A couple of weeks ago I bought this lovely vintage blouse. I’m not sure whether this was homemade or not, but there were certainly careful hands involved in the making of it.
The inside is just as beautiful, french seams and perfect details like this smallest of shoulder pads.
It’s well worn, but I think that only makes me love it more because it’s so clearly been well loved. Someone really cared for this blouse.
Buttons had been replaced and since there was one misfit I didn’t feel bad about replacing them all with some of my favourite orangey red ones, from my trip to the wonderful Rubans et Boutons in Montreal.
A few days ago my mum gave me an old dress of hers, it drowned me and wasn’t a style I’d wear but I could immediately see the potential in it. There’s a whole suitcase full of clothes I saw too much potential in to get rid of them lurking around here and many of them have been waiting for years for me to actually do anything with them so I almost told her that she should just give it to a charity shop.
I’m so glad I didn’t, after working hard to get the books out I decided that I was allowed to spend a couple of days doing mostly fun things. On Monday I had a little knitting tea party.
And yesterday I took scissors to my mum’s old dress and spent the day sewing. Perhaps inspired by the beautiful details of my blouse I did a lot of the finishing by hand, including the hem because honestly I’d rather sew a hem by hand than wrestle with the blind hem function of the machine.
Liberty print facings, because it makes me happy even if they’re hidden. I hate it when the bottom of a zip is left scratchy so I covered it up with a little facing of its own.
Today I wore my new favourite outfit.
The shoes are from Remix vintage and the bag is from the Cambridge Satchel Company.
I’ve had more to spend on clothing recently than I’ve ever had before and while I’m enjoying adding to my wardrobe I’m trying to do so in a thoughtful way. How wonderful would it be to know that everything you owned was as well loved and cared for as my new blouse, and that the things you no longer loved could be loved by someone new.
{ 52 comments… read them below or add one }
absolutely stunning!
That’d be the perfect outfit for a 4th of July picnic! ;-)
The shirt is just lovely and the refurbished dress is just too cute! Great job.
I just LOVE your outfit!! The shoes are great with it.
One of my most favorite things is hand-me-down clothes. It seems whenever I visit my grandmothers they want to unload some on me. The pieces I love are the ones that were their favorites that I can turn into something that becomes one of my favorites, just like you did with the dress. Fond fond memories…
Thanks for sharing!
This is the year of my being inspired to make and re-purpose clothing, it seems. Too bad I’m a mess with a sewing machine. God, that’s a great blouse, and those buttons are perfect! It makes me smile that you get so much delight out of the details. :-)
I love your new blouse, what you have done with your mum’s dress is inspiring and I really, really now want to have my very own knitting tea party!!! Just need to find me some more knitty friends….. Have a lovely day X
I just had to say that I got my Whimsical Little Knits today on the mail. I love it!
PDFs are nice and handy as I can print them, take them places and annotate them as I go along, but there is something extra in having a book and being able to flip through its pages. Thank you very much for putting it together!
That blouse is so wonderfully 40s, I love it :)
Your re-purposing of those two garments is incredibly inspiring. The blouse was an incredibly lucky catch – fine finishing is really hard to find nowadays! And your mum’s dress turned out adorable, I especially love the pockets!
LUFF the blouse and LUFF LUFF your ‘new’ dress!
Well done you! What a fantastic re-think and design! :) I’m inspired to try such things myself!
Wow…that is REALLY inspiring! Absolutely lovely work!
It all looks fabulous. I mourn the fact that in general, clothing is no longer made with care and quality. Unless you make it yourself of course. I have a wardrobe full of vintage clothes that need altering – I am so glad I haven’t given in to persistent pestering to give them to the charity shop. Oh, and I have the same pair of shoes! I think that is at least 3 pairs we have in common!
Your blouse reminds me of the vintage clothing shop I used to work at when I was in Edinburgh. It was at the end of the Grassmarket across from dancebase. We used to have things like that all the time and I bought lots of stuff from there (never saw my pay, normally). Now I wish I had bought more, because it’s closed down. How I miss the days when I used to spend hours fondling (yes! fondling!) vintage fabrics…
Now I spend almost all my waking hours working in the library, and when I read your blog I am green with envy! It reminds me that somewhere outside academia people are having a good time… so keep the posts coming :)
I love how it turned out!! Very inspirational, makes me want to go out to the vintage store.
Great photography on the blouse. With a dressmaker/tailor for a grandma and mom, I appreciate this post and photos. I wore nothing but hand-made, home-made dresses and clothes until I was 12. Most of the time the outfits were identical for me and my sister so everyone thought we were twins! I love what you did with the blue dress. It’s something that my mom would do to save money and also to give an old, maybe a bit worn out dress a new lease of life.
Lovely post as always.
you are so adorable. and i love that vintage blouse! it’s perfect! how lucky!
Chouette. Do you ever wear pants? Isn’t it cold in skirts in the Winter?
Ysolda your the queen of the cuteness! This skirt is really adorable and the blouse too!
That is such a great skirt! What a wonderful way to recycle that dress.
Lovely Ysolda. Just lovely!
You are so creative!! And I love your flat ;-)
Great photos as usual Ysolda. I would love to have been at your knitting party. I caught a glimse of your fireplace. How wonderful. You are so lucky.
Woow, what a transformation!
But I really love it! You’ve done a very good job!
What a fab little outfit. You have inspired me to go and dig through my pile of clothes that no longer fit to see if I can make them into new clothes that DO fit. It might not be the same quality as your transformation, but then I don’t actually know how to sew….. this could cause problems… ah well nothing ventured, nothing gained.
You’re making me want to get out the box of items I have to be mended and get them back in the clothes rotation. :)
That blue dress of your mother’s really did have a great new life hidden inside. Great work and I love the facing! I love adding the extra little touches that are so intimate when I make my own clothes. Most of my embellishments are on the inside. It makes me feel magical when I wear them.
The blouse is a wonderful find and I love the shoes too. There really isn’t much more to say. Great outfit!
I am fascinated by recycled (or what some people call “upcycled”) clothing. Your blouse and dress are gorgeous! If only I had sewing talent…
Very nice! I have those shoes in yellow…and it’s almost time to pull them out!
I love your new shirt. Great details!
But I am most interested in the grey sweater that is behind you in the tea party photo. The only woman in the photo that isn’t looking at the camera. Did she make that? It’s gorgeous and I would love to know the name of the knitting pattern. Many thanks!
Where do you find such fabulous things? That blouse is lovely. We need shopping tips :-)
Really nice! Both the blouse and the dress! It’s got a nice vintage look.
That outfit is so cute! I especially love the red bag.
Awesome!! You did such a great job repurposing that dress. Giving new life to clothing is infinitely superior to buying new in my book.
One of these days I’ll fall in love with sewing. Your careful attention to detail makes for a worthwhile wardrobe and time well invested. I’m commenting to thank you for providing the Remix Vintage website. I see a pair of saddle shoe heels (BabyJanes) I’d love to get my feet in!
What a great way to fix up the dress! It makes me wonder if any of my mom’s old clothes could be revisited… I think she’s used most of them for Halloween costumes at this point!
how cute. I love it!
I suppose with the limited wardrobes people used to have (clothing used to be particularly expensive), they took extra care. I have a satchel like that! It was a school bag my mom bought in England that I used as a child and converted to a shoulder-bag thanks to the shoemaker.
I just wanted to say that I got your book in the post today and I LOVE it.
You must be so proud of yourself! And deservedly so! I can see how much care and attention you put into the design and making sure the patterns worked as part of a collection. I LOVE it! :)
totally LOVELY!.. they all FIT you SOOOO nicely!.. i love those shuuuuuues!!
Teehee you look so pleased with yourself! That is a very cute outfit you got there, so jealous! It must be lovely to sew things for a change… ;)
What a wonderful outfit. I have a series of hand made shirts that are in various stages of completeness that I feel more inspired to finish now!
What an adorable blouse. When I was a student in the ’80′s I often bought vintage clothes. They are so well made. Even now I’ll change the buttons on blouses or recycle clothing for myself or my kids. It’s the way I was raised. I also like the individuality. You’re less likely to turn up at an event wearing the same outfit as someone else if you’ve made it yourself!!
Really lovely post. I’ve just finished a linen Easter dress for my daughter and opted for a lot of hand-finishing where I normally would have tried to find a way to do it all by machine. I’ve been watching “House of Eliott” DVDs and they reawakened my love of careful detail.
Congratulations on the book! Are you coming up to Canada, at all?
What an excellent fix for the dress – beautiful!!
Jealous!
I love vintage clothes but rarely find any in my tubbie size. It’s great that you not only fit the clothes but look fabulous in them and have the talent to rework other clothes to fit the style. Those shoes are soooo cute, love them TONS!
Your blog is great!!!! Wish we could have so many knitters here in Nairobi to have those tea parties.
Congrats on the book!!!
hey ysolda! I just wanted to say that I thought your outfit was so cute, it inspired me to knit a poppy doll wearing something similar. she’s even got her own miniature icing swirl hat! naturally, I named her ysolda
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/agnellino/poppy-2
What a cleverly designed little outfit! It is just so dear. I live in the US, but was immediately taken with your satchel and just ordered one for myself as a “congratulations” present. I will be starting Nursing school this summer and think it will be so lovely to carry such a sweet bag with me around campus. Your blog is one of my most favorite things.
Lovely blouse. What a find!
I keep looking at the second to last photo and I love the look of the outfit, especially with the satchel. Personally though, I would put the outfit with my brown boots instead, never been a fan of that style of shoe.