September Bulletin 2019

Textiles and teachers

Church Street School

This turn-of-the-century photo was taken in a school in Almonte, Ontario. Oh the smirks and blank stares.

September Bulletin 2016

Scholarly and studio pursuits

The Creative Florist

The Creative Florist is up for voting in Spoonflower and Betabrand's Double Take Challenge! 

"I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address." 

--Joe Fox in You've Got Mail (a cute and witty movie, by the way)

Numéro

With The 12 Days of Christmas still ticking away, The New Year here, and the return to school creeping up in front of us, my Numéro fabric fits right in. It's in Spoonflower's Math challenge of the week.

Schoolgirl Floral

My Schoolgirl Floral fabric design, as seen in Spoonflower's Recent Trends list, is now available for sale as fabric, wallpaper, decals, and gift wrap in my shop!

European Backpacking

Goodness, so much fabric designing activity! This is my entry to Spoonflower's Backpack challenge of the week. I went the romantic route with the theme instead of going for traditional back-to-school. Aside from the color scheme, my favourite part is the layers of stamps over the design. They were so much fun to draw!

Home Economics

Apparently I would have really loved home economics class in the 1950s!

My mom scooped up these two home economics textbooks for me at Value Village for $3 each, and I've been enjoying reading through them. Clothing Construction by Evelyn A. Mansfield was published in 1953 and covers various sewing techniques.  Clothing Construction and Wardrobe Planning by Dora S. Lewis, Mabel Goode Bowers, and Marietta Kettunen is from 1957. It teaches information about personal style and grooming, wardrobe design, warbrobe planning and budgeting, clothing care, and careers in fashion in addition to sewing techniques. Nowadays schools just don't focus on teaching tips on manners, charm, or style, and sewing has become a largely foreign skill. That's what makes these vintage books very thrilling reads, as they are filled with common sense that is no longer common. That being said, it's interesting to see which perspectives and practices within the books have stood the test of time, because there are of course a few. Personal grooming practices are quite different, but the way that people hem a dress today--well, for the people who hem dresses today--is the same way they did it 60 years ago!

Between the two books there are some hilariously cute illustrations as well as solid information on fabrics.

One of my favourite sections is the information about matching hair, eye, and skin coloring to coordinating hues to find the perfect palette for a personal wardrobe.  

There are also step-by-step sewing instructions for basic garments.

It's too bad home economics has predominately faded from the curriculums, but that's why I love thrifting. Finding these books has allowed me to learn these lessons anyway--bits of wisdom from the past that I can apply to my artistic endeavours!

I think this simple attitude lesson is particularly valuable. Now, I can't help but wonder what the students of days gone by would have thought of me voluntarily reading their textbooks...