The Sunday Snag – Sorority Sisters!

I'm so tickled to share this post with you! I recently had the happy opportunity to keep a couple of vintage sister blouses together and very quickly snapped up the chance. And quite by accident really!

Amy, the owner of Wildfell Hall Vintage (who happens to be a complete darling), occasionally puts posts up on her facebook page announcing stock that will be entering her lovely Etsy shop later that day or week. I hawkishly track these posts as I want to get 1st dibs on a great piece. Well, back in late July, just such a post appeared on my facebook feed. It was for the milk chocolate brown shirt you see here. My eyes quickly lit up and Amy said that a few blouses, including this one and all at reasonable prices, would shortly be listed in her shop. Of course, I obsessively opened her shop link for the rest of the day in anticipation!

Waited...waited...waited...BAM, listed! I quick as lightening checked the measurements, condition, and price, YES all good! Add to cart, purchased, mine! All within seconds of it being listed. Amy actually wrote me shortly there after and said that may have been the quickest she's ever sold anything! Hahaha! Can you blame me though?!

This 1950s brown top was just too perfect for those everyday, knock around adventures. Clean, worn in, cotton button up with a cropped waist (which happens to be a favorite style for me) and an unusual and sweet monogram pocket complete with a tiny silk hankie that pulls through two little slots. I figured this top would be a nice simple addition to my closet and would be perfect for multiple seasons.



And then!! Two weeks later, I clicked on Wildfell Hall's shop to take a peek at another listing and saw...what?! my blouse?! in blue?! What the what?! Perplexed, I clicked on the listing and lo and behold, they were the same blouse, only difference being that the blue one was slightly larger. Well how could I resist this?! I wrote Amy and asked if they were from the same owner and she laughingly said yes and that she meant to tell me she had another, but had forgotten in the chaos. Yay! How fun! I speedily snapped this one up too and now these sister shirts are together once again!

I really don't know what the insignia is, but Amy told me that the two blouses were from the estate of a rather well educated lady and that maybe they are college or possibly sorority emblems? Not sure. If any of you happen to recognize it, please let me know!

As for the photos, I felt like I wanted to introduce the blouses to you in a way that celebrated their collegiate past and because September and early fall are also associated with the start of school, I tried to give the shoot a "back-to-school" vibe. And apparently, I attend the most kick-ass school imaginable because Anne of Green Gables and The Princess Bride appear to be my textbooks.

You also get to see another of my recent snags in these photos! My pants! Aren't they cute? I've searched for 40s trousers for quite a while and really have had no luck. I really wanted a pair for the cooler months ahead though, so I looked for other options. I searched around Etsy and found a lovely lady named Kim at Time Machine Vintage who makes reproduction vintage clothing from actual vintage patterns. Jackpot! They aren't inexpensive, but honestly, they shouldn't be. They are well made with great fabric (I picked a wool garbadine) specifically to my measurements by a one woman business. Those are things you pay good money for and I did just that and with pleasure. Plus, trousers are a staple piece and I can just rotate cute tops for different looks.

I did something quite stupid and absolutely do not recommend this to anyone. Kim, please close your eyes and don't read this part! Those gorgeous pants came to me in the mail and were beautiful and fit well. But, I have a short torso and decided that maybe I would like the waistline a bit lower to fit better on my actual waist. This is when I did something entirely risky and stupid. I decided, "Hmmm, I think I can figure out how to move the waistband down...". What the crap was I thinking?! I'm not a seamstress! I should have taken it to a professional tailor, but instead (trying to pinch pennies where I can and being foolishly lazy about finding a good tailor) I figured I would take up the challenge and do it myself. So I took a pair of scissors and well...you know. Yikes! It was done. They were cut. Now what? Well, the now what ended up being a 3 hour trial and error adventure of cursing myself. But I did indeed end up moving the waistband down. I may have lowered it a bit too much, but I think it still works. Not a professional job by ANY means, but workable for me and not too horrific looking. To give you an idea, there used to be a four button closure on the side and now there is only three, so I must have lowered it by about 2 inches.

I kept the accessories minimal (I tend to) and just wore two of the rings from my shop. "Road to Nowhere" for the brown shirt and "Abstraction" for the blue. My white button studs, "Sugar Drops", were a nice clean touch since you only got to see a peek of them with my hairstyle. I did my normal pin curl set but pulled back one side with a vintage comb. My belt is the one I made early on this year from a modern belt sewn onto a vintage buckle and my shoes, "Gramercy" from Remix Shoes are the perfect oxford look for that school-girl charm I was hoping to achieve.

Outfit Details:

Both Blouses: 1950s Cropped Cotton from Wildfell Hall Vintage

Trousers: Reproduction 1940s Wool Garbadine from Time Machine Vintage

Round Button Ring: "Road to Nowhere" from my shop ChatterBlossom

Square Wooden Ring: "Abstraction" from my shop ChatterBlossom

Button Earrings: "Sugar Drops" from my shop ChatterBlossom

Shoes: Reproduction 1930s/40s "Gramercy" from Remix Vintage Shoes

Last Week's Sunday Snag:

An Evening Glow