Ultimate Pin-Up - Vintage Hair & Fashion

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Ultimate Pin-Up - Vintage Hair & Fashion

Admirer of vintage hair, fashion and makeup

22/07/2026

I've recently finished knitting the 2 colour stripe jumper from Stitch Craft 1945.

Below is a link to my YouTube channel on how I sized it up from a 30 inch bust to a 43 inch bust just by changing the yarn and needle size

https://youtu.be/sWi10EUWTpQ?is=CmQKx1sCTdA3N_SJ

Link to my blog post about it here:
https://www.ultimatepinupvintage.com/post/sizing-up-and-knitting-the-1945-2-colour-jumper-for-the-slim-figure-from-a-30-inch-to-a-43-inch-bu

29/05/2026

Day 29 of Me Made May

I really wanted a 1940s bag to go with my outfits but all the ones I found were made with crochet. I then came across a knitted bag pattern. It was the first project I unravelled yarn from a cardigan for, and used a second hand dress for the lining and handles from another bag.

There's a YouTube short available to watch about it here:
https://youtube.com/shorts/oZqEBgckamI?si=z8DmfF80vNPYiegG

28/05/2026

Day 28 of Me Made May

I'm starting to run out of photos to share! 😆
Here are some floral fascinators I made a few years ago.
Because I like to make items from second hand materials, I made these from second hand fake flowers I bought online that were left over from weddings etc.
When I used to own a shop, I ran a fascinator workshop for people to come along and make their own. About 6 people attended and it was so much fun to watch others create their own designs.

27/05/2026

Day 27 of Me Made May

This dress is one that I embellished rather than made from scratch.
I was invited to a work colleagues wedding reception and at the time I was redecorating my daughter's bedroom into my sewing room and didn't have the time to make a dress.
I did have in my wardrobe a navy blue dress originally from Joanie clothing, that I bought for £3.10 from a charity shop and still had the tags on it.
It fitted really well but I thought it was a little bit plain, and I remembered that I had a pink dress I got free from a clothes swap and a green dress from the charity bargain basket for £1.10. I got these to reuse the fabric and decided to make roses and leaves out of them to decorate the navy dress.
So I was making roses and leaves any time I could in-between work and school pick up and finally got it finished a night before the wedding.

I made a longer video explaining how I made the roses and decorated the dress here:
https://youtu.be/cx0MrIDcI3c?si=k9bKIsyN6NGxKgfq

26/05/2026

Day 26 of Me Made May

I bought this strawberry duvet cover from Matalan last year and wanted to make a skirt out of it.
In February, I managed to get tickets to see Of Monsters and Men live in Manchester on the 15th, so thought that it would be cute to make it into a heart shaped pinafore dress with the heart detachable so it could be worn as a dress or a skirt on its own.
The whole thing was self drafted by me and I did run into issues trying to get the heart to sit across my torso but I still like it.

I have uploaded a YouTube short about it here:
https://youtube.com/shorts/lBcDfG2Ikf0?si=WmoAVtIy07MTZP0g

25/05/2026

Day 25 of Me Made May

Last December I made my daughter a Christmas tree inspired dress and I wanted to make one for myself.

I had some green fabric left over in my stash and bought several metres of light and dark green tulle, as well £10 worth of multicoloured pom-poms for the 'baubles'.

I used the bodice pattern from Simple Sew The Ruby Dress and drafted a pattern for the skirt layers. The base was a tiered petticoat and then I added layers of tulle that I folded in half and then sewed the open long edges to the petticoat to make a pocket. I then filled the tulle pockets with pompoms before seaming all the layers up at the back.

It's such a fun dress to wear and wore it several times over Christmas ☺️

You can watch a YouTube short on how I made it here:
https://youtube.com/shorts/6NOnMZssd98?si=NIj4JdXKhSTeSsli

24/05/2026

Day 24 of Me Made May

I've just finished this dress on Friday ready in time to see Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox on the weekend for my birthday.

This was my first attempt at grading a sewing pattern. It's an original 1950s dress pattern from Leech Way and was only in a 36 inch bust. It's made of 8 pieces and is a slip on dress with no darts or zips so thought it would make the perfect first project for practicing to grade on.
You then add a belt to cinch in the waist and create that iconic 1950s silhouette.
Before I cut into the lovely rose print fabric I had, I made a toile first from old fabric as I wanted to check that the fit was ok and if any other adjustments were needed.
I discovered that the armhole depth was too big so I needed to take it up by an inch or so.
Making a practice piece meant that sewing the one in the fabric I wanted was a lot quicker and the armhole depth was much better.

I am planning to do a Tiktok/Instagram reel as well as a YouTube short and longer video to show how the process.

This is the YouTube video I used to help me grade up the pattern:
https://youtu.be/3nGv3FeXHdg?si=5nDTldMZgHDF3YIS

23/05/2026

Day 23 of Me Made May

I came across a pattern a while ago from the 1940s on how to make a turban out of old dresses. During the war years, material and yarn was rationed and as it became harder to source new fabric, people were encouraged to either repair clothing or make new out of old.

I made several fabric turbans in different colours which are great for bad hair days and it inspired me to write my first knitting pattern for a turban.

If you are interested, you can watch a YouTube short on how I made the fabric turban here:
https://youtube.com/shorts/ukfCPDQfWvI?si=i-NhgCMZX-KGZE9A

There's a free blog post on my website on how to make your own here:
https://www.ultimatepinupvintage.com/post/sewing-a-1940s-turban-from-a-dress

And the link to my knitting pattern on my website is here:
https://www.ultimatepinupvintage.com/product-page/jumping-hurdles-knitting-pattern?currency=GBP

22/05/2026

Day 22 of Me Made May

I knitted this 1930s pattern back in August 2025. I used 100% cotton yarn that I harvested from a jumper I bought from a charity shop for £1.10.
I didn't need to size it up as much because of the lacy stitch.
I really enjoyed knitting this piece and it's great for wearing on warm sunny days.

You can watch a short on YouTube about it here:
https://youtube.com/shorts/UdXYe68biY0?si=2WAP-Yrl0rGppcrZ

This is the short on how I unravelled the original jumper:
https://youtube.com/shorts/ypnGYIdxBhw?si=NbNy7wTXgFp3xssN

21/05/2026

Day 21 of Me Made May

Back in April 2025 I was going away to Mallorca for the first time and wanted some "new" items to take with me.
I saw a post on Pinterest of 1940s and 50s peasant or off the shoulder tops and wanted to make one myself but didn't have a pattern.
I bought a cotton blouse from a charity shop for £3 and cut across the neckline and the waist before adding elastic around the edges to create a cropped off the shoulder top.

You can watch a YouTube short on how I made it here:
https://youtube.com/shorts/n_VLNnhSBJI?si=eodL9M1x4uplqJp_

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Newcastle Under Lyme

Website

https://www.ultimatepinupvintage.com/

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