Vintage Home Trimmings - Knitted Laces from 1950

 

A treasure-trove of laces to trim your towels, pillowcases, and babyclothes.  From Woman's Day magazine, May of 1950.  Two additional pages of instructions can be found on my Flickr page.

Kill Me Now

 The most obvious shortcoming of a cruise ship is that you have nowhere else to go.

It becomes even more obvious when the carol singers in the lounge get started on their fourth iteration of Felice Navidad.

Home Sewing - Applique Placemats from 1952

From Good Housekeeping, August 1952, a quartet of placemats to applique with fruits and leaves.  Left-click to enlarge.

Suffer The Little Children

 

Home Crafts - A Hot Dish Mat from 1940

 

Another nifty little article from Ruth Wyeth Spear's Home Decorating With Fabric and Thread, available to borrow online from the Open Library. Left-click to enlarge.

Yes, That Is What You Think It Is

 

A candy dish made from toilet floats. From the Popular Mechanics DIY Encyclopedia, volume III, published in 1955.

Aunt Martha's Workbasket, August 1937

A mixed bag this month - how to make rugs by knotting pieces of rag around and through two strands of heavy cord*, tips on trimming using ric-rac, a very PA Dutch-looking tulip applique quilt, a baby's bonnet in crochet, and three pages of patterns to send away for - cross-stitch tea cloths, wooden garden markers, and an embroidered hanging.  Full PDF can be downloaded from the Antique Pattern Library. 

*The same technique is illustrated/explained much more completely in the Popular Mechanics reprint The Girl Mechanic, if you're really interested.

Rugmaking - A "New Method" from 1921

left-click to enlarge

Found in yesterday's issue of Popular Mechanics, September 1921.  This homemade tool is of course a twin to the Singercraft rug making technique that was popular between the 1st and 2nd World Wars.

Sarah Bradberry (sorry, invoking her again) has a number of vintage Singercraft leaflets on her site if anyone is looking for more ideas on how to use this. 

(Note the helpful hint at lower right on how to convert old worn stockings into children's socks).

Embroidery - A "Colonial" Design in French Knots

This is from the Women's Home Companion, March 1922.  It was part of a larger all-over design for a bedspread to be carried out entirely in French knots.  

Crochet - An Embroidered Rug

Another project from the eBay grab-bag, this one a little rug to crochet of "very heavy Germantown yarn" and then embroider using the chart provided here. The date has been cut off and the magazine is not identified, but the rest of the clippings in the envelope were from the 20's and 30's, and from magazines such as the Woman's Home Companion.

The finished length is about thirty-one inches and the recommended colors for the embroidery are dark green, turquoise, light green, gold, peach, salmon rose, maroon, scarlet, and two shades of blue. If I had a dollhouse, I'd be awfully tempted to make this as a miniature in needlepoint.

Silk Handkerchiefs and Painted Tiles

I don't think anyone makes these kind of silk handkerchiefs today, unfortunately. Another selection from the eBay grab-bag purchase, from Woman's Home Companion and probably late 20's or (very) early 30's. The tiles and baskets could be ordered through the magazine. I like the pillow ideas. Left-click to enlarge, or go here to download.

A Cross-Stitch Rug

This pretty little pattern is from a bundle of vintage needlework clippings I won on eBay last year. There is no date, but the Chrysler advertisement on the back shows a distinctly early 20's hat.

The directions call for rug canvas and thick yarn, and a finished size of 28 x 45.5 inches. You could also try it on needlepoint canvas for a dollhouse. The diagram and color chart can be found on my Flickr account.

Sewing-An Applique Chair Cover

This clipping is one of a bundle I won on eBay, accumulated over a thirty year period by someone who loved needlework. "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" is on the back and from the typeface it is from the early 30's, and it appears to be from a syndicated newspaper column but I haven't been able to find anything about a quilting writer named "Winifred Avery". Left click to enlarge or go to my Flickr account for a larger image.

Bungalow Heaven

Please check out the gorgeous 1930's interiors at The Daily Bungalow. I want that green kitchen!

In the beginning

Several years ago the spousal unit left me in North Carolina to finish out my last tour on active duty, and traveled back to the windswept county where he was born and raised to enroll in a teacher certification program and find a place for us to live.

Since that time I have had women tell me that under no circumstances would they consider letting their husbands pick out a house, but I had no qualms. It was either trust in his judgment, or, just possibly, the scars left by several years’ residence in military housing that allowed me to treat the matter with complacency.

(there’s an old folk song advising young men to choose as their bride only a Texas girl, for “no matter what happens, she’s seen worse.” This is also true of anyone who has lived in quarters on a Marine base).

My faith in him was justified eight months later when we moved into a 1917 bungalow; spare, compact, graceful, with high ceilings and bright, airy rooms. It is the house I have dreamed of living in since I was eight years old. We are only the fourth owners, and the man we bought it from made us swear we would never paint the woodwork.

Custody of this small jewel brings a certain responsibility; for a long time the living-room windows remained uncurtained while I looked for a window treatment that wouldn’t block the view out of the large window that opened out over the porch, or hide the leaded glass in the two small windows on each side of the fireplace, or detract from the molding over all three.

(the view from over the porch isn’t really that spectacular as it is the boxy brick 1950s Catholic church across the street. It’s more the effect of the original glass, with all the ripples and small imperfections, that we wanted to preserve).

I considered a number of period sources including my 1928 copy of “The Modern Priscilla Home Decorating Book” before finally choosing something I found in a post-WWII magazine called “Smart Sewing.” Quite simply, it’s a lined valance that leaves most of the window open. I had already used this in another room and liked the effect but decided to skip the gathering and the trim shown on the original in favor of a plain rectangle.

I asked the SU to put up a double rod on each window, and the next project will be insulated glass curtains. These will be hung soon, as our bungalow is very well designed but very badly insulated. A few months from now when the north wind comes hurtling down from Canada like a thrown bayonet, that extra layer between the porch without and the room within will be very welcome.

If you like the look and want to try something similar, your valance should be one third the depth of your window, and twice as wide. I sewed a strip of two inch wide bias tape on the back for the rod pocket; the strip should be exactly as long as the curtain rod. You can print off a better copy of the instructions below at http://www.flickr.com/photos/14033721@N06/1798878477/