Vintage Craft Book Feature: Golden Family Craft Treasury (1975)

Another of my many needlework hobbies is the collection of vintage craft books.  Found in dusty corners of second hand shops, in pride of place in used book stores, these old tomes often contain beautiful nuggets of crafting wisdom, and a heaping helping of vintage charm.  Reviving the techniques, tips and retro projects is just one more way for us to bring back the wonders of the handmade.

Golden Family Craft Treasury- 1975

 

I found my copy of this book missing it's dust jacket, so I don't have a good cover image.  This, however, is a pretty good representation of most of the photos in the book.  They are filled with garish color and busy patterns, and many quirky, wonderful projects.  This book has instructions for everything from leather working, beading, and sewing to bookbinding, printing, and furniture making. The sheer breadth of projects makes this book a very worthy addition to any crafter's shelf.

That said, there is some very goofy stuff in here. The presentation of many of the projects is delightfully whimsical, like the crochet tie modeled by a sand sculpture. There are a lot of 'reuse everyday objects in a weird new way' sort of projects too, like the flowers made from feather dusters. If nothing else, this book will certainly have you looking at mundane items in a new light.

There is a lot of useful technique guidance throughout, even if the designs are a bit dated. The instructions for replacing book covers and printing fabrics are just a few of the countless bits of useful knowledge among the kitsch.

Maybe it's just me, but a lot of the projects and pictures in this book just sing to me.  Reusing old bed sheet fabric, using a paper cup as a circle template, filling a shadow box frame with random bits and bobs (I have something of a collection of old empty bottles...) is all exactly stuff I would do.  I even have that exact same embroidered ribbon in my stash somewhere!