#anAWWyear - October 1947: Craft

October 1947 was a bleak month on the craft front as well - there was this rather neat knitted sweater pattern, sadly a bit beyond my knitting skills, but nothing else to actually make. 

Knit sweater, described as "a smart, useful adjunct to your summer wardrobe" .
Australian Women's Weekly, Oct 4 1947, p 48.

In the same issue there was a short article about the colour and design classes being run at the N.S.W. Society of Arts and Crafts studios, which I enjoyed especially for the photographs run alongside the article. 

Picture of students at work in the design classes.
Australian Women's Weekly, Oct 4 1947, p57

My eye was also caught by this great advertisement for Semco printed designs, which gives some lovely examples of the types of designs which were being sold that year. 

Semco advertisement
Australian Women's Weekly, Oct 4 1947, p 47.

I own some vintage Semco designs, for hand embroidery. I've shown them off on instagram but not here on the blog. The designs are... if not outright racist, then at least designs which embrace pejorative cultural stereotypes.

Semco design, "Mexican". 

Semco design for a cheval set, "Romany"

I find "Romany" less distasteful, because at least it is trying to evoke a more romantic and pastoral image. The embroidery in the above pictures was done before these two came into my collection, and I've dithered about whether I would actually complete them.
I decided to finish "Romany" for my craft this month, and I plan to use the pieces to decorate an apron - using the two smaller ones as pockets on the skirt and the longer one as or across the bodice piece.

I've finished the embroidery on the two smaller pieces and have done the majority of the background embroidery on the larger piece - only the wagon and the woman to complete.

The two smaller pieces will make generous apron pockets. 

Mostly done. 

Once I complete the whole apron, I'll show it off here! I shall call my cultural stereotype apron.

#anAWWyear - October 1947: Fashion

I said in my October food post that October 1947 was a bit disappointing on many fronts. I didn't find much in the fashion this month that inspired me, sadly. What little that caught my eye is below. 

There are more of the Paris reproductions which we have seen in earlier months.  This looks like a straightforward shirt dress until you get to the interestingly draped skirt - described as a harem skirt.

It makes it easy to understand how you can have those '1980s do 1940s' shirtdresses.
Australian Women's Weekly, Oct 4 1947, p 8

From the same selection are these two dresses which include a skirt which gathers into the waist, creating a flattering drape, and some unusual pintucks across the bust.

Australian Women's Weekly, Oct 4 1947, p 9

This outfit from a Jantzen advertisement makes me wish I'd had the confidence to wear these kind of outfits in my twenties, when I had the legs for them!

A lovely summer outfit
Australian Women's Weekly, Oct 4 1947, p 60

I rather like this plaid evening gown from a feature on coloured cottons, which is really just a tight peasant blouse style top with a long skirt which is fitted close in front and flares at the back. In one colour it might look too simple but the dark and dramatic plaid cotton makes it striking and look more complicated. 

Australian Women's Weekly, Oct 18 1947, p 11

A one-page feature on film actresses  yields a few gems - I like the fabric prints on both the elaborate lettered sweater and the green and white fern frond blouse.

Australian Women's Weekly, Oct 18 1947, p 33.

#anAWWyear - October 1947: Food

In many ways, October 1947 was a disappointing month. In later blog posts I'll be posting about the dearth of craft projects and the rather lacklustre fashion, but here I'll be concentrating on the one area that this month's magazines do very well, the recipes.

One of this month's features is the visually stunning collection of pineapple recipes.

So much pineapple!
Australian Women's Weekly, Oct 18 1947, p41

 I was extremely tempted by the Pineapple Wedge Salad, as it both combined flavours I like with my own favourite vintage recipe quirk, the abuse of the word salad, but as no one else in my house eats tomato I wasn't sure I could eat enough on my own.

PINEAPPLE WEDGE SALAD
Sliced pineapple, large firm tomatoes, cream cheese, a little milk, salt and cayenne pepper, curled celery, radishes, lettuce leaves.
Soften cream cheese with a little milk, add pinch cayenne and salt if needed. Spread half the pineapple slices with cream cheese, cover with a thick slice of tomato and place
remaining pineapple slices on top.
Cut each "sandwich" into three wedges, leaving one "sandwich" uncut to decorate centre of platter. Arrange on serving platter with lettuce leaves, curled celery, and radishes. Mayonnaise may be served separately.

 I settled for the pineapple chiffon tart, which is the one just above the word pineapple in the above picture. I'm happy with how my version looks too:

My pineapple chiffon tart

The recipe is straightforward, and I made it as written, although I chose not to garnish with nuts:

PINEAPPLE CHIFFON TART

One cooked pastry-case, 2 ½ teaspoons gelatine, ¼ cup water, 3 eggs,
½ cup sugar, pinch salt, ½ teaspoon grated lemon rind, 1 cup shredded
cooked pineapple, chopped nuts.

Soak gelatine in water. Cook egg yolks, salt, lemon rind, pineapple, and half the sugar for 15 minutes over boiling water, stirring occasionally. Add gelatine, stir while cooling over bowl of ice. Fold in egg-whites beaten stiffly with balance of sugar. When beginning to set pile into cold pastry-case, chill until set. Serve cold, garnished with grated pineapple and chopped nuts.

The stage of cooking the yolks and sugar and pinapple over heat is tedious, but the final result is worth it. I ended up with more than would fit into my pastry case (I used store bought) and I put the extra into a small glass dish and it was lovely by itself too.

A feature on 'vegetable dishes' is really a feature on what vegetables can be stuffed with breadcrumbs. 

The illustration accompanying a feature on vegetable dishes, it shows stuffed cabbage rolls.
Australian Women's Weekly, Oct 4 1947, p 53.

I made a different breadcrumb recipe, a mushroom and breadcrumb stuffed steak. My husband and I both liked it very much.

This month also had a feature on children's birthday parties.

Party fare
Australian Women's Weekly, Oct 11 1947, p 38

While I do have a small boy birthday party to plan this month, the food for that will not be as elaborate as the "apricots'n'peaches" or "goblin cup cakes" here. And although I like the idea of rainbow ribbon sandwiches, I am not serving sandwiches with dates, nuts, carrots and white sauce as a filling to four-year-olds. I was however intrigued to find a recipe for Hundreds and Thousands biscuits, an icon of Australian childhood. 

HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS

Two ounces margarine or butter, vanilla, l oz. castor sugar, 1 egg, 4oz. flour. ½ teaspoon baking powder, pinch salt, 1 extra tablespoon sugar, pink and green coloring, hundreds and thousands.

Cream butter or margarine thoroughly with vanilla and sugar. Beat in egg-yolk, add sifted flour, baking powder, and salt, making a dry mixture. Turn on to floured board, roll thinly. Whip egg-white to meringue consistency with extra sugar, flavor with vanilla. Color half pink, half green. Spread over rolled mixture, pink on one half, green on the other. Sprinkle liberally with hundreds and thousands. Cut into finger-lengths, place on greased tray. Bake 10 to 15 minutes in moderate oven (350deg. F). Allow to cool on tin.

I only made the pink version.  While my unbaked cookies were pleasingly similar to the Arnott's biscuit version...  

Before baking, bright pink and lovely.

after baking they dimmed a bit and the top layer didn't achieve the crispness I was hoping for.

After baking.

If I made these again, I would make the base even thinner, and cook at a slightly lower temperature for longer, in the hopes of avoiding the slight browning. 

#anAWWyear - September 1947: Craft

This post, the alert will spot, is actually being posted in early October, and that is because I fell victim to ambition- I was absolutely determined to finish a particular one of the September craft projects before I blogged about all of them. Sadly, the month ended before I could manage it.

Being a crocheter, September 1947 had a few solid crafty offerings for me. This traycloth, designed to be worked up in join-as-you-go motifs in fine cotton thread, is apparently able to be mastered by 'even those who are just beginning to crochet'.

Delicate crochet traycloth.
Australian Women's Weekly, Sep 20 1947, p53.

While this sort of thread crochet isn't something I can use in my life right now, I did want to test out the motifs, so I made a square of four in a heavier, green crochet cotton as a sample.

My test version, in a heavier cotton.

The motif pattern is indeed quite simple, the joining is easy, and the joined motifs absolutely must be blocked. This has been, and it still needs an iron and perhaps a starch. 

There is also a fantastic two page feature on 'crisp lace accessories for spring' 

This lace jabot will 'revive' a frock or suit.
Australian Women's Weekly, Sep 6 1947, p45

It features a jabot and three different bows. I made the butterfly bow and you can blame the jabot for why this post is so late. 

These are mislabelled- the top one is actually the butterfly bow, as is easy to guess.
Australian Women's Weekly, Sep 6 1947, p45

The butterfly bow - indeed all the bows - are designed to lie flat to be starched and ironed and then are gathered together with a crocheted tie with a button or snap to form the blow shape. I know I crocheted my tie. I blocked it. But somewhere between choosing a button and going to sew the button on, it disappeared. So my butterfly is still in its flat state at the moment. I am searching some more before I admit defeat and crochet another. It has also not yet been starched. 

My flat butterfly bow, waiting for its centre tie,
which may or may not be somewhere in my laundry

I worked up the butterfly in no. 60 crochet cotton and a 1mm hook. This still feels quite big, but it is meant to be a statement piece - the article says that they 'may be placed in lapels or at the yoke of a frock with good effect' or would be 'a smart finish for a belt' so they can't end up tiny.

The jabot, shown made up by the AWW above, and as an artist's impression worn on the second page of instructions (and below) is made in three rectangles of a lace pattern and then pleated onto a neckband. 

Such a chic jabot!
Australian Women's Weekly, Sep 6 1947, p47

I worked this up in an unlabelled cotton thread from my stash but I'm fairly sure it is also a no. 60 cotton and a vintage hook labelled 'Milward' on one side and '4, Made in England, 20' on the other which measures between 1 and 1.25mm on a hook gauge.  It is supposed to be made up in a finer thread (ideally I would have used no. 100) but again, I'm trying to stash bust with this yearly project and not buy supplies.  This is one panel.

One panel of the three needed for the jabot.

If you look at the start of the panel, when you've only completed a short depth, it looks effective to use as an edging.

I think this would look nice on vintage style nightwear, as a sleeve or neck edging.

I only got one and a half panels completed, but I'm going to keep going and finish this one!

Rounding out our September craft is a rather odd craft project, the "reminder of how much we used to smoke" handbag.

Novelty handbag. Yes, it is.
Australian Women's Weekly, Sep 20 1947, p45

Made up of a cigar box and a heap of burnt matches, there was no way I would be making this one, but I thought you'd appreciate seeing it as much as I did.

Now onwards, to October!