Tag: vintage

1930s, sewing, vintage, vintage dream blog, vintage pattern, vintage reproduction, vintage sewing

Favourite blog: Vintage Dream Blog

Lizzie Violet

This is one of my favourite Vintage Blogs.  I read this blog on a regular basis, along with a few others. I am going to start reblogging a few of my other favourites as well. Please check out Vintage Dream Blog.

Why is this one of my favourites, you ask? Take a quick browse through and you will see stunning reproductions from original 1930s patterns. As well the way the outfits are styled is breathtaking!

Stay tuned for my other favourites.

As I type this, it is 91 degrees Fahrenheit (32.7 C) outside. In September 😦 But that is Texas for you. The only good thing in my mind about a hot September is that I still have a few weeks left to wear summer fashion. Which means I have a few weeks left to SEW […]

via 1930’s Polka Dot Dress with Tabs and Pleats — Vintage Dream Blog

1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, bowling, drive-in theatre, movies, music, tiki, vintage, vintage date night

The Perfect Saturday Night Vintage Date Night

Lizzie Violet

Raise your hand if you’ve watched a movie from the 1930s, 40s or 50s and thought to yourself, gee, that would be a swell date night idea. Their dates always look like a lot of fun. I’m raising both hands right now. Fess up so did quite a few of those reading this.

online-dating-header2I love everything about date night of that period. The chivalry, the way that everyone took the time to dress up in their finest and made a real effort to impress their lady or fella. Doors were opened, chairs pulled out, hands held, people took the time to enjoy their meal, the movie, the date, nothing was rushed… I could go on. There is a beautiful romance about these times and I want to recreate them.

UA_Theatre_Marquee_1929

There are many ways to make your date night a vintage date night. You’ve already dressed in your vintage glad rags, so why not go out on the town and jolly it up vintage style. It could be dinner and a movie, dinner and then drinks at a Speakeasy, I mean Tiki bar, a night of bowling or a romantic picnic in a park. There are many ways to turn your date into a dreamy vintage night out.

327283452

Living in Toronto, we are fortunate to have a plethora of vintage or vintage style diners, bowling alleys, dance events and drive-ins. If you are having a vintage style picnic or romantic dinner at home, don’t forget the music. There are many options for music as well as ways to play it. If you don’t have a stereo that plays vinyl, you can also stream vintage music online and with the right gadget, you could possibly even have it play through that vintage radio you have sitting on your mantle or beautiful corner table. I suggest Radio Vintage for this. http://www.radiovintage.net/

If your vintage date night is a movie night and your city has a Rep Theatre, check out their selection of classic movies. Get some popcorn and a soda pop and you are ready to snuggle up to your fella or flame. My personal favourite date night movie is The Creature From the Black Lagoon. I think it’s adorable when my fella jumps and squeezes my hand tight during the scary parts. What’s your favourite vintage date night classic movie? If a drive-in theatre is more your thing, pack a cooler with your favourite drinks and snacks or go to the concession stand when those wonderful kitschy retro ads play between movies.

vintage-drive-in-theatre

If you are in the mood for a picnic, pack up that wicker picnic basket and fill it with a gingham tablecloth, a lovely packed meal and if your city allows it, maybe a nice bottle of wine. Bring along your portable radio so you can place some classic, swinging jazz.
roman-holiday

If you live in Toronto and as I mentioned above, there is a grand selection of places you could go for your date.  I have listed options for bowling alleys, drive-ins, rep theatres, speakeasies aka tiki bars or vintage diners below.

Bowling

BOWLING:

All-Star Bowl – 2791 Eglinton Ave E Toronto, 416-261-5011

Bathurst Bowlerama – 2788 Bathurst St, Toronto 416-782-1841

Bowlerama – 5837 Yonge St North York, 416-222-4657

Brimley Bowl – 26441/2 Eglinton E Toronto, 416-261-4216, 2644 Eglinton Ave E, Scarborough

Brunzwick Zone – 2561 Stanfield Rd, Mississauga, 905-270-8634

Classic Bowl – 3055 Dundas St W, Mississauga, 905-607-2695

Danforth Bowl – 1554 Danforth Ave (downstairs) Toronto, On – 416.463.3000

Kennedy Bowl – White Shield Plaza, 2300 Lawrence Ave E, Scarborough, 416-759-6181

Lucky Strike Lanes – 1 Bass Pro Mills Drive, Vaughan Mills, 1-905-760-9931 (up-scale Mod)

Newtonbrook Bowlerama – 5837 Yonge St North York, 416-222-4657

North Park Bowl – 1359 Lawrence Ave W, North York, 416-240-9373

Parkway Bowl – Parkway Mall, 67 Ellesmere Rd, Scarborough, 416-447-1761

Playtime Bowl – 33 Samor Rd Toronto, 416-787-4533

Rexdale Bowlerama – 115 Rexdale Blvd, Etobicoke 416-743-8388

Shamrock Bowl – (1950s style, rentable space) 280 Coxwell Ave, Toronto 416-406-2695, info@shamrockbowl.ca

The Ballroom – 145 John St Toronto, 416-597-2695

Thorncliffe Bowlerama – East York Town Centre, 45 Overlea Blvd Toronto, 416-421-2211

West Bowlerama – 5429 Dundas St W, Etobicoke, 416-239-3536

 

Rep Movie Theatres :

Bloor Hot Docs Cinema (The Annex) – 506 Bloor St W, Toronto 416-637-3123

Carlton Cinema – 20 Carlton Street at Yonge, Toronto, 416 – 494-9371

Fox Theatre – 2236 Queen St E, Toronto, 416-691-7330 http://www.foxtheatre.ca

Revue Cinema  – 400 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto, ON, Canada M6R 2M9

Royal Cinema – 608 College Street, Toronto, 416-466-4400 http://www.theroyal.to

 

Restaurants

Vintage Toronto Diners — https://www.facebook.com/Vintage-Toronto-Diners-1384779678460763/?fref=ts
Aunties & Uncles — 74 Lippincott Street
The Ace —  231A Roncesvalles Avenue

Apache Burger — 5236 Dundas Street West

Bloor Jane Restaurant — 2434 Bloor Street West

Bus Terminal Diner — 1606 Danforth Avenue

Cardinal Rule — 5 Roncesvalles Avenue

MARS FOOD — 432 College Street

Skyline Restaurant — 1426 Queen Street West

The Lakeview Restaurant — 1132 Dundas Street West

The Senator Restaurant — 249 Victoria Street


Tikibars

Bill Hicks Bar – 946 Queen Street East

Bovine Sex Club – 542 Queen Street West

Miss Thing – 1279 Queen Street West

Shameful Tiki Room — 1378 Queen Street West

The Shore Leave -1175 Danforth Avenue

Drive-In Theatres (In or near Toronto):

5 Drive in Theatre — http://www.premiertheatres.ca/5drivein/theaterinfo

Stardust Drive-In http://www.thestarlite.ca/stardustfilms.php

The Docks — http://www.thedocks.com/movies/

1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, edwardian, etsy, hat, hatpin, jewelry, Uncategorized, victorian, vintage

Hatpins: The Ultimate Vintage Accessory

Lizzie Violet

You can flirt with a fan in your hand. You can flirt holding a cigarette, too.  But a woman can really flirt with a hat. (Dolores Foster)
4181043_f520

I love hats. I especially love vintage hats. You would never know this by looking at my vintage accessory collection. Scarves, gloves, purses and jewelry oh my — and a sparse few hats and no vintage shoes. In the case of shoes, most are made with leather and I won’t buy items made with leather or any other animal part/product. Recently, I have found a couple companies that don’t use leather and I’m sure that my closet will be filled with many pairs of vintage inspired shoes soon. But hats you ask, why so few. Why? Oh, Why? Oh, my.

672171c89abeafe407ca920372191dfe--hat-pins

A couple years ago, my fella bought me a stunning winter hat and though not vintage, it was fashioned after a 1930s brimmed hat. I had only worn it a few times, sadly, winters are blustery here and I could never keep the hat on my head. In the summer it is also an issue with my big floppy, Miss Fisheresque straw hats. Then, my good friend gave me two stunning 1950s, black velvet hats. The kind you wear to the side of your head. I had a small and growing collection, which I found surprising considering I rarely look at hats when thrifting or at vintages shows. Why? Along with the beautiful hat, my fella bought me, I could never get them to stay put.

20170802_181217

The solution is very simple. Very simple indeed. Keep your hat in place with either a hatpin, hat elastic, a comb or bobby pins. (If you want to watch a tutorial on how to use all of these, check out Evelyn Woods tutorial) I tried sewing combs into my hats, but that didn’t feel right for me. I have tried bobby pins for the straw hats but found them too short and the hat elastics bug me and are uncomfortable. This, of course, leaves hatpins.

20170802_181237

I love hatpins and have alway found them to be the most beautiful pieces of art one can wear. I may also be a little bit in love with the fact that they can be used as a weapon. Did you know that in 1908, laws were passed in America that limited the length of hatpins? There was a concern they might be used by suffragettes as weapons. In 1910 laws were also passed, requiring hatpin tips to be covered to prevent injuring people accidentally.

20170802_172347
I have been on the search for hatpins for a while now and I will be completely honest, still, couldn’t find ones that I liked or in many cases, could afford. If you have a vintage hat, you want a vintage hat pin. I have completely abandoned my search. I still want to find vintage hatpins, I also want to keep my hat on my head and because of this, decided, why not make your own vintage inspired hatpins. So I am or rather have.

20170802_172331

Living in an urban centre I have lots of access to jewelry making supplies such as beads, sequins, a variety of stones, wires, clasps, earring posts, pendant frames, glue… everything except for the shaft needed to make a hatpin. I searched many brick and mortar, eventually giving up and looking on line. I found a few online stores that have the hatpin shaft, but nothing that was within Canada. It was back to pavement pounding for me. Eventually, I found some, however, the store only had a few left and likely won’t be ordering any more. They aren’t a popular item. If this has been 1917 instead of 2017 then I’m sure there would have been an over abundance of them. I’m considering selling them in my Etsy store, stay tuned for that.

20170802_172321

I had a lot of fun making the hatpins. Some will be given as gifts and the others are for me. I am already dreaming up many designs for the hatpins and am going to take inspiration from other vintage hatpins as I design my own. The more I am reading about them, the more excited I am getting about making other Victorian inspired jewelry.

1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, free, free knitting pattern, free pattern, knitting, vintage, vintage knitting, vintage knitting patterns, vintage pattern

Summer Knits!

Lizzie Violet

Summer Knits!

Contrary to belief you can definitely wear knits in the summer time. If you use cotton based yarns, you will have a fashionable knit jumper that you can wear even on the hottest of days.  Here are a few lovely summer knitting patterns to make and add to your summer wardrobe.

1930s Short sleeve Sailor Collar (photo not available here, but is on the pattern website)

1930s Chic Jumpers I love Theodora Goes Wild’s blog. She has lots of patterns available. This is one of my favourites.
Chic_Jumper

1940s Marguerite Pullover One of my regular go to for vintage patterns is The Vintage Pattern files. There are knitting, crochet and sewing patterns available.

marguerite

1940s Short Sleeve Blouses Va-Voom Vintage is a blog I check on the regular. She is also a curvy girl and has a large variety of patterns and shows sewing write-ups.
1940sshortsleeveblouses

1950 Happy Time Sweater  Free Vintage Knitting has thousands of free knitting patterns.

happytimesweater

1951 Jack Frost Pullover Pattern One of the things that draws me to Jack Frost patterns — is the spooky looking photography. Always shadowy with a pinch of Film Noir.
jackfrostpullover

1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, etsy, knitting, online store, vintage, vintage knitting, vintage knitting patterns, vintage pattern

Sale

Lizzie Violet

Everyone loves a sale and I’m having one! Well, a three-day sale!  Use code SUMMERKNITS in my Etsy store to get 50% off all downloadable patterns.  To go to my store, please click here.

IMG_20170627_081508_862

1920s, 1930s, classics, joan crawford, movies, old hollywood, silent films, silent movies, vintage

Silent Movies Are Good For the Soul

Lizzie Violet

Ever since I can recall, I’ve wanted to be a Flapper and even to the point, as a young child I would often ask my mother to dress me like one. In my early days of high school, I would mix styles of punk, Edwardian and Flapper. A look that made a fourteen-year-old stick out in the hallways, clashing with her fellow, small town, plaid wearing classmates. I would be seen wandering the halls with books on ghosts and a notebook to write in.  When I was home, I would either be in my room writing, doing art, or sewing or watching classic movies, especially silents. No one understood why I would want to do this, no one really got me. Why would a teenager, be so intrigued by silent movies or prefer reading the 1927 Eaton’s Spring and Summer catalogue replica she inherited from her grandfather? Shouldn’t she be out running amok in the streets or listening to that rock and/or roll music?

 

9780773710016-us-300

At some point in grade ten, my love of German Expressionist film started. Unfortunately, being in a small town, my only options for silent movies was TVO or rentals. At that time I didn’t have a huge selection and unlike here in Toronto, our public library didn’t have a huge selection of rentals. I was able to get my hands on Metropolis and Nosferatu from our local rental place. I watched both of these movies so many times, I could have shadowcast them. When I moved away from that small town and to Toronto, my world opened up. Not only did I have access to places like the Toronto Reference Library and Blockbuster, but there were groups and organizations that also loved silent movies. Pre-Facebook (yes there was a time before Facebook) I was able to find meet-ups via the classifieds in Now Magazine or posters, found on the telephone poles along Queen street.

My fourteen-year-old self would be beside herself today if she had those options. Social media has helped bring together large groups of silent film aficionados and like-minded, dames and fellas. Every April in Toronto, there is a Silent Film Festival. Sadly, I’m not able to see all of the movies at the festival (if only there was more time), but my dream is to one day get a pass and see every — single — one. This year we were able to see some ‘found’ movies and serials such as Sherlock Holmes, a Buster Keaton short and the 2nd reel from an epic pie fight brought to you by Laurel and Hardy called ‘The Battle of the Century’. It truly was the greatest pie fight in history.  I have included a YouTube video below of a shorter version of the video. If you can, you should see the restored longer version.  Side note: at 3:22 mark, I still drool over how stunning the outfit, worn by the woman who lands fanny first on a pie. I’m so glad her dress missed the pie!

I have an ever growing collection of silent movies on DVD. I fantasize often about owning a projector and film on reels, but due to the condition of most original silent films, this may remain a fantasy and a whole other blog post. Fortunately for me, a streaming service called FilmOn has a silent film and classic movie channel. I have discovered films I’ve never seen and also get to re-watch and fall in love again with, old favourites. I will never grow weary of watching the Barrymores, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Clara Bow, Mary Pickford, Errol Flynn, Valentino or Joan Crawford. Joan Crawford you say? Absolutely.  She got her start, on the big screen, in the silents. There is something so delightful in watching her in Our Dancing Daughters.

As I continue to watch silents, I am finding new favourites. Recenty I watched ‘The Married Virgin (1918) – Rudolph Valentino‘. As soon as Valentino walks into a scene, you can see why women swooned over him. As I watch Valentino and other stars like Clara Bow, Jean Harlow and Joan Crawford, I often wonder what it would have been like to have been alive in the 1920s and 1930s. It would have been incredible to see these movies, for the first time, in the cinemas of those eras. We are fortunate for festivals such of The Toronto Silent Film festival, but if I could hop into a time-machine, I would set the dial to that era.

What are your favourite silent films?

If you want to know when I post new blog entries, please subscribe. I think that would be swell.

clara-bow-eight

1930s, 1940s, 1950s, etsy, knitting, online store, vintage, vintage knitting, vintage knitting patterns, vintage pattern

Obsessed With Vintage Knitting Patterns

Lizzie Violet

1389219333000-Vintage-Knitting-Circle

I have been knitting since I was 10 years old. I learned how to knit by watching my Grandma Betty. I was mesmerized how she could take yarn and turn it into hats, socks, mitts, sweaters, tea cozies and a variety of other things. I have some truly amazing memories from the hours spent learning the craft.

I too have knit everything from socks to sweaters and everything inbetween, but there is something incredibly satisfying when you create from vintage patterns.  I have a collection of knitting books that I refer to often. I decide it was time to share my knowledge about vintage knitting and resources along with patterns I have found, as well as some fun vintage tidbits along the way.

Page4

I have created an Etsy store that I will use to sell .pdfs of the patterns I have. Not to worry, I will also be posting free patterns here along with what’s new at the store.

Right now I am having a 24-hour sale. If you use the code 1DOLLARDOWNLOAD, you can get the downloadable patterns for $1! 

I will be adding lots of new patterns and often!