New Finds!

This weekend we went to estate sales!! One of my favorite things to do. Not only do you get to go shopping, you get to tour a house as well! I saw so many lovely things that I wanted to bring home. But either I didn't have a place or purpose for them or they were out of my price range. :( I did find a few goodies though. A few books, a box of trim, garden tools, a glass pitcher.

Today I am sharing two of the books I bought. The first, a small cookbook copyright 1936, "Baker's Best Chocolate Recipes"

The pictures are so cute! Love the coffee pot.

Next is a book from 1947, "How to Make Paper Flowers and Party Decorations". It just looked intriguing. It tells how to make favors, flowers, centerpieces and decorate with crepe paper. Isn't that fascinating! That is certainly a lost art. The flowers are gorgeous!

How to deck a room in 5 minutes!

This reminds me of another book I have about parties. "Parties, for Special Days of the Year". Quite a cute little book with lots of ideas and games to play. Everything from a New Year's party to an Education party! Someday I will have to host one :)

Such cute little illustrations.

Vintage Dressers

This is another project that has been keeping me busy. My sister bought a new dresser and my Mom gave me one. And they BOTH needed painting! So out came the paint brushes and some new hardware, and we have two lovely pieces of furniture!

My sister Mandy, loves red white and blue, her bedroom is decorated in it. She mixed white paint and navy blue together for the pefect shade. It certainly had to be the perfect shade, that was all the blue we had!

The handles go so well and give the dresser a clean look! I think the dresser is from the 20s or 30s. It is very solid. The bit of scroll work on the bottom and little wheels on the legs are so cute. Mandy is working on finding a key to go in the locks, wouldn't that be neat?! So this is my little dresser. Probably from the 50s. It was painted a horrible mud brown when I got it. White is so much better! The blue knobs were from another dresser. I think they work very well. I am planning on putting this in my sewing room. A new home for my vintage pattern collection! And possibly thread, trim and fabric. All depends on how much room the patterns take up. I am so excited! I just have to do a major overhaul and spring clean!

My cute little knobs with blue flowers.

A Find from Holland

I found this bais tape with lace edging on etsy. http://www.etsy.com/shop/HollandFabricHouse

Mailed all the way from Holland! She has a lot of fun things. Very bright, colorful fabric and trims. It just arrived in the mail yesterday. To to cute!

I can't wait to sew an apron. I haven't decided what pattern yet. I am thinking 40s. As they loved ruffles and trim. I might make up my own pattern. Still thinking, but with this for inspiration, it shouldn't take long!

A close up. So you can see the tiny little Strawberries and Cherries! And the cute flowers! I almost didn't get the fruit one, I know! what was I thinking?!

Life has been rather busy lately. Tax season you know, and of course since I do really like doing taxes, I do them for the whole family! I was so hoping that I would have a bunch of aprons sewn by now. But I haven't had the time. They are still all cut out, waiting on my sewing table. I did sneak an hour or so of sewing in on Tuesday. I have a little half apron almost done! It was so rejuvinating to be able to sew! I am hoping next week I will get time!

Cinderella

I picked this up a couple of years ago at an estate sale. I love the colorfulness!

When Walt Disney came out with Cinderella in 1950, J. C. Penney gave this flyer out free. It looks like a magazine when it is folded up. As it opens up, you are treated to a show of color!

"It's Magic!.... how much you can sew! Take this apron design... You can make it as an everyday apron or as an apron accessory to lend the Cinderella touch to a dress-up costume!"

"...in sanforized silvermoon prints! ...in sanforized needle and thread broadcloth!

...in crisp printed waffle pique!"

"Eyelet edging! Rick Rack! Bright Patches!"

The inside opens to reveal the pattern. I can't wait to make one! I love the curved edge and how it ruffles. Too bad J.C. Penney doesn't sell fabric any more..... we could use another fabric store....

Vintage Ads

Aren't they cute! And just what we need, a bit of spring!

Miss K-Dee send me this link to a collection of vintage ads at Duke University http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess/ Here are a few of my favorites. I love how colorful they are.

Of course I had to post this one! An apron!

How to do the Outline Stitch

This is a 1940's illustration on how to do the outline stitch. Very simple really. (I just realized that I have been holding my thread down, not up, as in the picture! My stitches overlap the other way. It is still pretty, either way!)

For those of you who are still feelling a bit uncertain. Here are detailed instructions.

1. Working from left to right, with needle pointing right to left, pull needle up at starting point.

2. Take a small stitch along line you want to embroider, going down on right, coming up on left.

3. Take another small stitch about 1/8 of an inch away from the one just worked.

4. Repeat step #3.

I snapped a few quick pictures this morning, but they don't really illustrate the stitch very well. Maybe I will take a few more.

I love the wrong side of vintage embroidery, all so neat and tidy. I have noticed that they never hop around, but always cut their thread and start again. So, I have tried to do the same. It makes for a lot of knots, but it is tidy!

And here are apples and grapes for you to try! If anyone is interested in the whole collection, feel free to email me, I love to share!

Iron On Embroidery Transfers- The Modern Way

Lately I have been into embroidery. I found some vintage iron-on embroidery transfers at the antique store. They are really cute fruit! (In case you didn't know, I LOVE fruit!)

The problem? How to get the design on the dish towels with out using the transfers. I only had one copy of each and I wanted to be able to use them as many times as I wanted. I knew I couldn't trace them very accurately. I tried buying sheets of iron-on transfer paper from the fabric store, that you put in your printer. What I didn't realize is it was for ironing on pictures or letters. What ever you don't cut off gets ironed onto the fabric in a sheet of plastic! Not what I was looking for.

I finally found the most simple solution! It is so easy too!

First, I scanned in all the transfers. Then I found a plastic report cover, trimmed it to the size of a page, put a piece of paper in it for support and printed the fruit on it. As soon as it came out of the printer I placed it faced down on my dish towel, laid a book over it (I found a soft cover book works best) and pressed firmly.

WHA-LA! Fruit on dish towel! Isn't that simple?!

And the great thing! The report cover is re-usable. Just wipe off with tissue and hand sanitizer.

All ready to start embroidering my peaches and pears!

Strawberries, Apples, Plums and Grapes!

Tomorrow I will write about how to embroider and post a few transfers for you to use!!