• Plaid in the Snow •

Ever since getting my marvelous boots, I've kind of been wanting to retake pictures with any and all outfits that they could possibly match.  Fortunately for you, that hasn't happened with all of them, but it did with this vintage '40s dress.  ;)  Back when I first blogged about it, we (of course) had no snow, so it made for about the lousiest Christmas dress pictures possible.  But this year we have snow, I have new boots, and therefore a new photo session was absolutely imperative.  ;)

This dress is such a pretty one, both because of the fabric and the design.  You can tell at a glance that it is vintage fabric, and it also has that "aged cotton," if I may call it that- feel to it.  There's nothing softer!  :)

My mom let me borrow her pretty black coat for these pictures, and I sort of stole her mittens for it too.  ;)   I still want to make a vintage coat, but have not happened upon any mountains of free wool coating with which to make one just yet.  And somehow it's way more fun to spend money on pretty dress fabrics........and boots.  ;)

This past summer I found this pretty velvet hat at an antique store; I can't even remember if it was local or out-of-town, but in any case, I really like the hat.  It didn't want to stay on in the frigid wind, but other than that it seems to do so quite well.  And since it is velvet, it matches my boots super-good!!  ;)

I've been on the hunt lately for some good cream-colored sweater tights; so far all the pairs I've tried have been dreadfully short and therefore totally unwearable.  They always say that they'll fit a 6' tall person, but when you try them on?  Hehe, let's just say that they don't.  At all.  So the hunt goes on.  In any case, these gray ones are my absolute favorite because, well, obviously, they're GRAY, and they also fit very well!  ;)

It's so much fun to be able to wear colored tights now that I have these boots; none of my other vintage shoes seemed to look decent when paired with them.

That pose doesn't look familiar or anything, now does it?  *cough*

My hands and pretty much my whole body was freezing while we took these pictures, but my feet sure weren't!  :)  Hurrah for warm boots!!

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• Pictures by my wonderful mom, as always.  <3 •

Thank you so much for stopping by!!

• Little Black 1940s Dress •

This post marks a momentous occasion - I am finally several projects ahead of my blog! Although we haven't gotten pictures of them yet, it's a tremendous relief to have something already made to blog about rather than counting on my current project being finished in time.

I can't believe I am writing a post about my very own black dress! I bought this fabric early last year but never ended up actually making it into anything. I decided later on that Butterick 5281 would be just right, but still never was in the mood to "tackle" it. A couple of weeks ago, however, I finally was in the right mood! I was always somewhat frightened of this pattern for some reason, thinking that it simply must be terribly difficult. It isn't! In fact, (confession time), I already have another dress made from it that just needs to be hemmed. Long story short; it's a fun (and easy) pattern!

It probably does look slightly weird to have short-sleeved dress pictures out in the snow, but, well, sometimes you just have to have a picture! It was actually around 30 degrees, so it wasn't nearly as bad as the past week has been. The snow transforms the back yard into a more palatable backdrop than usual and it even snowed a teeny bit while we were out there!

Ordinarily I try to avoid that awful, slippery lining fabric like the plague, but for this dress it wasn't possible. Since the dress fabric is polyester, I knew that if I used cotton to line it, it would be too hot. Thankfully, the lining was not too painful to work with, and it really does feel so nice and slippery!

The main dress fabric was SO much fun to work with. It drapes beautifully, irons and sews easily and doesn't wrinkle. Three cheers for polyester!

I have been a bit lazy in the pin-curling department, but doing it again rejuvenated my love for it. Even though they're not perfect, there's just nothing like pin curls! I am happy to say that in only 11 1/2 hours or so, even though I have relatively thick hair, the curls are completely dry! That is a tremendous relief! 

I love all of the subtle but elegant details of this dress. The pleats on the shoulder, the decorative skirt seaming - it all adds up to a classic 1940s look.

I love my buttons. So much. Shiny pieces of happiness.

 I raised the neckline 1 1/2 inches, topstitched the part of the bodice that connects to the yoke, then stitched the bodice to the yoke about 2/3 of the way across, leaving enough of an opening to be able to slip over my head. Nicely enough, I didn't even have to sew on a hook and eye!

It is wonderful to finally have a black dress. While I am definitely a flowery-dress-kind-of-girl, a black dress is so versatile, and pretty much perfect for any occasion! I'm so glad I finally took the plunge and made it!

I'll leave you with a photo I took of the splendid drifts in our yard. It was SO. COLD. the day that I took snow photos, but once again, sometimes you just have to have them! I posted more pictures from that day on my photography blog.

• Photography by my mom •

Snowed In!

The weather outside is....frightfully delightful! Wind chill of -45, therefore we aren't going outside much. Yesterday, however was a different story.

We're pals.

40 mph gusts today made for some beautiful drifting!

Just chillin'.

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All photos copyright © Esther Grace Photography and © Divine Photography