The Cull

cull (kʌl)
v.t.

1. to choose; select; pick.

2. to gather the choice things or parts from.

3. to collect; gather; pluck.

n.

4. something picked out and put aside as inferior.

[1300–50; Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French cuillir < Latin colligere to gather]

Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

About a month ago I took it upon myself to do a complete wardrobe cull. I had been waiting for the right weather, you see. It needed to be dry and warm with a light breeze. This was because I was going to haul the entire contents of my wardrobe(s of the walk-in-kind) outside to give the lot an airing. And also because of the dust. It's been four years since my last wardrobe cull. I did one just before Junior was born and now it really was time for another one. The idea was that I go through all of my dresses, tops, skirts, trousers, knitwear, underwear, sleepwear, hosiery, outerwear, bags and shoes basically dividing them in to two piles: "keep" and "get rid of".  I would only keep things that fit, get worn and flatter. I set aside three days for this.

DAY 1: So I started with taking all my dresses outside. I also pulled out all the storage boxes from under our bed and took out all the dresses that weren't heirlooms (or future heirlooms). I hung them from hangers on the clothes line to give them a proper airing. Then I counted them. There were 83 dresses, almost all vintage or reproductions. Eighty-three. Bloody hell, how did that happen?

There are still days when I have nothing to wear...

Anyway, I started picking out the ones to go on the "get rid of"-pile and did pretty well IMHO. I also took out and put in to storage boxes all winter dresses so they wouldn't take up space on the rail in the wardrobe. I might have culled about 20 dresses.

The cull from the cull

Then I went through the piles of tops, skirts, trousers and  knitwear. I mainly took out anything that was maternity wear or just worn. I can't believe I have been wearing such worn through, stretched out faded and, yes, manky clothes. These items I'm referring to are of course of the cheap stretch jersey or tricot type. So those had to go. I seems to me such a shame, that basically still usable clothes have to be thrown in the garbage. "There must be a way of recycling these", I thought. And then it came to me: T-shirt yarn. Yes! I would make T-shirt yarn from them! And then crochet that yarn in to something useful, like floppy baskets for the boys' toys.

Future storage solutions?

DAY 2:  I continued with underwear, sleepwear, hosiery, outerwear, bags and shoes. Again I took everything outside and brought only the keepers back inside. With sleepwear I again had the worn out tricot issue. More yarn! Why is it so difficult to get sleepwear in pure cotton? Sure the stretchy stuff feels soft and comfy to start with but it doesn't last. I such a lively sleeper (or tossing-in-bed-not-sleeper) that I wear holes in my nighties pretty quickly. Anyway, outerwear again meant culling all pregnancy related coats and jackets and anything too tight. I mean, I had a few items from when I was 10 years younger and 10 kg thinner.

Then it was time for bags and shoes. This, again, was long overdue. The situation in our downstairs wardrobe was getting a bit out of hand. 

Erm, no comment.

Thankfully, I managed to whittle my shoe collection down to only 51 pairs. The Hubby, bless him, built me lovely pink shoe shelves for displaying my favourite pairs. Got rid of a few bags as well. I also took the time to reorganise the whole wardrobe and look how lovely it turned out! Now I can actually see what I have. Maybe I should do a post about my treasures at one point so you get to see some of the items more closely? 

Bliss!

Vintage bags, including a see-through Bienen-Davis from my grandmother. That googly eyed thing in the middle is actually a lantern...

After the shoes, I didn't have the energy for underwear or hosiery, so those will have to wait. This (and another blog post I'm planning) is (are) the main reason you won't be getting a glimpse of our upstairs wardrobe.

DAY 3: Dealing with the "get rid of"-pile. I divided the stuff in to six piles: consignment shop summer, consignment shop winter, flea market, salvation army, trash and vintage. And this is also pretty much the order in which the stuff travels: if it doesn't sell at the consignment shop, then it's off to the flea market and if it doesn't sell there, it's off to the salvation army. The piles trash and vintage are special as the trash gets recycled (by me) in to T-shirt yarn and the leftovers are used (by Hubby) as rags in the garage and I will take the vintage items to a dress swap or sell them in Facebook groups or at events.

And this brings me neatly to what I have planned for this coming weekend: I will be selling my vintage cull at Suvi-Vintage. It's a two-day event organised by Tallipiha and Fintage. You can find more info on the event here. So I'll see you there!

Midsummer Milkmaid

Happy Midsummer! As the weather was glorious, the Hubby and I took Junior and Peanut to visit a nearby farm that has a cafe and petting zoo. My idea had originally been to dress up in a milkmaid-y outfit and maybe take some outfit pictures at the farm. But the farm does not allow you to post any pictures taken there on the Internet. Bummer. But hey, this way I got to pose in peace and test out my new camera remote!

The dress is actually from my grandmother who gave me a bunch of clothes when she moved to an assisted living building a couple of years ago. Many of her dresses are way too short for me as I'm about 30 cm taller than her but this one is perfect. It's home sewn, maybe by my grandmother, she can't remember. The sandals are currently my favourite footwear. I bought them ridiculously cheap from a Facebook buy and sell group. The cotton scarf is from my mother. The belt I've had for ages and the sunglasses are by Haga Eyewear. The finished look kind of has a 40's feel, I think.

All The Pretty Skylarks or Downstairs Toilet Makeover

Let me start with something pretty namely the wallpaper that inspired the makeover. It's called "Ken kiuruista kaunein" (Who's the fairest skylark) in the colourway orange and it was designed for the Finnish wallpaper manufacturer Pihlgren ja Ritola Oy by Birger Kaipiainen in 1958. Pihlgren & Ritola had invited several artists and designers of that time to design wallpapers. The designs were maybe a bit showy for Finns at the time and they certainly weren't the most popular designs of that time, but they have an enduring appeal, in fact Birger Kaipiainen's "Ken kiuruista kaunein" in the colourway blue has been in production continuously since 1958 and is still going strong. I must note that I have been drooling over the orange version for years and have only now found a place to use it. I also have something planned for the wallpaper in the pink colourway, but that's another post altogether.

And now for the not so pretty: the "before" picture. We have lived in this house for six years now and the downstairs loo, or guest powderroom has not changed. When we were building the house we just wanted to move in quickly and decided to just slap some paint on the walls. The paint we chose was light gray. Neutral, non-obtrusive, functional. But also drab, dull and nondescript. A change was long overdue. I wanted colour, life, vibrancy, a bit of wow.

Dull, dull,dull

Putting wallpaper on all the walls from floor to cieling wasn't an option because of all the activities involving liquids that will be going on in that room. Not to mention the fact that these liquids will be mostly handled by two small boys. So the lower part of the room was painted with a water resistant, washable paint in the same yellow/orange as the wallpaper. We chose Luja by Tikkurila

Now a quick note to the good people of Tikkurila: Not all interior decorating is done by burly men with large and strong hands nor do all decorators have such persons at hand to help them with the paint tin. The lid of the tin has, what some might undoubtedly describe as "a new and innovative design, which enables the tin to be opened without any tools." So it doesn't have any of the metal flaps or holes you can pry open with a screwdriver that you get in a normal tin. Instead, you are expected to pull the lid open from the edge with your fingers while simultaneously pushing the lid inwards in the middle, like shown in this illustration. I HATE THOSE HANDS! So smug. So self-satisfied. "Look at us, we can push and pull at the same time! We are big and strong!".

Smug bastards

Anyway, once the tin was opened and two coats applied on the walls it was time to break out the wallpaper paste. The wallpaper is a traditional surface printed wallpaper and as such shouldn't be soaked for any longer than a minute. Putting it up was pretty straightforward and only took a few hours. The only thing I had to watch was treating the wallpaper carefully and not rubbing it since the colour does come off easily when the paper is wet.

The join between the wallpaper and the paint needed something and at first I thought a simple border would be just the ticket. But no simple borders were to be found. I then opted for the cheapo option which is a painted line. I went for the same bright periwinkle blue than in the wallpaper. Of course I wasn't going to go to the paint store and have them mix up one litre of it since I would only be needing enough for the stripe. So I mixed up my own using some leftover white paint and acrylic hobby paints.

And here's the finished stripe

Hurrah! ...now lets have a cocktail...

Dress swappin'

Hello again! I have a few other posts in the pipeline, but I just had to write about what happened last Sunday first.

Let me set the scene: About a dozen sweaty women in their underwear. Their hair is dishevelled and they're wearing expressions of intense concentration mixed with excitement. The air is filled with the sound of rustling and soft jazz, occasionally a grunt or an exclamation of delight or disappointment can be heard (It's too small!). Yup, I'm talking about a dress swap. Why? What did you think it was?

This time it was my turn to host the event and I dare say it was somewhat of a success. Everyone started arriving in the afternoon with their Ikea-bags, storage bins and suitcases. Everyone also brought something nice to eat for our coffee table. I, sadly, hadn't had the time to bake anything, but there was still plenty on offer, don't you think?

I had however spent the day clearing away clutter and making space. Good thing I did, because there was a lot of stuff!

I found three dresses, a top, a skirt, a girdle, a pair of lovely shoes, two patterns and some fabric. Got rid of some items too, which is always a bonus.

The idea behind a dress swap is very simple: swap some of your useless crap for something you use/like. This includes money. A swap is also easy to organise: just invite some friends over and ask them to bring the stuff they don't need and put out some snacks. It's so much more fun trying out clothes with a room full of friends at the ready to give you an opinion. It's also very liberating not having to undress and dress between every item. Hence everyone ends up in their underwear (slips mostly). This is why we impose a strict rule of no men over 10 years of age.

At this swap all the participants were vintage enthusiasts and had mostly vintage clothes and housewares/crafts supplies for swapping. Anyone living the "vintage lifestyle" will know, that crap accumulates. You pick stuff up from flea markets. Even stuff that doesn't fit, because, you know, you kinda have to save it. Then there are the items that have cost an arm and a leg from Etsy or eBay, but you haven't worn because they're too small/too big/wrong colour/just not you. These items are so much easier to sell to other vintage buffs, because, lets face it, to others it's just old clothes.

Seeing Spots

Last weekend I finally had time to finish this dress. Turned out OK, didn't it? It's made out of cotton and has two large pockets hidden in the side seams. Very practical, sweet and low-maintenance. 

Just like me...yeah right!

Anyway, I had decided I needed a pretty dress to wear around the house, something I won't mind getting dirty, something I could just throw in the washing machine. So vintage was out of the question for a start. I bought this late 50's/early 60's Finnish shirt dress pattern about six months ago and the fabric was also in my stash.

I decided to make a few modifications to the pattern though. First, I wasn't sure I liked those fake pocket flaps in the front and they would mean more ironing too. So they had to go. Secondly, since the fabric has small polka dots, there wouldn't be any sense in having a panel of it the other way around at the bottom. This meant that the skirt would be made out of a solid piece of fabric.

The pattern pieces laid out. Note the blatant disregard for fabric economy.

Sewing the bodice pieces together was pretty straightforward, apart from the sleeves. Again. I always struggle with setting in the sleeves. How on earth it is possible to fit such an unbelievable amount of fabric on to a seemingly shorter, curved piece of fabric? And I don't want to use those bits of yarn meant to pull the sleeve fabric together. 

All the seamstresses reading this will be facepalming them selves right now. But to cut a long story short, I managed to get the sleeves on after only two tries. Just one wrinkle left on the seam. It's not perfect, but hey, they're on, right!?

Next on the list were the buttons. Red? White? Green? I couldn't decide. Then I remembered this black shirt dress that I particularly liked with covered buttons. Problem solved! Covered buttons would definitely match and give the dress a more "professional" look. Also, I have never tried making covered buttons before, so this was an opportunity to give it a go.

1960's shirt dress by Riitta Immonen Sport

I ordered my button making kit from Nappikauppa Punahilkka. The buttons came with a "tool". I found the word a bit funny since the "tool" is basically just two bits of round plastic that fit together.

The "tool" and a finished button

After adding the buttons and the button holes the bodice was finished. Now for the skirt. Looking at the black shirt dress I remembered another reason I liked it so much: the pockets. Big, practical pockets. I like having pockets in dresses. You don't  have to faff about with a handbag, you can just pop your keys, change, condoms, etc. in your pocket and be on your way.

I used the pockets of the black dress as a pattern.

I decided to pleat the skirt for a neater look. I used a cardboard template to make the pleats even.

After the pleating was done, it was only a question of sewing the pocket pouches, then the front and the back of the skirt together and the skirt to the bodice. Then a zipper, a bit of hemming and voilá, a shirt dress was born.

Le Outfit Post

 Beret - Accessorize

Jacket - H&M

Skirt - Evil Dressmaker

Stockings - Gio

Shoes - Mekka

Last Sunday was dreary (again). So I decided to perk myself up with a fabulous outfit (again). I assembled it around my most recent acquisition: the "Louise" skirt by Evil Dressmaker. I paired it with some lace-up shoes and beret which made the whole outfit look a bit French (at least according to Hubby).

The skirt been made with an original 1950's German pattern and has a sort of 30's feel to it.

Picture by Evil Dressmaker

It has some adorable details such as the pleated kick pleat at the front and the gingerbread edge by the button holes.

But wait, there was something else as well. I have been getting some gorgeous items in the post recently.
(I know that makes it sound as though I didn't go on a shopping spree, which is exactly what I want Hubby to think, so shh!)

Everything is 50's vintage, except for the corselette, which is a repro by Stockings and Romance bought from Joanna's Wardrobe. You'll probably be seeing the dress, the shoes and the handbag in action at some point; the underwear maybe not. Or who knows...