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  1. St. Louis

    Summer clothes from the Golden Era

    This next group of summer dresses comes from a 1944 Spiegel summer clearance catalog (be still my heart!). For now, I'm just posting dresses, since that's what I've been researching. I can say, though, that by the mid-forties the catalogs show a lot of swim suits, abbreviated midriff-tops, and...
  2. St. Louis

    Summer clothes from the Golden Era

    A couple of responses to the interesting posts above: I've always felt that layers of pure woven cotton that cover the skin are much more comfortable than close-fitting knits that leave a lot of skin exposed. Also: there were definitely both anti-perspirants and deodorants around, going back...
  3. St. Louis

    Secret Army

    Wish Me Luck is on Netflix. If you haven't seen that, by all means check it out. Secret Army is available on Amazon, but it's not on Netflix yet, at least not the US / Canada version. From what I'm able to tell, it's only been on region 1 DVDs since last fall, so it'll take a while to come to...
  4. St. Louis

    Secret Army

    I don't know how many of you are familiar with a wonderful British TV series titled Secret Army, which aired in the late 1970s. I've been yearning to watch it for years. Until recently it hasn't been available to viewers in the US. Last fall, BFS Entertainment finally issued Series 1 in region...
  5. St. Louis

    What are you listening to?

    Today I've been listening to Libby Holman. I found a compilation of her hits with the very unfortunate title of The Scandalous Libbv Holman: Something to Remember her By. I love her rich, honeyed voice, and her songs all have a lot of depth to them. I think she deserved a more respectful title...
  7. St. Louis

    Summer clothes from the Golden Era

    Good question! This one must have been issued in Chicago, since the shipping map at the back of the catalog indicates that everything within 150 miles from Chicago is Zone 1. I see that St. Louis would be in zone 2. So we're looking at the heartland. Even though Chicago is always a bit cooler...
  8. St. Louis

    Would anyone be interested in a sew-along?

    Just one more for today. This dress is a little outside my original sew-along challenge, which was technically supposed to end with 1945. So sue me. This pattern is dated 1946, and it's about as close as possible to a sleeveless summer dress (I yammered about this in another thread today.) I...
  9. St. Louis

    Would anyone be interested in a sew-along?

    This dress, a cotton house dress from the early 1940s, was also made from a reproduction cotton, sort of a feed-sack pattern. Again, it's too heavy and thick for a real feed sack, but I suppose on the plus side, it'll wear and wash better. I made the collar from some old pique I had lying...
  10. St. Louis

    Would anyone be interested in a sew-along?

    Believe it or not, I've almost met my personal goal, but I've been very slow in taking photographs. It's just really difficult to set up these clothes on my dress form, get the right lighting, figure out how to use the camera and so on. Then I get it all together and the batteries run out. Utter...
  11. St. Louis

    Summer clothes from the Golden Era

    I can post more photos from other catalogs, if you fine ladies would find that useful, but mostly I'm really curious to know what you make of this question. Why wouldn't the mainstream catalogs have carried summer clothes? Later in the 40s, you do see play clothes (shorts with skirts buttoned...
  13. St. Louis

    Summer clothes from the Golden Era

    Finally, I looked for shoes and sandals. Now here I had some luck. I found a few adorable huarache styles, which wouldn't be too hard to duplicate in today's shoe fashions.
  14. St. Louis

    Summer clothes from the Golden Era

    I understand that ladies of the 1930s and 1940s didn't wear sleeveless sundresses. I've never seen any in my catalogs, and I don't think I've ever seen any in vintage clothing stores or museum collections. What I can't quite understand is the lack of clothing that would have been comfortable in...
  15. St. Louis

    Summer clothes from the Golden Era

    Then we have these slightly sportier, more casual styles. The first two are rayon, and the third one is cotton.
  16. St. Louis

    Summer clothes from the Golden Era

    Hello ladies, I'm making progress on my sew-along (see the thread in the front parlor), though I haven't posted any photos yet. They're coming, I promise. Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out what the average lady would have worn in the summer. By "average," I mean, someone like me --...
  17. St. Louis

    Ladies, what are you doing this evening?

    My neighbors are having a little cookout to say farewell to another neighbor who is moving away. That's what is so great about my street. I remind myself of how nice everyone is when they occasionally get a little over-involved in my beeswax. I don't have anything fancy I can bring, but I...
  19. St. Louis

    Cute Vintage-y Shoes

    I just sent away for a pair of Born Naleighs. I strongly recommend them. They are supremely comfortable, now that I've broken them in by wearing them around the house with alcohol-soaked cotton socks (sounds icky but works every time) -- and they support my feet really well when I have to stand...
  20. St. Louis

    Sewing failures

    Actually, that's a cute style. The skirt is certainly a good fit & has a nice drape. Couldn't you just take in the side seams a bit? The shoulders and neckline look fine to me.
  21. St. Louis

    Harbingers of Spring

    What a nice thing to say! I did post some images of my living room a while back, but the thread may be a bit lost now a couple of years later. I'll see if I can take some new ones. I'd have to dust first ... and I'd have to do something about the cat hair!
  22. St. Louis

    New to the Vintage lifestyle, first meet up turned into a disaster

    Sounds as though it happened in southern Illinois. Not to disrespect my many dear, kind, sane, and enlightened friends at Edwardsville and Carbondale, but when Lisserbee identified the location, I did wonder ... there's something about the migration of former slave-owners into the southern...
  23. St. Louis

    Harbingers of Spring

    Beautiful! Black and white tulips, what a great idea. I'm thrilled to pieces that my tiny red climbing roses, which I believe are original to the house (1929) have bloomed this year -- only the second time since I moved in here 11 years ago! Earlier this year I gave them a severe pruning and...

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