29 January, 2012

My Learn to Sew Book

When I was 5, my grandmother sent me the My Learn to Sew Book* all the way from New Zealand for Christmas. It was great. I can't remember how many things (if any) I made but I know I read and re-read it until it was practically falling apart (probably setting a pattern for me and craft books that has lasted until this day).

My Learn to Sew Book

It remains the standard to which I hold all other craft books - and why not, it has an impressive array of actually quite cool projects (for a 70s craft book):

The end papers
My Learn to Sew Book

Pipe cleaner dolls and funky furniture. Work it pipe cleaner dolls, work it!
My Learn to Sew Book

Cute little mouse - have a vague feeling I might have made this one
My Learn to Sew Book

What a self-satisfied looking cat!
My Learn to Sew Book

These hints are so very true and I love the illustrations
My Learn to Sew Book

Hazel found the book when we were back at my parents place last Christmas, so it returned to New Zealand 35+ years later, and yesterday she asked if we could make something.

Not the clothing though, she said that it was too "old-fashioned", and I was forced to admit that the market for very short dirndle skirts and head scarves is a bit limited these days.

My Learn to Sew Book

She wanted to make Baby Billy
My Learn to Sew Book

And so we did! Except he's now a she and called Baby Rose
Baby Rose

Oddly enough, for all the modern aesthetic we applied, mostly courtesy of the Wee Wonderfuls Book, Baby Rose looks startlingly like another product of the 70s, a Muppet! Specifically this one:



*My Learn To Sew Book by Janet Barber. Illustrated by Belinda Lyon. Hamlyn 1972. ISBN 0 600 35910 7

3 comments:

  1. This is a wonderful post!! Those illustrations are so familiar (I was a little girl in the 70s, too)...so much fun to recreate these timeless (some of them at least) patterns from your childhood with your own little girl!

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  2. Love the book, love Baby Rose! (Love the Muppets too!)

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  3. The illustrations in the book as a whole are great - dated and yet not dated in a way! Perhaps it's because the 70s are back in fashion again :) And the 80s... wasn't once enough?

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