15 January 1957 “New Vintage Patterns”

I have been exceptionally busy these past two days. Yesterday, however, I found some wonderful new Repro Vintage Butterick patterns. This first I am so excited about. I have been trying to find a top and pencil skirt pattern like this for some time. HERE they are in the Corner Store if you are interested. And HERE as well.
When looking up the number of the pattern to get the image to share with you, the original Butterick 5557 showed up.
Isn’t this one darling. I would love to own this pattern because look how easy the sleeveless number looks to make. Here it is done in the Butterick Pattern Book for Spring 1951. I also purchased this one. I have been trying to find a dress like this with the Dolman sleeve cut into the bodice (as opposed to the sleeve being cut separate and set in and sewn to the bodice). I am not sure which of these two I will use for this month’s dress.
I also got this darling coat pattern. I have never attempted a coat, but this said it was  a very easy. When I checked it out, these are also a dolman sleeve and this swing coat is simply Two pieces cut with darts on the front shoulders and pockets applied to the outside! I am not sure if I will make a coat now for winter, but a Spring coat in some heavy duck would be lovely, don’t you think?
Happy Sewing and Happy Homemaking.

8 September 1956 “September’s Challenge Dress and a Day Out With a Friend”

I do apologize for this late posting. A friend and I had planned today to vintage shop and lunch. I wanted to finish my latest dress, which is a lovely sheath dress from this pattern I know this vintage pattern is from 1960, but the style is still very 56, only shorter. I made the skirt longer, over the knee, but still shorter than I would have in 55. I am the type who would read Vogue and as I am making my own clothes, let my hemlines follow some of the newer shorter versions of the ever popular sheath dress.
Here it is with my cardigan and matching vintage pocketbook. I did not wear a hat today, as I wore my hair in a french twist and had a fabric brown flower pinned in to go with the flowers of the dress.  This is a close up of the fabric. I really love it and it is very vintage, though it is actually a new cotton/linen. It is a bit summery, but with the brown I felt it could wear into Autumn. And I wore it with brown shoes (my white shoes are away until next Memorial Day).
I really liked this pattern and am going to make the full skirted version next. What I did, and I will show more up close photos later, was cut out the four pieces of the dress (the front is one piece the little side front strap is another and two back pieces) in both this fabric and a nice white muslin. I cut the dress one size bigger than my own. Then I stitched the muslin and fabric together and flipped it out, ironing it flat. So now I had finished edges on the neckline, armholes, and hem. Then put the darts in (which went in lovely through the two layers of fabric) and put them together. I installed the zipper into the back two pieces BEFORE I sewed it to the front and this made an easier time of it as well. The whole thing went together rather quickly and easily this way and really gives a nice finished look. My friend gave me the nicest compliment in saying that it looked ‘store bought’.
We went to our local high end thrift store, Plush and Plunder, on Main street in Hyannis and my friend found a wonderful 1960 sheath dress in vintage sequins with the original metal zipper! I was envious of it, but she and her hubby of 10 years are going to be renewing their wedding vows in Las Vegas this fall and she wanted something “Rat Pack” and this was it. The bottom half is ice blue and meets the top cream in a very geometric triangular shape, much like the older signs in Vegas. I even helped her talk the ladies down from the original price. It is a very classic piece she can have in her wardrobe for ever.
We also hit Good Will where I found four lovely cardigans, all vintage, for only a few dollars each. When my friend said, “Hey, do you need a Connie Francis album?” half jokingly, I said, “Yes, I hope Stupid Cupid is on this one” and it was! So, I bought this album for 99 cents mostly for stupid cupid, but it has other good songs as well and I am listening to in on my old record player as I write this.
Here is a snippet of the song sung by Connie live. ( I know it doesn’t come out until 1959, but I really love the song. And don’t you love her dress!)

Here is the song in its entirety.

This song is also on the album:

I also purchaed a lovely Julie Andrews Christmas album (never too soon to think of Christmas, is it?)
Well, I have had a rather busy day and need to unwind now with hubby. I hope all had a find day and I will see you tomorrow.
Happy Homemaking.

5 August 1956 “The Boldness of Mid-Century Interiors and A New Dress…Almost”

I thought for a quick post today I would show the boldness of the 1950’s interior. Now, certainly not all homes had such bold looks, just as today most homes don’t look like magazine shots. But, there was a bravery, an almost innocent brashness in the post war color scheme.
This bedroom has no apologies. And the color combination is like a jewel box with Deep purple and coral pink and touches of teal blue. It makes me think of the colors of a coral reef. In fact, when you see this color in the context of nature, you can really see its beauty. And you could even add some orange to this bedroom with pillows and it would work as it does in nature. And you can see the boldness of this color scheme in a bath. Here the Golds and Browns remind me of this moth. And this same color scheme, with the green of the leaf, works in this dining room of Heywood-Wakefield Furnishing.
Even the Early American and Colonial mid century home boldness is the key.The contrast of the rough pine open shelves with the bright modern vinyl floor works because of the deliberateness of the room. The chosen items displayed in the window and on the shelves.
This living room gives me inspiration for my own actual 1700’s house using the bold strokes and colors of mid-century. The clean starkness of a Colonial home is enlivened with a daring pallette of pinks and greens. The inside of the shelves pick up the colors of the sofa fabric and even the pink tones in the brick. The mid-century decorator had an almost Victorian approach to color. Though they were much more selective with objects than their Victorian ancestors, the colors remind me of the unhindered use of color. There seems to be a deliberateness and confident action in ‘what is right and what should be done’ in many things done in the 1950s. And though there were things we are glad to have moved away from, the feeling of rightness of place and mature decision seems to permeate the decade as a whole. That is something I have truly come to love about my project and the decade.
Now, onto sewing.That same boldness of color and decision surely hit me in the making of my latest dress. Though it is not yet done, I wanted to share with you my latest attempt.
I found this lovely navy fabric with the dots of red white and a lighter blue. It just screamed vintage, though there was not enough to make an entire dress. So, I chose to match the lighter blue dot and used a solid cotton. The skirt will be the solid blue and trimmed in the patterned fabric. I had wanted to make a peter pan collar, but it did not work out as I had planned. So I am taking the large scale ric rac you see and pinning it and placing it where I would like to cut the new neckline. It will dip in the back like this. Now you can still see the fabric above the ric rac, but I will pin the ric rac down and then cut the new neckline, hem it and attach the rick rack to the neckline. I adore the look and to me it was a natural conclusion. It has a determined action of color and boldness the old me may not have taken, but now, 1956 style, it seems, well, natural. I will share the dress when it is done with how I trimmed the edge of the skirt.
Well, that is it for me today, Happy Homemaking all.

7 July 1956 “Sewing Dresses and Drawing”

I realize I have not discussed my sewing in awhile. I just finished my July dress. I wanted a vintage look like this.  This pattern has a similar look on the top. Something along these lines. Only, I couldn’t find a vintage pattern, but I did find this. Simplicity 3823. Now, this pattern has a full gathered skirt, which would look great with a petticoat. Only, I had wanted to use this fabric for my summer dress.I am not sure you can really tell the color, but it is lovely summery pink, yellow and brown on a white ground. I thought it very vintage and fun. Since I did not have enough to do a full gored skirt, I cut out the top and then used the remainder of the fabric and pleated the skirt around. I am quite happy with the result. Hubby snapped this shot of me quick before he went off to work.You can see it needs to be pressed and I wanted to show how it looked without my petticoat. But as I was home alone, I had to snap the shot of it with the petticoat myself with the timer and only got the skirt, but you get the idea.You can see it will not puff out like a circle or gored skirt, but still has a nice swing. I also left a very large hem, as it seems vintage clothes in person and photos always have a very generous hem. I wondered about that and thought, I am sure when your profit margin depends on pennies (as the mass produced chinese clothes that are sold at Gap, Walmart, Old navy heck most places) every little bit of fabric counts. So we are just used to really small hems or no hems on jersey or blanket stitching. I noticed, with a full hem (this fabric is even doubled under there and then hemmed at about 6 inches) it adds a nice weight to the skirt.
I think this vintage vogue pattern is a great way for me to ‘alter’ this pattern as well.Don’t you love the little Peter Pan collar on the top! I will make one like that I think.
My June dress was for the 4th of July. I altered my other dress pattern that I had made with the rolled collar, remember my March Dress I used that pattern but did a Peter Pan collar instead. I will share it later, as I have no pictures of it. It is,of course, red, white and blue.
I am so bad at getting pictures of myself. I also am not sure I really want to plaster pictures of myself up here all the time. There is something very MySpace about it. I don’t know. Maybe if I treat it like art photography. For example, I like taking the dress photo and making it black and white to look vintage.I was also inspired to do a silly up close photo of myself (again hard to do, not sure how teens do it all the time)I was inspired by the model Jean Patchetts beauty mark and so did this shot with my ‘painted on’ mark and wearing one of my hats. The flash sort of went off in my face.
I am not sure why I am not 100% comfortable about many pictures of myself here. I should really think about why that is.
Well, besides not sharing my dresses lately, I have also not been sharing my drawings/comics. I feel my cartoon style has been evolving and feeling more vintage. Here is one I did yesterday.You can click on it to see it larger. I have not felt yet ready to show any of my paintings, but I have been so busy with the yard and my chicken house project (that post is coming, I promise, in all it’s detailed boring glory).
Well, simple daily posts so I am off. I hope all have a lovely day and Happy Homemaking.

1 April 1956 “Dress Form, Recipes, Fitted Sheets, Flowers, and Eggbert”

I come to you on bended knee to forgive me, I have NOT finished my March dress. It is very vexing, as I have (since my 1955 year) been getting much better at time management and ticking off my lists. I could give a slew of reasons why, but I have come to realize that excuses are just that, so why bother. I did, however, manage (as I had promised myself) get my dress form made as part of this month’s challenge. Here it is with my pattern pinned to it: It was easy to make, but definitely required help. It is three layers of duct tape (the last layer was white duct tape, as I thought it gave it a more ‘dress form’  look).
So, my dress is still in this state. Isn’t the fabric fabulous, though? I am not sure if I have shown this fabric, but it is in the same color family as my other material so my spring/summer palette will be the blues and greens. It is going to have a little folded raised neckline as well.
Having my dress form has been MORE incentive to me to continue to lose weight. Everytime I pass by it I think, ‘Jeesh, is that what I look like from the side?” So, when I saw this, I had to laugh:Especially since that is pretty much me at the market now! Although I would just go home and bake a batch of éclairs and want to eat them all!
Speaking of baked goods, here is the spread I made for hubby the other day to take to work. There are my homemade oreos, macaroons plain and half dipped in dark chocolate and white cupcakes with white frosting. This is my latest white cupcake and frosting recipe and I LOVE it. They are so moist and dense. My friend had one and said, “Okay, you are making my wedding cake”. I am not sure if I have shared this recipe before, so here it is:
50’s Gal Wedding Cake Cupcakes
Ingredients
-4 egg whites
- 1/2 cup milk
-1/2 cup cream

- 2 tablespoons vanilla

- 3 cups sifted cake flour ( I make my own cake flour, but it is worth using it in these cupcakes. To make your own you just take one cup regular flour and remove 2 TBS of the flour and replace it with 2 TBS cornstarch. S0 in this case, I put in three cups regular flour, took out 6 TBS of the flour and then measured in 6 TBS cornstarch)
- 1 1/2 cups sugar

- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 12 tablespoons softened butter
Preheat oven to 350F
Mix egg whites, vanilla and 1/4 cup milk.
In a large mixing bowl, combine cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix together to blend. Add the butter and remaining 3/4 cup milk mixing on low speed until dry ingredients are moistened. Increase to medium speed for a couple of minutes,  then add the egg, vanilla and milk mixture in two equal parts, mixing until blended.
Pour the batter into prepared cupcake trays.Bake for about  15-20 minutes, remove when almost golden yellow and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean. ( I let mine stay a little white on top, as things continue to cook after you remove them from the oven and I find they stay more moist that way) Let cool and Ice them
Frosting Recipe
- two sticks butter (room temperature)
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoon cream
Frosting Directions
Mix all the ingredients until spreadable consistency. Too runny? add more sugar. Too stiff? add more cream TBS at a time. I like to use a pastry bag to ice the cupcakes and then I sprinkle sugar on top for a little sweet surprise crunch! Here is a close up of the lovely buttery frosting.
Having egg yolks left from these desserts and also leftover ham, I decided to make a crust-less quiche.
  I didn’t feel like making a crust and so devised this crust less version of  a quiche. I had found one recipe for one but it called for Bisquick (which I never have as I make pancakes, biscuits etc from scratch). So, I got to thinking, “what is in Bisquick? It must just be the dry ingredients of flour, baking powder and salt.”
So, here is how I made the above. It was so moist and delicious and easy and could easily be vegetarian. I had cooked a ham earlier in the week and we had been eating off of it all week. So, before the bone went into the stock pot, I cut off most of the remaining meat and cubed it for this recipe.
50’s Gal Leftover Crust-less Quiche
4 eggs (plus I added the two leftover egg yolks so about 5 total)
3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 TBS Baking Powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup grated aged cheddar
1/4 softened butter
various veg ( I used tomatoes  and leftover asparagus and green beans)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Mix all together except veg and meat, batter will be a little lumpy, like pancake batter. Then toss in veg and meat (really this anything you want). Grease a 10” pie plate and pour in. Bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown. This is a lovely melt in your mouth dinner. It is a cross between a frittata and a quiche and it couldn’t be easier!

In a large bowl, beat together milk, eggs, baking mix, butter and parmesan cheese. Batter will be lumpy. Stir in broccoli, ham and Cheddar cheese. Pour into prepared quiche dish.

Bake in preheated oven for 50 minutes, until eggs are set and top is golden brown.

Someone asked me the other day on a post about my sheets. They wanted to know if I used only fitted sheets, it being 1956 and all. Well, I actually have both fitted and flat sheets. Many may not know it, but  fitted sheets have been around since the early 50’s. I have ads in my magazines from the mid 1950’s showing such sheets. This is from a 1955 magazine. Here is a close up of the text: This is from a 1951 So, I am not sure how expensive they were or how common, but I definitely felt if they were in magazines in 1951,then by 56 they’d be pretty common.
And just because they were pretty, I thought I’d share some more pictures of our Crocus before they are all gone. These are in my front yard.



And, as Easter is coming, here is a fun song sung by Rosemary Clooney.

22 February 1956 “Dress Challenge Debacle, Spring Fabrics, Marilyn and Daisies, Automobile’s Across the ‘Pond’, And A Bus Boycott”

I had intended to be sharing my February Dress Challenge success with this post, but I have been having some trouble with it. I have pinned and repined it on myself and changed it three or four times and now it might be a completely different looking dress. But, I promise it WILL be done before the 1st. of March and I will share my results with you.
Here are some fabrics I recently purchased to start my Spring dresses. This is my color palette for the season. The first is actually a lovely spring green but it looks more yellow in the photo. I love the second fabric so much, here it is closer and it looks so vintage. It is actually a new fabric but it was marked down and might be discontinued. I think I have enough to do a short sleeved dress.
Speaking of Fashion,
look how fresh and modern this 1956 Vogue photo looks. Vintage does not have to be frumpy and whip creamy. It can be tailored and smart. Though I do like a bit of froth and twee as well, which is why I love the fashions of the 1950’s. It seemed to embody both the classic clean lines as well as frippery and fantasy. It did not take itself too seriously, yet seriously enough that you knew you better look darn good when you went into ‘town’ and even if you were taking the dogs for a walk in a pair of trousers, you’d still have a hat, gloves, scarf and some jewelry to make the ‘look’.
Here are two lovely Cecil Beaton Photos of Marilyn Monroe taken today, 22 February 1956. It shows the innocence of the early part of the decade and the sultry sexuality that will ultimately form the 60’s and onward. Even the use of the daisy has an odd foretelling of design and style in the coming 1960s. 60’s daisy clock 60’s daisy fabric and even Pyrex It is interesting to view the stages of fashion, art, photography and so on during the end of one decade to see it slowly evolve into the next’s ‘latest thing’.
The Fiat 600 was released this year, 1956, in Europe. When you see the compact size and almost modern lines, you wonder how it was that we were making such larger cars. And the Fiat 600 Multipla could seat six and was a recreation type vehicle, yet look at how small it is. Then compare what the USA was making the same year. As this Chevy and this Ford.
I wonder why it was that we just made larger cars? Could it be the endless space we had and the increased production from after the war? We also had a great burgeoning highway system forming at this point as well. And of course gas was becoming even more big business. It is interesting that small compact cars were being made in Europe this early.
It looks as if any idea of Foreign cars are considered a sports or luxury car at this point in time. This 56 Feb edition of Sports Cars Illustrated features MG’s. I love MG’s. I am much younger (20 years) than my older Siblings. I remember when I was very young, about 5 or so, my sister had a lovely racing green MG convertible. I have fond memories of she and I going shopping together, and I would love to wear a scarf on my head, as she did. Once they had children, the car went away. It was a darling little thing.
This is a photo of Martin Luther King’s arrest this month in 1956. As mentioned in my 1955 year, when Parks was arrested (and even preceding her in the 1940’s a woman was also arrested for not giving up her seat) the year long Montgomery Bus Boycott is still continuing. Blacks had to fill the bus by sitting at the back to the front and the whites sat filling the front to the back. The two races would meet halfway. When the bus was full and a white person got on, a black person in the rows behind the last white row HAD to get up for that white person, no matter if you were male, female, young or old. This year, later in the summer, the Alabama laws of bus segregation will be declared unconstitutional.
I have said it before and I will say it again: if we would try and treat one another as we want to be treated and to respect each other as human beings and then follow the manners of age (such as an older person should be offered a seat by a younger) and gender sometimes ( A man letting a lady have his seat) so much of the hate and violence may not have had to happen.
What is interesting is we see things now that have been changed, yet how badly they have had to come about because of people not wanting it, fighting it and there being horrible violence. Even the rights of women to vote etc was at first intensely objected. Then to the point of horrible cruel treatment to women, but in the end they won the rights. The same with blacks in our country. Yet, we continue, in the case of people who are considered not justified to have rights equal to all, to fight such things. Do we really not see that in the end those rights will out and that the unnecessary hatred and destruction could be easily avoided if we buy consider we are all allowed our own freedoms. We may not all agree on the same religion, politics etc, but we are ALL of us humans and Americans and I do wish people could be more kind, rational and just better mannered. Because we were not in the past, now we have people who are rude and angry for not having their rights. It is not right for them to have that anger, per se, but if we could just, even now, try to be more tolerant of one another, than we might be able to stop future problems such as this.
If we are, each of us, strong in our own convictions (rather it is religion, politics, etc) privately, then what matters it if there are people who live or act differently? If we raise our children to respect one another and to understand our own beliefs, than we cannot live in a world of fear that they will be affected or wronged by ‘those people’ now matter who or what ‘those people’ are. Acting cruel and irrational because we fear, do not understand, or personally loathe another person’s actions is not only damaging but only serves to show us up as brutes. Let us not try to coerice others into what we want, let us show our points of view and feelings through example. If we live as we see fit, as kind, considerate and thoughtful people, than others may wish to emulate us. If we see what we do not like or fear or loathe and then shout and throw mud at that which disgusts us, have we not then, ourselves, become disgusting?
I know I am going off on a tangent, but I really do think if we could think with kindness and consideration first our actions could be better served to a brighter future.