How to Sew a Circle Skirt [Guest Blogger Louise of TheLittleThingsInLife]

I’m a pathetic sewer who has always meant to learn what to do properly, so I’m thrilled today to bring you a guest blog from Louise of thelittlethingsinlife.me.uk who’s going to walk you through the steps to making your own circle skirts.

Circle skirts always seem to add a touch of class. They are undoubtedly one of the most effective pieces of clothing and they are pretty easy to make as well. Moving on to the pattern, it will require a little bit of maths but nothing too scary!

Circumference = the entire distance around a circle (in this case, your waist length, plus 2 inches)

Radius = the distance from the centre of the circle to the outside of the circle
pi = 3.14 (approximately)

Here are the steps Continue reading

Anchors Away – Two Ways With Papow & Flo [Guest Bloggers]

Today’s guest post is brought to you by British blogging duo Papow & Flo. You can find them both on said mentioned fabulous blog, where they cover everything about their vintage style, including how to make it work for different body types and skin tones, and on their Papow & Flo Facebook page. Today they’re showing you how easy it is to take one dress and style it multiple ways to be either casual or dressier for any occasion. Over to you, girls!

Hello readers! We are Cacao Papow and Florence Flounce (Papow and Flo) – this week’s guest bloggers for Miss Amy May. If you’d like to find out more about us, you can follow our blog or find us on Facebook.

Being birds of a feather, we have quite similar tastes. This can end up with both of us owning the same outfit…tricky – if both of us fancy whipping out a similar look. With popular vintage reproduction brands, this problem can crop up quite often (especially at big events). To help remedy this issue, we took the same dress and styled it in different ways. Hopefully, this can give inspiration for individualising a certain piece of clothing or more options for what to do with pieces in your wardrobe. Continue reading

Orange Lemon Funny Cake [Guest Blogger Sara Lily]

Today’s post is a vintage baking piece brought to you by sugar-sweet and candy-coated blogger Sara Lily from In A Nutshell, who loves blog about her favorite looks, concoctions from the kitchen, interesting reads, as well as some of her freelance photography portraits. Prepare for a delicious treat!

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Hey there! Sara Lily from In a Nutshell… here! Have you ever tried making a recipe from a vintage cookbook? It can be super fun! It can also be super…interesting. Recipes from the 50s and 60s are quite funny – some of them call for the weirdest ingredients while others have such complicated steps that they deter you immediately. Others have such elaborate explanations and others are so simple they make you feel quite silly.

I do love a good vintage cookbook. Many of them provide you with hundreds of recipes as well as seemingly endless advice on how to properly run your home and host a dinner party. Oh it’s a riot! I can find a good cake recipe and learn how I should best present it to my guest all in one place? Perfection!

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As I looked through the few vintage cookbooks I owned recently, this recipe from the General Foods Kitchens Cookbook caught my eye. I began to read the recipe, dying to know why it was called Orange Lemon Funny Cake.

What was so funny about it?

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Summer Turns to Fall [Guest Blogger FlippaBird]

Today’s post is written for you by new-to-pinup Flippa, stylish mum, general lovely lady, and blogger. In her own words, Flippa can be found posting general ridiculousness on Instagram as @FlippaBird or on her blog about everything and nothing in particular at http://www.FlippaBird.blogspot.com. Today she’s talking you through ways to turn your summer pieces into fall and winter appropriate outfits that retain both warmth and style.
Cooler weather is fast approaching and my wardrobe hasn’t had time to catch up, which leaves me in a predicament! Do I buy cold weather pieces or do I try to transition my existing spring/summer pieces?
Like many of you, I simply don’t have the funds to buy a new wardrobe every single season, so I thought I’d share how I transition my pieces from the warmer months to the cooler months.
I’m going to start with the obvious: a cardigan. This is probably the easiest way to turn a fun summer dress into a cozy winter piece. Below is the Jade Water Color Martini dress from Trashy Diva, styled for summer with coordinating B.A.I.T. pumps and a vintage jade bead necklace.
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For fall/winter I’ve added a coordinating green scarf, a beige cardigan, and a brown belt and boots. The cardigan and boots not only warm you up, but the brown colors warm up the bright greens in the dress giving it a cool weather feel.
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As convenient as the simple cardigan is, I like to go beyond that. So next I’ll show you two ways to style a wardrobe staple for winter: the Jenny dress from Pinup Girl Clothing. Every gal needs at least one Jenny dress in their closet. As you can see below this is how I generally style it for the warmer months – a lightweight bolero, a flower in my hair, and heels.
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For my first transition look I’ve added a long sleeve, solid color button-up shirt in black, a pair of black tights, black patent belt, and coordinating hot pink heels…
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You probably noticed the cute kitty cameo brooch from Femme De Bloom? Surprise!! It goes purrrfectly with the black kitty tights (also from PUG). This style is cute, casual, and adds a bit do whimsy to your look…. Which is something I adore!
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Next up is a bit of a fancier look. I’ve converted the dress into a skirt by tucking the bodice under and safety pinning it at the waist. A burgundy stretch velvet mock turtleneck ($1.00 thrift find), wide patent belt, long gold rope necklace, and black knee high boots adds a bit of holiday glam.
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I’d feel absolutely fabulous (and nice & toasty) attending a party in this outfit! Also hooray for hair scarves on those awful, bad hair days…
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The most important thing I’ve discovered in styling my outfits, whatever the weather, is that you really can’t go wrong with an outfit as long as YOU love the end result. So experiment with the different pieces in your closet. Mix thrift finds with high end pieces, combine modern with vintage, and just have a good time playing until you find the look that’s perfect (and comfortable) for you! Happy styling!!

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Taking Care Of Vintage Clothing [Guest Blogger Virginia Knight]

Today this post is written for you by guest blogger Virginia Knight, a vintage clothing enthusiast who’s about to undertake her graduate studies in Dress and Textiles History in Scotland. Virginia will be sharing some of her vast knowledge on how best to take care of your vintage clothing.

Hello there!

I’m Virginia, and I’m going to be sharing some tips for keeping your vintage wardrobe in great shape. A bit about me: I’m a post-graduate student at the University of Glasgow studying Dress & Textile Histories, and I have been fascinated by vintage and historic clothing for as long as I can remember. I’m from the United States but have just recently moved to Glasgow for school and love living here! Continue reading

Empowerment & Re-Embracing My Inner Pinup Girl [Ruby’s Musings Guest Post]

Today I’m thrilled to bring you a lovely guest post from Ruby of Ruby’s Musings, a fabulous retro housewife (her words!) who blogs about all aspects of her vintage-style life. This post tells the wonderful story of a pinup finding herself again by re-embracing the style that had fallen by the wayside for her during life’s trials and her mistaken belief that she might be ‘too old’ for the style she has always loved.

Finding Empowerment by Re-embracing My Inner Pin Up Girl by Ruby of Ruby’s Musings

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I find myself laying on my bed, in a vintage night gown, posing while my daughter takes my photo, and I forget that I recently had breast surgery that was for the removal of breast implants, that are still healing, and much smaller than I have been in 20 plus years. I ignore my lumpy bumpy skin texture, my stretch marks even the fact that the skin my neck is not as firm as it once was. I am embracing my inner pin up, after a 10 year break, at the age of 49.  Before long, I am touching up my cat eye make up, re-applying my red lip stick and putting on my petticoat under my recently purchased vintage dress so that I can pose for some more photos to use for my blog and facebook page, even Instagram …. not feeling at all silly as I do pose after pose with cheeky facial expressions and jetting my hip out in an exaggerated manner to get just the right shot.  I have come a very long way. Continue reading

Get Ready With Me – Motherhood Edition [MissBettyDoll]

This Get Ready With Me post is brought to you by guest blogger Miss Betty Doll, blogger, Instagram babe, and glam pinup mumma extraordinaire.

I have been asked a few times how I get ready with a little one. I’m always honored when someone asks, because as a mother I have a tenancy to second guess every single thing that I do (motherhood is one giant guilt trip. Seriously.). It’s nice to know one aspect of my life appears put together!

One thing that I have refused to budge on as a mother is my getting ready time. I am happy to shower with my child, hold her as I cook, have very little downtime and put her needs first just about all the time. I love it. I really do. But I will not give up my getting ready ritual, and I will not give up my pretty dresses. I think it’s important as a mother to weigh up something that is important to you and hang onto it for dear life, because if you don’t make it a priority – it won’t be. Continue reading

A Pinup In Sleeves: Part III [Lindy Bop ‘Holly’]

Part three of this Pinup in Sleeves series is coming to you as a guest post from my darling friend Sophie, fellow British Belle, blogger at Petticoatsandteacups and Instagrammer @missfififvonfosse

Hello readers! Fifi von Fosse here from Petticoats and Teacups, invading Miss Amy May’s Pinup in Sleeves series! As a vintage loving gal liking a little bit of upper arm coverage, I jumped at the chance to write a little post for you, telling you all about the gorgeous LindyBop ‘Holly’ dress.

So picture the scene. It’s early November, and you are just starting out your search to find the perfect festive dress. Up pops the Holly and voila- the search is over! Coming in at £29.99, it wasn’t exactly a bank breaker, especially leading up to the Christmas shopping rush, and the gorgeous deep berry colour just screamed festive perfection to me.

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