Vintage Craft Book Feature: Faces and Figures in Embroidery (1979)

 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.

Faces and Figures in Embroidery 1979

This book is one of my favorite finds, and a big reason for that is the awesome picture on the cover. It reminds me of some old videogame like Pitfall! 

In all seriousness, this book is really awesome as an inspiration for embroidery design. While it does have some instructional bits for actually stitching, it is much more of a design book. 

It has some great historical examples of different ways of creating faces and bodies in stitches.

And it's also got some really great contemporary examples. Many are very textured and three dimensional like this, but a variety of other styles are also showcased.

There are a lot of line drawings to work from, and examples of how they could be stitched. Throughout are guides on how to place design elements, how to utilize texture and color, and many more tips and tricks.

All in all, this book really gets you looking at embroidery with different eyes! (No, I'm not sorry at all about that lame pun!)

Vintage Craft Book Feature: More Knitting in Vogue (1983)

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.

More Knitting in Vogue 1983

The sequel to the fabulous Knitting in Vogue from 1981, this book has even more cool vintage patterns adapted for 1980's crafters. 

It even has patterns for men' sweaters, though most of them are very boring compared to the offerings for the ladies.

As is the previous book, each pattern is accompanied by a picture from the original.

Many of these older images are way more fun than their newer counterparts.

This leaf patterned cardigan is one of my favorites from the book. It's such a cool design that it even looks nice over the graph paper blouse.

On the more technical side, there's actually a really nice instructional segment at the end of the book. There are tips and diagrams for how to make buttonholes and sew seams and other finishing techniques. And also this super handy guide for what all those little symbols on yarn labels mean. All in all it's a great book and well worth the place on the shelf!

Vintage Craft Book Feature: Knitting in Vogue (1981)

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.

Knitting in Vogue 1981

This book is one of my favorite vintage knitting finds. It's not just a window into the knitting style of the early 1980's, but also a window into earlier styles through the lens of the 80's. Each pattern is a reprint or reworking of an older Vogue Knitting pattern, made for 'modern' audiences.

Each garment is modeled in it's 'new' form, with all the retro charm you could want.

And there's also an image for each from the original pattern, so you can see how it was originally worn and styled.

All of the designs end up feeling a bit timeless, seeing the same garment modeled in these different styles. I really like just flipping through and looking at the pictures. Even if you don't want to knit any of the sweaters, it's a great coffee table book.

This was also the book with the pattern that eventually became my neon stepsister sweater :)

Vintage Craft Book Feature: International Needlework Designs (1978)

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.

International Needlework Designs- 1978

This book feels like it is halfway between being a showcase for beautiful existing embroideries and a project book on how to recreate them. In any case, it is an amazing trove of embroidery history and know how. There are many stunning photos, including color plates, of many different types and styles of embroidery, and each of those has a few designs traced out and clear instructions for how to execute them.

            

The first set of pages is dedicated to diagrams of needles, to help the embroiderer identify and choose the right needle for each and every project. I've not seen such a comprehensive section on needles even in a dedicated instructional book.

There are also extensive stitch diagrams and illustrations included making this book a good one to pick up even as a beginner to embroidery. 

Designs are included from everywhere from Hungary to Guatemala, shown in glorious color and detail.  Each section is separated by country or region and includes background and history of the embroidery tradition there.

For embroidered garments such as the kimono on the cover or these Bessarabian shirts, diagrams for how to cut and sew the garment are also included. One has to wonder though, are the hunks modeling the shirts also part of the "Author's Collection?"

Vintage Craft Book Feature: Time Life The Art of Sewing Series (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.

Time Life The Art of Sewing Series - 1975

There's no way to cover all 12 books of this fantastic series in one post, so I've pared it down to a few of my favorites. These books are wonderful resources for the home seamstress, covering all kinds of topics from altering and designing to construction techniques and embellishment.  Each of the books are covered in real fabric, giving the whole series a very tactile appeal. The information inside is all very good, even if it is delivered in a somewhat surreal way:

           

These books are full of fun images like this, and I love it. Even without the great instructional resources these would be wonderful coffee table tomes.

         

Some of the garments pictured don't have real instructions, but blurbs about how they are made provide a decent starting point for anyone interested in recreating them. 

I'm not sure if women's sports wear got better from 1890 to 1970, or just more weird. Either way, all the instructions you need to make these kinds of 'sporting' garments are included in "The Sporting Scene."

What I can confirm is that these slipper boots are the epitome of awesome indoor footwear.

Vintage Craft Book Feature: Phyllis Fiarotta's Nostalgia Crafts Book (1974)

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.

Phyllis Fiarotta's Nostalgia Crafts Book- 1974

The cover of this book is not nearly as interesting as the introductory pages. The passage below speaks directly to my soul and convinced me to buy this book before I'd even turned another page.

With the heavy stuff out of the way, lets get into what goofy and great things fill this tome.  Much like other craft books of the 1970's (some of which I've featured here before) it is filled with how to's on various household crafts from home decor to dolls.  Each instructional guide is pretty thorough and has enough illustrations to be clear and easy to follow.

This guide for doing whimsical applique on an apron is a favorite of mine. I love how it looks like the rest of the vegetables are chasing the carrot, and the multiple eyes on the potato cracks me up every time.

The real value in this book for me, however, are the real vintage ads and articles scattered throughout. Besides giving a real nostalgia flavor to the book, they add a lot of historical context that I think is often lost when we see individual old items at thrift or antique stores. I especially like the article on making a dress from your husband or brother's old suit that they no longer fit into after returning from the war.  That one sentence dates the article perfectly, and even without further instructions, the text is clear enough to be used as a pattern by a relatively crafty sewer.

Vintage Craft Book Feature: Teach Yourself to Knit the Easy Columbia Minerva Way (1968)

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.

Teach Yourself to Knit the Easy Columbia Minerva Way - 1968

Another of my bargain finds, these old yarn manufacturer's pattern books are often filled with hidden goodies.  As a beginner's book, most of the patterns in this one are pretty basic and easy to make. That said, I do really like the little bits of color and ribbing on the cover projects.

As would be expected of such and instructional book, the first few pages are wonderful illustrations of various knit stitches and and cast on methods. All of it very handy and easy to  access for the beginning knitter.  I am not a beginner, and so I almost passed this one up, even at the low price, until I started flipping through it.

Peppered throughout the instructions are these adorably snarky babies that had me giggling aloud in the store. If nothing else I will page through this booklet whenever I need a good laugh in the middle of a tough project.

Also, this halter style man's vest is probably the coolest design in the whole book.

Vintage Craft Book Feature: Spinnerin Vol. 181 (1967)

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.

Spinnerin Vol. 181 - 1967

As you can see from the tag, I got this quality knitting magazine at a good bargain. You can also probably guess what styles will be inside just from those first two models and the phrase "poncho parade"

Spinnerin doesn't disappoint with a bevy of retro

styled sweaters and dresses. They also manage to make the whole magazine look like a guide for how a well to do man can score himself a threesome.

I get that the intent was to show two sweater models on each page, but trying to set up the domestic and romantic looking scenes just makes each image kinda creepy.

There are no men's sweaters in this book, so the male model is clearly just for decoration. Far from making me focus on the sweaters, the scenes in the photos just have me writing soap opera-like drama plots in my head as I flip through the magazine.

Also, in quite a few of the pictures the women look oddly bundled up in heavy sweaters for what is clearly an indoor setting with an attendant man in a suit.

Those argyle socks are very distracting too.

That's not to say this magazine is all bad. Quite a few of the sweaters and dresses are neat, or at least have elements and patterns that could be easily reused elsewhere. These sequined sweaters are officially at the top of my knitting goals list. I really want to make the one with the sailor collar.

And as promised, here is the Poncho Parade :)