#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.