VTT 19 - Anne of Green Gables

This week I started a new book. I needed something more entertaining after Trask's Language.  Pip is hosting a book club, and their new book is Anne of Green Gables. I have seen the TV series a couple of times, and read the books when I was young and when I wasn't any more. This book is from my mother's bookshelf:

She apparently had it for her name day present when she was eight years old, a great age to get a book about an 11-year-old girl. Have you read L.M. Montgomery's books about Anne Shirley's life on Prince Edward Island? It is enjoyable reading for girls of any age.

I'm reading this in Finnish and enjoying the old-fashioned translation. They even "translated" her name: Ann was Anni and Anne with an e became Anna. The paper is yellowed, and the book has the lovely smell of an old book.

Suzanne is hosting Vintage Thingie Thursday. She has a long and lovely list of links to other vintage thingies. Thank you for coming by!

VTT 18 - Monograms

Two weeks ago in my VTT post I showed you a collection of marking thread , because there was some talk about it in Miri's VTT post. Today you  will see some of my linens with monograms stitched with these threads. Suzanne is hosting VTT here.

     

Here are my kitchen towels with different monograms. Actually, the one in the top left corner is for my face, it just happened to be with these other towels. The next towels I made by hand because I didn't have a sewing machine at the time, and used red marking thread and chain stitches. We had the towel fabric as a wedding gift. The ones in the bottom row are from my grandmother and from my mother.

Grandmother's towel is used for glasses, because the fabric is lint-free and thus perfect for drying up glasses. Cross stitches in red marking thread.

Here is a pillowcase with her initials, white marking thread on white linen. The pillowcase has two pairs of tape at the open end, tied together to keep the pillow in place. When I was very little, I sometimes was allowed to curl the tapes with a pair of pliers by turning a wing nut at the end of one of the grooved cylinders in them.

Different monogram on a face towel from Grandmother.

Striped linen towels, good as new, made by my mother before she was married to my father. I believe she has never used any of these  kitchen towels, and neither have I. They feel stiff and don't dry very well, just because they have not been used and washed. Red cross stitches in red marking thread again.

These were my initials when I was a schoolgirl and made one towel like this at school. My mother bought some more of the same fabric so I could make the first half a dozen towels for my "hope chest". I only have four of them, two have been used threadbare. Cross stitches in embroidery floss this time.

When I was leaving home to live on my own, my mother made me 12 of these towels and marked them in light blue marking thread.

When I was engaged to Mr. K, mother made the rest of my hope chest linens: pillowcases and bed sheet with lace crocheted by my late grandmother at a time when I was just about 10 years old. She crocheted lace inserts for all 6 of us, for half a dozen sheets. Here are my old initials for the last time.

These are my favourite towels, only used about once a year just to kep them from yellowing:

Great Auntie Saima's monogram in red and white marking thread. This was before she was married, so it must have been in the 1930's or earlier.

Grandmother's big dinner tablecloth of linen damask, big monogram in red and white.

  

Finally the oldest monogram, my great-grandmother Amanda's little tray topper.

  

I hope you enjoyed the peek in my linen closet (with some re-runs from earlier VTT posts). Other kinds of vintage thingies you will find on the list of links at Suzanne's blog here.

VTT 17 - Vintage swap and marking cotton

I almost can't remember when I participated in Vintage Thingie Thursday the last time. I have been visiting VTT blogs but just didn't have the time or the photos for a blog post of my own. Now I want to show you something nice I have received from a VTT friend. Some time ago Collette admired my old stitching patterns, and I sent her some translated copies of them. This week I had all this in my mail:

Have a closer look at the little napkins first:

Here is the folder for the iron-on transfers:

and the pattern sheet looks like this:

I love the clover pattern and will use it some day for a table runner or cushion cover. Thank you, Collette! Isn't it great that you can find new friends across the world just because you follow the same blog? Thank you Suzanne for hosting VTT!

Another new friend, Miri, is showing quilt patterns today on her VTT post, and marking cotton is mentioned in her book. I just happen to have a collection, nicely stored in a candle box by my mother. You can see in the photo (click to enlarge) it is thick cotton thread, not perlé like perlé thread but the same thickness, and can't be separated like embroidery floss:

 

I think this thread was hardly used for anything else but marking the monograms on towels, table cloths and bed linen.  Maybe whitework, I remember having an UFO . That is where my white thread is!

 

This was all from me this week, there is a list of links to other VTT posts on Coloradolady's blog.

VTT 16 - Summer Fashion

This magazine of Handicrafts and dresses is dated June 15th, 1921. Let's see if there are any good ideas for our summer wardrobe.

 

This is a full view of the patterns in the magazine.

Aprons for the big and small.

Summer dresses and coats.

I think they look so modern in the drawings, and look how the little girl is running in her new checkered dress.

Perhaps you should crochet a lace for a chemisette or a summer nightgown? The modern girl would use the lace for a top for clubbing.

Summer walking coats and a travel coat, with hats, naturally. We want to protect our lovely dresses from dust and rain. You can click all pictures to enlarge.

Lignerie for big and small girls.

Summer hats. The little girl on the right top corner (sewing instructions for her hat below her picture) makes me think of Milly-Molly-Mandy.

I hope you enjoyed the fashion review. For more vintage loveliness, visit all the blogs on Coloradolady's link list here.

VTT 15 - Hoe

This week's vintage thingie is something quite different. It is a tool DH uses a lot in Summer, when there is so much digging and gardening to do. This week he made me a raised vegetable bed, and used this hoe to dig compost soil for it.

The hoe could be seen as a symbol of our family, as the blade is from DH's mother. The handle was broken, so she had a new hoe for her garden. My father made the new handle from a piece of  wood with a natural curve, and my DH combined these two in the first year of our marriage, in the early 1980's. The blade is much older.

Every autumn he cleans the hoe with brush and water and greases the blade to protect it from rust.

The handle is smooth as silk by the hands of the two most important men in my life: my late father, who cut it, and my dear husband, who has used it so much.

I'm growing radishes, peas, lettuce and chive, and calendula flowers. Nothing yet to bee seen above ground!

Coloradolady Suzanne is hosting VTT again, and her list of links is long and interesting.  Be sure to visit everyone.

         

Thank you for coming by! Happy VTT!

VTT 14 - Knitted baby dress

Happy Vintage Thingies Thursday everyone! This week I was inspired by Melanie, who used a vintage pattern for a baby outfit she knitted as a gift. Those pictures are at the end of her post. Seeing her knittings made me remember something my mother knitted for my daughter 26 years ago. I keep it in this box.

You may say 26 years is not very vintage yet. This outfit was not originally meant for my daughter, but for me or one of my sisters, which adds three or four decades to the age. A busy mother doesn't always have the time to finish a baby garment before the baby in question has outgrown it.

Luckily there is the next generation! The sleeveless dress, tiny cardigan and knee socks are all in perfect condition. There is a ball of the original yarn for repairs. The socks are knitted in a different shade of pink, but even that yarn is old. I know mother knitted those for my daughter, but the other parts were UFO's from another era. The buttons on both shoulders of the dress and on the cardigan are genuine mother-of-pearl.

I packed this treasure back in the box and try to remember where I put it, so the dress can be worn again if there some day will be a new generation of girls in my family.

Suzanne is hosting VTT on the Coloradolady blog. She has the sweetest post about a dress as well! Continue your tour to the blogs on her link list, and have a nice Vintage Thursday.

VTT 13 - Pattern folder from late 1950's

It has been a long time for me without Vintage Thingies Thursdays.  I did post a vintage blog post about a tablecloth UFO I finished here, believing I would join the VTT on the next day with a related theme. This week computer problems have been in the background, so I thought we could dig into my photo archives and look at some Swedish patterns for cushions, table mats and table cloths in colour. The first picture is for children's textiles.

       

The next ones are for cushion covers or table toppers. I'm pretty sure my mother has stitched some projects from this folder. The handicrafts had a very modern touch by the end of 1950's.

The next pattern is again for a cushion cover.

These are both "borders for different purposes":

Little tablecloths to be used as place mats or on small tables.

Pattern sheets for school and home. They are Swedish, very suitable for Finnish taste too.

Suzanne is hosting VTT again, with the lovely long list of links to other vintage treasures. Happy VTT, thank you for coming by!

VTT 12 - Enamel Brooches

This week I want to share with you some of my favourite vintage jewelry inherited from the family.  I have heard that three items make a collection, so this is the enamel collection!

The first brooch is a blue butterfly from my already famous Great Auntie Saima. I have had this since my school days, and already then a bit of the blue was missing. Later I must have dropped the brooch on the floor, causing a more severe chipping.

I don't know if it is possible to have the enamel repaired, I must find out. The metal is silver.

The next item is a romantic set of a brooch and three buttons. I'm still only dreaming of sewing a white blouse for the buttons.

   

The last brooch is a large one. My mother had received it as a gift from her parents when she was only 17, and she gave it to me 26 years ago, when my daughter Kaija was born.

There is still space for her name. Mother wants me to pass the brooch on to my daughter when she has a daughter.

This was all from my jewelry box this week. Maybe we will look at old sewing patterns again next time. More vintage treasures at Coloradolady's blog here. Happy VTT!