Setting and dieting

Well, that's another week over and done with, and typically, the rain has just set in for the rest of the weekend. I was going to go to the Chap Olympiad today but ended up selling my tickets on to a friend and buying tickets to a weekend event organised by friends. As it happens, I am now in bed with an upset stomach while hubby is getting rained on in a tent somewhere in Wales...So much for my plans!

I spent Tuesday this week working at home and took the opportunity to get some housework done.

Why do my arms look massive in this photo?

I also took the chance to set my hair while I was at home. I've put it up in foam rollers with a spritz of setting lotion and this'll last me about 2 days before it drops significantly. This is actually fine for me, since my hair tends to get greasy and limp if leave it any longer between washes! When I saw my Nan and Grandad the other weekend, I was chatting to my Nan about rollers. She finds it so funny that I'd choose to sleep in rollers, just like she used to but is amazed at how soft the plastic and foam ones are, not like her metal contraptions! My Mum thinks I'm mad, of course. She is of the generation that burned not just their bras, but rollers, stockings and all those other uncomfortable things I now use on a daily basis. Weirdest of all was hearing the conversation between my Husband and my Grandad about women wearing curlers to bed, all very strange! 

If I remember I'll try to get some pictures of my set one evening. It's very easy to do, surprisingly so for someone with limited hair skills like myself, and amazingly not at all difficult to sleep in!

These are my old faithful Freddies of Pinewood jeans, teamed with a new charity shop peasant style blouse. It has smocking over the whole of the waist area, which makes it very fitted under the bust, I'm a big paranoid about the attention this draws to my boobs, but it also shows of my newly slim waist, so I take it as a win! Since I started dieting about 2 months ago I've lost 19lb and by golly do I feel different. I now only have a few pounds, maybe 4, till I reach the goal I set for myself, never dreaming I'd actually get there. Sadly, this does mean that many items of clothing, like 2 pairs of Freddies jeans, no longer fit like they used too. Even these ones are getting a bit loose in the waist. This is especially annoying when it's clothes I've made - my 1940s summer dress is now swimming on me. I don't know whether to try to take it in (tricky with the pleats and tucks on the yoke), reuse the fabric for a skirt or pass it on. It has my first ever bound buttonholes and collar, so I'm loathe to do anything that would lose them! Opinions and bright ideas welcome!

I thought I'd share this book with you while I was at it - I picked it up in a little second had book shop they have at the National Trust property I visited last week, Tyntesfield.
It was published in 1971 and is worth the massive 50p price tag for the pictures alone!

It's also full of very handy hints about different sewing techniques, like collars and buttonholes!

Of course, I didn't really need it - I have dozens of books both antique and modern about dressmaking - I just couldn't leave it there. Does anyone else have trouble resisting vintage sewing books?

Hair today, longer tomorrow (hopefully)

No sewing last night, as I went to get my hair cut by my good friend and multi-talented superstar, Jamie. My hair has long been a source of frustration to me. It's poker straight and very fine. It's also on the greasy side of normal, so I have to wash it every day to stop it from looking lank. It also refuses to hold a curl without industrial intervention.

After being really kind to my hair (no treatments, colours, curls or anything) for a good 18 months last year in preparation for my wedding, I had a mad moment, decided to get it all chopped off and go for a Louise Brooks bob. It's a look that suits me, and my hair, and I worked the 1920s thing for a bit. Then I realised that all my clothes were more 40s, and that I just can't wear the 20s shape. Something about looking like a frumpy sausage. So, at the start of this year I began growing my hair out and an now aiming for a 40s pageboy style like this.

I figure I only need to get my hair to hold a curl at the ends this way! So yesterday Jamie cut my hair into the right shape - longer at the back and curving up to the face. I need about another 1 ½ - 2 inches on the back and it'll be about there, I think. I gave the curling a go this morning and it's looking pretty good (photos later if I can get some before it all falls apart).

It was very simple, which is what I need! After my shower, I put mouse in my hair and blow-dried it, curling it under with my vented brush while I dried. Then I took my curling irons and just flipped the ends under, angling the irons towards my face at the front sections of my hair. It was very quick and probably only added 5 minutes to my morning routine. I think the time aspect is the biggest issue for my hair - If I could get up early enough to put my hair in heated rollers or something I'd be laughing, but I have enough trouble getting up and to work on time as it is! So, I'm hoping this may be the answer to all my problems, and that by Christmas I'll have a nice 40s barnet!

StrawberryKoi  has an excellent tutorial for a large range of vintage styles, including the pageboy on YouTube for those of you with longer hair and the time to curl it first!