two crafty dames : deeply fabulous vintage-inspired handmade fashion

Posts Tagged ‘Vintage Fashion’

Spring is here! The Dames have already shed our winter coats and have embraced the glorious spring weather by frolicking around in our favourite floral frocks. Hoorah! Etsy store Timeless Vixen Vintage have us drooling over their collection of gorgeous vintage floral day dresses. Imagine hosting a fabulous spring outdoor tea party in one of these fine frocks… HEAVEN!

Gorgeous 1950′s floral frock complete with rose detail

1950′s Yellow Poppy  Floral Garden Print Dress

Check out these gorgeous dresses made by Melbourne designer Peta Pledger. Drawing inspiration from vintage patterns, 50′s housewives and pin-up glamour, this Aussie designer creates fabulous figure flattering garments  for lovely ladies of all shapes and sizes.

Any dame would look fetching in these gorgeous dresses.

Charming graphics on the Peta Pledger website.

Whilst perusing the Penguin Markets during The Dames’ recent trip to Tasmania I came across a quaint little stall selling vintage clothing, patterns,  material and other vintage goodies. Whilst scrounging through a table of old magazines I stumbled across  a few editions of the Australian Home Journal from the 1950′s and early 1960′s. I was immediately attracted to  the covers of the magazines which are beautifully decorated with illustrations of lovely ladies dressed in the latest fashion outfits of the time. More fashion designs are illustrated inside, which back in the day, readers could get patterns of via mail order. The rest of the magazine features recipes, knitting and crochet patterns,   fashion-related DIY and handy hints, short stories, advice columns, and plenty of ads for powders and potions to keep you regular, make you slim, and get rid of your freckles. With every issue, a paper tissue pattern was included with instructions on how to make them. A couple of the copies I picked up still had some patterns intact which I was happy to discover.

Left: The cover of the April Edition 1958 Australian Home Journal. Right: Designs for mail order patterns.

Left: The cover of the July Edition 1960 Australian Home Journal. Right: Designs for mail order patterns.

Along with the journals, I also picked up some cute spotty Bias Binding and floral fabrics.