There is some snow on the ground right now, my decorations are up, and I'm playing Christmas music as I write this. But I have a few more weeks' worth of fall posts to catch up on before I get to winter projects, so it is still autumn on the blog!

A few weeks ago I wrote about my one and only true vintage suit, a gem among the very few true vintage pieces I own. Well, shortly after penning that post, my vintage suit collection more than tripled! One of the new additions is this lovely rayon suit I snagged during a Thanksgiving sale that a local antique boutique was having. 

It was funny…we had only a half hour to skim through the shop and it wasn't nearly enough time. I spotted this suit, quickly tried on the jacket, and saw it would fit me. I wanted to get one nice piece there, so since I didn't find anything else in the brief time I was frantically digging through the racks, I went ahead and purchased this suit without trying it on or looking at it farther.

When I got home,  I was pleased to find that the skirt fits me too – a pleasant surprise since a lot of suit skirts are too tight or short for me even if the jacket fits. The jacket was missing one button, but thankfully it also had matching buttons on the pockets, so I was able to use one of them to fill in the gap, and replaced the pocket buttons with coordinating ones from my stash. I think they ended up coordinating quite well!

Other than the missing button and one small spot on the lapel, it seems to be in flawless condition.

It's a lightweight, unlined, rayon suit – so I believe it's for warm weather wear. Also, the label says it is "sports wear". The fabric drapes beautifully, and the jacket has fabulous large, top stitched pockets, crisp notched collar, triple front darts, and huge shoulder pads.

Judging from the length and width of the skirt, I believe it is from the late 1940s – perhaps as late as 1950. I was super pleased with the fit and versatility. That simple brown/tan gingham could coordinate with multiple colors, though here I went with easy and basic, using the same color scheme.

I paired it with all vintage accessories (except for the undershirt), and got out one of my vintage umbrellas for fun since it was a good color scheme for the photo session. Also because they rarely get an outing otherwise – rain is rare in Idaho.

I had to try a 1940s model pose…

We made sure to get these photos before the first snowfall so it still looks season appropriate! 🙂

I love the slender, classy silhouette! I wore it to church that weekend, but added sweat guards first since I will have to dry clean this beauty and want to do that as little as possible.

I've mentioned before that, unless it is very inexpensive, I don't buy vintage things that I can make. But suits – especially with special features  - I am happy to purchase when I can. This one makes me very happy! And considering that it was such a hurried purchase (not usually recommended!), I consider myself pretty lucky.