neonfoxtongue

Score, part II! Vintage Needlecraft Book and Magazine

I must be on a roll!  Just last week, I discovered (and recovered) some vintage children's books that my mother-in-law was going to donate to a charity book sale.  And when I was back home for Mother's Day, my mom showed me the great craft books and magazines that my Oma (that's Grandma in German) had brought over to the house.  My mom is looking to do some needlework/embroidery on some lovely fabric she picked up in Lebanon so she kept one of the books.  I perused the remaining collection and took with me the two that interested me most.  The rest can stay at my parents until The Leopard and I have a place of our own.

I picked a book and a magazine; both of which have a needlecraft focus.  The Good Housekeeping magazine was particularly neat because it was published a few months before I was born! (Yep, I'm that old.)

 

Of course, not everything in the magazine is my style exactly...

 

Um...no.

But I liked quite a few projects:

It's not a great pic, but I love the hippo and the giraffe - so cute!

 

This is almost like something you'd find at Anthropologie these days.  The magazine also has some decent knitted sweater patterns that I will hopefully be able to figure out one day.

The book is called McCall's Big Book of Country Needlecrafts (published in 1983) and it features 150 projects!

 

Again, I can't say I'm keen on all the projects, but there are some really lovely ones.

 

I admit that I can be a bit picky about quilt patterns, but this one is really stunning.

 

There are lots of great cross stitch and embroidery patterns, like this chair seat cover.

  

 And one great feature is that most of the patterns are on grids so you could use them in a variety of mediums.  This pattern is actually for crochet, but I think it could be easily adapted for cross stitch.

I absolutely love this apple series!  It doesn't seem 'country' to me at all!

And this box makes me want to learn crewel.  Isn't it gorgeous?

In addition to the books, I also took a couple of older cross stitch and embroider projects that my mom had been storing for me, as well as some extra cloth and floss.  I'm looking forward to getting back into cross stitch and learning some real embroidery stitches (I usually make them up as I go along). These new (to me) resources should help with that.

Here's hoping my luck with crafty finds and inspiration doesn't run out! :)

nft sews: tote bag and corsage

Although I officially learned how to sew in a grade 8 home ec class, I was around sewing and sewing machines for my entire childhood because of my mom.  She learned how to sew when she was young and sewed a lot of her clothes (and mine) for years.  She even managed a fabric store when I was in university.  But I never really took to it.  Sewing machines actually frightened me more than the band saw in shop class.  It wasn't really until last year that I decided I really wanted to (re-)learn. 

Enter The Make Lounge.

I can't remember where/how I found out about it, but I'm sure glad I did!  It's such a great concept: sign-up for a one-day/evening course and make something to take home, with all instruction, materials and tools included in the price.  They'll even throw in a glass of wine while you work.  Brilliant!

My good friend J and I decided to sign up for a basic sewing project - a tote bag with flower corsage.  The instructor was great, we learned a lot and we had a lot of fun.  I'm much less afraid of the sewing machine now and I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy myself one when we move back to Canada.

Yes, it's wrinkled - that's because I've been using it!

I didn't realise until after the fact that I had chosen fabric by Amy Butler.  I totally love it.  I also totally love that Toronto has something very similar to The Make Lounge - The Workroom!  So exciting! I've already picked out about four courses that I want to take.  It would appear it's like mother, like daughter after all!