Cataloging Catalogs: Ward's Fall/Winter 1947-1948, Hats!

We have arrived at the first few pages of accessories from the 1947/1948 Fall Winter Montgomery Wards Catalog! There are some truly spectacular hats here for your browsing pleasure, even if we are now transitioning into spring instead. What do you all think, should I switch to one of my Spring/Summer catalogs for a while and resume scanning this one in the Fall? I also do have a few 1950's catalogs too, so would you like to see more 1940's catalogs or switch to a 1950's one for a while? Let me know!

Sadly it was another glamour-less weekend for me, as I ended up with an eye irritation that has me looking a bit lopsided and unable to wear eye-makeup for another few days. It was such a beautiful day outside here today too, I would have loved to have gotten dressed up and jaunted down to my favorite spot in Denver (the botanical gardens) to enjoy the first blooms and the sun. Hopefully I can do just that next weekend, but with the way my luck has been going this past week I shouldn't jinx it!!

Cataloging Catalogs: HATS!!! Montgomery Ward Spring/Summer 1943

What I have discovered from collecting catalogs so far is that I really, really, do love 1940's fashion, and in particular this first catalog of mine from 1943 has turned out to be a real favorite. 1943 was a good year for clothes and accessories even while the world was in the thick of WWII!

Now for course it is good to remember these pages are from Wards, where regular people shopped, so these images may not represent the avant garde or ultra "fashionable" looks of the time necessarily. I'm not sure how the relationship between department stores and high fashion functioned in the 1940's, but now in 2017 for example I would consider the stock at Macy's to be much more conservative/mundane on average than the looks on Paris runways or in Vogue. In many ways that's what makes old catalogs like this such an amazing resource to have in addition to the more glamorous surviving materials like Hollywood films of the time, because these catalog show us what was available to a more average consumer. This also highlights how truly flamboyant some fashions of the 40's were if these majestic hats here in Wards were not fantastical catwalk creations, but stuff your mom would wear. How fabulous these hats are, it is just too much not to be able to buy them today! Why did hats go out of fashion!!!

More than ever I encourage you to view these images as big as possible and soak in the details. The text describes the many colors each hat may have been available in, and I challenge you to not think to yourself "yes, yes, one of each please!" Let these images be inspiration to any of you milliners out there, we need more hats like these again.

Feel free as always to pin, save, and share! I hope some of you out there enjoy these resources as much as I do <3 There's still a few more posts worth of images from the 1943 catalog, and then we will be jumping into a new catalog (or two, or three catalogs!) next year!

Stripes and Repeats

Tired of seeing this dress yet? At least I had the decency to make a matching bow to change up the neckline ever so slightly right? Well, a favorite LBD deserves repeating, and here is my black rayon 40s dress appearing yet again!

Still, many of the accessories are new, and most wondrous of them all is the striped rainbow hat of joy. Yes it is the striped rainbow hat of legend, the one I mentioned having my eye on weeks ago in this post. I'm sure you can see why I fell in love, I mean seriously-- this hat is too beautiful to let go, I had to snatch it up. Being so many colors I decided it would match anything and everything and somehow justified the investment (as it was one of the pricier hats I've collected this year). Have I mentioned I love this hat?

Then I had a winning streak recently finding gloves. You see, I wear a size 8 glove and all the vintage gloves I find are usually a size 6 1/2 or something similarly tiny, so finding three pairs of size 8 gloves in great colors in one week recently was like winning the glove lottery! I picked up a pair in forest green, rich burgundy, and the pair pictured above in "heaven blue" (deadstock with the funny color name on the age yellowed tag). Such luck, I couldn't believe it when each pair fit once they all arrived!

The acorn necklace is another repeat, I actually wore it standing in the exact same spot (which is on the side of the road off a favorite bend in the nearby Rockies) last year with a more 50s leaning look. The shoes are new again though, and are another of the new 1940s reproduction styles from Royal Vintage Shoes. These are the Marilyn's, which come in both black and rich red; though sadly the red pair I ordered were too big (despite both pairs being a size 10) and so I had to send them back for an exchange to a 9.5. The black are still a tiny big big on me too, but as they didn't slide off of my heels and generally fit much better than the red I decided the 10 was fine. Though I caution that this style seems to run a fair bit big, the shoes themselves are gorgeous, well crafted, and super comfortable. I know I will get a ton of use out of such an elevated basic, especially as they look super cute with sparkling shoe clips too!

The fall colors are out in full force here now, how is October flashing by at such lightning speed already?! I need more hours in the day!

Dress: Made by me
Shoes: Royal Vintage Shoes
Tights: What Katie Did
Gloves, Handbag, Jewelry, & Hat: Vintage
Belt: Borrowed from my mom ;)

Sunday Spotlight: Fall Leaf Hats

As I recently made another fall leaf hat myself, I thought today I'd pull together a collection of autumnal leafy hats for you all to admire! The styles differ, some entirely made up of leaves and other just with a few leaves as an accent but all of them are super adorable and I'd love on of each for my collection! If only such things were possible ;) I have two tutorials here on TCH for making a fall leaf hat, so if you can't find a vintage one to your liking I totally suggest making your own. As for the hats below, some are still for sale so make sure you click on the photo to be taken to the source in case you can still snatch one of these up!

Another Little Fall Leaf Hat Tutorial

This isn't the first felt leaf hat tutorial I have posted here on TCH, but since the style I made today is a bit different I thought I'd put up a little tutorial. :) I am busy busy today in the sewing room, so today you get a peek inside at just what I'm working on!

I knew I wanted a mustard yellow hat to wear this fall but I couldn't seem to find a vintage hat in a style I'd like, so I decided to make one of course! I purchased some lovely 100% wool felt on Etsy to make a hat, but was stuck on what style should I make? That was when I spotted this perfect hat on Etsy...

Etsy Shop

I sorta can't believe I haven't hit "BUY IT NOW" (as I write this the hat above is still for sale and for an absolute steal!) but I know as much as I love it it will be totally lost in my brown hair. I wouldn't want a cute hat like that to go to waste blending right into my hair color, so I leave it to one of you to snap it up instead! Still the overlapping felt leaves is a worthy idea.

What would you need to make a similar hat to mine?

-Wool felt (or craft felt, but the wool is so much nicer and more authentic looking!)

-Scissors (and possibly a craft/exacto knife)

-Card-stock to make your patterns

-Millinery Wire

-Velvet leaves (optional, you could just make bigger felt leaves, I found the velvet ones at Joann)

-Needle and Thread

So I went to work on my nice wool felt cutting out leaf shapes...

Simply print out or draw a leaf shape of your choosing and trace onto your felt. Cut out quite a few of these.

I made a few larger leaves with interior cutouts (on the right in the above image) to add as an accent on one side of the hat. Just use an exacto knife to carefully slice out teardrop shapes from the inside of the leaves.

To make a base for the hat I took a circle of millinery wire and bound it shut with plumbers sealant tape. This tape is great for millinery wire! #notcoutureapproved :) I used to use floral tape sometimes but find it too sticky, this stuff is better. I carefully bent the wire into a long bean-ish shape to fit my head.

Then I covered the wire base with a strip of felt wound around the wire and secured with a few stitches in matching thread.

To make a foundation for the smaller felt leaves I used some large velvet leaves I found on sale at Joanns to fill in the space between the wires. I simply stitched the parts of the leaves that touched the wire (and each other) down. This is why wrapping the wire in felt is excellent because you can sew right into it no problem! These leaves came in various colors and types and look very like vintage velvet millinery leaves...so I stocked up! I mean, I seriously bought a ton of them! They were less than a dollar a pack, so get thee to a Joann ladies!

Once you have a hat base essentially together, start layering your felt leaves and tacking them down, overlapping each leaf over the last and adding a stitch through both leaves and into the covered wire beneath.

Keep layering on both sides of the hat.

Before you know it, presto! A fall-tastic hat appears! I pinched the larger leaves with the cutouts at their base for some dimension and stitched them onto one side for some extra flair. I really can't wait to wear this new hat and am really tempted to make another in orange or perhaps red? Or every color? The options are endless! The same techniques could be used with any shape really, like flowers for spring :)

How is your fall crafting going? You have started haven't you ;)