The Curious Case of Beautiful Button... Cards.

They just don't make them the way they used to.

I'm talking about button cards.

 Who designed these mini works of art from days gone by?

"Hi, What do you do for a living?"

"Oh, I'm a button card illustrator."

Button cards of today couldn't be plainer,

but cards of the past sometimes gave us a hint at their era...

like this one tells us mid 1920s by the hair and clothes!

This beautiful card shows us how the freshwater clam shells

were harvested from the Mississippi  River
before the buttons were stamped out of them.

Though tattered and old, this beautiful card is like an etching.

 The colors and tropical influence tell me this is from the late 40s.

I'm not so versed in children's fashions, but this card seems like 1920s, too.

Does anyone know why pearl buttons are always sewn onto foil backing?

These gold painted wooden buttons and card

seem like they're from the 1890s.

What do you think?

The hat, the hair... 1930s?

The illustrator of this card is suggesting these

tiny pearl buttons are for children's clothing.

I say we bring back creatively illustrated button cards.

Let's start a petition or something!

The Novelty of It All

Talk about thrift store scores! I recently purchased two very kitchy, very cute cocoa colored novelty prints at my favorite resale shop a few weeks apart.

 The subject of the first novelty print is bowling.

4 yards of 35" cotton.

Back in the 50s when I suspect this fabric was made,

bowling was HUGE!

Need confirmation that it was the 50s?

Check out the names on the scorecard.
Charles, Alec, George, Tom and Bob...

...could have been one of my dad's leagues back in the day!

 The second novelty print depicts outer space.

Almost 2 yards - 38" wide.

Probably meant for curtains or comforter with the huge repeats.

 The first lunar expedition.

Little did they know the actual first lunar landing

was less than 20 years away!

 Spacewalking with satellite equipment.

 Piecing the space station back together?

 Looks like an Estes toy rocket.

 Another 50s fabric for sure.  Check out the diagram.
I think I need a frenetic stabilizer or a dual magneto. 

 Forget about NASA - we were the United States Space Force!

 Happy landing!

Simplicity Fashion News

Finding some old pattern advertisements in a box of notions that I recently purchased was a fun discovery.  I remember piles of these laying on the cutting counters when I worked at Mary Lester Fabrics in Milwaukee.   Here's one by Simplicity from July 1968 when patterns were still 65¢ and 75¢! (click to enlarge)

 Very Twiggy-esque...

By the way, Twiggy is 63 now.

 These dresses look like they're made of polyester double knit...

 I must say that I love the shoes...

 ...but the hair-dos are another story.  Can you say "beehive?"

Love the quintessential yellow floral.
The second gal to the left is very early Carol Brady.
That show must have started very close to '68.

 Solid jewel-tone colors with touches of white are "cool" in 1968.

 Nice colors.  Nice socks.
Ok, maybe I do want knee socks to come back...
but not the sheer, cut-off-your-circulation-under-the-knee-cap kind.

I remember wearing dresses like these...

and pig-tail girl is having a little too much fun... 

and her dress is short.  

That's why we used to sing such taunts as, 

"I see London.  I see France.  I see (fill in the name)'s underpants!"

Oh, and the baby blue sport set on dad is, is, is... no words.

 A ruffle tutorial.

The "Answer Dress.
What's the question?

Gotta love the Don Ho "TV Spectacular" advertisement.

"Tiny bubbles..."

Family Update

Wow, it's been a busy month.  Family busy.  Here's the crew after a concert by my oldest son, Lars (The Laohu) at The Velour in Provo, Utah last week.  Yes, we made the roadtrip through Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and into Utah on beautiful Interstate 80 to take Chelsea (on the far right) back out to BYU for her senior year in piano performance.  A bonus was that we got to see Nate (in the purple tee) who is a super senior (in Japanese and business) at BYU and didn't come home for the summer.  Rounding out the group is my husband on the left, Lars' wife, Spring, in the turquoise tee, Keaton (soon starting his senior year of high school) in stripes and me in black.  That's the whole gang.  It was a lot of fun for all of us to have some time together.  And important to get a family pic since some are heading back to the four corners again.  It's only days now until Lars and Spring head to Glasgow, Scotland for his master's degree in International Politics and Nate will be moving to Japan within the year I suspect.  After China, Japan, Taiwan, and now Glasgow, I get a little jealous when I hear moms who get upset when their kids go to school in UW Madison 90 minutes away.  Sigh.  Such is life.  Thank goodness for Skype.  Anyway, I love my kids and I love that they are independent world travelers... I think.

What's the Laohu?  Translated, that's "tiger" - Lars' Chinese nickname.  When he came home from China, Keaton taught him how to create chip music with the gameboy (don't ask).  Anyway, Lars loved it and combined it with guitar and vocals -- the "Laohu" was born.  He composed half a dozen songs and we were all pleasantly surprised when he won a contest to play at Milwaukee's Summerfest on July 3rd on the Cascio Interstate Music Groove stage! Pretty cool.  Now he's actually got an album out.  Wha?

Soon everyone will be where they are supposed to be (if we survive the Scotland VISA drama) and life in Menomonee Falls will finally settle down.  There will only be three of us at home.  I am no longer on the school board.  No more excuses.  The time has come to make RubyLemons what I dream it could be... or not.  Excuse the expression, 'time to poop or get off the pot.'  (Sorry, I feel like that sounds a bit crass.)  So, stay tuned.  RubyLemons will either flourish or fold.  Da-da-da -- dum!

The Din From My Fabrics

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  Vintage fabric talks to me.  Yes it does.  When I come across a three yard piece of vintage 60s daisy covered cotton, it shouts, "Make me into an A-line dress!"  Or a piece of 70s decorator fabric might say, "I want to be a granny chic pillow."  A piece of vintage bonded gold velour recently suggested, "Isn't it time you made your husband that replica of Captain Kirk's uniform - original series, of course?"

And well, you know... once the fabric starts talking to me... I have to buy it.  Thus explains the gajillion yards of vintage fabric in my house (I can no longer limit that statement to just, 'in my sewing room').  It's almost a problem.  My family might say it already is.   But I digress.

Back to the fabric.  It talks to me.

These next pictures represent recent conversations.

This 38" rayon wants to be made into this dress,

but maybe the sleeves will be cut off into a short bell

with a contrasting black yoke and belt.

I call this the "Luck fabric" with it's ladybugs, horseshoes, elephants,

shamrocks, #13, and palm reading.  It's a 40" wide rayon and

told me it wanted to be this little number.

This sweet 28" wide striped cotton wants to be a

waisted 50's dress with an accent belt of... red?

Oh yes I do.  I definitely listen to polyester double knit, too.

I don't discriminate much when it comes to cute vintage fabric.

This quaint flocked gingham print knit fabric

knew it would be perfect for this early 70s Butterick dress.

Maybe with red topstitching.

It was a recent conversation with this feminine 30" wide cotton.

I think it wants a contrasting rose colored collar.

This sheer dotted swiss and early 70s decorator fabric teamed up

and have been thinking about this 1970 dress

but maybe with short sleeves.

This 36" cotton plaid wants to be that 1967

A-line dress but with a lace collar please.

And last for today's conversations, this liquid and fluid

1940s or earlier 40 inch wide rayon with strange Qs on it longs

to be a flowing dress like this one... but maybe a bit shorter.

Yes, everywhere I go vintage fabric talks to me.

Do you agree with my vintage fabric and what it wants?

Full Frontal

I blame the mailbox... not my design sense and the fact that I got the color wrong three - yes, three times.  First I painted it turquoise with a black lid and black medallion.  It seemed too sleek... too Chanel.  Then I painted it turquoise with a white lid and white medallion.  Just too crisp and jarring... too much white.  Then I painted it all turquoise with a white medallion.  The turquoise was too bright... it looked like a piece of candy stuck on the house.  Then I dulled up the turquoise, sanded off the edges so the black came through a little... and then it was right... I think...

So now it's time for the before and after pictures of my front door entry.  Remember?  I have been talking about it in my last post and here.  Well it's time to see if I could add some charm to this old house exterior. 

Here it is before.  Old house.  Weird steps.  I wish I would have taken the picture before we got our ucky black mailbox down and started changing the light, but that's when I thought of it.  Remember, I like color and first started with a possible pink door... no.  Then I debated between lime green and turquoise.  Well, drumroll please...

Lime green it is!  And having worked in a paint store, I knew I would need to bring down my lime color many shades from my original choice on the paint chip or it would be way too intense (hmmm... why didn't I remember that with the mailbox)... as it was, I still had to grey it down even more after the first coat until it was right.  The flower chair has grown a bit since my last post!  I made the window valance out of Waverly Sweet Spot fabric.  The door paint is a softened up version of Benjamin Moore's Kiwi green and don't you think Larry did a superb job painting it?  I made the daisy thing out of coiled grapevine from the craft store and a shallow basket from the thrift store.  The light is called the Petra Outdoor Downlight - it's cheap from our local Menards, but I liked the shape.  On the box the glass shade looked white and frosted, but when we opened it up - it was urine yellow!  I put it in the stationary tub in the basement and sprayed a stripper on it and with a toothbrush, the icky yellow came right off and left a beautiful frosted white.  You already now about the polka dot pots and the flower chair... what else?  Oh, the green flower in front is iron and rusted and I love it.  I bought it a number of years ago at The Garden Room in Shorewood.  If you live around Milwaukee, you should check it out.  Very cool store!

So that's it.  My front entry makeover!