Miss Firth's Attic's First Sewing Pattern for Sale!

Our first vintage pattern is up for sale! 1977 Simplicity children's pattern. Many more to come! 

Click here for listing!

Amazing Find

What an amazing photo! It is so clear and her dress is so precious! I loooove it :)

Friday Vintage Styles

I hope you all had a good Friday! Mine was filled with freezing rain, an odd thing for a January day in Montreal. To cheer myself up a little bit, I decided to bake a red velvet cake and watch a bit of Seinfeld! Can't go wrong with either :)

For my late Friday post, I'm sharing with you my favorite Brigitte Bardot posters. I love her! I think she was on the first poster I ever bought with my own money when I was about 10.. Anyway, here they are!

Hope you enjoy :)

Not posters but ...

Have a good weekend everyone! 

The Artist

I never thought something like this would come out again in our times. I couldn't believe my ears when I heard a silent movie was being made.. I jumped up and down and I must admit I might have shed a tear! I can only dream of desiging costumes for a black and white silent film. I was anxiously waiting to watch the trailer and here it is! I am amazed at how great this movie looks. The list of actors is mind-blowing and the costumes look insane! Please notice the Monkey fur coat of the main actress at the end.. Those were the 'it' thing in the 1920s and I'm so excited they've included it in the film. Anyway, hope you enjoy!! 

Friday Vintage Styles: ZipZapKap

This shop is amazing! If you don't know ZipZapKap, do yourself a favor and check it out! It's an adorable shop with the most wonderful icon graphics. To be honest, I'm always on the fence about overly changed and edited listing images, but this shop owner has got it down perfectly! The graphics are adorable and clear and is probably one of the best ideas to present and sell old patterns. Anyhow, I purchased a pattern for my play from this shop and I received it a day or two ago. Not only was the pattern amazing, but, as a business card, I received an old photo with a thank you note... Being the old photo-junkie that I am, I can never have enough vintage photos and it was the best surprise I'd had in a while! Anyway, here are a few of my favorite patterns from this shop. If you sew or collect patterns, you should definitely order something from ZipZapKap! The seller is more than cooperative and answers emails very fast. The pricing of the listings are great and fair. She was quick to help me with my annoying problems and was very kind about it!
Enjoy and check out this shop!

1950s Ruffled Skirt

1950s Wrap Skirt

1960s Wrap Skirt

1930s Dress

1970s Jumpsuit and Blazer

1940s Skirt

1940s Playsuit

Between Night and Day: Costume #2 Part 2

I've been swamped with school and the play! I'm glad to finally post something quick on here :) ... Even though I'm wasting precious homework time. Anyway, I haven't put any updates for this costume because I did it practically over night and rushed it to rehearsal. It's not finished, it needs to be hemmed and snaps need to be put in. I also have to find some kind of belt to put at the waist.. I don't know what kind of belt and I sure hope something jumps out at me soon! Here is the dress as is after fitting the actress;

Sleeve! 

Picture is a bit bright, but you can sort of see the trim detail at yoke. 

For information on the play, click the link below! Check it out even if you are not in the Montreal region.. The poster is worth the click! 

Between Night and Day - Facebook!

Strange Vintage Ads

I LOVE vintage photos and ads, especially the creepy and strange ones. On a recent trip to Montreal's only indoor Flea Market (bought a bunch of awesome props for the play!), I found many vintage photos and saw a few.. terrifying.. ads. This inspired a long internet search for the creepiest and strangest vintage ads. I thought I'd do a late Friday the 13th post and share these ads with you! Let me know what you think ;)

This ad was shown in one of my textiles classes when we were speaking of Du Pont.. It sort of traumatized me. Oh the 50s, when plastic bags weren't known to be dangerous.

Friday Vintage Styles

Hello to all!

I've decided to turn my Friday blog posts into Friday Vintage Styles. With this, I simply want to share my vintage finds of the week :) 

The first shop I'd like to share with you isn't a 'vintage' shop, but this designer offers 19th century underpinning, accessories and nightwear. I LOVE this shop! Everything is so elegant and well made. The prices are also amazing! If I were not a broke student, I would buy every item from this seller.. This shop, of course, is Historika. 

Here are a few of my favorite pieces; 

Regency Very Ruffled Chemisette

1880s Victorian Tiered Bustle Padded with English Wool

Regency Irish Linen Short Stays Made - To Order

The 'Catherine' Regency Fichu - Embroidered

I will end with a bit of self-promotion.. This is the first vintage garment to be sold in Miss Firth's Attic! This shirt is $20 and is from the Marco Canada company/line. This boxy, but comfortable and light shirt is from the 90s! 

90s Pink and White Striped Button-Front

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Mine will be filled with school, school-work, book-selling and play shopping!! Busy, busy! 

Between Night and Day: Costume #2 Part 1

As well as update on costume #1...

We've had a few issues with Costume #1 in the fitting.
For the time being, that dress is being put away in three bags and a closet and I shall be moving on to the next dress!

This is a quick scan of the pattern I'm going to start working on for the main character. I'm bringing a few changes to the dress, the major change being the length of it! I will post pictures as soon as I've got some work done!
I've also found some dramatic Film Noir-looking faux-fur coats for the actresses. They were in a frightening state when I found them and are now being rescued by the dry cleaners. As soon as they are back in my hands I shall share a picture!!

Between Night and Day: Costume #1 Part 2

Not the perfect picture or styling of this dress, but it isn't done yet! I'm simply happy the skirt is attached to the bodice!! The fabric was so difficult to work with, I was scared it had stretched somewhere, somehow. In the end, all was good. As you can see, the hem isn't finished nor is the yoke on the shoulder. I need to fit the actress before I can finish either. As for the belt, it also needs to be finished. I haven't finished turning it on the right side but, when I do, it'll be about double the length and will go twice around the waist. I'm expecting to have it done by next Monday. 

I also spent the better part of my day in thrift stores to find inexpensive, 1940's-looking sweaters and cardigans. In the end, I found 3 sweaters and 2 faux-fur coats for the girl characters. Great finds for only 80$ :) The coats are at the dry cleaners and the shirts are in the washing machine, but I'll have them up for you to see asap! 

Crossing my fingers it'll fit my actress like a glove! 

Once again, here is the pattern available for order from my Etsy shop! 

1940's Pattern Butterick

Facebook Page!

Hey everyone,

I've just started the first Facebook page for Miss Firth's Attic! Please check it out :)

Link; Miss Firth's Attic's Facebook

Between Night and Day: Costume #1

Hi everyone!
I haven't been very active on here because I've been SLAVING away on this costume. This is my first post for the play I'm producing and designing; 'Between Night and Day'. It was written by an English lit graduate student at Concordia University here, in Montreal. With this play, my friend Michael Belcher brings us back to post-WWII Hollywood. Within the first minute of this play we are thrown back in this world where we meet wonderful and complex characters.. It is my job to make this play look good. This makes me nervous. Nevertheless, I'm confident it'll look and be great in the end! :)

Here are the first few pictures of the first dress I've been sewing. This one is for a lively character named Evelyn. This woman is an actress and is best friend to the main character, Rose. Because our budget is practically non-existant, all female characters in this play are getting one dress and are being accessorized with inexpensive cardigans and jewelry to change up the outfits from scene to scene.

Let me know what you guys think!
Oh and I've been using Butterick pattern B5281 from my Etsy shop!

Meet my sewing machine.. It's gone through a lot in this past year and a half of costume school. Poor thing! 

This is, obviously, only the top part of a knee-length dress. The red threads on the shoulder are where snaps will go. The first shoulder tuck also needs to be fixed. This fabric is awful to work with. Polyester + Spandex. It can't be ironed and stretches just a tad too much. I'm only using it because it'll be comfortable for the actress to move in.

I love Frank.

I love my cat. Meet Frank McCourt McQueen (I know...). This picture is courtesy of Vanessa from Scribbles and Shots. I was so happy when I saw this picture that I wanted to share with everyone! Don't worry, I'm already aware that I am a crazy cat lady in the making.