Vintage show-and-tell

Southern Lady's Vintage has proposed a regular Saturday blog tour of fun vintage finds, and the first round is to consist of cookbooks - one of my personal vintage weaknesses.  So without further ado, here's my contribution:

This particular gem is from 1951 (though it's the 21st printing - versions were evidently out there from the late 1930s), and i got it at a bag sale when one of my pet thrift shops was getting ready to move.  (Along with some 1910s and 1920s handsewn garments, and a swell '60s birdcage hat... don't hate me.)

It's got a few recipes that look promising, like this cheddar and ale bisque:

 

And also some that look, well, like nothing i'd ever voluntarily eat, like the Tomato Aspic Buffet Mold below:

But the best part about this cookbook is the table of measures and equivalents, because there it has really useful translations, ones that help decipher recipes in older cookbooks, like that 1914 one i've posted from.  It tells you, for instance, that a "wine glass" when used as a measure, should equal 4 ounces, or half a cup.  It gives you temperatures that correspond to terms like "moderately slow oven" - and THAT is really handy.

In the mail

My best friend (check out her blog, here) apparently remembered how cranky i got when she went to a David Macaulay book signing, oh, 15 years ago or thereabouts, and she didn't tell me about it or take any books along for me.  "Didn't know you'd be interested," she said.  I think i sputtered indignantly.  We'd talked about how much we loved Motel of the Mysteries after all...

So today, when i found an unexpected bookish package in my mailbox containing two signed volumes, the first inscribed "better late than never" and the second, "things have a way of working out" - i howled with laughter.

Forgive my hasty - and therefore crooked - photos.

Bragging rights

So i took the nomad dress from the last post, and entered it at the Clarke County Fair - a plan i'd hatched mainly to give myself a deadline for finally finishing it.  For grins, i also took along a silk scarf i'd tie-dyed recently, and entered that as well.  Both came home dangling blue ribbons, which was kinda fun...

Long awaited...

I'm reluctant to say how long i've been muttering about making this dress, but after lots of starts and stops, it's finally done. Might do it again, but not without some more tinkering with the pattern - it's Folkwear 107, the Afghani Nomad Dress.  I'd like it a bit longer, for one thing.  It says ankle length, but it was nowhere close, even before hemming - and i'm only about 5'4" so there's usually more length than i need.  I'd want to nudge where a few of the seams land, just a bit.  But i'm really happy with the colors, and the way the fabrics behave.  It will be fabulously twirly for dancing, and perfect for wintertime in the stunning but unheated Spanish Ballroom...

The bodice is an allover eyelet worked on a linen, and the sleeves are rayon velvet and a linen damask.  The skirt back patch, underlining, and assorted other small bits are cotton.  The main part of the skirt is a rayon challis, and lots of it.  Five full widths, for a hem that's in the neighborhood of seven and a half yards.

And the winner is...

...Carolyne Tillery, of ohhellodear - you should take a look at her shop, lots of very cute prints and hand-painted ACEOs, at prices suitable for gifts or small personal indulgences!  Here's one i fancied:

Thanks to everybody who entered!  This was fun, and i think i might have to do it again sometime, so stay tuned...