Retro Nanny!!

Well it’s late on Friday night and as I sit here writing, I am trying not to notice the very loud thump, thump, thump of someone’s music blaring up the street!

I was spending time on here earlier and happened across a post about a Showcase and it tweaked my interest – Retro theme.

Well you are talking about a girl of the 50’s, so I have had a lovely few hours thinking back, remembering and searching through my stash for suitable fabrics to whip something up!!

Some of the things I have thought of:

Colours:  Oh dear, remember when the kitchen cupboards were painted at least two colours – green and pink was a favourite at home!  Don’t forget the table and chairs as well.

Mantel shelf:   The mantel shelf above the fireplace – you know, the one where the canisters sat – Flour, Sugar, Tea, Salt and don’t forget the kero lantern!  What about the newspaper cut to cover the mantle like a curtain and then the big change when plastic entered the kitchen and we had the plastic stuff cut with pinking shears that matched the table cover!!   Note I see it back in Spotlight now!!!!

Checks:  What would we have done without gingham?  Well I would have coped , being a child, but remember the tablecloths with cross stitched patterns on them and of course the rick rack trim!

Spots:  I have a vivid memory of my Mum wearing a white dress with blue spots – I thought she looked so pretty- it was the dress Mum was wearing when my brother was accidentally hit in the head when running behind a swing at the park and Mum’s lovely dress was covered in blood – my brother survived, just – and lives to tell the story – they stopped the bleeding by pouring pepper on to it – funny the things you remember…..

Craft:  My Gran used to crochet but my Grandma would try her hand at other things – I never saw her knit or crochet but she did make boxes using old Xmas and birthday cards – I have made a version of the ‘hanky’ boxes that Grandma made me, for my Grand daughter but now we call it a ‘trinket’ box! lol  That was a great craft for many women – they made boxes to hold their sewing or papers, album covers, placemats – all sorts of things.

Aprons:  My Grandmothers always wore an apron and would whip it off if someone came calling – my next door neighbour, who was like my second mother, made me a beautiful little apron.  It was blue, trimmed with red and it had a little pocket shaped like a heart.

Tea towels:  The dreaded tea towel collections – lovely linen tea towels that all had to have where you’d been stamped all over them.  How many households found a pile of those when that generation passed away? They were closely followed by the tea spoon collections!!!

Making do:  Did you ever see a wagga rug being made?  Wow, I just googled wagga to make sure I had the correct spelling and what an interesting lot of info I found – check it out if you don;t know what I am talking about – an important part of our history!!  You will see that the wagga rug, when used as a generic term, covered any made from re-usable fabric, wool etc – the first of our quilts and no walking foot – only the ones at the ends of our Mothers and Grandmothers legs!
My Grandma also made floor rugs by cutting up old clothes into strips and plaiting them and then stitching the plait into a rug.

Oh the memories!!

Anyway, after all that, the night had passed and I had decided on my items for the showcase.  I am going to make a ‘trinket’ box using red and white spots (I don’t have any blue),  I am going to finish off a hexagon bag that has been fully hand stitched – it just needs the handles and then I am going to make a set of placemats using Aussie scenes (inspired by the tea-towel collections)  or a little girls apron!

I can’t wait for tomorrow – I’ll show you when I am done!

Until next time
Nanny xx