Cute as a Garter Button

Frippery du jour over here at quaintrelle towers (ok duplex) is garter buttons! You probably know the things I mean... Little silk covered buttons printed or painted with sultry eyed flapper faces from  the 1920's.

New styles and new hosiery had lead to girls rolling their stockings and holding them tightly in place with either rubber like bands or adventurous garters. Above the knee if you wanted to play it safe or bellow the knee if you were feeling sexy and wanted to let your knees do the taking! Fashionable girls could display their modern and irreverent attitudes with these flirty faces peeking out from under
rising hemlines.

Created by the ribbon companies at the time, they seem to have been printed on long ribbons, then cut and shaped into various whimsical buttons. Some were left simply as printed faces, some adorned with further ribbons and frills, and others went further with cheeky sayings like "You'd be surprised" or my personal favorite, a police man proclaiming "Stop go no further!"

Not wholly found on garters, they could also be seen on other flirty items such as powder puffs, and mirrors, all the various ribbon covered items in a true coquette's  arsenal!

You can often find them for sale on places like easy or ebay, but as a girl who likes ribbons it seemed like a fun thing to make from scratch. 

Currently still just buttons here are a few of the faces to come off my work bench this week....

Their destinies will be another post later on, but for now, anyone else wanting to say it with buttons might want to check out the quick tutorial over on the Quaintrelle Life website and make some too! 

What do you think your knees might want to say?

Faking the Fringe

You probably didn't know that before there was a Quaintrelle Life blog, there was a Quaintrelle Life site! Blogs can be tough to brows when you are looking for a specific tutorial, how to, or feature, so I've been collecting and writing more in depth pieces over at quaintrellelife.com. Though left untouched for a while, a few months ago I gave the site a facelift ready to start updating again, and today the first new tutorial went up!

I have a long time love of Bettie bangs, i think they are just the right mix of retro sexy and retro cute. I don't however really have the hair to pull them off (they are always gappy and thin, yuck!)  and a also suffer greatly from commitment issues with hair (which you'll notice if you follow the link in a second...) So obviously I'm going to have to fake it if i want to enjoy the style! And fake it I do. It is possible to buy clip in bangs, but if you, like me have awkward colored hair, or are OCD about every tiny detail, then going DIY is the best option!

I made myself a set of clip in bangs in a Bettie page style, and now have a tutorial up on the QL website for anyone looking to do the same! making them is super easy to do, and because you'll have hair wefts left over, less expensive than buying a set pre-made (more tutorials for the left over hair weft to follow)

The clip ins are the secret of how I managed to get from this 1st style to the 2nd in 5 minutes instead of 5 months!

Try out the tutorial and start faking the fringe yourself!

Quaintrelle Life

A lot of people here might not know, but the Quaintrelle Life blog is actually part of a bigger Quaintrelle Life e-zine! Started up in 2008 under the original name Fancy Girl. Covering anachronistic fashions, crafts and lifestyle.

Things got a little quiet on the main site, but 2011 is the year of the quaintrelle and I'll be updating each month with at least one new feature, and making it a higher priority again.

The first new article of the year just went up today! The subject is vanity sets! I hope this months article will have enough tips and advice to get everyone started a vintage, or even antique vanity set of  their own!

February and March's articles are already in development, so it's looking like a promising start!

Fancy Quaintrelle Hair and Clothes

So I have very thin hair, but always wanted some nice big puffy vintage hairstyles a la Carole Landis. The secret I have found is all in the hair rats! Check over at the main Quaintrelle Life site for more info and a how to, on finding rats in the craft stores and getting hair to new heights!

It's been a while since the last feature was added to the site, but now we are in our new home (well, domain) I'll be back to adding a new feature every month!

The article also features one of the new Petitie Trianon dresses newly up at Candy Violet for those seeking a bit of a fashion fix.

The chemise inspired dresses have been a favorite of mine for a few years now, I was really excited to be able to add them to the shops at last!