Hats Off to Ya

Edited since on my computer, I couldn't click the hat page for a larger, legible, version. Now, I uploaded it to my flickr so you can click it and view it at a variety of sizes.

Reading Dress A Day and blogger Erin's love for the old sewing books, I can't help but have an affection for them myself. So when I saw this little jem and the Salvation Army, I picked it up.



This would be the 1961 version. While it says it's to encourage women to learn how to sew by showing how easy it is, I think it doesn't exactly achieve that. It doesn't have simple step by step instructions and diagrams that would better achieve that purpose. It's still very helpful though, especially with my about equally retro Fleetwood sewing machine, and perhaps I'll go more into that later.

Today, I'm focusing on my favorite part of this baby, which is the fashion advice. It has a whole chapter devoted to telling you what's acceptable and what is not.

I didn't take a picture of that page, which makes their suggestions seem more like a mandate than a friendly tip, so the above page will have to suffice for now. I'm sure the other page will make an appearance here sometime in the future, while this one is one of my favorites.

If you've been following my flickr, you might have noticed my now ubiquitous big, Forever 21 sun hat I've been wearing practically every day. I love headwear, and since I began my campaign for it's revival in popular clothing, I've begun feeling half-naked without my hair up or something on top of my head.

Since I have such difficulty finding hats, since my hair is so big. And I see no advice in fashion magazines or even the blogs, despite the minor hawking of hats as coming back and pimping out of hats that YOU can wear, unless, you know, your hair swallows it, I was thrilled to find the rules of thumb for hats in the pages of this tome.

Because anything else is just not suitable, dah-link!

There's the attitude I was talking about and there's what the book has to say on hats, complete with examples and diagrams. Apparently my hat doesn't make the grade, being made of straw and metallic thread and not "feathers, flowers, felt, or fur." But the article does strike the nail right on the head with the whole balance thing. They key to a hat is balancing it with the outfit and your silhouette in the outfit. Plus, I think that sentence was just missing a little clause, since they later mention velvet as acceptable.

My outfit: Click the pic for outfit deets and the date I actually wore it.

Sun shaded,

Ivy Frozen