Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of helping to judge Anna Depew's Name That Dress Form Contest.  Pop over to Anna's blog, A Few Threads Loose to see who won!


Anna has been very busy these past few months with several new patterns and mking many of our favorite Mrs Depew Vintage PDF sewing patterns available in paper format! I love a PDF for the ability to get your pattern from etsy to your home in a matter of minutes but if you're not into all of that cutting and taping, check out the new selection of paper patterns.




Va-Voom Vintage readers always enjoy the exclusive coupon "VAVOOM" for 15% off at Mrs Depew Vintage.



Many Mrs Depew patterns are from a time when most women could grab some fabric, chop into it and come out with a great dress. Here are some great examples of pattern instructions with diagrams and measurements to make these amazing vintage garments- great for intermediate to advanced seamstresses










Mrs Depew Vintage is a sponsor of Va-Voom Vintage

Bitter Root Vintage



Bitter Root Vintage is a Detroit-based boutique with a lovely selection of vintage and reproduction clothing and accessories. The shop is currently stocked with holiday dresses, swanky accessories and lots of bright colors to carry you into spring.
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Love That Lingers

On Saturday we woke up to a nice thick blanket of snow. Although 5 or 6 inches is nothing to some, in St Louis the road crews are never prepared to handle it so I got to stay home with the kids and play outside.  
I  wore one of my silliest hats with a big goofy pom pom of feathers on one side, which was thrifted a few years ago. When it comes to hats, the sillier, the better.

Olivia watches me pose for my outfit photos so now every photo is a little pose and big cheesy grin for her.





In the winter, I still wear a lot of skirts. Wool skirts with thick socks or tights and boots keep me just as toasty as pants. This is one of my favorite wool skirts because it has the prettiest and most unexpected peachy lining.


So- the boots...I really wanted some vintage Gaytees with the lovely fur. I couldn't find any in my size (9-10) at the time so I hunted around and found these 70s boots by Snowland on ebay. I see them on ebay all the time, in larger sizes but if you poke around in the warmer months, you could really snag a good deal. I think I got these for less than $20. They're wonderfully warm and since they aren't as old, you have a good chance of finding them in really good, wearable shape. They have a bit of a heel but they're very easy to walk in when its icy out.  I think I'll try to hunt down a black pair for next winter.





After our snow play, the kids enjoyed a nice warm bath and hot cocoa and I enjoyed a nice glass of moscato and two napping babes.

 Technical difficulties of all kinds have prevented me from doing much blogging lately but my clever husband came home last night and fixed things for me while I was at work and I woke up with everything ready for me to blog. Thank you, sweetie!!



 This spring, on a beautiful sunny morning I found this wonderful little booklet at a garage sale that I previously blogged about. It's from the same house that I bought my 1950s china cabinet from! This book gives lots of tutorials and instructions for making vintage ribbon bows and exciting ways to wrap gifts from 1958. Most of these elaborate how-tos are for Christmas but there are also some birthday and other holiday gift wrapping ideas. Aside from wrapping your gifts, you can also make some amazing retro holiday centerpieces and decorations from ribbon to use year after year. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did!

Download Here: 1958 Gifts to Pretty To Open from Hallmark

This download may not be posted for sale but please do feel free to share it with others! 

Last year, I made these 1958 mischievous pixie ornaments from a vintage magazine.They turned out so cute and are now some of my favorite holiday decorations. This is a fun project that the kids can help with and they match beautifully with your other retro Christmas kitsch.







You will need:
ball ornaments- I used plastic modern ones. I love unbreakables with little ones around!
craft felt
small pom poms
colorful foil scrapbook paper (available in full sheets or small sample packs from craft stores)
red seed beads (for the mouth)
ribbon or yarn for hanging the ornaments
glue- we used hot glue and tacky glue
other bits such as spangles, sequins, tiny foil or bottle brush trees.





Download the pattern and instructions from Dropbox. Set your printer at 100% to print pattern at actual size

If you have a hard time finding trees, I found some green foil cocktail picks at the craft store and when you snip them short, they're great little trees!



You can also curl metallic pipe cleaners into spirals to make a tree. if you do this, hot glue the ribbon to the ball and pull the ribbon up through the center of the spiral tree, as pictured.



I hope that you and your family enjoy making memories with these funny mid-century sprites!


If you enjoyed this project, check out my e-book Kitschmas Crafting with Va-Voom Vintage

I was on facebook this morning when I read a very sad thing from Elly Mayday's page. Elly is a unbelievably gorgeous pin up model who began her career as a plus sized girl, campaigning for body acceptance and loving yourself. Recently, she has been battling with cancer and through it all has remained strong and just as lovely as ever.

She received a comment from a fan telling her that she won't be her fan anymore because she has lost weight (due to cancer) and basically that it's not okay for plus sized girls to build up a following as a big girl and drop some pounds later.




This struck me personally. In 2011 I posted about how I had surgery to remove my gallbladder and wanted to lose weight to improve my health and be able to be energetic and fit for myself and for my kids. Wouldn't you know it, I got some less-than-positive feedback from someone about how disappointed she is that I want to lose weight. See that post here

Girls, I weigh 217 pounds today. I am 28 years old and 5 foot 7 inches tall. I know that if I continue making the choices that I have been making, I will eventually have serious health problems. My back will hurt, my knees will give out, I certainly wont  be able to fit into any of my lovely vintage dresses....and running through the park with my kids? Forget about it.



It's okay to embrace your flaws, to love your body and to dress to make yourself feel beautiful. It's not okay to abuse my body by eating McDonald's every day because "big is beautiful". I love my body and I want to take care of it so it can serve me for a long time!

So far this month, I've lost 5 pounds and I'm hoping to get down to 160 by summer. I won't ever be a skinny girl because my body wasn't made to fit into a size 5 but I want to be healthy for my family and for myself. Some may approve and cheer me on and some may say nasty things because I'm not fat enough for them anymore.  I feel sad for these people because they are totally missing the point of being body positive. Really, they are just as bad as people who say you have to be skinny to be beautiful.

Like Elly, I will always campaign for self love, acceptance and a body positive way of thinking but I will also stress the importance of taking care of yourself. Stay strong, stay beautiful and for goodness sake- 
support your sisters regardless of their dress size!

Okay girls, I am -so- excited about this! My dear friend Anna from Mrs Depew Vintage is hosting a contest on her blog, A Few Threads Loose to name her new dress form!

Anna and I are both big fans of giving silly, inappropriate names to things so we want you to get your minds a -little- dirty (but not too dirty!) and give Anna's new lady a fabulously tacky and hilarious name. One of my plus sized mannequins is named "Busty McChesterly", which is what a boy in high school called me to upset me but instead made me almost squirt soda out my nose!




The judges include Anna, her friend Becky, Tilly from Tilly and the Buttons and myself. I'm already having a great time reading the entries so pop over to A Few Threads Loose and give us something to snicker about!

The winner of the Name That Dress Form Contest will win $30 to Anna's fab etsy shop. And while I'm on the topic, look at the beauty that I got from her shop the other day. Corselette pattern $7.50 at Mrs Depew Vintage

You lovely ladies can save 15% off at Mrs Depew Vintage with code VAVAOOM15

I wanted to share a quick blog design tip today that's very easy to do and (I think) really improves the look of any blog. This is how to remove image shadows.

By default, blogs have this light greyish frame around all of your images, including stuff in your sidebar. If you add a custom signature or any fancy buttons, all of these will have this image shadow. By deleting the shadow, it makes everything have a professional looking, seamless background.



It really does make a difference, doesn't it?


Here's how....
Go to your blogger dashboard, select template







choose the orange "customize" button







1. click "advanced"
2. scroll down to "Add CSS"
3. paste this entire code in the box:

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What a crazy few weeks it's been! We celebrated Christmas and Thanksgiving last week and I'm starting my new job this week. Lots going on but I've missed blogging! I'm glad to be home and at my comfy little desk again.

I have been having a blast with my new tripod and remote. It makes outfit photos so much easier, especially because it entertains the kids. I set my tripod up, get into position and Rhys snaps away! He's my official Junior Blog Photographer, and isn't he great!? This is his first selfie.




Just testing the light....




On Thanksgiving, I wore a dress that I have never had a chance to wear. I found it in a dark, dirty warehouse, piled up with other clothes and with some sad stains and rips. I finally got around to fixing it on Thanksgiving day.  It still has a strange black mark on one of the lapels that I cant remove so I may have to bedazzle it to match the rhinestones on the collar and hip. I never thought that bedazzling vintage was a good idea but here, it might work!

I also wore my vintage mink stole, which I think I have worn in public maybe once. I found these little fellas a while back at a flea market. There are so few occasions that are fancy enough for fur that I may just start wearing it to the grocery store