August 2015 – Vintage Frills

vintagefrills / August 30, 2015

Lindy Bop Kids Review

As you may have noticed by now, I’m a bit of a fan of Lindy Bop. Their super affordable, gorgeous dresses are a great alternative to my more fragile vintage dresses and I love the huge choice of styles, prints and colours. I have quite a few in my wardrobe now, but theres always room for more! I was absolutely delighted when Lindy Bop offered me a dress to review and even happier when they let the girls have a dress each too.

Lindy Bop Kids is just like the super fabulous grown up version, but in ridiculously cute smaller sizes. The range has sizes from 3 years to 12 years so your little girl can dress as well as you! I decided to let the girls get involved in choosing their own dresses and after a lot of looking we chose 3 dresses that co-ordinated really well. The girls both went for polka dot Audrey dresses and I chose the Joy dress, a gorgeous turquoise floral shirt dress to match.

I’ve never had a problem with the fit of Lindy Bop dresses and always order a size 14 which has worked well for me so far, so my dress was just right for me as usual. I also went for the girls usual sizes I got a 3-4 years for Lila and 9-10 years for jess and the fit was perfect on them too.

The kids dresses were made from a lovely thick cotton, with a tiny bit of stretch. They looked really lovely and flared out just enough to give them a cute 50s look, without being too full to stop them running around and having fun. Each dress came with a pink belt which I think makes them look even cuter.

The girls wore the dresses all day and not only ran around in them, but also built a den and rolled around on the grass and the dresses still looked great. I like the hard-wearing thicker cotton and the comfortable fit. They both absolutely loved their dresses and really want me to get them more. With new styles and colours coming in every week I can definitely see a few that I know will be perfect for them.

As well as being OK for every day wear I also love the idea of the girls wearing their dresses for more formal occasions and parties. They would also look great for little flower girls and bridesmaids if you are having a vintage wedding, especially if paired with the matching adult dresses. They can also be teamed up with the matching petticoats, which are absolutely adorable!

The best bit is that each dress only costs £14.99. I hate spending loads of money on kids clothes as they grow so quickly, so these are a really good price for me.

Outfit Details:

Lila:

Kids Audrey Dress in Green – £14.99 – Lindy Bop

Socks – Tu at Sainsburys

Jelly Shoes – Sun Jellies

Jessica:

Kids Audrey Dress in Pastel Blue – £14.99 – Lindy Bop

Shoes – Tu at Sainsburys

Me:

Joy Floral Dress in Turquoise – £34.99 – Lindy Bop

Red Petticoat (not seen) – £21.99 – Lindy Bop

Shoes – Primark

Jewellery – Vintage and Bow and Crossbones

Find the full range of kids dresses on the Lindy Bop website.

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vintagefrills / August 28, 2015

Singing in the Rain – Vintage Style for Rainy Days

Personally I think there is nothing worse than rain in August. What is up with the weather this year? I don’t mind the odd summer shower where huge drops of rain fall from the sky onto the warm ground and dry as quickly as they fell as the sun comes out again. But the weather we’ve been having here in London is just depressing! On the plus side it did get me thinking about vintage style for Autumn. I’m not great at dressing vintage in the winter, most of my wardrobe consists of pretty floral dresses which work so much better for spring and summer.

The look I’ve created today is perfect for rainy days and long walks. A mix of modern and vintage style which makes me think of country walks with a little hint of the 1940s. I adore the tweed coat which I spotted at the Cath Kidston press day earlier this year. I can see it going with absolutely everything. The Radley handbag may not be typically vintage, but I thought it was so adorable that it’s now top of my wishlist! I absolutely love the dress which I think would see you through the whole year, and as for Hunter wellies they are one of my favourite things. I wore some with a vintage dress and cable knit cardigan in this post last year.

Create the look:

1. Tweed Printed Lining Coat – £130 – Cath Kidston

2. Bloomsbury Bouquet Wool Shawl – £48 – Cath Kidston

3. Twisted Knit Cardigan – £75 – Cath Kidston

4. Yellow Ditsy Floral Tea Dress – £29.99 – Lindy Bop

5. Archive Print Umbrella – £19 – John Lewis

6. Exhibition Road Leather Grab Bag – £229 – Radley at John Lewis

7. Umbrella Necklace – £25 – Not on the High Street

8. Baby Blue Wellies – £95 – Hunter at John Lewis

9. Knee High Cable Socks – £7 – Monsoon

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vintagefrills / August 27, 2015

Lots of Lovely Vintage at Kingston Night Market

A couple of weeks ago I found myself in lovely Kingston-upon-Thames with Faye for a fabulous blog event which I’ll be writing about very soon. Afterwards we decided to pop along to a fantastic night market which is held in the town once a month. I absolutely love the concept of combining a night out with a little shopping, especially when it means supporting lots of fantastic small businesses. As well as lots of lovely stalls, the event has a great choice of street food, coffee and beer, as well as a DJ to get you in the party spirit.

The old market square was flood lit for the night and had such a great mix of stalls, inside the market building was a fabulous selection of hand made and vintage items. Obviously I was instantly drawn to all the gorgeous vintage clothes. I was very happy to see that the majority of clothing on sale was pre 1970s and there was so much amazing mid-century fashion that I felt like a kid in a candy shop. Next time I will plan ahead and make sure I bring some money as there were definitely a few gorgeous dresses that I had my eye on.

I chatted to a couple of traders, who mentioned that they had booths at nearby Kingston Antiques Centre which is one of my favourite places to shop anyway, so I’ll definitely be paying them a visit soon.

As it was an unplanned trip I just took a few snaps of everything on my phone, which I just had to share on here. This really is the perfect night out for vintage fans. I’d recommend getting there early having a really good shopping session before settling down to some craft beer and street food.

Local car parks stay open until mid-night and the area has lots of trains and busses so it really easy to get to. The next dates are 24th Sept and 29th October for a Halloween special.

Find out more about the night market on the Kingston First website.

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vintagefrills / August 26, 2015

Saving a Badly Up-cycled Coffee Table!

Up-cycling – a phenomenon that swept across the country in recent years, basically slapping some paint on old furniture (Kirsty Alsopp I’m looking at you) or irrevocably altering an original piece of vintage clothing (Dawn O Porter I’m looking at you)! Sometimes it really works and I love that an an old un-loved item has been given a new lease of life. Half the furniture in my house was bought in charity shops and lovingly brightened up with a lick of Laura Ashley paint. But sometimes it doesn’t go so well!

When my husband returned from a car boot sale with a rather bright blue coffee table, I was left wondering if there was any hope for the poor old thing. But for £1, the table was definitely worth saving. After sitting in our shed un-loved for a year we decided to give the table a bit of a make-over and now it has a new life being loved in our living room. This is how we turned it from shabby shit to shabby chic.

First up, we gave the table a good sand (by ‘we’ I mean Rob, I just took the pictures). Once the worst of the thick blue paint has been removed, we sprayed it with stain block spray which you can pick up in most hardware stores. We always use this to prime furniture as it forms a nice even layer and covers up dark wood and paint.

Once primed, we gave it another sand, making sure to get inside all the little details, as well as making sure the whole table was nice and smooth ready for painting.

We then painted the table with two layers of cream emulsion paint and once dry finished it with a clear satin varnish.

We decided to cover the top with this map wallpaper from B&Q. We chose it because the colour went well with our paint choice, however given the chance to do it again I would probably choose a brighter more modern paper design. We carefully pencilled the outline of the table onto the wallpaper, before cutting it out and sticking it down with wallpaper paste.

To finish the top of the table and make it waterproof and protected from tea and coffee stains we sprayed with a few layers of clear lacquer, we use the stuff designed from cars from Halfords. It takes quite a few layers to get a perfect finish, but it’s well worth the time.

And thats it! I think the table looks so much better, I may change the paper on the top at some point, but for now I’m so happy with how it turned out. The whole thing cost about £10 to complete as we already had all the materials except for the lacquer.

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vintagefrills / August 25, 2015

Every Flavour Jam Tarts

If there’s one thing everybody can bake it’s jam tarts. They are simple, easy and quick to bake and you need hardly any ingredients. They are one of my favourite things to bake with the kids, as you really can’t go wrong. The other thing I love about the good old jam tart is that it combines my love of baking and my little jam obsession. It may be a little crazy but I have a whole shelf of my fridge dedicated to my jam collection and whenever I go to the supermarket, I can’t help but pick up a new flavour.

So this post is part recipe, part celebrating my love of jams. Jam tarts are not just for sweet toothed kids, with the right jam they can be the perfect treat for grown ups too and some of these flavours would be great for a vintage tea party. I make mine with a basic short crust pastry and every flavour of jam I can get my hands on! I’ve including the pastry recipe, but you can also buy it ready-made from the supermarket.

You Will Need: (this recipe makes loads, so you might want to half the recipe if you only want to make a few)

450g plain flour

200g butter, cut into small squares

5 tbsp water

Pinch of salt

Jam, jam and more jam.

How to Make:

1. Pre heat oven to 200c

2. Rub the butter and flour together to form a bread crumb consistency.

3. Add the salt and then add the water a little at a time until the mixture forms into a stiff dough.

4. Roll out the dough on floured surface and use a pastry cutter to cut out large circles.

5. Push the circles into a muffin or cake tray.

6. Add a spoonful of jam to each one.

7. Bake in the oven for 20 – 30 mins until the pastry looks golden brown.

8. Allow them to cool completely on a wire rack before eating jam gets VERY hot!

All the flavours I tried tasted absolutely delicious but my favourite is the Wilkin and Son’s Rhubarb with Ginger, it has a lovely fiery kick to it, the girls however prefer lemon curd ones. I pick up jam all over the place, some of the ones I used I picked up while on holiday in the Isle of Wight, Farm shops are also a great place to pick up unusual flavours. If you’re feeling brave you could also try making your own.