Bobbins & Bombshells fingerless gloves review outfit & $40 store credit GIVEAWAY!

Outfit details

Cream felt beret: eBay
Small aged silver tone metal & clear rhinestone bow earrings: Unknown, had for years (possibly Claire's)
Black velvet hooded top: Jones New York
Black and cream hand crocheted fingerless gloves: c/o Bobbins & Bombshells
Cream faux leather cross body purse: eBay
Cream faux leather eyelet belt: eBay
Grey 1940s style wide legged trousers: Heyday
Black 1940s style oxford shoes: Thrifted (Salvation Army)
Lipstick colour: MAC Diva
Nail colour: Essie Wicked


Photography by Tony Cangiano

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Though February and early March have seen much more rain than snow around these parts, that doesn't mean that we've having roasty-toasty days by any means. Almost all have called for layers and, quite frequently, the wearing of gloves.

It's scarcely a state secret that I'm wild about gloves, but would you believe it, for all the pairs in my collection, I did not have a single example of knit fingerless gloves!

Not, that is, until very recently when my lovely friend Karen from the fantastic Etsy shop Bobbins & Bombshells (as well as the eponymously named Bobbins & Bombshells blog) contacted me to see if I'd be interested in receiving and reviewing a pair of her handmade crochet fingerless gloves.

Complimentary gloves? Yes, pretty please! :) Karen is a passionate crafters and vintage seller alike, with offerings in both camps to be had in her delightful Etsy shop, and I could tell just from the photos alone that her various styles of fingerless gloves were expertly made, so I was really keen to try them out.

Karen zipped them my way in an absolute flash and I have to say, they're even more charming and beautiful in person. I'd spoke with Karen beforehand about the fact that I'm allergic to lamb's wool (it usually gives me hives), but I needn't have worried, because a number of her knits are offered in alternative yarn materials, such as prima cotton.

These hand warmers are indeed very well made, and - if you'll forgive the rather obvious pun - they fit like a glove. The specific pair that opted for is called Lady Bows Crochet Fingerless Gloves in Ivory with Black Bows Pima Cotton and they retail for $40.00, which is quite reasonable considering that each pair is hand crocheted by Karen herself.

Generally speaking, I tend to associate fingerless gloves (often of the lace variety) with the Victorian era and, in more recent human history, goth fashions (both of which I love to no end), but that isn't to say that they can't easily be woven into a mid-century ensemble as well.

I gave a lot of thought to how to style these adorable cream and black crocheted hand warmers and kept coming back to the same general outfit concept in my head. I'd pull on two of my perpetual winter wardrobe staples (black and grey) to pick up the black in the gloves, then opt for cream hued accessories to compliment the cream wool that appears in them as well.

In the process of getting dressed, I tried a number of shirts on, but none did it for me quite like this fitted black velvet top from Jones New York. Usually I wouldn't tuck something bulky into high waisted pants (and can see said bulk in these photos, though that's really neither here nor there), but it simply didn't look the vintage part left untucked.

I wanted the focus to rightfully be on these stylish fingerless gloves from Bobbins & Bombshells, so I went with a casual look that I described to Tony on the day I wore it as being a bit like Marlene Dietrich meets (subtle) corp goth.

For the shoot itself, we selected a scenic vantage point near the small Southern Okanagan town of Osoyoos on a day when the wind chill brought the temps down below freezing at that altitude and gloves were definitely needed!

Part vintage, part goth, part lolita style, and entirely sweet looking, these hand crocheted gloves were an awesome item to work with in terms of styling - not to mention a comfortable way to keep the covered parts of my hands warm.

Karen's work is skilled, stylish and fun and I want to wholeheartedly thank her for bestowing these gloves on me.

Not only was she generous in that regard, but she has very kindly offered to partner with my blog this week for a fantastic giveaway. Read on for all the exciting details!



Giveaway details:

Enter below for your chance to win a $40.00 USD store credit from Bobbins & Bombshell's Etsy shop that you can use to put towards the purchase price of any item(s) available there at the time that you redeem your prize (as many of Karen's gloves are $40, so this prize value works out splendidly if you’re looking to pick up a pair).

This giveaway is open to participants worldwide and you can enter using as many of the following eleven Rafflecopter different options as you desire.

The only one that is required for entry is that you please leave a comment on this post letting me know what your favourite item is in Bobbin's & Bombshell's shop.

This giveaway will run from today's date (Wednesday March 9th) until Tuesday March 15, 2016, after which time I will draw the randomly selected winner and in turn contact that person to inform them of the good news.

I will then be in touch with Karen who will provide the winner with further details regarding how to claim their prize of a $40.00 USD Bobbins & Bombshells Etsy shop store credit.

If you have any questions about this giveaway, please zip me an email anytime.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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I love that I now have a pair of fingerless crochet gloves. There's something really exciting about styling them, especially when trying to do so in a vintage/vintage inspired outfit context.

As the last vestiges of winter are still lingering, I suspect I'll get to enjoy these beautiful hand warmer for at least a few more weeks and will certainly be donning them inside throughout the year, too, as they're perfect for those like myself who often have chilly hands.

Thank you again, Karen, for this marvelous collaboration, and many thanks to all of you as well for taking part in this giveaway. Best of luck to everyone!

How I store my vintage glove collection

Once long, long ago I started a wee little glove collection, and housed it neatly in vintage boxes such as this charming quilted gold number.





Over time however, further pairs of gloves came along (or, more accurately, I sought them out online and off, adding them to my stash with great bliss), and soon my wee collection - which wasn't really so wee any more - needed a new home.





For a while I tucked my gloves into a dresser drawer, but that didn't really seem to keep them together very neatly, and given how much the kitty loves to nestle into drawers if we leave them open, I quickly came to realize that a bureau claimed by a cat was not the best solution.

Next the gloves floated around various spots in my house, stored in small plastic (shoe) boxes, large handbags, and even a pretty pillow case.  All were ok, but I found the quickly locating the exact pair I was after in a flash proved tricky, and I'd often be left with plenty of re-organizing to do once the desired gloves had been obtained.

Then one day a light bulb (I like to think it was a pink bulb, pink being my favourite colour) went off and I suddenly knew just how to store my ever-expanding vintage glove collection. Sock boxes! Yes indeedy, those divided, neatly contained boxes that are sold with the intention of having socks, tights, or perhaps even undergarments stored in them would the perfect way to sort and house all of my gloves.

A few clicks of the mouse later, a couple of weeks to wait for my divided sock storage boxes to arrive, and presto, I could suddenly give each glove its own chamber and arrange my whole collection by colour (as I've touched on before, I rather adore sorting anything that can be sorted into a rainbow, into one).





Gloves are one of my absolute favourite items of clothing. I wear them frequently and have tried over the years to build up a collection that includes colours from all across the spectrum. Though there are still some shades I need, and there's always room for more than one pair in the same colour (especially with so many neat embellished pairs out there), by collection at present has completely filled up four of these twenty slot sock storage boxes.

There's the whites, ivories, creams, beiges, and white sheers.

The pinks, reds, oranges, yellows, and greens.

The blues, purples and (some of the) browns.

And the rest of the browns, the greys and the blacks.

Though not all divided cloth storage boxes like this have lids, these ones do, and when closed this is what they look like.





At the moment, I've had to double up (two gloves to one slot) in a few of the divided slots, so I clearly need to order another box or two. Though the first eBay seller I originally bought these boxes from is no longer selling them, after a bit of searching, I was able to find another seller who (at the time of writing) is carrying these exact boxes, too.

Like many people, I don't have an endless array of storage space by any means, which makes these boxes all the more perfect. Yes, at about 40cm x 10cm x 5cm, they do take up a little bit of room, but so long as the bottom one is housed on a flat, sturdy surface, I can stack all four on top of each other quite easily, which is what I'm doing at the moment in one of upstairs closets. I stack them from darkest to lightest, that way I always know which of the four boxes to grab when I'm looking for a certain pair of gloves.

If you have a budding (or already hefty sized) vintage glove collection but haven't yet found a way of storing them that really works for you, I highly recommend these divided sock containers. They're economical, very lightweight, and not terribly hard to find (you can source them, in different patterns, configurations, and sizes from eBay, various online storage product websites, some home decor shops, and sometimes even big box stores like Wal-Mart).

In last month's post about how to size vintage gloves, I promised to share how I store my vintage glove collection with all of you, and this fine (nippy!) Thursday in early November seemed like just the time to do so. If you don't feel this particular storage approach calling your name though, here are ten other possible glove storage ideas for you:


-(As I originally used) Vintage glove boxes (glove boxes have been a time honoured way of housing gloves for centuries)

-Hat boxes (vintage or new)

-Vintage luggage

-Sewing boxes and baskets (vintage or new)

-Decorative home decor boxes

-Plastic storage towers

-Dresser and vanity drawers

-Vintage stocking boxes (which, though usually smaller than these sock storage boxes, are often divided already, too)

-In the pockets of dresses, coats and other garments that aren't worn often (make sure that neither the gloves nor the garment you're storing them in is apt to bleed any colour onto the other)

-Sprinkled around one or more rooms in your house, on shelves, decorative trays, resting on a stack of books, etc (the aim is to utilize them as the beautiful pieces of art they are)


When storing vintage gloves, you want to treat them like you would any older, (fairly) delicate fabric. Keep them in a dry, clean environment away from critters, curious youngsters, unwanted creepy crawlies, moisture, excess humidity, and anything that could stand to stain or impart a strong unpleasant odour.

If you're housing a lot of gloves in a small space and not wearing them all that often, you may want to take them all out once every few months and hang or lay them someplace (dry) with a lot of ventilation so that they can breath for a day or two.

Check your gloves periodically for signs of wear (or worst, moth nibbles!), making repairs (if possible) when necessary, and gently hand washing any gloves that become soiled as soon as possible. I've had good luck hand washing mine in the bathroom sink, in cold water with a little bit of Woolite detergent, and then drying them with my set of vintage plastic glove dryers (which looks quite similar to this one that's for sale on etsy).

If your gloves should happen to become heavily soiled, you may want to take them to a professional drycleaner, who, ideally, will have experience with delicate fabrics and/or vintage clothing.

Collecting and wearing vintage gloves is truly a delight for me. I adore having a rainbow of these classic accessories at the ready when I get dressed and enjoy wearing my collection all through the year, no matter the season. I know that as time goes on my not-so-wee any more collection will continue to expand, and as it does more divided sock storage boxes like these cute floral print ones will be called into action.





And should you be wondering what happened to that lovely quilted gold vintage glove box that housed my first few pairs of gloves, it now works splendidly as an abode for some of my stretch and charm bracelets (clearly, whatever is put into is destined to touch my wrists!).

The Grand Elegance of Vintage White {Monday Muses, July 13}

As the energy-zapping, intensely powerful heat of summer weaves its way into our lives, I find myself thinking about the serenely delicate, cooling nature of the colour white.

In a way I think I’ve shied away from this ethereal hue over the years, due in large part to three reasons. One, I was told routinely growing up the white did not suit very fair skin such as my own; secondly, I’m a bit of a clean-freak and tend to find my mind dreading the thought of a white garment attracting every spec of dirt within a five mile radius; and thirdly, at some point in my life I came to think of white as looking best on waif-ish, leggy supermodel types, instead of petite, hour glass figured gals (like me).

While I have certainly owned white pieces (chiefly crisp button town shirts) over the years, it’s only been since this past spring that I’ve begun to incorporate more white into my wardrobe. A ruffle neck short sleeve blouse, a white with tiny black polka dots cotton long sleeve shirt, even a white with black floral print cardigan have all sprung up like svelte calla lilies in my closet.

I’ve learned that pale lasses can in fact wear white, it’s just a matter of finding the right white (one needs only to scope out the paint chip display to discover how many variants of this gentle hue exist), and pairing it with other pieces that work extremely well with your colouring (regardless of your skin tone, I think this approach applies when it comes to wearing white), and that white can (and does!) work well on all types of figures (in my case I tend to feel more comfortable sporting it on top, but am not opposed to a white skirt or pair of pants if they were perfectly tailored to my body shape). As for white acting like a dirt magnet, well, there’s little that can be done about that, other than vigilance and the carrying of purse-sized spot remover pen.

White has a timelessly appealing quality. It calls to mind snowflakes, wedding, sugar cubes, hotel towels, Victorian lace, marshmallows, fluffy kittens, frothy glasses of milk, and tall mountain peaks. Every home and wardrobe can benefit from a dose of white, which can act like a blank canvass or be the star of the show, all depending on what it’s partnered with (or without). Few colours evoke the tranquility and sense of purity and cleanliness that white can; it’s at once lively and subdued, warm and frosty, energetic and relaxed.

In an effort to feel as cool as possible as the high heat of July beats down on my AC-less apartment, I’ve taken to not only wearing white but seeking out images featuring this serene shade. White, sweet and inviting, angelic and iconic, is my Muse for this Monday. Flickr offered up a multitude of impossibly lovely vintage related photos featuring white pieces, which I couldn’t help but fashion into a mosaic and share with you all.


1. Vogue 1952, 2. Vintage Lace: white, 3. April 1953 - Vogue, 4. birdie and lace, 5. My new dressing table, 6. Best Bridal Shoes Ever., 7. 12_7, 8. 1954 LIFE, 9. Whispery White Petals, 10. Vogue 1953 - October, 11. Vintage Treasure, 12. the seafarer's bride, 13. British Vogue 1953 - Actress Jean Lodge. {Click on a link to see a larger version of a particular image and/or for photographer information}

Given their propensity to stain easily, white vintage pieces in good-to-excellent condition are sometimes harder to come by than those in other darker shades, yet a little sleuthing easily turns up a bounty of pleasingly pretty, summer appropriate white items in very good shape.






{I’m the first to admit I am not an expert in hat styles (though I hope to learn more about them in time!), so I’m not certain what the name of this style is, but I do know that that this chicly lovely white hat would look stunning with a myriad of vintage outfits. $68.00 (US) from etsy seller The Vintage Closet.}



{Described by its seller as being a vintage wedding handkerchief, this dainty, beautiful piece would look so elegant atop a table, as a scarf or snaked around pretty bottles and jars on a vanity. $12.oo (US) from etsy seller Zaama.}



{In fairly good shape for its age (it hails from the 1930s) this sweet little white blouse would look marvelous paired with a skirt, high-waisted trousers or shorts all through the summer months. $45.00 from etsy seller Dirty Canvas Closet.}



{Add a subtle hint of shimmer to your favourite looks all year round with this vintage white and silver floral brooch. $22.00 (US) from etsy seller Walker Street Vintage.}



{If a light, pretty frock is calling your name, you’re sure to serve up a lot of vintage "love" while sporting this tennis dress from the 1940s! $40.00 (US) from etsy seller Splendid Vintage.}



{I am awe-struck by the simple yet enchanting beauty of this creamy white hued vintage embroidered parasol. If I had a wee bit of mad money to spend, it would have been added to my cart in a heartbeat! If your pockets are deeper than mine, this incredible umbrella can be yours for $50.00 (US) from esty seller Deja Vu Vintage.}



{Every vintage fashionista needs at least one pair of short length white gloves in her accessory collection, why not make them an authentically old pair like this hand stitched one? $12.00 (US) from etsy seller Vintagous.}



{This stunningly lovely, classically tailored creamy white hued, 1940s, beaded frock is so striking it could even work as a wedding dress. $119.00 (US) from Mystique Vintage.}



{Pretty as a garden of lush blooms, this beaded floral print purse from the 1950s would be the perfect accessory for any summer outing. $58.00 (US) from etsy seller Encyclopedia Botanica.}



{While they do tend to show scuffs and dirt easily, white shoes have the added advantage of going extremely well with a wide array of outfits, and this comfortable looking pair of vintage size 8.5s peep-toe slingbacks from the 1950s would be no exception to that rule. $28.00 (US) from esty seller Mona Sue Vintage.}


Vintage white seems to take on a life of its own, fading a little over time and taking on a sort of ageless patina that speaks of the many days it’s survived in this world. Romantic, cheerful and definitely calming, white might not have the power to turn a scorching day into a snowy one, but it can put you in a serene mood and keep some of the heat at bay, if you opt don to this wonderful Muse of a shade.

Thoughts on vintage gloves

When you hear the word gloves, what’s the first thing that pops into your mind? Michael Jackson, OJ, perhaps Ralphie and his mitts on a string in the movie Christmas Story? Or is your vision of hand socks a little more gentile, more ballroom dancing and First Communion style than pop culture icon?

While gloves in some form or another have been in use since at least the time of the ancient Romans, they are little seen today when not being employed as a means of protecting or warming the hands – or as part of a very formal outfit such as a wedding or prom dress. Once though they were an important element of many people’s everyday wardrobe, a trend that continued well into the twenty first century, only declining as the over-all style of day-to-day clothing became more causal. (I’ve theorized – and my one of my elderly relatives concurs – that the wearing of gloves as common item of clothing went out of style only slightly before the everyday/commonplace wearing of hats did in the 1960s.)

When I think of gloves my mind first pushes aside thoughts of bone numbingly cold Canadian winters and then falls squarely on images of ridiculously elegant women from 30s through to the 50s. Whether grazing over the elbow as for evening wear or barely reaching the wrist, as many day-to-day styles did, gloves were one a staple item of most women’s wardrobes. They were often sold in lovely boxes and could be found at any department or ladies wear store in a myriad of styles, cuts, fabrics (lace, cotton, leather, satin, etc), and colours so that a woman could always match her gloves to her coat or outfit.



{Example of a beautiful pink satin lined vintage glove box. Photo from Vintage Memories.}

Perhaps it was fact that in Toronto we were hit with snow again in April or maybe it’s that these tough economic times have my mind thinking to Depression era styles, whatever the case maybe I’ve been giving some thought to gloves lately and the wonderful supporting role they once played in any well dressed woman’s outfit until a mere fifty or so years ago. Part of me wonders why the wearing of gloves everyday as an accessory to one’s outfit fell out of style and another understands that the relaxed and unrestrictive clothing of the 1960s and 70s are likely to blame.



{Vintage add featuring a stunningly lovely dressed woman (seriously, wouldn’t you just about die for that form fitting, flared skirt, double row of button adored dress?) wearing white wrist length gloves. Found on the dazzling and very inspirational pages of myvintagevogue’s Flickr stream.}

Whatever led to the abolishment of daily glove wearing, there’s no reason you can’t revive the trend now, if only for yourself. I’ll admit that at the moment I only have one pair of non-winter gloves, a black elbow length pair, and they’re not vintage or even retro. But I want to get more...many more. In dainty knit and supple suede, shimmery satin and crisp cotton. My plan, to keep my eyes firmly peeled on the second hand store and etsy front for excellent deals on vintage gloves (online vintage shops like Vintage Hatbox and Davenport & Co. are definitely also worth checking out). Who knows, maybe I’ll luck out and come across some gloves as lovely as these.



{A rainbow of amazing, softly hued Van Raalte brand gloves circa 1956. Image from Empress Jade’s vintage lingerie blog.}

What are your thoughts on the wearing of gloves in today’s world? Do you love or loath the idea of finishing off your favourite vintage outfits with them?