slick your hair and wear your buckle shoes

and



allllll



that



JAZZZZZZ



okay, i’m going to attempt to get through this without any jazz hands references. no promises.

my second entry for project run and play’s SEWING THROUGH THE DECADES challenge from last week was a 20s flapper inspired look.

i started with this:


a (thrifted) size 3x all-in-one shirt/cardigan combo. it’s black shot through with silver threads and provided PLENTY of fabric for my skinny mini girl. ;)

i trimmed it all up, cut a deep v-neck and hemmed it. easy.

then i filled in the neck with white cotton in an overlapping pattern and cut serpentine ruffles from the excess black fabric.



the beads i dug out of my “beads & stuff drawer” (don’t you have one?) the fringe and layers on the bottoms of the dresses of the jazz age were to draw attention to the movement of their dancing. and i’m pretty sure it works!



the beaded lacey shawl also came from my “beads & stuff drawer”. the pearl necklace was from miss ava’s great grandmother—not real, but vintage none the less!

okay, can we talk about the cloche for a minute?



i’ve dabbled in hat-making before…and i don’t claim to be a milliner.
but seriously—new FAVORITE PROJECT EVAH.
and because i’m The Most Impatient Crafter Ever—i loved that it was SO easy! i watched some tutorials (here and here), gathered my supplies and went for it.

the supplies are minimal: you need a $3.99 wig form from sally’s beauty supply (covered in plastic wrap for non-stick factor). you make a 50/50 mixture of elmer’s glue and water and saturate your felt. i did a trial run with one of those 29 cent pieces of felt, and then used some yardage of wool felt i had for the final product.



you just  s   t   r   e   t   c   h  your felt over the form, pulling and pulling and pinning and pinning and pulling until it takes on the shape of the head. then i started forming the brim, trimming it up and YES it’s creepy but i stabbed my form through the head with a skewer to hold the brim in place while it dried.



once it’s all where you want it let it dry overnight and boom! hat!
i made a band out of some more felt and added the buttons and feather piece (all stuff i had—let’s hear it for cheap projects! can i get a what what!?!?)
















i may turn into a mad hatter. seriously.
once we got all the pieces together i couldn’t believe how much i loved the look.



and for real--current favorite picture of ms. ava:



i even attempted some finger waves…which looked super cool but you couldn’t really see them under the hat.
you CAN see the spit curls on the side—an absolute MUST for any good jazzy girl. ava was not overly thrilled with them…considering that of all the things i used to hold them in place (gel, hairspray, wax)…it was the actual spit that worked the best.



huh. whoda thunk it?
and that’s it. add the appropriate tuneage:



and start taking pictures!



and that’s a wrap! JAZZZZZ HANDS!!!!
(okay, couldn’t do it)

linking up here: