made this year and now I finally can.

But first....
My scorecard.
Back in April I made a resolution that, apart from gifts for my husband and geek exchanges, I'd have 75% of my gifts handmade, and 75% of those be made from stash or edible.

So how did I do? Not so well. Only 33% were handmade.
However a further 18% were second hand or were books bought with store credit earned from trading in culled books. Another 10% were bought edible, which while not consumery good at least won't be cluttering up the recipient's house for long.
I did much better on the secondary goal, as 88% of the handmade gifts were edible or made from stash.

I'm going to make the same resolution for next Christmas, at the same levels, and see if I can achieve it this year.

Onto the pretty pictures!

Daffodil brooch

I crocheted a brooch for my mother, a small cluster of daffodils. Done in a variety of stash yellow and green embroidery floss, and sewn onto a green felt backing, I adapted a magazine pattern but changed it slightly for each flower.

Such cheery daffodils for a Welsh winter

Cthulhu heat pad

I bought this fat quarter from Spoonflower a few years ago and this year I finally made it up into a gift for my sister-in-law. This was a design in one of Spoonflower's weekly design competitions. Filled with rice to be microwaved and heated, she can take it to work and display her geeky credentials even more.

So cute!

Pizza pendant

This year I participated in Chronically Vintage's Vintage Secret Santa exchange. My target said they liked quirky jewellery like hotdog earrings or ice cream brooches, so I thought that as well as the items I bought for her I'd make this crocheted pizza slice. Made from stash embroidery floss, and adapted from a full size pattern, I attached a clip so it could be put on a chain to use as a pendant or used as a key ring or bag clip.

Fancy a slice? The finished pizza.

Crocheted feature buttons

I made several gifts for my sister including these crocheted buttons. As I only made one in each design, they'll probably be used as a feature rather than as a closure, but that's up to her! Both yarns were bought in a vintage sale, and I crocheted to fit over self-cover buttons.

Mini-books

Last year I downloaded a dozen or so free craft e-books. Many were ... lame. One that stood out was Quirk Books D.I.Y. Gift Guide  which is a sampler of projects from 8 or 9 books published by Quirk. My favourite was these mini-books from their book Microcrafts. 

The signatures (groups of pages) are sewn together and the covers made around card. They are tiny! Fiddly but fun.

The sewn signatures and the cover waiting to be assembled. 

Top down view. The coin gives scale. 

The finished books. 

As it happens I also made a hat for my sister and in line with tradition totally forgot to take a photo. I'll do that in a different post.

Overall I'm very happy with all my homemade gifts this year (I made a lot of edible gifts that I didn't photograph, and a few other little sewn items) and with how they were recieved. (Although I have no idea how my #Vintagesecretsanta target felt with my gifts!)
But I am disappointed that I didn't meet my 75% target, and sadly aware that part of the problem is giving too many gifts!

New sparks of joy

I wrote earlier this year about my KonMari inspired decluttering. While I generally focus on what I'm getting rid of (470 books! Umpteen CDs and DVDs! 2 bags of clothes! Etc), I thought the new year was a good time to reflect on things I'm keeping.  The main criteria for keeping or discarding most items is whether or not they "spark joy". 
Now, let's be honest. I've kept things that don't entirely make the cut. Clothes that are ok but I can't cull till I replace or I will own no jeans, swimwear or coats.  Items which bring me joy as part of a system (my crochet tools as a whole bring me joy) but not themselves (my stitch markers are cheap green and pink plastic ones I got free with a magazine and they do not bring particular joy). But there are some things that really make me smile every time I use them, and in honour of New Year's Day I thought I'd make a list of things which have entered my life in the last two years that definitely spark joy.

La crueset tea for one set

Just lovely.

A Christmas present from last year, I adore using this.  It gets used for leisurely tea. It feels lovely in my hands and as a bonus looks awesome with my new kitchen's colours.

My new laundry

I never thought I'd wax lyrical about a laundry.

There are many things I love about the post renovation house, but I get a little burst of pleasure every time I go into my laundry. Tiles. TWO SINKS. Two. My huge IKEA Pax wardrobe as linen cupboard. Did I mention my two sinks?

My snap press

Mid nappy making

There is something incredibly satisfying about using this. Not just because the snaps look amazing and professional, but in the actual physical process too.

My tea necklace

Tea accessorises all outfits, correct?

There's a story behind this. Last year for a geek Christmas exchange I had a target who is a massive Star Trek, and Picard in particular, fan. I contacted the wonderful Cassie at Femmecraft and we brainstormed two designs, finally deciding on a general Trek focused "To boldly go" custom design (now available as a regular option). This design was the other, but we decided not to go ahead with it for a few reasons. Then in November this year I saw her at a market and she'd made it anyway and I could not resist. I'd been considering buying a Femmecraft necklace for myself and knowing that my custom order inquiry sparked this design's existence makes it extra special. 

My new watering can

It looks at home in my fledgling garden

When I was given this for Christmas this year, I pronounced it the Rolls Royce of watering cans. It is amazing.  Beautifully balanced, stunning colour, vintage looks, and a generous rose. Perhaps too early to make this an addition to the joy list, but I don't think so.

Everything in this outfit

The shirt is from Redbubble, the shoes I honestly can't recall (purchased while "baby/sleep deprived brain was still a thing)  and my talented sister made the green skirt. This photo was taken at the Powerhouse museum cafe on a day that Sydney got to a stupidly hot 45 degrees, actually to show evidence that I was wearing the skirt.

As a result of the decluttering, and thinking about what sparks joy, I'm feeling remarkably privileged and lucky, recognising the lovely things I own. This seems like the best time of year to reflect on making the most of what we have that gives us joy. So what makes your list?