Maker Monday

January 25, 2016January 25, 2016 ~ RetrofittingVintage ~ Leave a comment

Making things is starting a (minor) revolution.

With a new year, and the cold, clear days, it’s easy to get introspective. And so I have. As I think about all the things that bring me joy, it’s easy to cast myself as scattered. I like so many different things, lots of them at least vaguely domestic. But as I look more deeply, I find my various interests all fall under one big umbrella: I really like to make stuff.

Writing a play, knitting a sweater, baking a loaf of bread–these are all essentially creative acts. It’s self-expression through concrete forms. It’s sculpture, but instead of clay, I use ideas, and words, and yarn, and flour. Continue reading →

DIY: Humidifier

January 20, 2016January 20, 2016 ~ RetrofittingVintage ~ 2 Comments

It’s cold in the Midwest, my friends.

The temperature is low, the freeze is on, and moreover, the air is dry. Dry, dry, dry. The steam heat radiators in our apartment go full blast at night (so vintage, so charming, so very loud) and while it’s nice to be warm, they obliterate any moisture in the air.

We apparently own a humidifier. It’s supposedly in the basement. This was not a thing I knew when, in the middle of the night, feeling like I was slowly becoming a human raisin, I decided to throw a wet towel on the radiator.

Continue reading →

Vintage Hair for Modern People: Pin Curls

January 13, 2016January 13, 2016 ~ RetrofittingVintage ~ 2 Comments

The Internet is full of pin curling tutorials, and I see no reason to add another one.

It’s not secret that heat styling is no good for your hair. Curling irons, blow driers, straighteners, hot rollers–they work really well, but eventually leave you with crispy tresses. Yes, there are heat protectant sprays, and yes, you can pry my hot rollers out of my cold, dead hands, but for daily styling, I’m trying to avoid heat.

Finally, after The Great Cropping Accident of 2015, in which a hair dresser and I had a very different understanding of “take some of this weight off so the curls will bounce”, I have enough length to do something. It only took a year. I’m not bitter at all. But as my hair has gotten heavier, it has lacked a certain volume and shape, and je ne sais quoi.

Look at me, pretending that was on purpose.

A hot roller set makes my hair look fantastic, if I do say so. But I am not willing to hot roll every day, because of the aforementioned heat damage potential. Enter the pin curl. Continue reading →

Thrift Store Thirties

January 9, 2016January 9, 2016 ~ RetrofittingVintage ~ Leave a comment

Most of my vintage style outfits, day-to-day, are not very complicated.

I usually don’t try to look like I stepped right out of a movie from 1952 on a daily basis. There are a couple of reasons for this:

I’ve got stuff to do, and not all of it is really suited to wearing puffy dresses.
I usually forget to wear accessories. I usually forget to change my earrings, honestly.
Weather. Public transit.
While I admire very curated vintage looks, I usually don’t go in for a complete “costumed” look, myself.

So this winter, I’m ending up wearing a lot of variations on this: