Ultimate Pin-Up - Vintage Hair & Fashion

03/09/2026

Day 3 of Secondhand September

Back in 2022-2023 I had my own vintage clothes shop and when I putting my business plan together to apply for a loan, I did research into the clothing and textile industry.
Every year, on average, over 300,000 tonnes of used clothes either end up in landfill or get incinerated in the UK alone.
This dumped clothing is estimated to be worth around £140 million in wearable items and contributes millions of tonnes of Co2

This research and seeing large amounts of clothing waste myself changed my shopping habits and my approach to clothing and materials to make it with.

02/09/2026

Day 2 of Secondhand September

Back in 2011, I got engaged and had to plan a wedding while unemployed and claiming Job seekers Allowance.
I didn't know where I was going to get a wedding dress from and one day I was walking and came across a local shop that sold secondhand and ex display wedding dresses.
It was holding a closing down sale and all items were heavily reduced, so I went in to have a look.
There were only 2 dresses left in my size. One I thought I could make alterations to and the other I didn't like the look of on the hanger. I was also adamant that I didn't want a veil.
Solo I ended up buying the dress on the hanger and a veil, after trying them both on and changing my mind!
The sales lady was able to reduce them further and I bought them both for £140 which was the exact amount I had left in my bank account.
I also knitted the rose bouquet to help save money as I couldn't afford fresh flowers

01/09/2026

Today is the 1st day of Secondhand September.
Second Hand September was launched in 2019 by the UK charity Oxfam to encourage people to stop buying new clothes for 30 days and raise awareness about the climate harm caused by fast fashion.
For the rest of the month I'll be sharing my outfits and makes from secondhand items and textiles to hopefully show that secondhand doesn't mean second best.
The shirt and trousers in the photo were bought from a charity shop and off Vinted

21/08/2026

Free knitting pattern for a 1940s dressing or bed jacket now available on on my website

You can also watch a YouTube Short about it here:
https://youtube.com/shorts/Vc59LevISkg?si=8zU3thHrlRgUlRbf

I've been wanting to knit this pattern ever since I saw those amazing bishop sleeves. I started in late January 2025 and after frogging it 3 times and leaving it in time out for nearly a month, I finally finished it in June 2025.It's another pattern I've sized up to fit my 43 inch bust. I feel it's....

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