In Timely Fashion--Past-Dresser~ Lynda Naranjo

"My husband loves my old fashions!!"

says Canadian lady, Mrs. Lynda Naranjo, whose first article for In Timely Fashion offers practical tips on achieving an Anne-inspired wardrobe.

Harking from a small town in southern Ontario, Lynda is the webmistress behind Among the Hedgerows, home of The Edwardian Lady, a quarterly webzine on creating a vintage-inspired wardrobe. Happily married, she is a full-time homemaker, who also runs a small home-based historical dressmaking business. She graduated from her local community college with a diploma in Interior Design in 1995.

When she first expressed a desire to make and wear vintage-styled clothing, it was her husband, Bobby, retired from the telecommunications field, who encouraged her to give it a try. "There are days when he still likes to see me in blue jeans," Lynda admits. But does Bobby ever don period garb, we wondered? "I made a Civil War era outfit for him to wear when we go to reenactments--once or twice a year-- and he doesn't mind getting dressed up then. On a daily basis, he likes track pants, but you never know! I might get him interested someday!"

The late Edwardian/early 1910s era is Lynda's favorite. "The clothes work so wonderfully today. I find the styles from this period very flattering and just feel good wearing them." Lynda is shown above, wearing her Edwardian apron from the Sense and Sensibility pattern over a La Cache dress. Here, she's seen below wearing her lovely, trained Regency gown, a lá Jane Austen! Lynda notes "I think the Regency dress looks a little richer in the photos than it actually is! It's sewn in brushed cotton and I wear it as a day dress."

"I've worn my vintage-styled clothing almost everywhere--to the grocery store, my husband's softball games, church, and out to dinner," Lynda says. "Around the house, I've done everything from housekeeping, cooking, baking to gardening. There are times when I will pull out my blue jeans, but I'm finding that I turn to them less and less as my vintage wardrobe grows."

Although she sews most of her clothes from patterns from Sense and Sensibility, Folkwear, and Past Patterns, Lynda will occasionally find a dress in a store like La Cache, which she'll snatch up immediately! "I'm constantly looking for shoes and clothes that have a vintage look to them." Wearing actual vintage pieces is not always a good idea since these are often fragile, and in need of careful handling. "I do have a couple of pieces of jewelry, a shawl, and a miser's purse that I've worn to Civil War reenactments, but I don't feel comfortable wearing original clothing that could be damaged by day-to-day wear." Just for fun, Lynda admits she'd love to own an original dress from the Edwardian era, either an evening gown, or a lingerie dress--wouldn't we all?!

Like most past-dressers, Lynda's wish list is a mile long. "Last week, I purchased the new Butterick 1914 skirt pattern #4092, and that's moved ahead of the walking skirt that I was planning to make first. The fabric is all ready to cut--I just need a spare hour or two! Also on my wish list is the 'Flying' dress from Titanic, a gingham Edwardian day dress (I love gingham for summer!), and I'd like to try my hand at making hats. Projects from this list get revised on an almost daily basis, though. Whenever I see a dress that I like in a movie or an old magazine , I make a sketch of it and file it away for future reference. And I'm still working on drafting a pattern from an Edwardian-era waist that I bought at an antique sale."

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