Needlecraft - August 1938

 Another Home Arts Needlecraft magazine, this time from August 1938. The covers make me laugh, sometimes they seem a bit random, but always cute.

 Don't you love looking at the advertisements? I would love a tick tock alarm clock. Take note of the aprons the ladies are wearing in the sketches. Cute!

 This is the back cover. Aren't the dishes pretty? So typical of the era.

 A few summer dresses for the readers enjoyment. How about that housecoat?

 

And an apron! In a cute kitchen.

"A well ordered kitchen, well equipped and cheerful in color does much to cool the canning campaign."

 

"Cute" seems to be the word of the day, sorry!

The Mysteries of Plumbing-House Update

The last few weeks we have been working on the plumbing. We haven't started putting it back, just the tear out as it was in the way of the floor joist that needed to be fixed. Also, we have been trying to come up with a good bathroom arrangement. I am planning on going very vintage/classic with black and white tile and a sink that is very similar to the one above.

The bathroom is very *cozy*.I have seen walk in closets this big!!  It seems there is really no good way to put everything in without having to trip over something. I keep telling myself "If they could live with it in the 20s, I can live with it too!" I just wish there was one choice that stood out to make the choice easier..... We could of course enlarge it, but that would mean the already small bedroom on the left would be made smaller. And a lot of mess ripping out studs and plaster.

This is going to be one of those decisions I will either regret in a few months time or wonder why I was so worked up about it......

A random cool picture of the laundry hooks ups. I love the little spigots!

We always marvel at old plumbing. Ninety years of fixing and adjusting, it looks like a spider web! I think they had extra elbows that needed to be used.....

1940s Blue Summer Dress

In looking through my pictures today, trying to find something to post, I came across this dress. Isn't it so cheerful and summery? Perfect for today!

Now I know you all know I love vintage things, aprons and sewing, but did you know I like to dabble in sewing vintage dresses too? (I am sure you all are saying, yeah, this doesn't surprise me.)

 Aren't the details something? For being a casual summer dress it certainly packs the a lot of details! My favorites- the u-shaped neckline with gathers and the pockets that are cut in one with the skirt and gathered with a self fabric tie.

 Some of details get lost in the print of the fabric, but that is okay with me, the fabric is just too cute! The sleeves are white because I didn't have quite enough fabric.

The cute little pockets.....

And a better view of the sleeves.

Designing Woman

"Designing Woman" starring Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall has been on my wish list for a long time. I can't remember how I first ended up watching it, renting it from netflix, from the library or what, but it was an instant favorite! You don't often see Lauren Bacall in a comedy and in this one she out did herself! There is some fabulous costumes designed by Helen Rose (watch for the mink dress Lauren Bacall wears to the fights!), great character actors, a fashion show, a quirky black poodle who likes shoes and a fighter who is making a come back.

Bumpity Mittens

 Don't you love the name? Nothing describes the texture as well as bumpity! These were such a fun knit. It was a nice in between project after knitting Christmas gifts and before jumping back into knitting my sweater. I am not sure why, but the ultimate comfort knit to me is mittens....... A quick project with a little increasing and decreasing for interest.

 The stitch is really a lot simpler then it looks. Two rows of each color are worked in a rib pattern, slipping the non working yarn color. Which makes it a lot easier to knot then a traditional color pattern because you are only working with one color at a time. Don't you think a tone on tone color scheme would be pretty?

For more details visit my ravelry page.



I now have a list of people to knit mittens for as anyone who sees them wants a pair!

They are even Kerri approved!

 She steels mittens because she know we will chase her, thankfully she is not interested in chewing them up.

Finished- Flannel Robe

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year! I didn't mean to fall off the blogging map..... But you know how it goes, your schedule gets turned upside down, the mad rush to get ready for Christmas, then the mad rush to tidy up after Christmas and get ready for New Year's, add to that a bit of the flu and visits from friends and family. (Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get any work done on my house.) But I am back on track now and excited to share with you all my finished flannel robe! Do you remember my first post about it The New Winter Lounge Wear Look way back in August? Only took me four months to finish, guess I knew what I was doing starting it then!

I love my buttons! Surprisingly they get lost in the roses, but I still like them. They are covered with the contrasting/lining flannel. I worked the buttonholes by hand as I had to go through four layers of fabric and two layers of batting. The pattern was designed with the facing and front cut as one, with the facing just folded back when finished. I didn't think about all the layers until I got to the buttonholes......

 I think the robe is wearing my dress form! It is so thick it almost stands up by itself. Don't you think it looks very Partridge Family/ Doris Day? Which is exactly what I was going for!

The inside seams I decided to tack down by hand using a herringbone stitch to make it less bulky and to help with the fraying. I also used bias binding on outside edges, like the sleeves, collar and hem. There was no way I was going to be able to hem it traditionally!

And here I am lounging in my new robe! The sleeves ended up a wee bit shorter then I expected, but that is the only thing I would have changed.