Baby Dear Baby Shower

 

I had so much fun putting this baby shower together. Baby Dear was my favorite book as a little girl. I especially loved its beautiful illustrations. I still have a thing for Little Golden Books today (I collect them, even).  I'd been looking for an excuse for years to throw a Golden Book themed party and this little girl baby shower was a perfect chance to do it! 

 

I tried to have a bit of a vintage feel to the shower, since the book was written in the 1960s.  In a moment of serendipity, right as I decided to have the shower feel a bit vintage, my mom called and asked if I wanted a stork decoration.  She was cleaning out some storage and thought I might like it.  Yes!  This cute little stork, while not from the 1960s, was used at my baby shower--the one where I was the baby!  It may be from the 1980s rather than the 1960s, but it definitely gave the vibe I was going for. 

 

 I used some sweet girly fabric to make a pennant banner. 

 

 

I think my favorite part of the decor, though, was this Baby Dear banner:

 

I scanned in illustrations from the book, found a similar font to the one used on the cover, and worked some Photoshop (Elements) magic.  I printed the resulting images out onto cardstock and cut them out.  I attached the letters to baby pink ribbon and hung it in my living room.  I think it's adorable, if I do say so myself. 

 

 

 

(Well, really, my favorite part were the invitations, but I already wrote about those...)  :)

 

 

 

I scattered some Little Golden Books around the party area, especially ones that were illustrated by Eloise Wilkin (the illustrator of Baby Dear).  Her little baby cheeks and pudgy fingers are so cute. 

 

 

 

Add in some doilies and yummy food and you've got a fun vintage Golden Book party!

 

  

 

 

 

I made cupcake toppers with some pink scrapbook paper and these 1-inch Pretty Vintage Little Girl Circles from Free Pretty Things. 

 

 

 

It was really nice to have an opportunity, in this house full of boys, to enjoy such girlishness!  It was such a fun baby shower!

 

Baby Dear Baby Shower: The Invitations

I recently threw a baby shower for a dear friend of mine.  I collect Golden Books and have been looking for an excuse to throw a Golden Book party for years.  I even found a site that puts books in diaper cakes here. Baby Dear was my favorite book as a little girl, and I thought it would be perfect for a Golden Book themed shower for a baby girl.  I was a bit giddy with excitement over the idea of a Baby Dear shower.  :)

With a book theme, of course the invitations have to look like the book, right?  I scanned in my old copy and prettied it up a bit in photoshop (30 years takes its toll on a well-loved children's book).

I erased "A Little Golden Book" from the front cover and replaced it with "A Little Baby Shower" in a similar font.  

I just love that I was able to get the back cover and the trademark spine on my invitations, too.   (Even if the spine is a worn silver now instead of the original gold.  I like the worn look better, so I didn't try to fix it.)  

I even put in the inside cover, with the bookplate and everything.  So cute!  The party information was written in a similar font to the original story and I put in an illustration from the book.  

I am seriously in love with these invitations.  I guess I'm just a Golden Book nerd.  :)

Disclosure: I was compensated for a sponsored link in this post.

Vintage Catalog

While visiting my favorite antique store, I found this fabulous Montgomery Ward's catalog from 1949.  I snapped some shots of it with my phone, so I apologize that some of them are blurry.  

I love the one with the big bow, 4th from the left.  

The chevron print on the one on the right is very on trend.  But, I really love the plaid one (3rd from the left).  Those pockets!

 

I think my favorite out of all of them is the one with the lacing detail at the waist (second from the right in the photo below). 

I love the waistline on the polka dot one.  And, the one with the bow at the neckline (um, which I guess is also a polka dot...oops...) is fantastic.  

 

 

 

I wish we could still order from old catalogs, as if there were some great warehouse somewhere that never went out of stock.  :)  Wouldn't that be fantastic!  I love these great vintage dresses!

Vintage Fun

I've had a couple opportunities lately to visit some vintage shops. I really love vintage clothing. I love vintage style, whether it's new or old, of course. But, there's something about actual vintage dresses that you just can't beat. I love thinking about the history vintage dresses have seen.

Check out all those hats!  I think I need hats to make a comeback...

I loved this dress.  The sheer over-skirt is a little worse for the wear, but the style and the yellow rose fabric is great.

This one was taffeta.  There's a similar repro pattern out there--I may need to make this dress.  In a brighter fabric, though.  Maybe pink?

I've really been into border prints lately.  This isn't exactly a border print, of course, but it kind of has the same vibe.  How cute would this be with a red cardigan?

Totally a Mad Men dress.  In fact, the tag listed it as a 1960s "Secretary Dress."

How's this for a formal.  Anyone out there wear gold daisies to prom?  1970s dresses are kind of awesome.  :)

I love the simplicity of this 1940s formal.

This one's even better though.  If it'd been my size I totally would have bought it to wear to my next 1940s Winter Ball.  I love the flowers on the bottom.

I was really excited to find this 1930s dress.  I haven't come across many dresses that old.  I love the inverted, contrasted pleats and the scalloped button placket.  Very cool.

This brocade dress and matching coat were beautiful.  And heavy.  Very heavy.  I can't imagine wearing that out for the evening.  My shoulders would be killing me.

This one was actually my size. I was tempted to buy it.  I've often wanted a beautiful 1950s prom dress like this (with, of course, a full petticoat underneath to get that fun fluffy skirt).  But, really, where would I wear it?

Another 1940s formal.  Kind of storybook-esque, with that high collar and the laces on the skirt.

This shop had a bunch of 40s evening gowns.  I was having the afternoon of my life.  :)

Okay, and this one is a hoot.  It's covered in bees and beehives. It's a Utah dress.  It even had a matching belt, covered in the same fabric.

See the little scroll with "Utah" on it?  I'm kind of in love with this dress.  If it'd been my size, I might have bought it just for kitsch value alone!

Oh, what fun vintage shops are!  

The 40s Dress

We love going to the 1940s WWII Era Ball every year. We've gone to three of the events (two summer, one winter), and I've now made three dresses for them. I can't be making a new 40s dress every year...this trend has got to stop. :) But, I did make a new one this year. Last year I wore this:

At the White Christmas Ball, I wore this one:

This summer, I decided to go a little Hawaiian. Hawaiian prints were very popular during the 1940s, as was rayon, so the Hawaiian print rayon fabric I picked out was perfect.  I used Vintage Vogue 2787, a reprint from 1948.   

The pattern runs bigger than you'd expect.  I went a size smaller than my measurements indicated, but it was still looser than the pictures showed (the photographs, not the drawings you see above--those are always deceiving, so I don't put a lot of stock in the illustrations on patterns.  I always check out the photographs of actual models, if there are any, and the line drawings on the back.) 

Of course, it made for a very comfortable dress.  And, being rayon, it was a very comfy, light dress. Great for dancing on a warm summer night!

The event was a lot of fun!  There were reenactors, like this MP:

Or "Frank Sinatra" and "The Andrews Sisters."

And, there were WWII planes and military vehicles:

It was fun to put my hair in victory rolls, get dolled up, and go back in time for an evening!