Clara Studies

Dress from the thrift store last week. Early nineties vintage rayon, with tiny buttons and a wide sash

Vintage Inspiration for a Mature Woman's Wardrobe

(Let's hope she likes neutrals!)

* a silver-gray silk--"she had white hair, and the effect was beautiful"

* a black silk dress

* white dresses--"that's what my chum's grandmother used to wear when I went visiting in the summer"

* real lace collars, to go with the gray silk

* half a dozen plain collars for everyday wear

* a gray voile dress, very simple and elegant, lined with gray silk and trimmed with lace dyed to match (reduced from sixty dollars to thirty)

(hopefully she likes neutrals!)

* a coat and skirt suit of fine soft black taffeta, for traveling

* a handsome black cloth coat for cool days

* a black and white dotted swiss dress

* a white linen suit

* a handsome black crepe de chine dress

* a black chiffon waist (blouse)

* filmy, dreamy, white shirtwaists, simple and plain in design, and exquisite lace simply applied, fine handmade tucks and finer material

* white linen and white lawn for morning wear at the seashore

* two white linen skirts

* several pairs of silk gloves, black and white, undergarments dainty enough for a bride, a dozen pairs of stockings

* a black lace bonnet on a foundation of white roses, with a drapery of fine black lace which swept around the roses and tied loosely on the breast

* a lace wrap from the cloak department

* a plain black bonnet

* a sweet little gray bonnet

*  a fine silk umbrella

* a lot of pretty belts and handkerchiefs

* some shoes and rubbers

* a handbag of cut steel

Grace Livingston Hill wrote Aunt Crete's Emancipation in 1911. It contains an exhaustive description (this list is verbatim) for a dream wardrobe for a woman of mature years.

Mink, I Think

This is what I found at the thrift store today. It's in absolutely perfect condition. I did a moment of internet research and am guessing it's blonde mink.

The original owner's full name is embroidered inside.

My Only Earrings

I wear these every single day--and take them out every afternoon to swim with Daisy (4:30, be there or be square).

These were my grandmother's pearls. A month ago I lost one, and coming through the living room I said to Clara, who was sitting on the couch, "I've lost an earring--let me know if you see it."

"Isn't that it?" she asked, pointing to the floor by our feet. Drama over.

Magic for Daisy's Drawers

 On Wednesdays, we make sure that we are all caught up on putting our laundry away, and that the laundry room is empty, tidy, and cleaned.

Daisy tidies her dresser up in conjunction with this task each week. Today she decided to re-sort her dresser. I walked in halfway through, and suggested she try the method in Marie Kondo's book and get some of that life-changing magic going.

 Fold the garments neatly, and set them in the drawer *vertically*. Nothing is stacked, everything is equally visible when you pull out the drawer. Nothing to topple over, nothing to get lost at the bottom  to be left unloved.

It worked perfectly. All her hot-weather clothes are in one drawer, all her cold-weather clothes in the bottom drawer.

Anna Locket

Finally, My Perfect Jersey Dress

That's right. After much thought, I believe I have achieved a perfectly useful dress.  I want my jersey dresses to work for everything--housework, gardening, church, going out. It's hard to come up with one design that does all that.

I love to do elaborate embellishment which pushes these dresses up the fanciness spectrum, making them a poor choice for the okra patch.

 What I've decided to do is break things up into two pieces. Plain jersey dress underneath. Embellished matching bolero on top. And, important to me, I finally lengthened this dress by ten inches, and now it's *just* right. The coverage, the drape, the feel (this is the six-gore dress from Alabama Studio Style by Natalie Chanin).

I haven't made the bolero for this dress yet, but I picked up this thrifty number yesterday for a dollar fifty. Bolero is next, and will be fun.

"I Shall Never Be Indifferent to Dress"

"My day for the frilly gowns of organdy and lace is over--henceforth I must wear the richer hues and materials of the matron. But I shall never be indifferent to dress. It is a very foolish woman who is--just as foolish as the one who makes it the foremost and only thing. Both are badly mistaken."

--L.M. Montgomery, The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume III 1921-1929

The Shawls from Cusco

These are the shawls Felix brought us from Cusco. They're all alpaca, so soft and silky.

A Fine Day for a Bob

Daisy got her Second Annual Spring Bob. Ignore that surprised look on her face--I think it has to do with macaroons. That she's eating.

Five Scenes from Christmas

Felix put together a festive tie-vest-tie pin combo.

Pink and red flowers to brighten the sitting room.

Bella and lemons.

Giles

Clara and a new velvet cloche.

No hike for us today, we stayed in from the weather. Made a tenderloin, rolls, worked a puzzle, and watched Giles figure out how to work his Christmas gift--a vintage 80's keyboard from the Composer's studio. 

Frederick and the Hipster Sweater

Felix and his friends troll the thrift stores for large and ugly sweaters to study in. Lounge sweaters.

Felix brought this one home and then realized he had picked out the sweater equivalent of Frederick,

who was hip before you were even born.

"The Simplicity of Good Taste"

" . . . She now knew what one ought to wear and exactly how to accomplish it on a very small income. She had learned that the most expensive models almost invariably chose lines of simplicity, both in cut and decoration, and therefore she had been enabled to select from among the cheaper garments, those which followed this simplicity of good taste."

--Grace Livingston Hill, Crimson Roses

A Fitted Wool Coat

A quick stop in a Goodwill to get some aqua t-shirts to cut up for an applique project, and I glanced at the coat rail and saw this.

Flawless heavy wool, a mink collar (with lapel notches!) and mink trim on the bottom of the front only (see the back!), a nipped-in waist, inverted pleats behind.

Not a single label or clue inside; I think it's been relined. Twenty dollars, and my size? Okay.

Hobo Style

Felix came home for the weekend wearing his thirties' style hat (from his most recent visit to NY), a tie, and carrying his banjo. Like the cutest hobo I've ever seen. Later he showed me how he had ripped both elbows out of his favorite gray cotton shirt, and would I please patch them?

Since no patch would match, he chose tiny brown houndstooth for a little extra hobo style.

Curly Locks

Bella's been curling her dreadlocks. A spritz of water the night before to dampen them, then they're twisted up in three or four buns and tied in a scarf. In the morning, she lets them down, and: glamour.

Clara Begins Her Last Times

The real last times won't come until August, but already some of her Life Til Now is wrapping up.


Last symphony concert this weekend. For six years the Composer has been taking her every month to Sunday afternoon concerts. They've had the same seats down near the front, near the too-loud theatrical lady who warbles and coos over the soloists. But they just went to the last performance.


Next year she'll be in a different place, different concerts. Same red shoes, I hope.

Clara in a Brilliant Thrifted Dress

I found this unbelievable ensemble at the thrift store last year. An incredibly tailored silk/wool blend dress and coat--every seam is either piped or bound with bias binding.


Too narrow for me, it worked for Clara when I took up the side seams. I left the excess fabric in place, though, I couldn't bear to cut into those gorgeous seam finishes.


Rhinestone pave buttons do frost the cake, don't they?

Felix Gets a Hat

Felix hit the hat jackpot when my mother offered her father's carefully stored (original Dobbs hatbox) hat. Everyone who knew my grandfather knew the hat; he wore it every day.


It's the exact color of Felix's eyes and he'd been wanting a real hat.


Later, that same weekend, he found these shoes at the thrift store for $1.50. Giles looked them up when they got home. Apparently they are $400 Italian leather loafers. Who in this town buys those--and more to the point--who gives them to the thrift store?


Well, they've found a good home now.

A Vintage Fur Collar

"Remember that furs are a state of mind, a symbol of affection and a mirror of luxury and femininity. I doubt if even diamonds can compare with the mood furs create . . . "

--Anne Fogarty, Wife-Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife


Not to mention, diamonds are awfully thin on the ground at the thrift store.