1934 Farmer Fashion

(Click the photo to enlarge)

-Taken from America's Money-Saving Style Book Fall and Winter 1934, National Bellas Hess, Inc. - New York and Kansas City

1925 Sedalia, Missouri Farm Auction

I recently made a pillow from the 1925 farm auction advertisement I discovered from, ironically, a Missouri farm auction in 2011.  I printed the ad on Moda quilting fabric from Spoonflower.  Here's the result:

I added an invisible zipper at the bottom and stuffed the interior with plush polyester fiberfill.

The back is lined in a linen/cotton blend.  I'm happy with the outcome.

Here's the link:

1925 Sedalia Farm Auction Pillow

Zippered Cosmetic Case from a Vintage Apron

I finally went through 3 large boxes of fabric which have been in storage for awhile now.  I kept everything that interested me, and sent the rest off to a friend.  One of the items I kept was an unfinished vintage apron in the blue pattern above.  The seamstress added bright yellow bias trim to the neck opening, but both arm openings were still unfinished and I didn't have any matching yellow binding to finish off the apron.

Since I loved the pattern so much, I cut it up and made a lined zippered case.  I had an alfalfa seed on the shelf, so I cut a bird out of the word, "hardy", explaining the seed's reliability and attached it to the front of the case.

The lining consists of a plain seed sack:

The case is large enough to carry in a pocketbook and fill with either cosmetics, or as I have, an iPhone, some crochet needles and a pair of glasses:

I added two layers of thick sew-in interfacing to give the case some body.  I rather like the outcome:

If you are interested, here is the link to my Etsy listing:    Vintage Zippered Cosmetic Case

Seamless Grain Sack Pillow

I finished the seamless grain sack pillow the other day and finally listed it on Etsy yesterday.

Here are the photos:

While the grain sack was washed, the original staining to the piece is still visible, however I feel that adds character and believability to the history of this pillow cover.

As stated earlier, I scanned in the image of grain sack advertising from a 1906 Montgomery Ward Catalogue and printed fabric at Spoonflower.  I used that fabric for the back of this pillow cover.

I constructed the back in the envelope style and added vintage red and white bias trim to the opening.  The trim was still in its' original packaging, so it was in very good condition.  Four buttonholes were created and 4 vintage white buttons were placed to help keep the back securely closed.  I then added my name tag to the back and wa-la, a finished cover!

I'm pretty tickled with the results. It was my first time using thin bias trim and the second time creating buttonholes on my sewing machine.

Many more projects are rolling around my noggin', but this is my newest creation.  I printed a fat quarter of the grain sack advertisement, but I ordered 2 more yards yesterday since I still have a few seamless sacks in my stash.  Yay!

Here is the link to the listing:

Seamless Grain Sack Pillow

Printing Farm Fabric

I purchased a 1906 Montgomery Ward catalogue umpteen years ago for little to nothing.  I remember sitting down and carefully thumbing through the hundreds of pages full of everything you could imagine from undergarments to farm equipment.  It was truly a fascinating look back at what shopping was like near the turn of the century.

The book was then placed in an armoire and sat for several years until I resurrected it just a few weeks ago.  You see, I'm making seed/feed/farm sack pillows and I wanted a backing with farm-related fabric.  So with my 50% off coupon, I hightailed it over to JoAnn Fabrics and began my quest but was sorely disappointed.  Bright yellow and green John Deere fabric wouldn't do, neither would large-scale colorful farm fabric.  I remembered my 1906 catalogue and decided to try making my own fabric by scanning in images and printing the design at Spoonflower.  

 

This fabric is from the front page advertisement in the catalogue before all of the farm implements Montgomery Wards sold at the time.  

Since I adore windmills, this fabric is from a windmill advertisement:

But the most exciting fabric that I made, was an advertisement for grain sacks.  While I ordered a yard of each fabric, this design was much smaller, so I ordered a fat quarter so I could judge whether or not it would work before I ordered a yard.  I have the exact feed sack on hand, so I took a picture showing the two:

Neat, huh?  I just finished up the pillow and will post pictures soon of the finished product.

I also found a 1925 farm auction flyer from Sedalia, Missouri and I printed just the top portion:

I'm pretty tickled with the results and I have many, many other pieces that need to be scanned and made into fabric, but first I must use what has been already printed!  Spoonflower is a great resource and their printed fabric is delightful.  I've washed all the fabric I featured here and they all did wonderfully in the washer and dryer.  :)

So, when you can't find what you want at the fabric store, make your own!  

JCPenney Fabric

I wonder when JCPenny stopped selling fabric?