Vintage style accessories are a great way to give almost any outfit a unique edge. A distinctive piece of jewellery like eejay Design’s hand crocheted fan necklace makes a versatile signature piece to dress up a casual outfit or add the finishing touch to an elegant ensemble.
Go with a theme or pick your favourite styles from different eras and mix it up a bit!
Vintage Craft Workshop: Fresh Takes on 25 Classic Projects
from the ’60s and ’70s
By Cathy Callahan · Reviewed by Katy McRae
I have to preface this book review with the fact that Cathy Callahan is one of my crafting idols. Her blog is one of my favourites and I stalk her on Facebook. Her collection of retro craft books and magazines is truly awe-inspiring, her passion for ’60s and ’70s craft borders on the fanatical and her sense of style just plain rocks. So when I discovered she had produced a craft book I bought it, pretty much sight unseen. I did check out the title – Vintage Craft Workshop: Fresh Takes on 25 Classic Projects from the ’60s and ’70s – and figured I couldn’t go too far wrong.
Cathy has taken some of her favourite projects and, with the help of some of her crafty friends, given them a modern make-over. She’s gone for the classics – free-form crochet vase covers, string art, painted stone paperweights, raffia flowers, paper mache. It’s a ’60s and ’70s craft-fest with all the colour and kitsch you’d expect. I have to be honest here though – sometimes the remakes are just not as cool as the originals. But isn’t that always the way?
The instructions for each project are clear and Cathy includes patterns at the back on nifty, perforated sheets that can be torn out without doing damage to the book. It’s a nice touch. The other thing that Cathy does really well is intersperse the craft projects with short biographies on crafty ladies of the era. So not only do you get to make stuff, you get a history lesson along the way.
As Cathy rightly points out, the business world of the time was dominated by men. However, in the late ’40s and early ’50s a few independent-minded women were starting their own craft supply companies, popularising supplies that brought new options to the home crafter. When craft really took off in the ’60s and ’70s these women – Aleene Jackson, Hazel Pearson and LeJeune Whitney among others – became crafting superstars.
So while I may not be so enamoured of the actual projects, I do love the book. It’s a good retro craft resource, a great read and a welcome addition to my own fanatical collection of craft books.
Caroline and Joanne, the lovely ladies of Smash Palace, make gorgeous jewellery from broken china and for the first three days of April, they’re gifting their services to Christchurch.
They can’t give you back what you have lost, but they can rescue some of the fragments of the legacy that your mother, and her mother before her, handed down to you. Salvage whatever pieces of porcelain you like and they will rework them for you into a pendant or a brooch, a genuine keepsake to hand on just as they were intended to be.
When: 10am–4.30pm, Friday 1, Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 April
Where: 169 Knowles St, St Albans, Christchurch
What to bring: retrieved china and your stories
Spread the word to anyone you know who may have links with Christchurch. If you’d like to know more or you’re able to help in any way, email smashpalace3@gmail.com or check out the details on their Facebook page.
Spiro Creations : Moccasins $285 | Lou’s Shoes : Baby Brogues $35
Now there is a title to fuel the imagination of any crafter! What could you do with 17 gorgeous vintage sewing machines? Why do I ask? Because Jenafer from Local Vanguard is parting with this amazing collection of gorgeous vintage sewing machines.
Bought upon the closure of the Old Rakaia Museum, the collection spans the decades from the late 1800s through to the 1970s. Some of the machines come with historical references, including a Singer that came on the first ship that harboured in Akaroa.
Let’s hope these machines go to a loving home – it’s a lovely historical record of domestic craft.