I don’t like altering vintage. I tend to figure, if a thing made it 70 years to get to me, why should I change it if it doesn’t fit my body? Surely there’s someone else out there who it will fit.

However, some pieces are beyond the “someone else can wear it” point. Some are terribly damaged, stained, torn, or otherwise unwearable. This dress was in good and sturdy shape but one skirt piece was cut off the grain, rendering it comically lopsided. After weighing my options (and wearing it as a top) I decided that the best way to save this dress was by removing the skirt entirely, recutting it as a peplum, and reattaching it to the top half of the dress.

The final creation is still a bit short in the torso but so much more wearable than the original lopsided dress. For its first outing, I paired it with the original red belt and a red skirt to match, but I suspect I’ll be able to combine it with other pieces as well.

More pictures from earlier in the summer, and as I’m reviewing them, I suddenly want to reprise this combination for a late-summer look now that it’s almost cool enough to consider wearing suits again.

I was very taken with Trashy Diva’s Pirate Treasure print this spring, and I bought my first full-price items from their shop (thank you, full-time employment) to ensure I’d get a chance at the print.

I actually ended up with this print in two different styles, and I was really tickled to discover that not only was the print a perfect match to one of my favorite 1940s suit, the indescribable light peachy red shade is a perfect match to this 1940s hat I got from Solanah in the winter.

When we were in California for our honeymoon, we spent a couple nights with my extended family. The conversation turned, as it often does, to family memories, and my aunt suggested that I might have a look at a few hats she had stashed away that were her mother’s — my Busia’s. (A note — Busia is what I grew up calling my grandmother, it’s some sort of corrupted Americanization of the Polish word for grandmother) She wanted to hold on to the very best of the hats (as well she should!), a enormous cream New York Creation with black velvet ribbon trim. Somewhere there is a picture of my Busia wearing the hat, and she plans to put together a little display of the pair. I went home with two hats and the brooch that matches the reverse-carved lucite earrings that I’ve had since Busia passed away.

This is one of the two hats I took home, a simple open-crowned straw number in black, absolutely perfect for miserable summer days and other such occasions. I will now think fondly of my Busia every time I wear it! I’ll show you the other hat soon, Busia clearly had a thing for large hats and high drama in fashion… I come by it honestly!

I promised more wedding posts, and although I’ve taken my sweet time about writing them, I did not forget!

Today’s post is going to focus primarily on the pretty clothes aspect of the wedding. All the photos in this post are by our wonderful photographers, Novella Photography. Unfortunately, we didn’t end up with a ton of great photos of Doug and we even have a bit of a shortage of pictures of us together (in part because he’s rather camera-shy, in part because we spent a lot of the reception separated so we could cover saying hi to all our relatives and be good hosts, weddings are emotionally exhausting, guys, and in part because I was the person wearing a giant floofy 1950s wedding dress and that’s way more fun to take pictures of than a suit. Sorry Doug.)

But, this is a vintage clothing blog, so I know you’re probably here to learn more about my dress. Read on to hear more about our glad rags for the glad occasion.

This is the last set of pictures I have from before the wedding, so I promise I’ll be following up with more wedding and honeymoon photos next! And to be honest, I was doubting whether or not to share these at all, since I wasn’t entirely happy with how they turned out.

This ensemble is a classic case of me loving all the components individually but them just… not being quite right all added together. The hat is wrong with the dress, I think, and different shoes would have gone better… but oh well, there’s always next time!

The dress is a little earlier than my usual era, but I love the floral print and it is a very comfortable dress on a day when I’m feeling puffy (which you can see I was). I’m curious – how would you style it?