Finished Spring Circle Skirt

And here, for your perusal, is the finished article!

Photo by the miracles of self timers! Not included, plenty of shots of me walking back towards the camera looking confused!

Complete with (mostly) level hem. Waistband and button that actually works!



Perfect for twirling!


Complete with smug face!

Smug face not included with pattern purchase.

 As you can see it's perfect for dancing and I'm intending to wear it to Jazz tonight. I'm having so much fun at The Colchester Jazz Club. It's the best way to spend a Sunday evening!

I might have to go on my own this week. Always daunting. Wish me luck :-)

Outfit consists of:
Completely scruffy hair and no make-up, I might update instagram with the finished look before I go out!
Top: Papaya via Charity Shop in Tiptree (Bragainous £2.50!)
Skirt: Made by me using a Project Runway pattern.
Petticoat: Vivien of Holloway
Shoes: Chairty Shop Bargain (see the trend here....)

Jo :-)

New shoes?

Just a couple of quick things today....

One, I found a fabulous pair of lace up brogue high heels in black leather in a charity shop in Diss the other day for £1.95. If you follow my instagram (@ofavintageair), hopefully you'll see them soon!

Such a bargain. I've had some real brilliant finds in Diss. My favourite being a duck egg blue 50s swing coat. For £7.99. Crazy. It's got a couple of little holes in it, but mostly it's in great condition.



At the Shuttleworth Uncovered day last year. And blimey it was cold!

 Plus all of my smart hats have been charity shop finds. With feathers, and nets, and ribbon! My favourite!

Talking of finds, those of you who follow my instagram may have seen the pair of Miss L Fire shoes I found the other day. Beautiful wedges, if only they were my size! As such they're a EU36 (UK size 3) and perfect for summer. I've listed them on eBay, follow my link here. I hope someone gets a bargain. I'd love a pair of Miss L Fire shoes, but charity shop finds are all I have at the mo!

I can very much recommend the Red Cross charity shop in Diss. Their clothes and shoes are all a set price, so you can get an absolute steal sometimes. I pop in as often as I can!

Jo :-)

Spring Circle Skirt

This isn't vintage as such, but it is a very vintage look! Especially teamed with my wonderful petticoat from Vivien of Holloway. Oh how I love that shop!

This is my second (ever!) handmade garment. The first was a cherry print skirt that I Love so, so much. I've had the fabric since Christmas but starting going to Colchester Jazz club on a Sunday evening really spurred me into making something with it.

It's a lovely simple little pattern, although I've changed the length to work with the petticoat and I seem to keep changing the waistband fastenings about! It's brilliantly full, but not quite full circle which allows a tiny bit of (mostly in my head I think) modesty when spinning about on the dance floor being twirled by some wonderfully chivalrous gents!

I just thought I'd share a few photos of it's construction and all along the way!

Cutting my pattern pieces is always scary! I hate cutting into my beautiful long swathe of fabric and constantly worry I'm going to do it wrong. Any long time sewists out there? Does this ever go away?!

Then I stitch my side seams together. You'll have to excuse the horrifically modern, absolutely tiny but awesome sewing machine I'm using. It was a Christmas present to ease me into sewing. Hopefully one or other of my old singer's will be up and running soon!

Then I insert my zip which wasn't as fiddly as I thought. Cue lots of doing and undoing as I marvel at the fact I put something together that works. This means excitement!!

Then there's some interfacing and faffing about with the waistband, hopefully long enough this time to incorporate a sensible button. There's a picture of the cherry print skirt I'm not showing you!

And that's all folks. I'd like to say it's completely finished and I got to wear it to Jazz on Sunday night, but unfortunately being a total plonker I forgot to buy the appropriate thread for the sewing machine and spent most of my sewing re threading the thing as it broke time after time after time...... I finally ran out of time and had to improvise with a whole different outfit!

There's about a third of the hem left to do, and now my vintage electric singer is installed in the corner of the living room (not it's permanent place, when the study/office/sewing room/hideaway is decorated she will live in there) hopefully it'll take all of, oh five seconds to finish.

Seriously. Half horse power motor on the thing. It's somewhat scary!!

Once it's finished I'll be sure to put a picture up!

Jo :-)

Happy Easter

Well Happy Easter to you all! Is anyone actually here? Reading this. Echoes.....




Latest addition to my Collection!


Anyway! If I get my circle skirt finished on Saturday night I might even be out on my bike as this gets published! I haven't been out on her in ages due to being busy at weekends a lot of the time, dark evenings and her lack of lights! So really weekends are the only time I can get out on her.

My Beautiful Bike!

My other half is away in India for another week or so on business so it means I get to tidy up the house a little, do my own thing and spread my recently acquired sewing paraphernalia around the lounge! It also means sleeping with my hair in pin curls and rollers as he's less than fond of that particular vintage girl trick!!

I'm hoping to treat you to some photos from Colchester Jazz club next week, after my new skirt's outing! If I can persuade a friend their might even be pictures of me dancing! Aren't you just the luckiest!!

I hope you're having a great Easter Weekend wherever you are! Ah Creme Eggs are wondrous things!

Thanks for taking the time to visit my little corner of the Internet! All interaction is very much appreciated!

Jo :-)

Vintage Style Trousers

Gosh. Organisation. A post written last night, to be published this morning. Oh my! Long may it continue!

Now when I say vintage style trousers I'm thinking wide legs, high waist. Typical thirties and forties types as it were. Vivien of Holloway's beauties come to mind!

I've had a couple of pairs of denim wide legged, somewhat high waisted trousers for a year or so now. They're beginning to get rather worn out, I wear them constantly! One pair now has a hole on the inner thigh and in a wild moment, this happened:

Never let me loose with a seam ripper....

You can see where they are worn on my legs, knees and annoyingly large bum! Having pulled one pair apart and laying it out on (totally innapropriate for work!) thin cotton denim I've come to the conclusion that I may need to buy a new pair. Which makes me sad. I've got comfy in these trousers!!

So, I've been on the hunt for some around the interweb and here is what I've found!

Vivien of Holloway 1940s Swing Trousers

Photo from VoH website. Theirs not mine! I just think they're pretty!

Beautiful, classic 1940s design. Only £45 so a bargain really for such good quality clothing. I own a circle skirt dress from here and it's wonderful. My only issue with it would be that it would get wrecked at work! For a smart pair of trousers though, fab!!

A|Wear Ireland Ginger High Waist Wide Leg Trouser




Photo from A|Wear Ireland's Website. Theirs not mine!

 I think these are rather pretty. Certainly not work trousers, but they're currently £9 (?!?) on sale on the website in very limited sizes. If they had my size, I'd definitely be buying a pair!

South Wide Leg Fashion Trousers

From Very's website. Theirs not mine!

I like these, although they have a certain seventies vibe. They come in black and white as well. Also in the sale on Very's website. A bargainous £8. I'd prefer soemthing in denim for work though for the hard wearing properties!

Having had a nose around I think my only decent option for work is to make a pair (once I can get my hands on some nice sturdy denim!) using my old ones as a pattern. I'm intending to make them a bit wider to easily accomadate more layers in the winter and a bit of a higher waist, just cos! I've not made trousers before so I'll make sure to keep you updated! If anyone is actually reading this!

Also, I'd highly recommend Shop Style for searching for clothing online. It's where the trousers above have come from. It came up first on my search engine earlier, but I had already heard about it via Retro Chick's blog post reviewing them so was keen to give them a try!

That's all for now folks!

Everyday Vintage

So I'm an aircraft engineer. I work with my dad (which is mostly wonderful!) and therefore I have no specific uniform in which to go to work everyday.

So what's a vintage loving gal to do. I need to stay warm. I need to be able to wriggle my arms into tiny spaces and I'd still like to look like me.

I have to say, high waisted trousers have made getting that 'vintage look' a lot easier. Especially in the summer when I'm not wearing two costs and you can see they're high waisted.

So my usual uniform for a work day is layers. Leggings (or thick tights!) with a vest and a t shirt tucked in. Then a thinner long sleeved top tucked into my high waist, wide legged (ish!) trousers and as many jumpers and costs on top as I need! Plus my steel toe capped boots and many many pairs of socks!

Generally though what pulls the outfit together is hair and make up. I'm going to be honest. A side bun or pony tail does most days. A beret when I need a hat. And a swipe of lipstick and mascara. It just helps me feel a bit more like me whilst elbow deep in an aeroplane!

New Shirt and Head Scarf!

Hello all!

A quick outfit post today! If you follow me on Instagram (@ofaVintageAir) you may have seen that I picked up some bargains in Tesco the other day. I often buy cheap tops and jumpers from places like Tesco and Primark as my things tend to end up with paint or grease or other stainy type things on them at work, so there's no point buying anything expensive!

One of the things I picked up was a lovely pastel coloured, striped shirt. In preparation for sunnier weather, I wore it one day last week and it mostly ended up covered by a jumper!

By the miracle of self timers....

I don't feel massively comfortable showing my stomach off so I'm wearing a white vest underneath (and it was a tad chilly!!) and felt much better about it! I did wear the shirt tucked in for a while, but preferred it like this!

Jo who rivets very rarely....

The head scarf I'm wearing is a cheeky offcut from my Spring Circle Skirt and kept my hair fairly well in check for most of the day.

So my outfit consisted of:

Headscarf: offcut!

Vest: Sainsbury's

Shirt: Tesco (£4)

Jeans: Charity shop. They're the same as my last work outfit post, but I've taken the turn ups down!

And as per usual my awesome "Hard as Nails" steel toe capped boots!

Obligatory Casual Leaning against a wall photo...

So that's all folks. It's been a busy week!

Jo :-)