Appliqué and Cut Out Doily

I found this rather interesting doily in a charity shop recently.  It measures 12 inches across, and has cut out sections between the brown edging and the flowers and leaves.  I have photographed it placed on top of a piece of plain calico.

The appliqué is stitched in place with a very fine blanket stitch

Some of the yellow fabric has a colour-graded weave.



Looking at the back, you can see how coarse the background material is.  Also, I was slightly surprised to find that all the stitching appears to have been done by machine.

I compared it with a tray cloth that I have because the yellow fabric used for the appliqué is so similar.  The stitching on the tray cloth is definitely done by hand, and so much finer than the stitching on the doily, but they certainly seem to date from the same epoch.

I have been debating how to use the doily.  Tempting as it is to stitch it to a background material and use it on a quilt or cushion, I think it would disintegrate too quickly.  Perhaps it would be better incorporated into a plate stand.  It might be time for a consultation with my husband about how best to make one.

An Interesting Box

Sometimes when flitting around charity shops you have to buy something instantly because you knew it was there waiting for you.  This fascinating wooden box, approximately four inches by five and a half, was paid for in a trice.  Probably it was originally a cigarette or cheroot box, but now it has bobbins in it.

The lid has a picture on it, embossed in metal, of a couple in their finery.  The candle and the huge bed suggests that it is their wedding night.  I would love to be able to identify the costume.  On checking one of my books, I found that the lady's outfit is very like the costume from Georgia, but I have had less luck with the man's outfit.  My knowledge of the Caucasus is very limited.

Inevitably, I started bouncing around the internet, and it was way past my bedtime when I ended up totally enthralled by these dancers:-

Now that is the sort of dancing I could cope with.  Low energy, gliding around looking superior, because you know you look totally and utterly fabulous.  I'm not so sure I could pull it off at my age, but my daughter could.

So can anyone tell me more?  Perhaps Galina will pop up in the comments box...

Linking up to Connie's blog Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday

A Bit of Haberdashery

Two interesting items that live inside my tin of bias binding, in amongst all the stuff that I actually use.

This glamorous lady wearing the New Look seems to be cocking a snook at post-war austerity, twirling her skirt and showing off her long gloves.

The binding inside is good enough to use, but I am not sure I will have any use for the colour, which is distinctly khaki.  Much as the label may claim that the colour is mustard, with "mustard" cunningly stamped over the word "England", this looks suspiciously like army surplus dressed up as fashion.  Alternatively, they might have meant French mustard, but I doubt it.

Far more luxurious is the 1920s binding, which is possibly silk, and disintegrating.  The picture on the label suggests that it might be suitable for trimming underwear, yet to me chocolate brown suggests sensible hats with cardigans and straight tweed skirts.. 

The All British Pin Box

This little box has just found its way from an antiques market to my sewing room.  No prizes for working out when they were made.

Inside, two brass screws and the full quarter pound of pins, a bit dull, some very slightly rusty, but after almost a hundred years, still seriously sharp enough to make one proud to be British. Not like those cheap and nasty blunt safety pins imported from C---a that a shop fobbed me off with a few months ago.

 

Free Motion Mavericks will be back on the 28th August.

If you had been intending to link up today or next week, you can take a well earnt rest, or just carry on quilting and show extra posts at the end of the month.   

Meanwhile, I shall be having a bit of a holiday.

Welcome to Iris Johnson, the latest follower - thank you for joining!

Batik from a Charity Shop

This lovely cotton batik was sitting in a charity shop waiting for me to buy it.  It is a couple of yards long, mostly printed with the design shown in the first picture...

... with two bands incorporating this narrow border...

... with this wider border set between them.

It is a sarong print.  Swanning around on hot beaches looking exotic really isn't my style, so there is no room in my wardrobe for a sarong.  Perhaps a dress, or a top and a skirt that I can wear separately.  Either way, making the best use of the border design might take some working out.

Parachute Silk

Last September I posted a picture of a 1940s lingerie pattern which included instructions for laying the pattern pieces on panels of parachute silk.  Since then I have come across a gem of a second hand book - all the 1960 editions of the company magazine of British Nylon Spinners. There is a fascinating article about parachutes, which includes the wartime reminiscences of six BNS men who had been paratroopers.

These photographs were taken during a visit by members of BNS to GQ Parachute Company at Woking.

I'm not taken in by the coy nudge nudge caption (oh how very 1960).  Tom Squire only has eyes for the sewing machine.

It was interesting finding out that from some time in 1941 parachutes were no longer made from silk but from nylon.  Perhaps from now on I should refer to nylon as parachute silk.  It sounds far more exotic.

Vintage Appliqué Napkins

Somehow this morning I was unavoidably sucked into a charity shop and ended up with these napkins.

The hems are less than a quarter of an inch wide are sewn with herringbone stitch.

The appliqué is on a minute scale.  The measurement from the tip of the leaf to the top of the flower is a fraction over two and a quarter inches.  This napkin is the prettiest of the four because the weave of the yellow is graded, giving a darker shade to the upper petals.  The lattice pattern in the centre of the flower is worked in tiny embroidery stitches.

The work and fabric is very similar to the appliqué on the tray cloths which I have, and again I am wondering whether a pre-cut kit was used.

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Art Deco Teapot

All I did was stroll past the Salvation Army shop while out shopping, and this teapot was sitting in the window screaming at me to come in and buy it.  How could I resist?

Whichever way you look at it, it is fascinating.  And there isn't a single chip or crack on it anywhere. Neither is there a manufacturer's mark on the underneath, which is a bit puzzling.  I am sure I have seen that lupin design somewhere before.

As if I really need an excuse to make another tea cosy... now I'm bursting to make one in a colour scheme to match this pot.

Another Charity Shop Find

This interesting length of fabric was bundled up in the corner of a charity shop.  Here it is slung over the clothes rack.  It is 58 inches wide and the pattern is huge.  The large flower is eight and a half inches across.  It has a beautiful silky flow to it, and my first thought was that it was a length of vintage rayon.  The pattern is on a scale that would be ideal on curtains in a large room, but this is definitely material for dressmaking or shawls.  It drapes beautifully.

I haven't washed or ironed it yet.  Fortunately the whole length was clean and unfaded, so I can live with the creases for the time being.

At first sight these are not my favourite colours, but the sheen and drape is so beautiful that the colours become quite fascinating.  The lime green in the leaves and buds really brings it to life.

The only use I can think for it would be to make shawls, but it almost seems a shame to cut into it.  

A 1905 Postcard

This photograph is on a postcard which I bought at an antiques market recently.  It still has the stamp on the back, with Edward VII on it, and the postmark is July 15th 1905.  The anonymous garden fence and the chair could just as easily be now, but the child!  How long was it before that beautiful fine white cotton dress and bonnet got grubby?

The more I look at this picture the more convinced I am that it is a little boy - there is something about the boisterousness, and the beefy fat face.  Also, I have seen shoes like that on Lindaroo's blog, and they had been worn by her father.

This picture now lives in my sewing room.  I enjoy having a cheerful little face looking at me.

A Packet of Antique Needles

...that I found in a box at an antiques market last week.  The manufacturer is Josef Zimmermann

and they were extremely proud of their gold medal won at Barcelona in 1888 (when my grandparents were aged 14, 4, minus 1 and minus 8).

The little paper packet is still intact and opens out.

On the tab it shows that they were manufactured in Aachen.

Inside there is a fold of paper...

enclosing a dozen only very slightly rusty but still very sharp round shanked needles.

Just the sort of thing that, had I been looking for them, I would never have found.  But there they were, so I snapped them up.

Charity Shop Finds

Yesterday I ended up in a charity shop and had a very productive rummage through a drawer full of fabric.  This lightweight cotton is at least three yards long.  I bought it thinking it would be a handy fabric for backing or joining strips on a quilt as you go project.  After I had washed it and was ironing it dry I realised that it would be ideal to try out a 1940s blouse.  The pound coin is in the picture for scale and also to show how much this piece of material cost me.

Also for a pound I got this vibrant African print with a narrow border.  It is in fact a skirt, but for some reason had been bundled up in the drawer with the fabrics.  Perhaps because it was so shapeless. After seeing how much dye came out of it it was plain that it had never been washed before.  It might take me a while to decide what to use this for.

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Home Journal 13th February 1937

This magazine jumped up at me in a second hand shop.  Original price 3d, and the newsagent had written the purchaser's name in the top right hand corner.  It is a precious little snapshot of life when the nation was anticipating the Coronation of George VI, due to take place on 12th May.  There was still time to embroider tray cloths and napkins for Coronation Day, so the book of iron-on patterns was given as a free gift.  And there was time to run up a new dress from the free pattern that was also included.

Wonder of wonders, all the patterns were still inside the magazine.  Mrs. Millard obviously didn't have time for all that sewing.  Do you think I should make that wonderful dress?

There is also another dress pattern inside marked October 1937, but I have no picture to go with it. Perhaps one day I will be very brave and make a mystery vintage dress.  Could be interesting.

Tuesday's Top Tip - The Ideal Use for a Wooden Pencil Case

This rather smart wooden pencil case was sitting in a charity shop waiting for me.

It now has a new lease of life as a bobbin box.

It is gradually being filled up with bobbins full of quilting thread in different colours.  Very handy. 

Tiny Tapestry

The big computer is home again, the quilt for Karen is in the post, and hiding in my sewing den was this lovely little tapestry which I found in a charity shop years ago.  It is framed behind glass, so I had a bit of a job trying to cut down the reflections when taking the photo.  It is absolutely tiny, only 4 inches by 3.

The detail and colour are wonderfully atmospheric.  The ruts on the track draw you into the scene, and the bright pink cherry blossom lets you know it is definitely springtime.  What always intrigues me is, where is it?  It doesn't look like England.  The houses are too white and low, and the roofs too high and steep.

There are no clues on the back, only the address of the framers.  I swear this isn't a picture of Cheshire.  Holland?  Denmark?

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Brass Darning Needle

It was in a box of bits from a car boot sale.

It is two and a quarter inches long, with plain stripes on one side, 

and crossed lines and dots on the other. 

Is it just a decorated darning needle, or did it have a particular use?  I would be delighted to find out.

Jumper, Stole and Bolero Knitting Pattern

I spent a happy half hour browsing the knitting patterns in a charity shop this morning.  I love the elegant summery atmosphere evoked in this one, and the fact that these models manage to look at ease in hand knitted items.

The knitting pattern itself took me back to my childhood, when wool came from Yorkshire in one ounce balls, and I expected to use face powder when I grew up.

My bro in law took one look at this pattern and took less than a millisecond to notice the Alfa Romeo in the background.  It's the leaf print skirt that really interests me.

Another Appliqué Tray Cloth

This tray cloth is even prettier than the one I showed last week.

The weave of golden yellow cotton used for the lower part of the large flower is graded in colour, giving the effect of light falling on the petals.

The little pink flowers are absolutely tiny, a touch less than three quarters of an inch across.

The two tray cloths came together, and looking at the quality of the stitching I am sure they were made by the same person.  She certainly didn't lack patience and skill.

Vintage Appliqué Tray Cloth

This beautiful little tray cloth has hand stitched appliqué on a tiny scale.  The pink flower measures just a fraction under two inches across.

There are about six miniscule blanket stitches to every quarter of an inch.

Browsing through my May 1937 copy of The Needlewoman, I found this interesting advert on page 3, under the rather racy picture of Mrs. Simpson.  Patterns were 2d at your local needlework shop, or send 3d in stamps and have them sent direct by Wm. Briggs and Co. of Manchester.

What I found particularly interesting is that they supplied the pattern "With the coloured organdie pieces already attached."

Somehow I think the lady who stitched the gorgeous little green tray cloth was skilled enough to cut her own pieces.  The stitches for the hems around the cloth are equally tiny.