#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! 

A busy making time

I have been so slack about blogging, but like many others I've been busy making things.  I blame the New Year and resolutions involving using up my stash and increasing my sewn wardrobe. I have even joined a Facebook stashbusting group to keep track of how much fabric I use during the year. (So far: sewn 9 metres and bought 2.5 metres)

This post is really going to be a round up of selected makes from the last few months

A baby sunhat in cute spotted cotton

 This adorable sunhat was a gift for a friend with a young baby. I'd forgotten (even in the scant few years since my boy was that small) just how little fabric you need for baby items. The hat was made entirely from a single fat quarter. And that is with a fully lined crowned.

Zinnia hat, from a 1962 Australian Women's Weekly pattern

I've been crocheting some 1960s hats from patterns from the Australian Women's Weekly. Above is a 'zinnia hat' - the original was yellow with red flowers and I've made it in a slightly more subdued fawn and burgundy colour scheme. Below is the charmingly quirky 'field flower hat' which I've made in very close to the colours suggested in the original. I may redo the pompoms on this one, as I think I'd like them to be fuller. Both of these hats will be listed in my etsy shop soon. 

Field flower hat

Close up of the field flower hat 

 Several years ago, I treated myself to a 'I've finally finished the PhD present' and went to a ten day embroidery convention run by Koala Conventions. One of the two-day courses I did was on Mountmellick work and I did a beautiful design. Well I have finally made it up into the bolster cushion it was designed to be!

The finished Mountmellick bolster. 

I also, as part of both stashbusting and increasing my 'me made' wardrobe, made a kimono style dressing gown, decorated with lace I got for a ridiculously low sum at a garage sale. The pattern isn't a true kimono, although the sleeves are very close, and it is from a BurdaStyle magazine Plus Size special (E030, for anyone who might want to look, although I've checked and this isn't available online). It really needs an iron, but what doesn't?

Dressing gown. 

Close up of sleeve under construction - and the amazing lace!

 A lot of my crafting and blogging time has been curtailed by actual paid work now that my son is at preschool two days a week. Still, actual paid work has funded the purchase of some clothing patterns that I really, really wanted, so I hope to be blogging about those makes soon.  I'm also having some bad days on my medications, which eats into the time I have too.

Hats on display

A rather embarassingly long time ago, having read my sister talking about decorating display heads at our shared Jupiter Hollow blog, I picked up my own styrofoam head to decoupage at a Lincraft sale. I finally got around to doing it over the last fortnight. The small boy helped. With some modest interest in paper choice and ripping but enthusiastically when it came to paste. (We later decoupaged the cut out firetruck you can see in the foreground of the picture below. And a box. He really got into pasting.)

The head in progress.

I selected a range of pink and green card-making papers which I got for free in various craft magazines. 

Finished!

And now that I have a classy decoupaged display head, I can take better photos of hats.

This cloche in variegated pink wool was I believe made from a magazine pattern that I've since discarded. I liked it because it has a facing, an unusual feature in crocheted hats. This means the underside of the brim is a separate piece, joined at the brim, giving extra weight and a crisp edge. This has been my go-to hat this winter. 

The cloche has a facing which makes for a nice brim.

The other hat I'm showing off today is my leaf beret. The original vintage pattern is from a Coats and Clark leaflet "Hats and bags" (number 74)  reproduced by Bramcost Publications. You can see why the original picture attracted me as I went though.  

Such a jaunty beret!

Their version is all in ivory, which probably gave a very subtle effect, but I embraced the leavy air in green and brown.

My version of the vintage pattern.

I don't think I handled the millinery wire around the edge of the crown very well so it lacks something of the crisp angle of the original. I adore it though. 

The leaf decoration, also wired.

 I had to adapt the pattern slightly and there is one ambiguously worded part of the side crown instructions which I've completed one way here and am trying another alternative in the version I'm making for my mother.  But that's why we love vintage patterns.

I'm amazed at how much difference a display head makes to how the hats photograph. They look so polished! It almost makes me wish I'd done the decoupage a few years ago... except then I wouldn't have the memory of my son proudly showing off the head he helped mummy make in our Skype with my mother. That's worth three years of no decent hat photographs.

New dresses!

When going through my wardrobe in the #konMari process, I realised I wanted more dresses. Today, I present three new additions to my closet!

The first two were ones which were living in my mother-in-law's warehouse and I was gifted them when we were cleaning up.

The first is a basic loose shape (so it is helped by a belt) but I find the pattern charming and the fabric is comfortable. Incredibly easy to wear. I've dressed it up here with a lovely frangipani head piece made by my talented sister of Tanith Rowan Designs.

Free is the best price.

The second is this striking metallic dress. It is sadly a little bit scratchy around the neck and sleeve hems but I'm willing to put up with that for the awesome retro vibe. I have not worn this out yet and am still pondering how best to style it.

I try not to laugh as the toddler creates behind the scenes havoc

The third dress joining my wardrobe is one I've made myself.  It is my first try making a garment from stretch fabric, using specialty stitches on the sewing machine. For many years I avoided knits "until I got an overlocker" but lately I've been willing to experiment. I'm very happy that I pushed myself, because the machine did better than I expected and it opens up lots of new options for me.

It is an incredibly basic caftan dress sewn from two rectangles of fabric, as explained in this online tutorial. I used stash burgundy jersey, sewing the seams by machine, but doing the neck, sleeve and bottom hems by hand. Dame Esmerelda helped with that process.

Using my dress form to sew the neckline.

You end up with a straight, shapeless dress (with quite nice drapey short "sleeves"), and I personally wouldn't wear it without a belt.

I also made a long belt of the same fabric from the leftovers.  As a change, I added a cloche and a pansy brooch for a 1920s vibe.

I don't usually take outfit photos for the blog and the little boy was very interested in the process. We have quite a few photographs featuring a short photobomber.

Just like this. 

Jeans shouldn't be this difficult

All I wanted was new jeans. Both the pairs I was wearing pre-pregnancy and returned to after N's birth have worn through at the thighs, and even though I'm planning on patching them, I still wanted new jeans, for those occasions when wearing patchy jeans didn't seem quite the thing. I have one brand and style of jeans that I've been buying since I was 19, so although it isn't the most ethical choice, at least I know that I will wear them all the time. Normally I'd just trot out and buy a new pair, unhappily aware that it won't count towards my ethical fashion quota for the year. But times, my friends, they are not normal, and so obtaining new jeans has turned into a bit of a saga.

To start with, they stopped making my jeans sometime when I was wearing maternity jeans. Now they have some other style options in bootcut jeans that are not the same, and don't fit well. Rats. I decided that if I was going to start from scratch finding a new style of jeans that I liked, I should investigate ethical options.

Result of investigation: disappointing. Even if I could get past buying jeans from a 'collection', the vast majority of the ethically produced jeans on the market are designer jeans and intended for skinnier people than I. Possible there are ethically produced size 16 jeans out there, but my google-fu could not find them.
This was a somewhat depressing moment, and resulted in a binge of ethical clothes buying for N, which I shall detail in a later post.

So I went the op-shop route. Found a very nice pair of soft denim in a local op-shop for $8. Because I had N I couldn't try them on, but I figured if they were a terrible fit I'd just re-donate them. They fit fine, but there was a problem with the zip - it wouldn't stay up. This really irritates me. People, thrift shops are for clothes in good condition that don't fit you, or don't suit your needs or your taste anymore. They aren't a dumping ground for clothes with problems. Grrrr.  Took to a local alterations place and got the zip replaced. Cost more than the jeans did, but all up less than a brand new pair would have cost.

I feel good that I finally have a pair of jeans (which are to me a wardrobe staple) that I can say are a fairly ethical choice, being second hand, a bit ashamed that it took my regular jeans disappearing from production before I made that switch, and still irritated at whoever donated those jeans with the dodgy zip.