Sunday, December 27, 2020

On The Remainder of My Christmas Crafting

Aside from the reindeer and a few Christmas cards, I didn't do all that much in terms of Christmas crafting due to some health issues, but I did want to share what I did get done!

I had pulled out my 1964 copy of Christmas Magic by Margaret Perry at the beginning of the month with the intention of making a few of the projects in it. Many of the projects involve aluminum and copper sheets as the primary material because they are meant to serve as candle holders. However, not actually wanting to make candle holders, I decided to give a few of the projects a go using heavy weight metallic paper instead. While I set out to make a few angels and a couple different animals, I ended up just making a donkey with adjustments made to the saddle piece and was quite pleased to find that the metallic paper worked perfectly. 


As for the next round of crafting...While I was looking for Christmas Magic, I also happened upon a few pages torn out of the October 1990 edition of the magazine Crafts 'n Things, specifically saved for the cute little balsa wood house ornaments and the patterns to make them! 

These were supposed to be really simple with an open back and a piece cut out of the base to slip a tiny twinkle light in to get glowing windows. I (as usual) had some different ideas and ended up using the patterns as a starting point. 

The first one I made as a gingerbread house. This one I shortened all the walls and gave a back piece. For the icing and peppermint I added extra hot glue and painted it. The gumdrops are cut out of glitter paper. 


For the others, I decided to go for a dollhouse look and make them as ornaments! For the bigger house I added a strip in the middle to be a second floor and after much eyeballing of measurements, careful cutting (or rather attempts at it), and having glued myself to tiny furniture and tree pieces multiple times, had a house and cabin ready for some tiny inhabitants to celebrate Christmas in them! 





♥ ♥ ♥

Monday, December 21, 2020

On Inky's Christmas Reading Recommendations

A little late in getting this up as eye strain has kept me mostly off the computer the past few days, but it's not Christmas yet, so there's still a little time yet! 

Way back in 2014, I complied a list of Summer Reading Recommendations and rather than do a book review this month, I thought it would be fun to make a list of Christmas books and stories.

Story Collections, Novellas, & Novels

 A Vintage Christmas, A Classic Christmas, & A Timeless Christmas 

Three books in this set so far! Looking for a collection of Christmas stories that weren't the traditional ones included in every collection and by literary authors in 2018, I serendipitously happened upon the collection A Vintage Christmas and have been delighted that a new collection seems to be eminent each year! 

Each collection includes a section of stories and poems by classic authors including Louisa May Alcott, Harriett Beecher Stowe, L. M. Montgomery, Mark Twain, and Christina Rossetti among others. Longer works are included in the two later books with A Classic Christmas including Dickens' A Christmas Carol and A Timeless Christmas including, a new read for me, L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. These are perfect for reading through a little at a time or having the intention to do so and getting completely sucked in. As a warning, many of the stories and poems are somewhat maudlin in nature given that most were written in the 1800's or early 1900's, so not always the happiest, but still lovely none-the-less.

I also have to mention how beautifully bound these are! 

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Moving on to something more contemporary, we have one of my all time favorite time travel books. This isn't exactly a warm and cozy Christmas read, since it involves Medieval Europe and the plague, but it takes place at Christmas and seems particularly appropriate this year. You can read my full review here.

Told After Supper by Jerome K. Jerome  

Okay, so this is kind of a stretch to be considered a Christmas story, but it's Jerome poking fun at the British tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve, so I'm including it because, in all fairness, it does take place on Christmas Eve ("There is too much 'Christmas Eve' about this book. I can see that myself. It is beginning to get monotonous even to me.")! Anyway, this story recounts the narrator's evening at his uncle's house taking some of the "more traditional" Christmas and ghost story elements to a level of light-hearted silliness in a way that only Jerome can.

This one is available to read for free on Project Gutenberg (here), since it's in public domain and as it's short (my copy with a larger print is only 50 pages), it's nice to read when you only have a short break.  

Children's Books

The Story of Holly & Ivy by Rumer Godden

One of my most favorite holiday stories from the 1950's! I started watching the cartoon of this every Christmas at a young age and was thrilled when I found the book when I was in elementary school. This story can also be found in Godden's book Four Dolls, which comes with the added bonus of one of her other Christmas stories, "The Fairy Doll".  You can read my full review here.

Miracle on 34th Street by Valentine Davies 

Based off the movie (yes, that's the right order of those words), the classic story of a little girl, her mother, and Santa Claus. Read my full review here.

The Coat-Hanger Christmas Tree by Eleanor Estes 

Marianna and Kenny have never had a Christmas tree, their mother won't allow it because they don't need to be like everyone else. They know if they bring one home, though, she'll just have to say yes and the two of them go to work trying to find a way to change her mind. A sweet Christmas story that has an unexpected twist. (Thank you Phyl for the recommendation a few years ago!)

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever! by Barbara Robinson

Originally published as a story in McCall's magazine in the 70's, I read this a few times when I was younger and was very happy upon revisiting it this year to find out it still holds up to my childhood memory of it. When the horrible Herdman children show up at church (the one place everyone normally gets a break from them) and volunteer for the annual Christmas pageant without any knowledge of the Christmas story, things become hilariously disordered.  

Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry

What do you do when your Christmas tree is too tall? You cut the top off! And then you give that top to someone else or throw it out the door for someone else to find and then they too can repeat the process! The illustrations in this are delightful and only add to the fun of this story first published in 1963!

This is another book that my love for stems from a tv special, in this case courtesy the Muppets, which, unfortunately, has never been released on vhs or dvd, so I continue to watch my fuzzy taped off tv version each year.

Tiny Stocking-Stuffer Books 

I wasn't quite sure what to refer to these as, but as they are all small and slim enough to fit in a stocking, tiny stocking-stuffers are what I'm referring to them as.

A Century of Christmas Memories: 1900-1999

A lovely glossy page book that chronicles seasonal happenings, fads, and favorite holiday traditions over a century. This one is fun to flip through at random just to see what you learn!    

The Night Before Christmas: A Classic Illustrated Edition
(chronicle books)

This fun tiny edition of the classic poem uses illustrations from antique books from late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Christmas: A Season of Traditions

A 39 page book that touches ever so briefly on the history of some beloved Christmas traditions in the US and accompanied by quotations both fictional and historical!


Merry Christmas Readings! 

🎄

Friday, December 11, 2020

On Reindeer Sewing!

With the arrival of December comes Christmas crafting! A few weeks ago while I was searching for some vintage paper reindeer cutouts, I accidentally stumbled across the DIY Vintage Reindeer Toy Plush post on the blog My So Called Crafty Life, which included a pattern from the November 1961 Woman's Day magazine. 

Being a huge fan of Woman's Day patterns and all things reindeer, I dropped all my weekend crafting plans to make one...which then predictably resulted in the making of a total of five over a period of two weeks. 

I adjusted the pattern for two different sizes with the intention of both machine and hand stitched versions. 

For the larger machine stitched one, I added a small seam allowance and used some very soft and silky suede like fabric scraps a friend had given me, which were just perfect for a reindeer and for fun used a white on white polk-a-dot fabric for the belly. For the antlers I used felt. 

The antlers were supposed to be stuffed, which, having very dry skin that catches on everything at the moment, I was having a nightmare of a time with. Taking inspiration from my actual 60's reindeer decorations that have wired antlers, I slipped in a pipe cleaner to fill them with the added bonus that they are adjustable! To finish it off I added some silver ric-rac, a few bells, and a cord bow and reindeer number 1, named Silverbells, was done!

Having completed Silverbells, I started thinking that if I made the pattern small enough it could easily be made into an ornament. So I shrunk the pattern down, used the recommended felt (and here I thought I wasn't making any more tiny felt animals this year), and hand-stitched the 3 1/2 Poppet.

Poppet was such a cute size, I decided having the right color redish-orange fabric that I should make a Rudolph too and that really I should make some does as well. This resulted in a tiny Rudolph, Marigold (Poppet's match), and because I wanted one with pink, Cranberry. 


If my hand wasn't so dry from all the sanitizer and alcohol wipes there is a good chance there would have been more. For now, though, I think my little herd is just perfect!

♥ 🎄 ♥

Monday, November 30, 2020

On "The 99% Invisible City": A Book Review

Title: The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design
Authors: Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlsted

Genre: Non-Fiction

About the Book...
Cities are made up of many parts and many of those parts are often taken for granted as we go about our daily life, this book, however, takes a different approach. Broken down into six chapters, Inconspicuous, Conspicuous, Infrastructure, Architecture, Geography and Urbanism, this book offers a closer look at the little and not so little details that shape the urban world around us. 

What I Think...
This was a fascinating book! When I checked it out, it was with the intention of only wanting to flip through and read a few parts, but I ended reading through all of it.

It was very well written and managed to pack a lot of detail in without being overwhelming or expecting the reader to have background knowledge on the subjects being discussed. Most of the subtopics are only a few pages, so it's easy to sit down and read a little at a time (or if you're me, say you're going to do that, and then end up reading through a chapter). I should add, I also really enjoyed how it focused on things from an international perspective rather than looking at just US cities, which in books of this sort I always feel makes the information being shared all the more interesting.

Some of the fun things I learned while reading this included that the postal service having home delivery in the US has its roots in the Civil War when due to the high death toll, it was decided that it was better for people to be able to receive any bad news in the privacy of their own home rather than in public; Edison initially billed people for electricity based on the number of light bulbs in their home; and that in 1712, a British tax on patterned and printed wallpaper led to a trend of people buying plain paper and stenciling their own.

The illustrations that accompanied the start of each chapter, sections within the chapters, and scattered throughout were unique and well suited to the nature of the book, as well.

To Sum It All Up...
Absolutely loved this book and while I'm not a big podcast person, I will definitely be listening to some of the 99% Invisible podcasts having read this!

Thursday, November 19, 2020

On Owl Joins the Hundred Acre Wood Group!

The foot and eye pieces kept falling out of my sewing box, so my sewing project of last week was finishing up Owl (or as he spells it Wol)!



I made few adjustments to this pattern, choosing to change out colors, skipping the cardboard glued to the feet pieces (I just stitched two layers of felt together), and putting the underwing piece atop the main wing piece. I thought about cutting out an additional piece to put under, which in hindsight might have looked a little better for if I position the wings up. However, that can always be done later and when I think of the Shepard illustrations, I think of the ones where Owl has his wings to his side anyway.

I'm guessing this will be the last of my Hundred Acre sewing for awhile, as I have quite a few other tiny sewing projects lined up, but who knows maybe Winnie-the-Pooh or Kanga and Roo will still be putting in an appearance before the year is out!

♥ ♥ ♥

Sunday, November 8, 2020

On a Watermelon Dress

I completed this dress somewhere between May and July, but was so put out with all the various issues I had making that I didn't wear it until the beginning of October when we had a brief heatwave and now it's November, so I figure it's about time to get this posted.

I've had the 1953 Advance 6320 pattern for a while (since January 2019 according to this post) and while I want to make it using the flamingo fabric in the aforementioned post, since it involves cutting the fabric crosswise rather than lengthwise (as the pattern calls for) to have the flamingos go the right direction it keeps getting put off for when I actually feel like doing math and figuring out exactly where the piecing together seams should go so they aren't too obvious. 

Having time on my hands in April, I decided it'd be a great time to test out the pattern as a lengthy shirt/short dress, which would eliminate the need for the yards and yards of fabric and allow me to use the 2 yards of cute, cheerful watermelon fabric I had bought on a whim. 

The pattern has a very full skirt. For the yardage I had after the bodice pieces were cut, I had the options of cutting the remaining fabric in half and piecing it together to get more pleats or to just work with what I had and have a longer dress with fewer pleats. I went with the later and learned that I really, really, really don't enjoy trying to figure out how to reconfigure inverted box pleats to fit a bodice. It involved much more math than I actually wanted to put into what I thought would be a good way to get my mind off what was going on. However, after what amounted to a several day struggle of pinning, unpinning and redoing measurements, I got them in the right places (and wrote down the measurements for future reference) and sewn.  

Thinking it'd be a breeze from there, I then managed to goof up the sewing on of the waist inset and ended up doing a lot more hand sewing than the pattern called for, but persevered and got it sewn on too. 

Next came the zipper...all 18 inches of it. It had to be ripped out twice and I decided on the third try that while it wasn't perfect, and does in several places catch the fabric when being pulled up and down, it would have to do with the reasoning point being I only have to use the zipper when I'm dressing and undressing. At that point, I decided I really wanted to avoid hemming anything, so I went with bias tape to make it easier on myself. I managed to cut it an inch too short somehow, so I ended up having to add a little extra, but thankfully it all worked out. 

 
And with that I folded it up and stuck it in the middle of one of my fabric piles and pretended it did exist until October when I stopped being irritated with and decided it actually didn't turn out too badly. 

 
♥🍉♥

Saturday, October 31, 2020

On "Bill Peet: An Autobiography": A Book Review

Title: Bill Peet: An Autobiography
Authors: Bill Peet

Genre: Autobiography, Children's

About the Book...
The autobiography of Bill Peet, known for his colorful and creative children's books and his work on Disney films, that spans from early childhood memories and into the 80's when it was written.  It was winner of the Caldecott Medal, the Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text, and the 
Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction.

What I Think...
Bill Peet has always been one of my adored children's authors/illustrators, and cartoonists for that matter, and while I know I've crossed paths with this book on many occasions, I couldn't remember actually reading it in full.
 

Even though this was written for children, it's still incredibly informative and very enjoyable to read as an adult. He doesn't sugarcoat how hard he worked to get where he was as a children's author and illustrator, which, as an adult, after reading this has left me with a greater appreciation for both him and his work. 

A good portion of this book focuses on his time working at the Disney Studios from the 1930s into the 1960s, which being a fan of Disney history, I really enjoyed reading about. I felt like it offered an honest reflection of what it was actually like working in the studio, showing the amount of work and effort that went into Disney productions, including Snow White, Pinocchio, and a number of cartoons, were like to work on from the artist's perspective. I also found reading about his experiences and encounters with Walt to be very interesting.     

The whole book is peppered with illustrations to go with his life story, which really add to the text. The only disappointing thing about this book is that none of the illustrations are in color!

To Sum it All Up...
If you're a fan of Bill Peet in any capacity this is a must read!

Friday, October 30, 2020

On A Martian Saucer: A Photo Post

In honor of the anniversary of Orson Welles' infamous 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds, here are some martians in their paper plate saucer!

🟊🟊🟊

Thursday, October 29, 2020

On a Wednesday Look for Tuesday

Posted on a Thursday!

I've been wanting to make a spiderweb collar for a few years, but never seemed to be able to get around to it. This year knowing I wouldn't have time to finish either the spiderweb dress or spiderweb skirt that have also been on my "to sew" list for awhile before the month was over (not that I ever feel spiders should be limited to October), I went for the collar. 

I thought about a few ways of going about making this and ultimately, which is a little hard to see in the photo, decided on a white gauze base to give it a wrinkly look with a sheer layer for the top to give it a little sparkle. Then I machine stitched the web on top of both layers with metallic thread! To finish it off I opted for a snap and a round pearly button sewn on top.

Paired with a black shirt, a spider necklace, and a mirror in need of cleaning, this is my official Wednesday on a Tuesday posted on a Thursday look.

                 ♥ ♥ ♥

Saturday, October 24, 2020

On a 60's Secretary Skirt

Or at least that's what I'm referring to it as. 

Finding that over the past eight months that most of my clothes have become too big for me, one of the go to items in my closet has become one of the very first items I made from a vintage pattern in 2009 or 2010, a drawstring  polk-a-dot skirt from the 1968's McCall's pattern 9398 (which while I've certainly thought about it, I'm now realizing has never made an appearance on this blog). Last month it occurred to me that given how often I was wearing this skirt, I might want to make a few more.  

Given that I've hardly sewn anything with knit since I first started sewing clothes, I was excited to see what I'd find in the flat folds section of the outlet fabric store I frequent and ended up with what I deemed two very 1960's appropriate fabrics. This one is a synthetic, which I try to avoid, but the texture was so perfect I couldn't resist it!

There's nothing fancy about this pattern, it's just two basic rectangles sewn at the side seams with a folded over top to create a casing for a drawstring, two holes for the drawstring, and a hem. I decided to forgo the fabric drawstring and substituted a ribbon. 

Because I have extra fabric, I'm thinking of eventually making the coat from this 1967 pattern and spent some time trying to figure out if I had enough fabric left to do so.  

Since I'll need to grade down the pattern to a smaller size and will also need some fabric for lining and the collar (leaning towards white with large red polk-a-dots!), it probably won't be for awhile. 
 
Meanwhile, I think it pairs perfectly with my black bolero, white t-shirt, and the sunglasses that were my grandma's to give a perfect 60's look! 

And for an October extra, since I'm trying to be better about remembering to take pictures of them, my spiderweb brooch! 

♥️ ♥️ ♥️

Sunday, October 11, 2020

On Oh So Many Pumpkins!: A Photo Post

The past two weeks have involved oh so many pumpkins...

Plastic pumpkins!


Oversized pumpkins!

And a wonky little fabric pumpkin patch that goes with one of my wonky little mice!

♥️