Vintage Happy Valley: Frilly crochet collars look very special

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Dame Toadstool

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Here’s another vintage crochet pattern advertisement for you from the Springville Herald. I’m glad I missed 1941 and its frilly, feminine neckwear. Then again, when I think about what’s making fashion news this season…. scroll down to what I’m talking about.

New collars are crocheted

New Collars Are Crocheted

A perky Pierrette collar, with cuffs to match, which you can crochet yourself in the twinkling of an eye. Frilly, feminine neckwear is making important fashion news this season, and this starched, lacy ruff in mercerized crochet cotton will make a simple, dark dress look very special. You can crochet it for less than fifty cents, and it will launder well and always retain its crisp, sparkling air. Directions for making the set may be obtained by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to the Needlework Department of this newspaper, specifying Design #2482.

Okay, now here’s what has happened to crochet fashion trends after 70 years.

crochet patchwork dress of high fashion

A 2012 fashion trend in Milan? Really?

[via Fabsugar Australia]

I am not sure which one is worse. As much as frilly frilly makes me get all itchy, this dress (?) makes me think that the designer had a love-hate relationship with her granny’s bottom-of-the-heap afghan.

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Vintage Happy Valley: Discontended

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Dame Toadstool

Vintage Happy Valley banner

vintage postcard with two little girls and caption: Discontented.

While my modern sensibilities may question the charm of such vintage postcard finds (another from Liz‘s collection), I find them intriguing. The captions are sometimes weird and don’t seem to fit… like trying to make sense of poor translations on knock-off product packaging.

This one makes sense, I guess. The girls don’t look overly pleased with whatever is off-camera. But under what circumstance would someone choose to send this adorable (I assume, for the time) card with the sentiment of “DISCONTENTED” as a caption? A wife who discovers that her husband is having an affair, perhaps, and who does not have any acceptable recourse other than passively laying this card on her husband’s pillow?

No, nothing as puritanically juicy as that. I flipped the card over and was just confused.

The back side of the post card with writing and vintage stamp intact

“Dear little Blanch, I soon will be home to ride you up and down. I am having a fine time. With love to all – Elizabeth Conyell”

It’s addressed to Miss Blanch Conyell—clearly a young sister or niece. Which makes the potentially scandalous phrase “I soon will be home to ride you up and down” far less scandalous. In 1914, our correspondent must not have associated that phrase with anything indecent, which isn’t too surprising.

But I really want to know what Elizabeth was thinking when she decided to send this “Discontented” postcard to her young relative. Aren’t people supposed to attribute some personal meaning to the postcards, greeting cards, etc. that they elect to send? Am I just over-thinking it? If you have an opinion on this one, I’d love to hear it.

Otherwise, have a wonderful Friday the 13th! Try not to be discontented. Or do, if that’s how you roll.

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Floozy Finds: A Famous Friend of Famousness

Posted on January 12, 2012 by TheCottonFloozy

Floozy Finds - The Cotton Floozy reveals Utah County craft culture

Today I checked my mail and was elated to find my copy of Utah Valley Magazine. I got busy doing something else (napping) and forgot all about it. When I woke up, I saw this:

Just because he's blonde, doesn't mean he doesn't know how to read highbrow literature.

Weasley was like, ‘bark bark arroooo!’ Which translates to, ‘Your super cool friend Jodie Holdman is on pages 52 and 53 right after the obligatory random Osmond family member spotlight!’ And I was like, bark aroooo BARK! Which translates to crazy in any language.

Here at Happy Valley Crafters you know Jodie as Jodie. Or the writer of Real Life with Vintage Jodie. OR if you are really good friends with her, you know her as Miss Sparkly Butt.

MISS SPARKLY BUTT

Unfortunately, the reason why she is in the magazine is not because of her amazing assness, or her famous house which has been featured on How I Met Your Mother and The Ellen Show. She and her Christmassy (see what I did there?) house have been on numerous news programs and even the critically acclaimed TLC show Invasion of The Christmas Lights 2!

No! Jodie was featured in the magazine because of her fantastic Etsy store Real Pretend Vintage. Browse it. You will love it. It is my go-to store for gift-buying.

She's a craftin'!

You can view the magazine better here. Remember! She’s on pages 52 and 53. Also, I think that magazine is indescribably Utah Countyish. Peruse it. You will thank me later if it doesn’t give you an eating disorder.

Way to go, Jodie!

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What am I DOING? Tablet weaving of course.

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Volatile Volscian

I only have two projects that I’m really working on right now. Sort of. I’ve made no progress on the sock since last time, so that’s all I’ll say about that.

Here’s some tablet weaving:

It's trim for doll clothes.

I have about 1 foot left on it. Made with thread that’s probably for tatting or hand quilting or something.

And remember how last week I said that I would be done with my coat forever?

I lied!

I was dissatisfied with the placement of the pockets, so I ripped them off and put them elsewhere, except that I didn’t try the coat on to see if I put them in a good place until I was halfway through sewing the second one on. And they were in a worse place than before. So I just stopped right there and safety pinned it down so it wouldn’t flap around, and one of these days I’ll fix it. No photo for that, because, meh.

But here’s a photo of how my back yard is coming along:

I haven’t done work on it recently, but as you can see, my dad’s started to build the retaining wall. My sister moved nearly 4 tons of gravel from the front yard to the back yard. Wheelbarrowing it up a hill.

Tonight I’ll have a look into my fabric stash and see what I can make with whatever piece is on top.

 

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Real Life with Vintage Jodie: Parenting a Crafter

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Vintage Jodie

Real Life with Vintage Jodie - by Real Pretend Vintage

My daughter, who just turned 8, is a very enthusiastic crafter.

Her hobbies include crochet, origami, knitting, sewing, drawing, cutting up random cardboard boxes, stealing my craft supplies and using anything else she can get her hands on to create a mess… the bigger the better.

my kids love crafting
Nothing is too precious, and she is not too proud to pluck things out of the trash in her own version of up-cycling. This of course is a great source of stress for me and my “germ-a-phobic” tendencies.

Her dream when she grows up includes some sort of amalgamation of being an Artist who works at PetSmart, and is also an Astronaut on the side. And somehow this lifestyle should include wearing a lot of pink ball gown type dresses. (As a parent, I am trying to kindly steer her away from the PetSmart career.) But you have to live your dreams, people. So who knows what she will end up doing.

In the meantime, she is going to turn my once organized home office into her personal studio. She is going to pester me for supplies, and she is going to spend all her hard earned quarters on craft supplies, and books. The point is that she is learning, she’s happy AND she’s entertaining her little brother in the process.

my daughter is amazing at all sorts of crafts!

 

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