Why don’t they make these any more?
Posted: August 29, 2014 Filed under: Home and Garden, Sewing Project, Vintage tablecloths | Tags: Textile, vintage tablecloth, Wilendur Comments Off on Why don’t they make these any more?
The same towel in three colorways: dark red, bright green, and bright red. On top of my favorite turquoise Wilendur dogwood-blossom tablecloth!
Last weekend I picked up four vintage printed kitchen towels at a great antique shop in Ilion, New York.
It’s the colors that got me, of course!
The floral print is pretty.
This is half the towel. The other half has the same motif.
Though the long edges were raveled a bit, the towels didn’t show any wear or stains. They looked new, actually.
Then I looked closer at the raveled edges.
Yep, there’s more! Click here!
Simple embroidery? It’s just ducky for beginners.
Posted: August 16, 2014 Filed under: Craft, Sewing Project | Tags: Sewing, Textile, vintage embroidery 2 CommentsJaneray’s wonderful day-of-the-week dishtowels reminded me that I’ve got some darling vintage embroidery pieces in my stash that are bound for September’s Vintage Bazaar.
I think all of them are easy enough for even a beginning stitcher to enjoy making.
Like this sweet cotton towel with a little Dutch washerwoman. Isn’t her flowered skirt adorable?
Yep, there’s more! Click here!
Thinking like a [sane] quilter
Posted: June 1, 2014 Filed under: Craft, Sewing Project | Tags: Alice Brooks quilt pattern, applique birds quilt, feedsack prints, Quilting, quilts, Textile 2 CommentsMonths ago somebody handed me a bag full of quilt bits their grandmother or great-aunt had left them, because I like sewing and all, so maybe I could finish it and have a nice quilt. Why, thank you very much!
At home, I opened the bag and saw this.
Brown, red, green, and lavender-pink? Not my favorite color scheme.
And closed the bag and stuffed it away somewhere. Because, while that bit on top there is nicely done patchwork, it is flaming-’80s “country” colors in stiff fabrics that are heavy on the polyester.
First off, I don’t quilt. Yet.
But when I finally start, I don’t want to make something in colors that don’t appeal to me and in fabric that’s unpleasant to handle. There’s no way in tarnation I’d put that much work into polyester.
Well, that was then. I found the forgotten bag recently and decided to dump everything out and see how bad it really was. Turns out, there were just a few ugly pieces on top. Underneath . . . . . -See what I found!>
Spring cleaning in Easter-egg plaid
Posted: April 25, 2014 Filed under: Craft, Laundry, Sewing Project | Tags: Acme adjustable dress form, beginning sewing, mannequin, plaid, Sewing, spring cleaning, Textile, vintage apron 2 Comments
Apron is modeled by a vintage Acme adjustable dress form, size Junior. I haven’t been that size since I was eleven.
Some of these spring days are a little dreary. April showers, you know? But chores still have to be done.
This vintage (1960s? 1970s?) apron cheers me right up. Cinderella would have loved it.
It’s bluebird-approved! Here’s why.
Iron *this*, Jane-Ray!
Posted: April 23, 2014 Filed under: Craft, Home and Garden, Laundry, Vintage tablecloths | Tags: Quilting, Reliable longboard ironing table, sewing room, Textile, vintage fabric care, vintage tablecloth 4 Comments
NOT my actual iron. If I had a cloth-covered cord, I could plug in this 6-pound, dry-heat GE Wolverine Hi-Speed Calrod iron, mist all my linens with a shaker bottle, roll them up, wait half a day till they’re evenly damp . . . oh, forget it.
Well, Janeray, I can’t compete with the sheer amazing number of vintage tablecloths you’ve got. I started collecting them years later than you did, after all.
And I can’t compete with your brand-spankin’-new super-steamo iron, either.
But the ironing board?
Oh yeah. I got you beat on that one!
When I got married, I had a rickety 1980s ironing board and Bluesray had a super sturdy 1960s ironing board. We kept his and took mine to the thrift shop.
My poor 1960s aqua ironing board, relegated to the basement where the walls aren’t even painted!
His board was aqua!
Twenty-some years later, a couple of the welds on that ancient aqua board finally failed. I couldn’t bear to trash it, though, so it’s down in the basement now, patiently waiting to be repurposed as a display piece for shows.
And then I went out and found the ironing board of my vintage tablecloth dreams: the Reliable Longboard.
Sounds like a surfboard, right? It isn’t!
luray
janeray