Weather you're celebrating with your sweetheart or relaxing with a glass of wine and a chick flick, a lovely bit of silk or lace makes for a decadent Valentine's evening. Since lingerie is such a personal item, I much prefer to sew my own to fit perfectly and custom made with my favorite colors and fabrics.

I love to sew lingerie because it's a quick and often simple project that uses very little material. You can get so many wonderful instructions for fancy lingerie details from this 1940s PDF booklet "Pretty Pretties" 



For the boudoir, Mrs Depew carries several garter belt and girdle styles from the 1920s to 1950s. This 1940s bra, trimmed in lace is quite daring and alluring when paired with any of the vintage tap pants styles. Mrs Depew hosted the Oh La La Pin Up Sew-Along on her blog in February of 2012 . The bra, french garter belt and Pretty Pretties booklet are all available in a printable pdf kit.


For the lady who loves to lounge in vintage fineries, enjoy patterns for  step-ins, housecoats and robes. Mrs Depew has an amazing collection of 1940s night gowns and 1920s negligees, sure to bring sweet dreams!


Lingerie never stops at special occasions. For daily wear, sew your own vintage style bras, tap pants, slips and petticoats for the perfect fit with all of the vintage details that you love.  Sewing lingerie goes by so quick once you make a well-fitted muslin. Spend a weekend with your favorite movies, a pot of tea and design an entire collection of couture vintage lingerie.




See the entire lingerie collection at Mrs Depew Vintage. Va-Voom Vintage readers save 15% off with code "VAVOOM" at the register

For new pattern releases, sew-alongs, and customer projects, follow Mrs Depew Vintage:

 Being a housewife, you don't have a boss telling you what to do and when to do it so its important to be a self-starter and stay motivated. Having a to-do list always helps me to stay on task and get the job done. When I follow a cleaning schedule, my house stays neat and I have freedom to sew,  knit and do projects with the kids in the afternoon. Here's how I made my home keeping schedule work for me.

Getting Organized
Yesterday, I found this great family organizing app called Cozi.  It's free to use and very easy to set up. You can keep track of appointments, chores, projects and events for the entire family. It also has a grocery shopping list that syncs to mobile so when my husband needs to stop at the store for a few things on his way home from work, he can pull my shopping list up on his phone. I'll be using that -all- the time! Cozi Gold is the paid version ($30 per year) and includes a bunch of mobile reminders, meal planning, notifications and lots of wonderful organizational tools. Get the free version here

If you're a pen and paper kind of girl, there's lots of gorgeous day planners and calendars out there too!



I also pulled up these great printable to-do lists from Martha Stewart.  There are lists for seasonal home keeping projects, monthly cleaning tasks and all kinds of things to keep the house tidy, organized and running smoothly. I adjusted some of those things to my own needs and added them to my Cozi calendar so I'm reminded when its time to change air filters, service the furnace, seed the lawn and all of those good things. I'm sure that we don't all wipe down our switch plates monthly like Ms. Stewart supposedly does but you can use her lists as a starting point for your to-do list brainstorming session. On the Cozi app, you can add tasks that repeat weekly or monthly so if you want to remember to vacuum the baseboards of the closets regularly or flush the drains with boiling water, you can have that task repeat as often as you want to do it.

Making your own schedule is easy and kind of fun to do. My best advice is to start with a completely clean house. Spend some time cleaning and organizing cabinets, drawers and closets. With everything in its place, you will have a better idea of what tasks need to be done daily, weekly and monthly and you can add those long-awaited projects (like my re-painting the kitchen) to your list. Also, with a freshly cleaned and organized home, it'll be easier to stay on top of it and you'll have more free time to have fun!


Cleaning Tips
We're not all born being domestic goddesses so it never hurts to get some tips from the experts on how to work smarter, not harder. I've found some priceless wisdom on cleaning house, fixing things and maintaining things from Heloise. She has some wonderful tips on living frugally and using a lot of home keeping methods that our vintage housewives would have used.


If you're going to spend a lot of time doing chores, it's much more enjoyable if you have cute tools to help you clean and organize. I spend many hours per week doing dishes and laundry so here are some cute things to make me smile while I'm working, all from Modcloth




For more housekeeping inspiration check out my Pinterest board, "Tidy Up" for over 100 brilliant cleaning and organizing ideas. Happy cleaning!





Va-Voom Vintage is an affiliate of ModCloth and Cozi. Please see my full disclosure policy

Hello, everyone! I'm finally feeling better today after a much-needed visit to the doctor so let's get back to having fun!!  Today, I want to introduce you to this month's blog sponsors....



The Glamorous Housewife is a lifestyle blog written by Bethany, a mom and housewife from sunny California. Bethany gives tips on designing a beautiful home, gourmet cooking, personal style and inspiration for a glamorous life. 






Love That Lingers is a beautifully curated boutique. Every unique vintage piece is hand selected by owner, Dawn, who picks the best vintage clothing and home decor pieces from the Denver area. Be sure to check out the lovely shoe and accessory selections!






Desert Lily Vintage is an Australian-based online vintage boutique, collecting vintage clothing from the 70s and 80s. As mentioned in my previous coverage of Desert Lily Vintage, there are many wonderful qualities of modern vintage pieces- particularly the ability to wash and wear! See the new collections of menswear and vintage home decor.

Can I get a do-over for January, please? The new year came with great intentions. My last day of work was the 12th and then I thought I'd spend a week organizing the house before getting down to business...and then we all got sick. It was one of those cold/flu things that hits you like a truck and you're useless for over a week. There was a lot of time spent in the tub




I bought a shiny new laptop and new printer/scanner thing that I'm very excited about. My laptop has been keeping me cozy in bed these past few days with American Horror Story and True Blood but today I'm happy to be blogging with it. I'm hoping to carve out some time to download all of my fonts and put all of my photos and blog stuff from my dying desktop on it.

In other news, Dollie from The Rockabilly Socialite started her 12 week VLV Fitness Challenge. For those going to Viva or just wanting to reach a spring time health goal, follow along with her. I bought a massive amount of vegetables the other day, hoping to get back to doing daily yoga and pilates too, once this throat thing is gone.

Also, check out the adorable and easy tutorial from Technicolor Cutie on how to make novelty plastic fruit brooches. I'm going to run to the dollar store and craft store this weekend to see if I can find some cute fruits

The vintage sale this week has been great! I'm so happy to purge my hoard and find new, loving homes for all of these beautiful things. I haven't even scratched the surface of my vintage stash so there will probably be another big sale in February.

To wrap up, I'm offering 30% off all inventory now through Monday night!

 


Shop the 30% off sale on Instagram here or Facebook here. To purchase, comment with your paypal address and zipcode. I'll send an invoice via paypal with the discount applied. Items will be deleted as they are sold.


Thanks for shopping!! 

One of the most rewarding aspects of blogging is all of the amazing people I've met online and in person who are also interested in vintage fashion and a retro lifestyle. Many of us have a hard time finding like-minded people to connect with, especially if we live in a small town or area where vintage isn't popular.


 If that's you, check out Vintagers- a new network for vintage-loving people where we can make new friends, shop and sell and share the best old-fashioned events and locations in our home town.


Shop and Sell

Shop vintage and handmade from world-wide sellers. Those familiar with etsy and similar sites will have an easy time navigating the marketplace. Check out these stunning pieces from Buy Buy Baby Shop
































Set up shop and sell your vintage or handmade vintage-style items at 5% per transaction

Around Town
Visit vintage locations or events in your hometown or check the Vintagers maps before traveling so see where the best vintage shops, restaurants and entertainment spots are. I posted my favorite local vintage eatery, Little O's Old Time Soda Fountain in historic St Charles, Missouri




































For new features, contests and news, sign up at Vintagers.com and follow Vintagers:

facebook   twitter   blog



Vintagers is a sponsor of Va-Voom Vintage

Phew! It's been a busy couple of days here at Shermanville! With my Instagram vintage sale in full swing, I've been pulling out new pieces every day and listing them. Since not everyone is on Instagram, I decided to continue the sale on my facebook page. See all of the vintage clothing and accessories for sale here


Anyway, I was looking through sole of my old magazines this morning and I thought you might enjoy this gorgeous pin curl set from American Hairdresser magazine, October 1940. If you master this single set, you can style it two different ways. I can't wait to give this one a shot!

If you need help with your pin curls, check out my post, Pin Curls 101
For more pin curl tutorials and sets, check my tutorials in the navigation bar above

Yesterday, Pj braved the snow to go get groceries and dig his mom's car out for her. We got about 14 inches here in St Louis, which, while may not be much to you ladies up north, it was enough to shut down the St Louis Arch for the first time since 1982! Wouldn't you know it, he was almost home when his ancient car kicked the bucket. Thankfully two girls on their way home to Chicago stopped to let him sit in their warm car until I got there to bring him home. I hope that those nice ladies got home safely!

So, the old junker is on the side of the icy highway now, to be towed home later this afternoon. It was a great little car. I bought it from a friend when Pj and I first started dating and it's served us well but I think it's time to send it off to the big highway in the sky and we're going to buy a new-ish car....which leads me to a big vintage sale!!!




In the next few days, I'll be posting lots of vintage (and a few modern) beauties on my Instagram for sale. I have dresses, lingerie, purses, jackets, shoes and and a few sweaters too. Who knows what I'll find in my stash so keep an eye on Instagram this week and next!

Oh did she say the "F" word?

I'm in an honest mood today and it just happened that I got a comment on my facebook page that made me want to really talk about this subject, which I have been dodging for a long time. I think every vintage blogger who wears fur has talked about this issue but here we go again.

After posting some pics of my furs on facebook, I received comments "Is that real fur?" and "Great closet!!!! and hoping your furs are synthetic....."

Well no, in fact they are not. They are vintage and I wear them and enjoy them. I do love animals.  I had 3 kitties and a ferret for the longest time and as a kid, we had a dog, cat, iguana, a tarantula, snakes, mice, rabbits and a wolf....not all at the same time, of course.  Our current family pet is a little hamster named Sour Cream who is just as soft as cashmere and sweet as can be. I prefer to see the lovely fur on a living creature, happily going about its business but if I come across an old fur in a thrift store, flea market or it's passed on to me as a gift, it's not going to end up in a landfill. I'm going to wear it.




 I wear it to appreciate its beauty and warmth. I don't often wear modern faux furs because they are made of polymer fibers created from coal and petroleum. These faux fibers take up to 1,000 years to break down. That's not very environmentally friendly and  I don't care for the way it feels, to be honest. Its very scratchy and uncomfortable. There are some very nice quality faux furs on the market today but I still don't like the idea of mass produced stuff piling up, which is a major reason why I wear vintage.
I do have one modern fur. It's a fox and it was trapped by a friend of the family, who is a re-enactor.  The bones were used for buttons and such, the meat- although not a great meat to cook was eaten (cause that's what you do when you're in the middle of nowhere), the brain used to tan the skin. He traded the fur with my husband for some hand made soap and leather pouches and it ended up in my hands, where I finished it as a stole, and am still hunting around for the right glass eyes.


I also wear leather, wool, fur velour hats and enjoy a good cheeseburger more often than I should but it's my personal choice. If someone came up to me in a restaurant and said "Oh yummy, That looks good but I hope it's a veggie burger!" I'd probably punch 'em in the eye and tell them where to shove their opinions.

 Some may say "but you don't have to wear fur, it's just for vanity" well, I don't -have- to eat meat either. The meat and dairy industry is terribly cruel and freaky with their hormones and genetically modified everything but in the end, I still order a burger or bacon on my pizza. Its a personal choice. 

 I must admit, for the past few years, I've been afraid to bring the topic up because I've seen the harsh backlash on other vintage fashion blogs but I remember that I'm here because I want to remind other women to be independent. To do your own thing and to wear what makes you feel good, regardless of what society thinks you should wear. If I can't do that openly on my blog, I feel like I'm failing my readers and myself.


If you have a few furs end up too old and messed up to wear anymore or if wearing fur isn't your cup o' tea, you can donate them to Coats for Cubs, an organization helping to rehabilitate orphaned wildlife.


You may also enjoy this interesting article from Collector's Weekly "Should you Feel Guilty About Wearing Fur?"

I was driving to downtown St Louis the other day, in the snow and started day dreaming about wintery outfits involving pants. I checked my closet and realized that my pants inventory is dangerously low so I popped into 2 thrift stores and found some high waist pants. Along them is a pair of stirrup pants.



I'm a child of the 90s so my mom bought me several pairs of these terrible things in all colors. I'm pretty sure that I had some red ones with a Christmas print turtle neck.  I found this pair and didn't realize what they were till we were in the dressing room and I thought, "Oh, let's just try them on." So I did. I liked them and I bought them.



I stacked some blue, brown and red bakelite to match my jacket

When I shop alone, bad things happen. I don't have a girlfriend or my husband to say "Oh hell no!" so I make poor choices. However, it's always good to try new things and sometimes they turn out to be not so bad. This could be another classic bad fashion choice of mine but I've worn them in public a few times and no one has thrown rocks at me yet.



You can either chop off the elastic or pin it up under the cuff and no one knows you're in a 1993 time warp under there.

Also, check out my new favorite jacket that I thrifted! It's a modern jacket from Land's End or something like that. I'm pretty sure Dorothy from The Golden Girls would have worn something like this but whatever, I love it!






Today's blog pictures by my little girl, Olivia- Such a wonderful helper!

Happy New Year to all of my wonderful blog readers and friends! 2013 was a craptastic year for many but I have a very good feeling about 2014. Although a new calendar year really is just a number on paper, there's something inspiring and refreshing about the idea that you can start over with new plans, goals and a new lifestyle.

This year, I have a lot of great things planned for myself and for this blog. In 2013, I had great things planned too but with a lot of crazy personal stuff going on towards the end of the year, much of it had to go on the back burner. So, let's see what I've been up to lately.

Instagram
Since starting Instagram a few months ago, I think I post more things on there than anything else. Here's a peek at the past few weeks.  Follow me here @vavoomvintage



Back to Full Time Blogging
As I said about a month ago, I was going to go back to an out-of-the-house day job for the winter. Well, that happened and it turned out to be a terrible decision. I don't think I've been so exhausted and stressed out in my life. Next Saturday will be my last day and I'll be back to full time blogging/ housewife mode. I've always been one of those people that thinks she can do it all and the truth is, no one can. It's very important to know what your limits are and to not push yourself past that point. I pushed myself way past that point and nearly lost my marbles. I'm really happy to be back to doing what I love most and to have more time with my family.

Art
Art runs deep in my family. My mom is a full time fairy/fantasy artist. My grandpa has been an award winning watercolor artist since his college years and both of my siblings are very talented artists too. As a teenager, I loved to paint, draw, sculpt and all manner of creating but I stopped one day and haven't gone back. This weekend, I picked up some new art supplies and signed up for an online watercolor class on Skillshare with Katie from Paper Fashion. I'm very out of practice with my sketching but I'm having a lot of fun getting back into the swing of things. Its very relaxing and it's something that I can do with my kids at the kitchen table. Olivia especially loves to paint with her watercolor set. When I was shopping for my supplies, I picked up a new palette for her but I think she will soon want a rinse pan, tube paints and a watercolor pad of her own.




Too Much Plastic
With Christmas money comes more stuff to add to my collections and this year, it was Bakelite and Lucite in mass quantities. I scored some really amazing new pieces both online and around town. I've been learning a lot more about Bakelite too, which we'll be discussing here later. In the mean time, here's a peek at my addiction.