It’s a book.
It’s a vintage book.
It’s a vintage book about textiles.
It’s a vintage book about how to make textiles by hand.
It’s as if we belong together!
Embroidery for clothing
Knitting instructions for both hands
Jingoistic oddity–embroidery is identified as “American from away back”?
This is one gesture that wasn’t allowed at our house!
Tatting!
I know how many of you love knitting socks!
Pretty girls in hand knit sweaters
A gorgeous crocheted coverlet
“With her knowledge she can combine her imagination and ingenuity to create new patterns or adapt old ones and so give color and meaning to modern life.”
Love Those "Hands at Home" 
This is how I feel when I come across an old cookbook! Love this, Kerry.
I love old cookbooks, too–especially the community ones, put together by a church or the Junior League, where everyone submits a recipe!
And what fabulous hair-dos!
Yes, if you look at my avatar, you can see I wear my hair like that too! 😉
My mom taught herself to tat. The center picture in the array reminds me of that.
That’s one I’ve never tried–I can’t imagine it would be easy to learn. Did she teach you?
Oh, no. She didn’t excel at teaching. 🙂
Check out the price of the booklet – one dime.
I paid a quarter for it at the garage sale!
I like the “disallowed gesture” drawing – Teen-ager caught in dispute with sibling — “No, Mom, it’s not what you think! I was just showing her how to tat, honest!”
i just wish I’d thought of it–would’ve gotten me out of trouble on more than occasion!
ohlalalalala, what eye candy! My kinda book, I would snap it up right away…go home, make tea and be happy for hours!!! a very good find, if only for the photos and for sentences as
” what to do with the left hand! ” Lovely! Thanks for sharing, Johanna
I’m very intrigued by the instructions–they seem really simple but maybe too much so. Since I’ve never tried tatting, I might try and follow the directions for that, to get a better sense of whether the book is actually useful!
Just like Johanna, I too would be bubbling over with joy if I had found that little book! The design, the colours, the joyful, simplicity of it all is heartwarming. I am so glad you found it!
The whole package really captures a moment in time–the early ’40s. I think that was a pretty placid time in the US and the booklet reflects that.
I have little appreciation for ‘vintage’ I guess because I remember it – and very often with a shudder! However, I have a great appreciation for any book that makes more than seventy years in almost pristine condition – that is a wonderful find! Just a different perspective I guess 🙂
I know lots of people who think vintage is just icky old stuff (in fact, I am related by blood to some of those people!) But, you’re right, books seem different and they are such a great way to get a peek at a different time and place.
Oh how charming! Delightful find so worth making it yours!
Well, and since it cost 25 cents, how could I resist?!
OMG……..I had that book. so very long ago 🙂
Did you?! How fun! And did you teach yourself to do any of the crafts?
Wow, I remember seeing books like that when I was a kid. And the illustrations are very like the ones in the cookbook I have from my mother. What really came to mind, though was the instructions for right-handed people. I’m a mixed up ambidextrous person and often can use the instructions straight, but sometimes have to turn them around. Had to do that recently when I re-learned blanket stitch and realized clockwise wasn’t the way to go…Jan is right. Fabulous hairdo’s.
I thought about that issue of handedness when I was looking at the book–it’s very prejudiced against lefties!
Kerry, I’ve had this same book for years. Can’t part with it!
And did you teach yourself to tat? Isn’t it fun to find these treasures when we go hunting? I go looking for linens but end up with so many other oddball things that just speak my name!
Well that’s tit for tat! No, I didn’t teach myself to tat. I taught myself to knit (somewhat) and that was that!
My mother’s ‘going away outfit’ ( to wear after the wedding) was similar to the one in this book. I still have the outfit, tucked away in a box. It survived. Her wedding dress did not.
Did the wedding dress get lost in the earthquake? My sister ruined my mother’s wedding dress by wearing it around the house, as a teenager, and spilling food on it. Do women still have “going away outfits”? I remember fantasizing about that as a young girl but I don’t think they even exist in today’s world.
No. My mother’s wedding dress became stained whilst in storage, in the tropics, so she then decided to let us, the children, play dress-up with it. It was fabulous fun. We loved it! It was originally her graduation ball dress and was modified for her wedding which was in the immediate post war years. Thrift was the name of the game. I don’t know if people have going away outfits anymore. The Duchess of Cambridge did, though. 🙂
I found some lovely linens in a thrift store the other day. I almost bought them but then decided I didn’t know if they were vintage or not, so let them be. 😀
Well, if they were anything special, someone else will snap them up and give them a good home!
They were beautifully made.
How fun! I have some vintage quilting “booklets” that I got at an old library sale. They were only a dime but I can’t wait to make one of the patterns!
That’s the thing about some of these old books–they still have a lot to teach us!
ohhh.. this is such an awesome find in 1941.. wow.. really vintage.. I also got to say.. this is my kind of book too.. heehee.. loving it. 😉
The book is in quite good shape for being so old–maybe the girl who owned it didn’t want to learn to knit or crochet!
Gorgeous! Enjoy it 🙂
I’ve gotten a kick out of reading through it.
What a great find!
It has entertained me no end!
tatting was the one thing my mother didn’t teach me. Still have many of her 1940’s knitting books. My going-away outfit was a practical grey wool suit made by a professional British tailor, I still have it but I weighed 95 pounds then!!
I would love to see that going away outfit! Tatting is the one of those 4 skills I never learned, as well. I’d like to try it but, really, it seems the most unremittingly old-fashioned and the product doesn’t really suit my style.
you like 🙂 Awesome fine, Kerry!
It’s been lots of fun to look through!
I hope you’ve made up every one of these cutting-edge garments 😉
Yes, and may I say I look FABULOUS?!
This book is fab! The pictures are wonderful. X
I thought you’d like it! 😉
That is so very cool! I love finds like this at garage and estate sales. I have quite a few vintage dress patterns from the 40’s-50’s just sitting in a clear container at my house. I will never make them (way, um, too little for me…and I really don’t dress up), but they are just so neat that I have never been able to part with them. I love vintage clothing even though I don’t wear it. By the way, if you have Netflix they have a Spanish drama TV series (only 16 shows right now) called Velvet, that shows all the haute couture from one of the leading fashion stores of Spain in the late 50’s. Beautiful, beautiful clothing, just sumptuous really!
I don’t wear vintage clothing either–doesn’t fit my lifestyle at all– but, like you, I love to look at the styles and fabrics and accessories. I don’t have Netflix (watch almost no TV) but my friends do–I’ll check it out!
Wow, you have the best garage sales in your area!
A lot of them are awful but I go to many, many and, eventually, something wonderful turns up!
Those illustrations rock! I just paid a visit to the thrift shop and got a very old cardgame with illustrations from various Dutch cities. I intended so send out the cards to friends by mail, but I may need to hold on to the game a bit longer, before sending them out.
Oh, do keep it around! Sometimes it seems sad to split up a set of nice things!