Lucky black cats

What with more adventures in my local Cats in Crisis charity shop, cat sitting for some friends' snow-white cat Eira, then finding a sad little note on the doormat when I got back home, saying a furry friend from the neighbourhood had been run over and was 'resting' on St Luke's Rd, it's been a cat-themed week – so here's a feline-based project to round it off...

Wishing you luck

I found these beautiful appliqué kitties in McCall's Sewing in Colour, first published in 1964, which explains: 'The entrancing cats are worked with a hand-operated sewing machine, by way of being an antique, so giving the interesting hoppity-hoppity line'... however, you can get the same results on an electric machine set to a very narrow zig-zag stitch.

Detail showing the 'Hoppity-hoppity' stitching

If you want to go about creating your very own 1960s-style cat picture, all you need are a piece of canvas for the background, black felt for the cats' bodies, two colours of felt for the eyes and flowers, and small pieces of gauze for the flowers (plus ruler, scissors, tracing paper etc). For a grid to follow and detailed instructions, just click here.

What a lovely good luck present this would make!

Keep it under your hat

Illustrations by the author. Nice work, Dora

A short and sweet post after a long absence! Facebook friends will know the saga of this book, spotted in the window of a Cats in Crisis charity shop in my local high street. But whenever I went past, no matter what time of day, it was closed – yet the window display had often been rearranged.

Well so desperate was I to get my hot little hands on this book that I made two trips into town today specially, determined. The first I was greeting by the customary Sorry, we're CLOSED sign, but the second time – bingo. £4 and it was mine.

They weren't always cheesy romance y'know

Love the fact it's published by pedlars of cheesy romance Mills & Boon. Also like the sound of Dora Shackell's other publications:

If you see any of these, let me know

This tiny book has only 30 pages, including stockists and an intro, so the projects are thin on the ground but include Make a Sailor Hat, Make a Breton Hat and this one:

Charming huh. And if you want to find out how, just click here and here for your free instructions.

Five festive DIY decorations

Group shot

If you're planning on decking your halls the DIY way this festive season, look no further than these wonderful 3D paper angel, bird, star and circle decorations – hard to believe they are 46 years old! 

Star of the show

These wonderful illustrations came from the Paper & Cardboard Modelling section in the back of Children's Britannica encyclopaedia volume 13 (Pacific Islands to Pond Life).  

Star in a box

Each project is signed and dated 'Sheila Perry, 1967', the shading details are great and I just love them. So without further ado, get out your cardboard, glue (and perhaps a bit of glitter), and enjoy a crafty Christmas, 1960s-style. 

Click on the caption/link under each image for instructions.

Partridge in a pear tree?

Starburst

Groovy circles

Best-dressed angel in town

Happy holidays to one and all! 

Oh, and there's another project in the same series here

What I call a stall

When I spied the Judith Mansfield Books stand at the Knitting & Stitching Show in the pretty northern spa town of Harrogate this weekend, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven...

Just a teeny part of the stall

Packed with secondhand books and magazines about sewing, knitting, crochet, weaving, embroidery, cross stitch and printing, not to mention the boxes of old sewing patterns, this was a vintage craft book collector's dream come true.

Wonderwall

Or it would have been if I'd not been working. I was hoping for an hour off from teaching workshops to have a proper rummage, but my classes were all booked up and all I could manage was a dash to Judith's stand just as the show was closing. Judith herself wasn't there but I had a chat to her husband, who told me they don't have a website or sell online, but they do have a seven-day-a-week stall at the Hebden Bridge Antiques Market I feel a special trip back to Yorkshire coming on!

From rags to rugs

Hello Kitty

I never thought this day would come, but I plan to start making a rag rug. There, I've said it.

This shocking realisation dawned on me soon after buying a 1980 book, simply called Crafts, for 50p in Deptford market last Saturday, and seeing with my own eyes that the humble rag rug, staple of Fairtrade shops and student flats in the 80s, when made in the right colour combinations, could actually look amazing.

The patchwork number above is made out of fabric strips and hardwearing twine or string, woven into squares and sewn together. Fear not, you don't need to have a fancy room-sized loom – a basic £10 kids' tabletop one will do the job just fine... click here to find out exactly how to go about it.

Protest singer's pad?

If you can't be bothered faffing about with a weaving loom, this lovely autumnal rug is made by braiding (plaiting) long strips of fabric together, winding the plait round in an oval or circular spiral and stitching each round to the previous one. Depending on the thickness of your fabric and the sturdiness of your sewing machine, you could probably zigzag the whole thing together on a machine. Easy peasy instructions for this one here.

It was a happy day when I stumbled upon my new favourite book. Craft (Book Club Associates, 1980) also features no fewer than 10 different belts to make, plus two hammocks and a picnic basket, which I look forward to sharing with you toute suite.

Normal service will resume soon

Apologies for the blog haitus, I've been doing rather a lot of this of late:

Daring decor

... I look forward to getting back in the making and writing saddle once this move + DIY frenzy is over. Stay cosy! 

More Swedish stitchery

Last September, I posted 1950s Swedish Stitchery, about the beautiful embroidery in the book Hemslöjdens Handarbeten by Andra Delen.

Remember this?

A Pinterest favourite

It's my most popular post by far, so thanks to everyone who has checked it out over the past year. Thumbing through the book once more, I remembered how spoilt for choice I was last time – there were so many lovely images I didn't have space to include – for instance, how did this amazing cushion not make it into the original post?

Blåsväder (Windy Weather) cushion

I had a bash at translating the Swedish captions, but didn't get very far. Love the name of this one though. The hair!

Windy Weather (detail)

I also found out that 'kudde' means 'cushion' and, hazarding a guess, 'mönster' means 'maker', but if there are any Swedish speakers reading this, I'd love some help piecing it together!

Beautiful washed-out pink

I'd give anything to see this thing of beauty in colour – or even to be able to understand the caption...

Is it a bell or is it a tree?

The birds on this Bird Wreath cushion go round in a circle, facing a green leafy garland. Just look at the detail in their wings:

Fåglar i Krans or Bird Wreath cushion (detail)

The one thing I find frustrating about old craft books in general is the lack of colour plates. but colour printing was such an extravagance, it's actually surprising there is as much of it in this 1954 book as there is. There are loads more beautiful images in here though, even in black and white, so watch this space.

1954