Elgin America meets American Beauty

With JJ being in America, it means my American compact collecting is increasing in a huge way but I love having the variation of English and American vintage powder compacts together. American compacts seem to offer a variation in shapes and colouring that sometimes their English counterparts are missing. Perhaps this is because the key era of the late 1930s and 1940s in which compacts were designed in used occurred at a time when England was at war and supplies were limited, beautiful compacts weren't the key necessity of that time.

I have been more then lucky to have been given two Elgin powder compacts from Joe in the last couple of months. As a company Elgin began manufacturing compacts in the 1930s under the name of the Illinois Watch Company of Elgin. Moving into cosmetics, Elgin often designed cases for fashion houses; even commissioning Dali in 1950 to create a compact. Named the "bird in hand" Dali's compact designed in three finishes of satin, bronze and silver with a 14 carrot overlay on the birds wings;  features a powder, pill box and lipstick compartment. However company disputes in the 1960s, lead the company to move to Japan.

The first compact was produced around 1945 under the subdivision American Beauty;

The gold toned American Beauty vintage powder compact is bell shaped in design; edged with a Geek Key pattern.

I love the shape of this compact, it makes it very tactile and neatly fits into the palm of your hand through its sleek long design. Intact with it's original powder puff its still in amazingly good condition.

The second powder compact given to me as a gorgeous present for Christmas, is a chamelon effect covered compact.

This effect of gold and silver topping embedded with a pattern is really pretty and is "the result of light reflections created by lacquer, interacting glossy and brushed finished, or gold with silver tones. the design depends on highlights in surface texture to bring the design to life" (featured in L. M. Mueller Compacts).

The inside to the compact showing the flapping lid engraved with a curving line pattern locked in place
 

A similar compact is dated in a reference book of 1945. Nevertheless extra care has to be given towards compacts with this patterning as its noted it makes the compact surface tarnish easier then say your normal  conventional compacts. 

Pretty though, either way. 

Vintage crochet wedding gloves. a do or a don't?

Being a gal that crochets its only fitting to add my favourite past time into the whole wedding thing. I did start making a shawl (see below) I saw in the crochet magazine Crochet Today, I started it and hated the yarn, then brought some cotton based wool and restarted but haven't got very far with it. I really should - it would be easier to just take the shawl rather then four balls of yarn. 

The first crochet shawl version before it got frogged for a few reasons - one that it wasn't feeling soft secondly it wasn't crocheting up neatly at all, there was gaps and it just wasn't looking nice. However lovely the pattern was working out.

One of  my favourite places to find old vintage crochet patterns is the flea market in Pickering, there's normally a stand with a huge basket mixture of vintage knitting and crochet patterns in all kinds of conditions and the crochet patterns are normally old little booklets of doilys. There's always too many to pick between.

The wheat ear booklet is just as normal as its other counterparts, filled with a mixture of table runners, large and small single doily and sets for a vintage girls dresser or edging to towels or chair runners. Yet this booklet in particular by Coats (publication no 773 originally published in 1968, reprinted in 1980) has a pattern for some crocheted gloves. I've seen some before in vintage shops and they always look so feminine and delicate. 

The gloves fit snugly to the length of your fingers with and elasticated band fastening around the wrist. The wheat ear pattern designed as a trimming to be sewn at the end onto the backs of the gloves.

I love just how pretty they are, but maybe it would be all to over the top with a crocheted shawl too, maybe it would get all confused with wearing them, then taking them off and then with rings on. But oh i'm so tempted. Any ideas, should I make them?

Gah, I want that tattoo

 I hope your all having a lovely weekend, I spent today shopping - i've totally fallen in love with Zara. I'll admitt its taken me years to even step inside that shop, but i'm so pleased I did. I have a new favourite. But the main part of the day as been spent daydreaming about more ink. 

Tattoos are a part of me that always hides in the back of my mind. I wish i'd of got more done when I was up in Newcastle at university and had a smashing tattooists up there. I don't know why I didn't. Sometimes I just have days dreaming up ideas, patterns, places to get them done. Then I remember I need to save money for moving, and a wedding, and a honeymoon and bus tickets.

The above love bird image is one I found on one of them endless google image searches. I love the tones of the blues and the wispy grey shading which adds to the sense of flight in the design. I've been debating the idea of getting a love bird for a while, going back and forth over the idea of the retro punky vivid colour look. 

I think i'll have a pair flying towards each other across the bottom of my back (beware tramp stamp territory) with something linking them between. My backs a work in progress, so are my designs. But the daydreams keep me happy at work and I love being the gal people always think would never have tattoos.

I love surprising people like that. 

Vintage meets marks and sparks

I may be late jumping on this band wagon but Marks & Sparks seem to have some rather pretty vintage inspired ditsy kind of things. Think vivid flowers, cute cake stands and cotton napkins and your half way there. They're terming it "fashion vintage" which I guess is just another reflection on the increasing consumer interest of vintage apparel, whatever it may be.

Left to right, top row; 3D Multi Flower cushion £45, Elizabeth Cup & Saucer £7.50; Vintage Floral Cushion £19:50, second row - Kirstie Allsopp Sewing Basket £19:50, Love Texture Cushion £29:50, Kirstie Allsopp Cake Stand £19:50. 

I hadn't even known Kirstie Allsopp was doing a range for Marks and Spencer's - there isn't much, a cake stand, a teacup and saucer and odd other little things but I do like the sewing box. Its rather quirky and very pretty and looks a brilliant size to keep everything together.

Being a crochet gal, how could I not post their crocheted items?! There seem to be more in their catalogue then there is on their website - or I'm just being blind and I can't find them. So there's only three to show here, and they don't look as impressive as they do in the books but it gives you an idea at least. Either way it's rather refreshing to see crocheted items on sale, knowing you could make something pretty much the same for a faction of the price - the crochet rug below being a case in point.

Left to right - Fashion vintage crochet rug £250, Crochet runner quilt £75

But anything that gets crochet back into the eyes of the public can only be a good thing right?