Snoods from other decades

Snoods really hit their stride in the 1940s, but that isn't the only decade in which they appeared. Since this week is "Era hopping" for Snoodtember, why don't we have a little look at some inspiration from other times?

Left: The Sun, 26 Nov 1950, Right: The West Australian, 4 Sep 1950

A lot of references to snoods in the 1950s (in the Australian publications at least) turn to being about something that is more of a scarf or head wrap style. The one you see on the right above is interesting as it is in that scarf style, but appears to still be in a netted material. Plus it has pompoms.

For the women with short hair who miss out on snoods, the left image is a navy blue satin evening snood from Schiaparelli, with a jewelled clasp at the neck.

The Australian Women's Weekly, 31 Mar 1965

I love these 1960s snoods. The hair went big, and so did the snoods. I do love the mushroom shapes, but my favourite sixties hats are the fluffy fur ones, so I love that middle one! (Plus, it's another style you can wear with short hair.) Although, as the article says, all of them are tops.

The Australian Women's Weekly, 31 Mar 1965

A little more unusual, and so very 60s! That chenille version on the left is so perfectly suited to the era, while still really staying true to the 40s idea.

The Australian Women's Weekly, 31 Mar 1965

That issue also included two snood patterns, one knitted and one crocheted, which are really still in the classic 1940s style, although the second one is rather larger.

The Australian Women's Weekly, 17 May 1978

Hello 1970s! OK, apart from the make-up, not much has changed, right?

Vogue, 1 Oct 1994

I can't call a haute couture photoshoot a real snood comeback, but I had to share this one anyway. Why not wear your snood with some GIANT FEATHERS. You know you want to.

I hope you've enjoyed this little trip through some less expected decades and looks from the snood world, and that maybe these images have provided some inspiration too!

Summer Straws and Winter Furs

As the time until baby number two arrives get fewer and fewer, my work time has been more and more devoted to making, rather than blogging, so today is just going to be a bit of show and tell.

I've just done a complete stock changeover at The Blackheath Hub, the local shop where my hats are on sale. A full winter collection has gone in, just in time for the cooler weather, and a lot of summer hats are back in my hands.

I'll be listing these ones, for which I happily have these lovely images on my friend Ruanne, on Etsy in the next few days.

Honestly, if this floral one doesn't sell by the time it's summer here again, I'm keeping it!

Straw hats with decently large brims are a must for summer, and very flattering too.

Among the other hats I'll be listing are these versions of the 1954 Butterfly cap I reviewed for the Trove Pattern Project. I couldn't decide between red velvet and leopard print, and my Instagram friends were similarly divided, so I made both! It really is a cute pattern.

I do like bows on things. As you'll see a bit in the winter hats too!

Sadly I don't have beautifully modelled photos of these ones. The weather here has almost literally been stinking hot or raining for a month now!

There's a lot of 1960s inspiration and a lot of faux fur in this collection, with a little bit of 1940s (still fluffy though) thrown in for good measure.

I think I prefer the basic hoods in the really fluffy white fur, but the rich red has a lot going for it too. And as you can see, I'm enjoying adding pom poms to things!

My love of pixie hats continues, in furry 60s hood form this time. I've played with the shape a couple of times, and I think in future I will make some further revisions, but overall it's looking cute!

From the forties I'm exploring fur-trimmed tilt hats, with big silk bows. I swoon over these whenever I see vintage examples or illustrations, and I'm happy that I finally made one. Ok, two.

And finally, some seriously lush ear muffs. I got the idea for ear muffs on a more substantial base than just a thin band from a 1940s millinery book, but I've taken their instructions as a base and done it my own way. I'm getting really happy with them now (they are SO comfortable it is ridiculous) and once I've worked on another variation I have in mind, these are set to be one of my first sewing patterns! Look out for them in my post-maternity world. (Right now I can't think too far beyond the next five weeks, to be honest, and life is dividing into "urgent" and "later, whatever, I don't care".)

I hope that whatever season you are in, and preparing for, I've shared something to inspire you in your hat wearing! Keep an eye on the Etsy shop for the new listings (and use the discount code "uptheduff" to get 30% off from now until the shop closes for maternity leave in about two weeks), and if you happen to be a Sydney/Blue Mountains local, pop in to the Blackheath Hub to try something on!

"Choc Chip" Baking-Themed Whimsy

It's time for the March whimsy in the Tanith Rowan Designs Whimsy Collection!

This month's novelty theme is baking! I love to bake, especially cookies. Chocolate chip, as well as being a classic, are super-delicious.

The veil is decorated with tiny chocolate chip cookies, and a ribbon bow tied around a small wooden spoon adorns the top. I couldn't resist gingham for a kitchen-centred design!

Does anyone else get a bit funny about deception in photo shoots? I have no qualms about certain lies. I will find the one part of my kitchen that looks vaguely picturesque. I will tidy that part extra. I will move the bins, the compost bin, the plastic bags. I will wear make-up. I will wear a skirt that doesn't quite fit me unless I suck my tummy in a bit. I will wear a dress under a skirt because I don't have a top that works.

But I won't pretend to bake.

These are one of my new favourite cookie recipes. I call them "Banana (Almost) Everything Cookies". They are the "Banana Everything" cookie from "Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar", but without the walnuts. And they are fabulous.

You know how you have one friend in your group who is always eating in photos? No? Well, I do. It's me.

If you are wondering why a baking-themed whimsy, apart from an excuse to make and eat cookies, it was a request from my mother in the comments of the first #bringbackthewhimsy post. It is on its way to her now!

Happy Birthday, Mum!

My handmade maternity tops: 4 versions of McCalls 6576

I mostly sourced my maternity wardrobe second-hand, but I did buy one vintage pattern and have a go at sewing it. I flipped through dozens of vintage sewing patterns at a shop in Canberra and found what I wanted - a maternity pattern in my size. (I actually got a bit bigger before I made it, but there was plenty of ease and it still fit well.)

I made the middle view. Here is my first version, in classic cherry-print cotton.

This one is still probably my favourite and got the most wear! I pretty much always paired it with this red belt and cropped jeans, but played with other accessories a lot. Below I'm wearing my dad's 1971 "Winter Swimming Club" jacket. Go Cronulla Polar Bears!

Despite some struggles understanding the facing steps and learning how to sew a blind hem and a lapped zipper, I was very happy with how this pattern turned out.

It was, however, a bit pinchy around the arms by the end of a long day. In version two, featuring strawberries, I tried enlarging the armholes.

Somehow they seemed to be still much the same, and in any case I realised that my maternity bras sit very snugly in that area anyway, so I went back to the original armholes in version 3.

I made a plain black version because I was inspired by another vintage maternity pattern to wear this over a black-and-white polka-dotted blouse in the op-shop just that week. To make sure the blouse would show at the neck, I lowered the neckline. This adjustment worked, but not over the blouse! Still, the neck is much more comfortable in this version. So I kept that change for version four.

Version four is the bright, springtime look! I love this too, although the fabric was a bit harder to work with, and the facing doesn't like to stay flat and well-behaved like the others. Maybe that explains my sour face here!

At this stage, I could only just get my growing hair into a stubby little pony tail, so I made a flower cage to cover it up! It was pretty much impossible to wear this top without some kind of hair flower.

Aww family photo! These are my gorgeous siblings.

I did buy more fabrics, and even contemplated trying one of the other views, but as I was looking at only having a couple of months left to wear them, I decided to stop myself!

So, if you can't tell, I loved this pattern. If there is a next pregnancy, I look forward to wearing these again and making some more!

Custom Maternity Dress by Manic Pop

Earlier in the year I did a collaboration with Nicole, designer at Manic Pop. I sent her a hat designed for her, and she designed and made a dress to go with it.

I love so many of her dress designs, and this one, named the Tanith Arrow Dress, is probably now my favourite! I was very tempted to get one for myself.

By the time we finished our collaboration, however, I was pregnant, and sensible enough not to order a dress that I wouldn't fit into for a while, if ever, since I don't know what size I would return to after the baby, or when that might happen!

So I asked Nicole if she would make me a maternity dress, and she jumped at the challenge. We exchanged ideas, she sent sketches, we played with colour palettes, and here is the result, my lovely custom-designed maternity dress!

This is at about 37 weeks. This dress is a maternity variation on her sunrise panel dress. With stretch knit fabrics and plenty of room in the skirt, it has been comfortable and stylish all the way through to the ginormous end!

With subdued colours, it worked beautifully in winter with dark leggings and boots, and now is translating into our very warm spring thanks to the light and cool fabric.

The idea was that I would design and make a hat to go with it, but it didn't happen. So I finally got around to doing a photoshoot without a hat and with a couple of vintage hats.

This one featured in one of my 1950s photoshoots, but I think it is comfortably suited to the 1960s-modern look of this dress, as well as a great colour match! In fact, ridiculously matchy!

This one I picked up for $10 at the end of a market on a whim, because I thought it had a cool trim. I wasn't really sure what to do with it, but it goes beautifully with this dress!

It definitely needs the hair-pulled back style to work. Luckily I could sort of get my hair back by this stage! It doesn't like to stay that way, unfortunately.

This last one is a special pose. It immediately precedes me saying "Hold on. I've just seen the scariest bug in the universe." I think it was some kind of wasp.

Thanks a million to Nicole for making me this awesome dress! Maybe next time I will actually get around to making a hat to go with it (but maybe not).

My Somewhat Vintagey Maternity Looks

During the photoshoot with Ruanne, I put on some of my retro/vintage maternity outfits and did a bit of posing myself. This was at about 24 weeks.

I got this peachy-pink dress (I'm pretty sure it is meant to be a short dress, not a long top, as I'm wearing it) with peter-pan collar at the Endeavour Op-Shop in Penrith. They stock a lot of "retro" clothes, some of which they import from Europe. I don't know why, but it is fabulous!

Styled with a white belt borrowed from my model's husband, a black skirt and sunnies from Endeavour, and the white wool and pom-pom hat inspired by the sketch from Australian Women's weekly.

This is my one genuine vintage maternity top, purchased from etsy seller Edith Says, located in Melbourne. I would say it is 1950s or 1960s. It's a little shorter than I like my tops, but I can wear this black skirt quite high, since it has a lot of stretch.

Here I'm wearing it with this darling 1950s vintage hat in pale greeny-cream and some sunnies given to me by a friend. I don't think they suit my face well in general, but with this hat they do!

Back to the peach dress/top, this time with second-hand cropped maternity jeans and the genuine vintage 1950s blue corduroy hat.

I have some more retro looks in my maternity wardrobe, including some tops I made myself from a 1960s pattern, and hopefully I will manage to get some good photos of them to share too. I wanted to make sure I got these ones done while I still fit into them! There has been a lot of expanding since then.