Creche Patterns Suitable for Stitching, I

Today’s post is from another of the vintage Christmas magazines I bought at that great thrift store in Watertown, New York.

The directions are to make these ornaments from the craft-weight aluminum foil, but I think they might actually be more nicely done as embroidery on felt or muslin.

Design by Margreet Akkerman.

[Taken from McCalls’s Christmas Make-It Ideas magazine, vol. VI, 1963]

Nativity Quilt Ornament

Design by Mary Ayres

The pattern was on a page with lots of other images, which I edited out. Therefore, the original instructions to enlarge to 200% is probably wrong, unless the intent is to make a wall hanging rather than an ornament.

[Project from Crafts ‘n Things magazine, December 2007; design by Mary Ayres]

Adoration of the Kings wall hanging

Adoration of the Kings by Antoinette Brinks

This is an attractive, kind of mid-century Christmas decoration that I found in one of my magazines.

A few years ago when we were in Watertown, New York visiting our son and his family, he and I went to a really great thrift store downtown. It was messy, dust was everywhere. However – not only did they have fantastic bargains, they even had a free table – right out on the sidewalk!

I was thrilled to find lots of old craft magazines from the 1950s and 60s for only .50 each. Today’s post was in one of them.

This was before – way before – photocopiers. When a pattern required enlarging, one was supposed to mark off a grid, then draw the pattern off box by box, using the original as a guide. Therefore, it was possible to increase it to any desirable size.

But it was work.

Now, we just slap something on our home copier (something almost unheard of even into the 80s) and set the size for enlargement.

(The instructions look kind of blurry until you click on them for enlargement.)

[This project is taken from the 1965 McCall’s Christmas Make-it Ideas, Vol. VIII magazine.]

Upcycled Tablet Case

“Goodwill kid’s shirt + bubble wrap + retired flexy plastic cutting board + duct tape, and a little sewing machine action…viola, custom case/sleeve for my tablet.”

Lance, my husband’s nephew, posted his project on Facebook, and with his permission, I share it with you.

Clever fellow.

Vintage Aprons with Instructions

This 1963 issue is one of several vintage Christmas magazines I bought for .50 each at a thrift shop in Watertown, New York. I had gone there with our older son; it was a really junky store and I probably wouldn’t have gone if I hadn’t been with him.

But I am so glad that I did! It was a real treasure trove and the prices were excellent. They even had a table of free books out on the sidewalk.

These are mostly Christmas aprons, but check out that Bongo Music Apron in the upper right corner. Just the thing for a cool, retro party.

(Click on photo to enlarge; resolution with improve if you then click again.)

Reading Material

As a quick look around our home will tell you, I love to read. Books, magazines, old letters, vintage catalogs (!), clipped articles, and yes, even cereal boxes. When I go to the antique mall or a garage sale, rarely do I buy anything that isn’t printed. Occasionally a pretty dish or a doll. Maybe a vintage article of clothing or old sewing supplies.

More often, my treasure sack contains various types of ephemera: old sewing patterns, a pattern catalog from the 1950s, a 16 Magazine from 1965, Needlecraft Magazine from 1932, a very well-worn elementary reader from the 1930s, a slim WWII volume: This is the Navy, a 1960 Montgomery Ward catalog, the little booklet/catalog that came with Barbie dolls in 1962, an old drama script, a handmade wedding album from the Depression, old high school and college yearbooks, cookbooks, paper dolls (!), school room ephemera (the seasonal cardboard cut-outs that teachers used to decorate their door with). Let’s pause and take a breath. (And yes, I know I ended that sentence with a preposition. It just didn’t sound right when I used “with which”.)

I just love the printed word.

However, not all printed words.

A few weeks ago Joe and I went to the Grapevine Public Library to see what offerings were in the Friends of the Library nook. These are items which have been donated to them, which they can’t keep and they will let you take them home for a donation to their funds.

One of the employees was re-stocking the shelves and I asked her if they had any donations which were too tattered to put out and that would go straight to the paper recycler. I explained that I like to do paper crafts and find it very difficult to tear up a book to use for projects (and I can never alter one that I liked). I explained the caveat that the books cannot be prurient, even for crafting. Can you just imagine a collaged piece from a Harold Robbins book?! Yikes!

(As a Fawlty Towers fan, I first typed Harold Robinson, then caught myself and corrected it. I think the Waldorf Salad episode was my favorite one.)

Anyway, she said that they had just received a large donation (I’m guessing several hundred books), most of which wouldn’t sell and that I could go into the office and look at them and see if there was anything I liked.

She showed me the Jalna series of books by Mazo de la Roche. The Jalna books were a popular series, the first of which was written in 1927. The lady told me that they would not sell.

Also there was the World War II collection by Winston Churchill, missing one volume.

On and on it went. I ended up with 41 books in my stack, knowing that only a few would end up as craft material. One slightly unpleasant aspect of all of it was the pricing. These were books without a price tag. Buyers are expected to come up with what they think is reasonable and fair. My general rule of thumb is a garage sale price. Magazines are a dime, children’s books and paperbacks a quarter and hardbacks .50 unless in very bad condition. But she wasn’t happy with my offer of $20.00.

Now, before you hit that comment link about how greedy I was, take a deep breath and remember that she considered all of these books unsaleable. They would get nothing for them when sent to the pulp mill. My choices were 39 hardbacks and 2 paperbacks (39 x .50 = $19.50 + .25 +.25 +$20.00). So, I offered her $25.00 and she accepted.

My plans are to read the Jalna series this summer, then perhaps start on the Churchill books this fall (they are huge – over 700 pages each; the usual goal of 1 book per week will collapse with those).

Many of the others are simply old novels. Maybe I’ll read them and then be willing to tear out the pages. But maybe not.

Three of them were old looking and when I read the titles I thought, “Surely I won’t mind tearing these up.”

Then we got them home and I really looked at them (I didn’t spend the time to look them over carefully while at the library).

One of belongs in a genealogy department because it’s an 1886 list of Illinois Civil War veterans, which includes their dates of service and promotions. Scratch this one from the scrap heap.

The next one is an 1898 volume called “The Lives of the Saints”. Even though we aren’t Catholic, a saint is a saint and my husband is particularly interested in St. Theresa of Avila, who is chapter one. Scratch this one from the scrap heap.

The last really old looking one was called the Illinois Blue Book, 1933-34. It was a state government book published in 1933. Alright! Here was one that I could use! A lot of cool looking photos of state officials and lists of government projects … and then right in the center is this gorgeous section of photos and drawings of the “Century of Progress Exposition 1833 – 1933, Held at Chicago, May 27 to Nov. 12, 1933”.

Argggghhhh!

And ebay? Ebay?? Someone save me from ebay. (However, I just got the bid on the most fantastic bundle of 1965 and 1967 Seventeen magazines. I’ll share the photos with you later.)

*Updated May 26, 2013

1932 Fashions

Patterns one could order from the 1932 Needlecraft magazine, February issue.

All patterns were 15 cents.

The Latest Fashion Book could be ordered for 10 cents, postpaid.

I’m not an accomplished seamstress (to say the least) but to me, these don’t look easy to sew.

My mother was not only accomplished at sewing, she learned the hard way.

She was 18 years old in 1932 and her parents bought her 2 new dresses each year. She sewed the rest of her wardrobe and told me that she also sewed her mother’s dresses.

This was done on a treadle sewing machine since she never lived in a house with electricity (or running water) until she moved away from home in 1937. In fact, all those clothes were scrubbed on a washboard with water drawn from the cistern, then heated (usually in an iron pot over an outdoor fire). The clothes were then hung out to dry and pressed with an iron which had been heated on the wood stove.

A far cry from our modern wash and wear cheap clothes. Clothing was a real investment in time and effort. The fabric was thicker and substantially made. It wore well and long.

Some of the clothing above in the pictures from the magazine remind me of the suit that Claudette Colbert wore on her journey with Clark Gable in “It Happened One Night”. Very nice outfit. Tasteful and practical for traveling.

(In fact, up until about 1970, there were clothes that were designed especially for traveling.)

I heartily encourage you to watch Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night”, (1934).

It won 5 Oscars:

Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Writing, Adaptation

It is an absolute joy to watch.

Highly recommended.

Books Read in October, 2009

Previous Review Timeless Treasures by Emilie Barnes

Dancing with Rose by Lauren Kessler

After her mother died of Alzheimer’s, Lauren Kessler took her guilt (years of ignoring her mother) and her journalism and went to work in an Alzheimer’s facility as an aide. Her goal was to learn more about the disease and get first hand experience with patients, then write about it. The resulting book is fascinating and easily readable, but troubling. Troubling not simply because it’s a tough subject and was a very tough job (she has my admiration for being willing to tackle the unpleasant physical labor).

Whether intentionally or not, she comes across as a voice of authority on approach to the disease, family vs. caregivers and the personality changes. Kessler stops just short of saying that who these people have become is really who they always were. She seems to catch before herself saying that these are people in their purest form, without all the restrictions that we put on ourselves to live in society. To me this is a ridiculous, silly and empty-headed view of Alzheimer’s. It is obviously a left-over philosophy from her hippie days. In fact, she says that she and her husband joke about nursing homes of the future: hash brownies and Black Sabbath music.

Which brings me to my biggest complaint about this book: the hidden buddhism. She doesn’t openly name her philosophy until nearly the end of the book, which I consider a cheat. Early in the book, and even without knowing her religion, I saw a pattern developing that bothered me. A more honest approach would’ve been to state it up front.

This was the second book on Alzheimer’s that I checked out from the Grapevine Library that took a buddhist approach to the disease and caregiving. The first book I didn’t even bother to read. If she had been more forthcoming , I wouldn’t have wasted my time on this one, either.

Because the other reason I resent her and her book, is that I wrongly took to heart something she said about a family member who was calling on the phone to talk to their parent. She wrote that she believed that they did it more for themselves than for the patient and that the patient would’ve been better off if they hadn’t called. I don’t know if she meant this as a general rule for everyone, but I took it to heart. We live in another state and can only get up to see my mother about every 3 weeks, so I call her on the phone in between times. With only one exception, she seems to enjoy the calls. But there was once when she was agitated and I thought maybe Kessler was right and I shouldn’t call; that it was making Mama unhappier. So, for several days I didn’t. Then I decided to call and talk to the nursing staff and get their opinion because they deal with her afterwards. I asked if she seemed worse after the phone conversations, more unsettled. Each one of them said that she enjoyed them and they considered that it was better for my mother if I did call. Then I felt like a lousy daughter for having taken Kessler’s advice. I don’t even know if she meant it generally, but that’s how I took it. She sure seems to think she’s one of the experts after her experiences.

Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther Previous review of book and movie. Related post.

A Spoonful of Poison

A Spoonful of Poison, by M.C. Beaton

Published in 2008, this is the 19th Agatha Raisin mystery by M.C. Beaton. Publisher’s Weekly referred to it as ‘saucy’, which I found perplexing. Surely I’m not more liberal than Publisher’s Weekly! Obviously that’s not so, therefore I really don’t know what they meant. There’s no hard language, descriptive sex or gruesome details.

Cozy mysteries are my favorites and I certainly think that M.C. Beaton is probably the best at this genre, after Agatha Christie. Of course, Christie was the best by far, but both the Agatha Raisin and the Hamish MacBeth stories and light, diverting and easy reads. One of the things I appreciate most about her books is the unexpected humor.

Sooner Cinema – Oklahoma Goes to the Movies, Edited by Larry A. Van Meter

Being a native Oklahoman and a movie buff, I was very interested in reading this book. Van Meter is the editor, rather than the author, because the book is a compilation of 19 chapters by different writers, each focusing on either a film which was set in Oklahoma, or someone who was a native (i.e. Woody Guthrie, Bound for Glory).

To be expected some of the chapters are better than others, but one that I found absolutely outrageous was the one by David Charlson called “Oklahoma Values in One Hour or Less: Gary Rhodes’ Banned in Oklahoma and Bradley Beesley’s Okie Noodling” .

Charlson is an instructor in English and Documentary Film at Oklahoma City Community College, which is really a shame. He is not a native and has nothing but disdain for the conservative atmosphere in the state. He is appalled that John McCain carried every single county in Oklahoma in the 2008 election (the only state in which this was true). He punishes conservative students who won’t watch one of his assigned films by giving them another choice: gruesomeness instead of child pornography.

Other chapters are about Cimmarron, True Grit, Silkwood,The Outsiders, Far and Away, Oklahoma Crude and The Grapes of Wrath, among others. The rest of the book is interesting, but Charlson’s chapter is so snide and irksome, it was a waste of time and money.

Handmade Home – Simple Ways to Repurpose Old Materials into New Family Treasures by Amanda Blake Soule

Speaking of a waste of money brings me to Amanda Soule’s book. I bought this one while traveling home from Oklahoma and we stopped at a book store to stretch our legs. I should’ve known better than to stretch them in a book store because books are my biggest weakness. I usually buy used ones. Rarely do I pay full price and I have kicked myself repeatedly for doing it this time.

It is craft book, a sewing book, which is what I wanted. What I did not want was a new age/green/hippie book. But that’s what I got.

In the store, I briefly looked at the introduction (she talks about the family history of practicality, which I appreciate) and some of the projects like pot holders, wall pockets, and computer mouse pads. What I didn’t see until I got home was the publisher’s leaflet advertising their zen/new age books on family. Had I seen this, it would’ve been the Red Warning Flag: Carla, you will hate this book. And I do. I don’t even like the smell of it. They probably used strange ink.

Sewing books should be just that. I’m not interested in her personal beliefs. I don’t believe that I should have to carefully look through a SEWING book to see if I’m going to be offended. As I was for the “Women’s Cloth”. Gross. Just plain gross. Besides which Soule doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She wrongly opines “Disposable menstrual pads have become the norm only in the past 30 years or so …” (emphasis mine). I am almost 50 years old and disposables have been the norm and around a lot longer than me. How do I know? Because one of the things I collect is old magazines. Frankly I was surprised that these products and some of the ones I considered more modern were available as far back as they were.

So, there were happy experiences with books in October, and some which set my teeth on edge. And I didn’t even list the ones I started and gave up on.

My November reading is off to a good start. Kind of gets some of the bad taste out of my mouth.

Two Acts of Generosity

Scarves by Fran

My very generous sister knitted these 2 pink scarves for us to give to the daughters of one of my husband’s co-workers.

They are a lovely family.  Came here from China about 15 years ago.  Had never even heard of Jesus, then an apartment neighbor shared the gospel and the whole family became Christians.  Solid, dedicated Christians.  This summer we were all at a company function and were delighted to get to know them better.

And since my sister is like a knitting machine (does she even knit in her sleep?), scarves, purses, shawls, prayer shawls, sweaters, etc. , I asked if she would make me one for the little girl and she surprised me with one for the older sister as well.  I don’t know if the photo shows it, but they are very soft.

Then yesterday, after lunch and the park with our son and grandsons, Joe said we were going to get a new hard drive for our computer.  The lament around here is that we’re out of space. They were  on sale and he got the last one in stock – in fact it was a return – at a good price.  I won’t show a photo of the hard drive because I (unlike all the men in our family) think the inner workings of a computer are boring and unattractive.

So, lovely things from lovely people.  Thanks to both of them.