The Denim Necklace

Usually I talk about clothing pieces in this blog, but one thing all my posts have in common is great accessories to embellish those pieces of clothing. Today I would like to talk about one of those pieces.

The other day, while at a craft festival with Aunt Bev, we came across a necklace that was just so me and I loved it. The reason that I don't buy a lot of jewelry is because I rarely find anything that is just me. Knowing this, Aunt Bev bought it for me for my birthday that isn't for two other months, but gave it to me early anyway so I could wear it. And wear it I did.

The great thing about this necklace is that it is brand new but it looks as if it were vintage. The jewelry is made by Esmor, who is just one lady making it herself basically. This necklace looks great with all my vintage pieces, as you can see below. It is big, chunky and yummy.

It also looks good with the most modern day of outfits. It makes those outfits pack that much more of a punch while giving them a vintage feel. There are also earrings that come along with the necklace set. And that cute little flower attached to the necklace; it's a pin. I can take it off of the necklace and do whatever I wish with it.

And if I wish, I can even wear it on its own. Perfect for meeting a date and telling them you'll be the one with the denim flower.

The Molly

For the past three posts, I've wrote about dresses that needed extensive work as far as sewing, shortening and removal of the sleeves go. Today, I would like to talk about a dress that needed extremely minimal work, no sewing, and was a great piece on its own. It was an even better piece with a few key accessories added.

I like to call this dress The Molly, because it reminds me of something you would see on Molly Ringwald via her glory days in the 80s. At first glance, it is just a basic jean dress, but then you realize it has this little gaggle of iridescent white buttons parading around the neckline. This was what was keeping it in the 80s, and no disrespect to the era, but I'm just not an eighties girl.

All I needed to do was remove the buttons, which was fairly simple. I took my seam ripper and got between the buttons and the fabric. They popped right off. There were small holes from where the thick thread was, but with one washing they went away. I need not do anything else to alter the dress, because it couldn't have had a better fit if it tried.

To accentuate all the right parts as well as update the dress, I decided to go with classic black, with a twinge of silver mixed in. I took a black, front studded belt made for going around the waist, and a black and silver long necklace for the following look.

I was very fortunate that, from any angle, this dress truly had the right fit. Little miracles make less work for me, and I absolutely love the dress.

I've since learned that pairing it with a pair of black boots, or black high heels can take this dress from day casual, to sexy evening vixen. There are many other colors and belts that it can be paired with, but I think I like the black the best.

The Paisley

I thought everyone might need a little laugh to combat Friday the 13th. Plus, let's celebrate the end of the work week together, shall we?

I would first like to introduce you to a dress that I call The Paisley. It's named this for two reasons. One, the pattern is paisley. That was a no brainer, right? However, the dress also reminded me of a character named Paisley from an old show called Beautiful People. She was a little classic with her style, and old fashioned with the patterns of her clothing, yet she dressed them up to look somewhat modern. Her style embodies what I wanted for this dress.

The Paisley could not have made me look more matronly if it tried. Maybe it was trying. Who knows? It was the perfect style of the fifties in their prime, but the long sleeves, excessive length , and buttons that went clear to my neck made me look like I had been swallowed by an article of clothing. The brightly colored pattern was doing nothing to help.

But I saw hope, because I saw a beautiful pattern that could be worked with if only I could tame the dress down so it was no longer wearing me, but I was wearing it.

In order to combat the problems with this dress, I first started by removing the sleeves and shortening it. That gave me a better idea of where I wanted to go with this dress. Like The Monet, I knew I wanted this to be a sassy summer dress. To do that, I also knew I was going to need to make it fairly short in order for the pattern to not look like it was still swallowing me up.

The next thing that had to go were the top two buttons that made me look like I was being choked by the dress. Once I removed those, I was left with a vintage neckline that you don't see in dresses anymore, but one that was opened up as not to look matronly. It was redone, but still vintage.

All in all I:
- Removed the sleeves
- Repaired the side
- Repaired the lining in the neck
- Opened the seams to remove the belt loops
- Removed to top two buttons and hooks
- Shortened ten inches

I added a cute, silver belt to the waistline to pump up and accentuate the colors in the dress. I chose a color that wasn't actually in the dress, but was both flashy and neutral. It allowed the dress to go from day to night with just a change of shoes and a little bit of jewelry.


I also realize that the dress looks like it was cut and sewn crooked in this picture. I assure you that it is the way I am standing.

The Hayley

Hello again. Today I would like to present you with a dress I call The Hayley. It's named after Paramore rocker Hayley Williams. For those of you familiar with her style, you may be wondering how I correlate this dress to her. Simple, she has an unexpected style. Although she is mostly rocker, sometimes you will see her glam up a few vintage pieces, and I think this one would fit her bill of a little punk, a little sweet, but mostly vintage for the rock. Plus, it provides tons of color for a girl who loves color. It just didn't start out that way.

When this dress and I began our relationship, I almost left it at Aunt Bev's. It had a wrap around it which was cute, but the dress was too big, which made the wrap sag and not fit correctly. After playing with it for awhile, I realized there was no way to fix the wrap to fit correctly without major annihilation of the dress, which I wasn't prepared to do. It started out like this.

I took it anyway. After my brain wrapped itself around getting rid of the wrap, no pun intended, I saw the chance to have The Hayley. With the way the waist was cut sideways, I saw the potential for a simple dress, with some flair and punk to it, if only I could remove the wrap, cut off the sleeves and shorten it. The mission was simple enough, and became even simpler when I realized the wrap was on there by exactly two stitches that came right out with a seam ripper, and then the rest was sewn into the sleeves. Because I removed the sleeves, this was no problem. Everything was looking up. Then it went downhill.

There's a reason this dress is also known as The Dress That Should Have Stayed At Aunt Bev's. Once I got the wrap off, I realized taking off the wrap, getting rid of the sleeves, and shortening the dress were the least of my problems. There was padding in the neckline. It looked like I had three boobs in the front and one in the back. We're not talking about a little bit of padding here, folks, we're talking about a ton. Four hours, a lot of hand stitching, some swearing, some machine sewing, a ton of cutting, and a lot of reshaping later, I had this. The perfect "Hayley."


All in all, I found the dress adorable alone. It didn't need sprucing up, but I added a necklace to give it a night look and a pair of heels to glam it up. You could wear it casual during the day, or out to the nightlife as seen below. Yep, definitely worthy of Hayley.

Today, I was going out casually, but quickly realized in the sunlight you could see through The Hayley. I am in the process of getting a slip off of Aunt Bev, so I did what any vintage girl would do and added my own style. A pair of leggings, flip flops, and a cute blue head band later, I had my very own style. I like color, bright color, sometimes ones that you wouldn't think to put together, and others that go together, but are all bright. This outfit shows this off best. Oh, and don't mind my face, I wasn't wearing any makeup.

All in all, this dress took me the longest out of all the dresses due to the neckline. It also frustrated me the worst, but it's the one I love the best. There's so much I can do with it and it's so playful.

At the end of the day the dress took me six hours and here is what I did with it.
- Removed the wrap
- Removed the sleeves
- Shortened six and one half inches
- Repaired the side
- Removed the neckline / took out padding / re-sewed and hand stitched

I am looking forward to wearing this dress as many places as I can, and it's comfortable. The neckline, although slightly differing from its original form, still read and breathes fifties, as does the pattern. In fact, we were at a home owned by one of my mom's clients today, and the wife commented that I obviously had good taste because of my dress. I told her it was a fifties rehab, and she said she was born in the fifties and could tell, which is why she loved it. Mission Vintage Girl complete!

Introduction / The Monet

Hello everyone! Welcome to Just A Vintage Girl, a new blog dedicated to vintage clothing. I've always found something magical about clothes from eras past, and I believe with the right accessories, and sometimes a little work, they can become unique-to-you showpieces for the modern day.

Thanks to the awesome Aunt Bev, who you can read more about on Ruby Red Hearts, I have become the new owner of thirty four vintage pieces of clothing. Each piece ranges from the 1950s to the 1980s, and were originally owned by her mother or herself. I realize that most people don't think of 80's clothing as vintage, but if it's more than twenty years old, I add it to my wardrobe and consider it so.

Some pieces came to me needing some work, and others just needing the right clothing and accessories to pair it with. Through the last several months I've rehabbed and re-worked some of the clothing; everything ranging from dresses, to jackets, to shirts and back again. I found some things so out of style that a seam ripper and sewing were required, and others that just needed a few new buttons to make them as good as vintage modern. I will take you through all those pieces, how I did it, and how each vintage piece, no matter what the condition, is just an opportunity for you to show your own, personal sense of style. And the best part about vintage clothing is that mostly no one can copy it, because the exact article of clothing left like yours ranges from few and far between, to nonexistent.

A few things you need to know about me before continuing with the blog. I do not consider myself a master sewer. In fact, I consider myself a minion sewer, so trust me, if I can do it, you can, too. If you have any sewing questions, feel free to ask. I will answer any questions that you have.

I am not a model and I am not a size two. I am wonderfully proud of this. So if I look a little bigger, and have a dumb look on my face in the pictures, that's just me.

I took my own pictures by myself. This sounds much more ominous than it is. What is ominous, however, is that it was over ninety degrees the day I decided to take pictures of the first sixteen pieces. If I look cranky, that's probably because I was. The pictures aren't of great quality, and I look perturbed in some, but it's not about me; it's about the clothing. I was just the mannequin they were displayed on. The not-a-size-two-and-proud mannequin. Oh, and I'm not wearing shoes in most of these. It was so hot that I gave up on putting shoes on, so just imagine whatever hot little pair of shoes you have in your closet with these outfits, and you'll be good to go.

I name all my vintage articles of clothing. Actually, once you get to know me, you'll realize I name everything, even if it's inanimate; mostly if it's inanimate. The names go along with people, places, or things the pieces remind me of. It's a little unconventional, but a nifty way to keep track of them on the blog.

The first dress I'm going to introduce you all is The Monet. I guess it's obvious that it's name this because it reminds me of a Monet painting. I fell in love with the pattern of the dress as soon as I saw it. The dress itself; not so much. When I put this dress on and came out, Aunt Bev and my mom cracked up and then proceeded to tell me that there was no way I was going to wear this dress anywhere. It was just that badly in need of some rehabbing. Let me repeat that; it was badly in need of rehabbing. Here, see for yourselves, take a few moments to laugh, and then continue on once you've composed yourself, but still have retained the thought that I'm nuts for adopting this dress. Oh, and I know my head is missing from this picture and that's creepy. I prefer if you put a Smurf head in its place. It adds to the ambiance of the dress.

In this, I saw a great dress.

I look very matronly, as Aunt Bev would put it. To be fair, this was her mother's dress in the fifties and that was the style. I liked the natural shape of the dress, but not the length or the sleeves. My biggest problem was the sleeves. I felt like if I stretched my arms out straight and caught wind, I would fly away. Not that there's anything wrong with a dress with sleeves as such, but it was disproportional to my body type, and they just didn't work.

Yet, I still saw hope. I knew in order to do this dress and make it into the cute little summer dress I wanted it to be, I would have to make this dress fairly short. Jut a little too long, and it would continue to look matronly. I wanted short, I wanted sassy, I wanted easy, breezy, and I wanted this dress to express summer. It was a tall order for one little dress. Then add in the fact that I still wanted it to keep with the era and not lose the vintage feel. I was excited to get working on this dress.

All in all, here is what I did to rehab the dress:
- Removed the sleeves / sewed the edges
- Shortened the dress twelve inches and hemmed the bottom
- Removed the gold clasp button on the top of the neckline
- Opened the seems in the center of the dress and removed the belt loops
- Repaired the troubled seems on the sides of the dress

All in all, the dress took me around three hours. Not too bad for a dress I am thrilled with. At first, I was worried that it was a bit too short, but then Aunt Bev told me she used to alter her dresses to be shorter than that when she was my age.

So, without further ado, I give you The Monet.

An easy way to keep this dress vintage was to keep the collar and the neckline of the dress. It's a style that was popular in the 50s and 60s, but not so much anymore. It screams vintage, and without the gold clasp, it keeps it vintage modern.

I also added a belt to give it that modern edge, and give it a little bit of attitude. This dress could go with a variety of belts with all the colors in it, but the fun thing about this belt is that it is also from the 50s, yet adding it modernizes the look. Adding belts to dresses and other clothing has become awfully popular in the past several years, so you can make pretty much any vintage piece a uniquely modern work of art with just one belt, modern or vintage.

Although it is hard to see, I am also wearing a silver and blue necklace that falls between the neckline. You can probably get a better look by clicking on the image to enlarge it.

In the end, this dress came out to be everything I wanted. Plus, with all the colors, I can wear an abundance of shoes, anything from flats to high heels. With the switch of a shoe, and your choice of a village of purses, this dress could easily go from summer afternoon chic, to nighttime hot.