Retro Fabric

In Australia we have a craft chair called Spotlight, it's a great place for any craft you do. Well I was there for a totally different matter and came across these Oh So Cute fabric bundles. I got what I could find, two lots of the starts and one of the children.

Strange Little Book

Between other things today I managed to stop into one of our towns op shops. I hadn't been there for an age and after today I know why, it had nothing for me. However I did find this strange little book stuck in with some children's books, "Companion to Grade III. Reader". It was printed in 1946 and not in to bad a shape.

I also scanned some inside pages. Not a back pick up for 50 cents. I wonder if I can find the reading book to go with it.

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Green Kitchen

Well I found this very Australian Kitchen in Australian Home Beautiful, February 1941. It gives a good idea of the standard type of kitchen in Australia in the 40's & 50's.

Things we have talked about for out kitchen are, steel benches (same as the pic), metal handles, small green tile splash back all the way up (much like the yellow in the pic), white/cream (haven't agreed on that yet) cupboards, oh and a green floor to match the walls. However we are having a galley kitchen with a breakfast bar.

Well it's a start, as you can see there are some difference in kitchens from the US to Australian, as we were still on a lot harsher rationing until the middle of the 1950's but then some things are the same. In some ways Australia was a decaed behind the rest of the world, but what we had we had lots of.

New Button

I found this great blog Rhinestones and Telephones and fell in love with the idea of Thrift 365 and added it as a button. The idea would feel very much like living in the 1940's - 50's with the amount of rationing still going on back then in Australia.

Did you know that the only jewellery allowed to be made in Australia during WWII was plain wedding bands. As I'm not a jewellery person this wouldn't have bothered me.

The only issue for us will be the new 1950's kitchen going in later this year. I can't find a second-hand one in good nick and close, so it has to be custom made.

McCalls 3996

Not long after my apron was finished I came across some blue fabric in one of my many boxes of sewing stuff, it was the right type of fabric I needed to make this dress. All I needed to buy was the white bas, Fabric - found, buttons - found, loads of thread. So here is the first 1950's dress I made.

I got the patten from http://www.sovintagepattens.com/, and am very happy with the way it worked out. I know it's a USA patten but it is much like many of the dresses I've seen in photo's. Still trying to find Australian pattens from the 1940's & 50's.

Australian Houses

Made a great find yesterday while shopping, I can't walk by a good book sale and found this book, Australian Houses of the Forties & Fifties By Peter Cuffley. I have already finished a few chapters and love it. It's got every thing you need for a first-time reader on the subject, I couldn't be more happier. The book is an over view of homes built in the 40's & 50's but it has so much more in it, at the back it gives ideas of colours, renovating, furnishing and collecting. A must read for Australian retro fans.

Sewing Made Easy

I got this great 1950's sewing book off EBay before Christmas, Sewing Made Easy By Dorothy Sara with revisions By Irene Gora. I come from a long line of sewing women but since clothes are so cheap these days I've never tryed them till now. Read this book almost from cover to cover before starting my apron loved all the little extra tid-bits and help for making you outfit look store brought. I often go back to it just to make sure I am doing something right.

Right now I'm looking at doing curtains for our smallest child's room and the book has a whole chapter on Sewing for the Home. I'll put updates on that as it comes along.

Visit to the Library

Late yesterday I stopped by the local library to see what I could find, good place to start, if the books not what you want you can take it back and try again. I picked my books mainly based on title as I had a little one with me and he didn't want to sit still.

The Hulton Getty Picture Collection 1950's, Nick Yapp - Not a bad book but not what I was after, lots of great every day pic tho.

20th Century Design 40's & 50's, Helen Jones & Picture History of the 20th Century, Richard Tames - These books are more high school project types but give a good overview and lots of great pics. There is some talk of australia.

Design in Australia 1880 - 1970, Michael Bogle - Now this had more of what I was after, a lot more reading then any of the other with only a few pics but it really helped explain how and why Australia was different to USA and England. Will read this one more in depth.

Not a bad start but I was hoping for more. Will keep reading and looking for more info.

Colours, Colours, Colours

It's funny I can find a lot on the net about paint/colours for 1940-70 but most of it's USA, walk into an Australian store and say retro and they say bright orange. Once I got few to calm down and show them what I was after I started to find all the focus is on Traditional (1800 - 1930's). However some of these could be used, as they are Australian retro. The colours to the right are from Dulux Traditional http://www.dulux.com.au/ , while they are not all strictly retro there are a few you could use, you just need to the at the overall colour scheme you will be doing.

We are leaning towards white, red, green with lots of cromo. So we will need more vivid colours and I found the ones left at Luxury Paints http://www.luxurypaints.com.au/ . They had a lot more in store but I didn't have the time to go through them all.

Will keep looking out for colours but I think it will be a matter of know just what you want and taking to were ever you get your paint and getting them to mix it. Hoping to find an interior desine book that might help.

1950's Apron

After much hunting around the net I found this great patten site So Vintage Patterns, http://www.sovintagepatterns.com/vintagepatterns.html/vintagepatterns.html. Out of all the sites I tryed this is the one I liked the best, easy to use, fast shipping to Australia, lots of pattens and updated often. It's on the higher price end but all the pattens I have gotten so far are great, not a single fault.

So before I start make new lovely dresses I thought I should make an apron to protect them, 50's style. This is a full dress apron for every day use and I love and ware so much I'm going to make an other one.

My First Post

Well here goes nothing. I'm just starting out, as far as the blogging goes but I've already started on the Atomic/Retro change. Will play a little more with the site and hopefully add a new post tomorrow about on of the first things I've done.