A post-holiday holiday party post

This weekend was the annual holiday party for the company my boyfriend works for. It's always towards the end of January, which is nice to look forward to after the hustle and bustle of the holiday season has passed. I can't take credit for creating (sewing) the outfit I wore to the party, but thought I'd share anyway.

The dress ...with pockets!

The coat...with fur collar!

I'm still working on finding appropriate places in my apartment for taking photos that are well lit. Anyway, the dress is from modcloth and the wool coat with fur collar is a vintage (early 1960s?) find that I discovered (for 30 bucks!) at an antique expo...thing... a few months ago.

Look at all that lace!

I bought the dress with this event, and future fancy events, in mind and I'm so glad I did. I love the vintage-inspired feel of it. It was a bit of a splurge, but it is now my go-to fancy LBD. I am obsessed with the scalloped lace edge on the neckline and sleeves. Maybe one day I'll have the skills/courage to sew with lace. I would love to make something (anything!) with a lace overlay.
But, back to the coat! I've not had a nice enough occasion to wear this yet, so I was really happy to be able to wear it for this event. There was a coat check, so I didn't have to worry about anything happening to it after taking it off at the party.

Closeup of collar.

It has a silky satin-like lining that continues through the sleeves, which feels really luxurious when you wear it. As you can kind of see in the picture below, the bound buttonholes could use some reinforcement stitches as they're coming undone a little bit. Also, the tag says "Junior Lustrosa," (so glamorous sounding!) which I'm assuming has something to do with this being a juniors' coat in terms of sizing/style. One thing I love about the coat, other than the adorable fur (for some reason I want to say rabbit?) collar, is the 3/4 length sleeves -- so sixties! Unfortunately, I didn't have long gloves to wear with it, but I survived. :) Maybe by the next occasion I get to wear it, I'll have the proper gloves.

"Junior Lustrosa" tag and bound buttonhole in need of some love.

For this party, I also had the opportunity to bust out this little vintage hand bag I've had for a while but also haven't had an excuse to use yet. I picked it up at the cutest little antique store in Kensington, MD. It has the same grossgrain feel to the fabric as the skirt of the dress I wore, so it was basically a perfect match!

Little vintage purse I finally got to use.

It's lined with gold-ish cream colored satiny stuff and is in great condition -- no tears in the lining or discoloration. It has a cute little coin purse hanging from one side of the frame, with the logo "J.R." and "made in USA." I have no idea what decade this little baby is from, but I love her.

 Silky lining and a little coin purse inside.

I was also able to finish up the hem on my polka dotted Peony dress (finally), making it officially wearable. I plan to tackle some mending projects for the rest of the day and, who knows, maybe I'll even start a new project?