The Ideal Home April 1939

Here are some adverts from my 1939 Ideal Home magazine, look at the cost of houses! And there are some scary looking adverts in there- I'm sure I'll post more soon when I've had a proper read.

1920s dress

Today the postman bought the most amazing thing ever, it came in just a plain old box but inside was this little treasure....







A genuine 1920s peach silk flapper dress. It has a silk chiffon lining and has an amazing sequin and metal thread embellishment on the front and the back, and the plain cirlces that you see are also metal thread. At some point its been hung up so there are some tears to the lining and some stress to the silk and tiny holes on the shoulders, all the sequins are folded up probably due to their age and the item being in storage. As if the dress wasn't amazing enough it also came with a copy of a photo of the original owner wearing the dress. She is a very elegant lady and was apparently a nanny to a Russian family, who had this dress made as a gift for her. I can barely put into words how amazing this dress is, its stunning and so amazing that it has lasted this long in such amazing condition along with a photo of its original owner! I'm proud to own it in a strange way and I'm going to wear it as that's what it was made for but first it needs restoring. Like I said the sequins are all folded and it needs some repairs as there's a slit in the bottom as well and some of the beautiful embellishment need sewing back on so not to loose them forever but what a stunning piece and once I've unpicked all the sequins and made it show stopping again I'll post more photos.

Photos of London Trip

Parrot

Tonight my dad came home from work and said he had something for me that I'd always wanted, guess what it is and you can have it. Well to be honest there's a lot of things I've always wanted- a unicorn, a kitten, a vintage car... the list is probably endless however from the depths of my imagination I replied "a parrot" and I think I may just be a little physic as there in a box was an amazing little stuffed grey parrot with a lovely red and purple belly!

Dior

Here it is my beautiful vintage Dior dress! The person I bought it from it used to belong to their friend who used to teach piano and was given it as a gift from one of her students in Pimlico. It has two changeable belts so technically I suppose it's a 3 in 1 dress, one belt has a huge bow on which needed a little repairing, I picked it apart sewed the bow back on and then stuck it all back together and the second is just a plain belt. The dress is so beautifully made and has survived really well, although some of the lining needs stitching back up, it even has weights in the hem so the skirt falls properly. It smells a bit like old attics at the moment so I'm airing it, I think it must have been stored away for many many years. I love it and I'll never ever part with it. And here's some pictures of me picking the belt apart...

Rochester

Today the postman is my best friend, he had a rather plain boring looking cardboard box and probably didn;t understand my excitement as I took it off him as I knew full well that it was my vintage Christian Dior dress! It fits amazingly well and is beautifully made and I love it! At the moment it's airing but I'll put some photos up later. I went on a last minute trip to Rochester with my mum and we had paninis for lunch and had a look round the charity shops. I found some metal zips (which I've heard are in short supply) and some old hook and eyes- I love the packaging! I also found a Stratton "convertible" compact with its original box, cover, accessories and instructions, that has to be one of my best charity shop buys ever! And I also picked up a couple of books as I've run out of things to read so I have 'Atonement' by Ian McEwan and 'The Postmistress' by Sarah Blake.

London

Yesterday I went to London with two of my best friends- Cathy and Sophia, we had an amazing day, I don't think I've laughed so much in all my life! We were there for hours and did so much! We first went to Selfridges and had a wander round, we had cupckaes at Lola's cupcakes and had the most wonderful cheesecake ever and a mini red velvet cupcake! We also saw the Project Ocean exhibition with some amazing dresses and Lady Gaga's famous lobster hat. There was also a GIANT ostrich egg that I'd love to have, what an awesome breakfast that would be!



We then went to Topshop on Oxford street and I bought these amazing vintage style shorts by Tara Starlet and this cute little front tie shirt!

Summer Dresses and Rainy Days

Today has turned out to be wet and miserable so I've been doing my vintage browsing online (for a change haha) There's lots of things I like and many I love but so far I've only bought 2 things this month. The first is this cute little summer dress, from the cut and material I think it's 30's but I could be wrong, it's quite stained in places with rust and some water damage from storage I think but it's so pretty I think those things only add to the story of the dress. The second dress is a 1950s Christian Dior Hounds tooth dress, I haven't got it yet but it's on its way!