Vintage Secret Santa Review

I realized that I'd never posted about what I received from my Secret Santa! I received a pair of antique knitting needles (wooden, size "3"), and a vintage cookbook entitled "Maine Coastal Cooking: Down East Recipes dating from 1664". The full inside title is: "Maine Coastal Cooking and the Accomplisht Cook, OR, The whole Art and Mystery of COOKERY, fitted for all Degrees and Qualities." Collected and published by Courier-Gazette, Inc in the 1960s.

I also had a very sweet card.

I have to admit, I was a bit intimidated when it came to finding the perfect gifts for you, and I hope I did alright! The knitting needles are from the turn of the century, and though simple, are some of the loveliest I've encountered! And I can't get over how old some of the recipes in the book are... Plus I thought the New England connection would be fitting. :) I hope you enjoy everything and have a lovely holiday and start to the new year. And feel free to keep in touch via post, facebook, or instagram, especially to report in if you try any of the recipes!
XOXO [Secret Santa]

I haven't yet had the chance to read through the cookbook, but what I've seen has been fascinating. The index is in the CENTER of the book (on green cardstock)(it's a spiral-bound booklet), and it appears that the recipes aren't particularly sorted, either by date or ingredient or type of foodstuff. I look forward to exploring its secrets.

In my OWN Secret Santa news, I instagram-stalked by giftee, and discovered that her gifts arrived safe and sound. Yay!

Updates on VSS and Suit

So I mailed out the package to my Secret Santa giftee yesterday. I wrapped everything and drew a little Christmas themed image with silver sharpie. I also wound up using the LAST of the burgundy/gold star wrapping paper that I got when I was in college! It's weird to not have it still around. :-P

I definitely didn't have time to make a full vintage suit before my wedding, but I'm borrowing a blouse from the mother of two of my students (her face when I said I'd find something lying around my house was absolutely hilarious), and I WILL have time to make the skirt for the suit this weekend.

While proctoring this week I finalized the design and I wrote out the steps. It'll be a upper-calf length skirt, based off of the Edwardian 5-gore skirt I used for Earnest, and with lots of pleating in the back panels. It'll also be flatlined with the wrap-around sneaky method (you wind up with "hong kong" finished edges as well as the lining.

Steps for Skirt
1) Re-draft pattern for my measurements. Make sure to adjust BOTH width and length uniformly.
2) Double check seam lengths before finalizing.
3) Cut out wool and silk.
4) Zigzag edges of all pieces.
5) Hem silk panels.
6) Attach silk to wool.
7) Stitch side seams.
8) Set zipper.
9) Pleat back panels.
10) Interface waistband.
11) Bias bind waistband edge.
12) Attach waistband; use stitch in the ditch coupled with bias bound edge for inner edge.
13) Attach hem tape to wool.
14) Catch stitch hem of wool.
15) Slip stitch silk hem to wool hem.
16) Handwork buttonhole.
17) Attach button and garment loops.

I will try to photodocument this process, but it's mostly straight forward.

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I ALSO put together a basic step order for the suit jacket:
- make mock-up to test fit
- cut out wool
- bound buttonholes
- interfacing! carrier strips, pad stitching, tailor basting, etc.
- twill tape on roll line
- interlining
- seaming
- cut and sew lining
- attach pockets
- lining + jacket
- hand sew hems at sleeves and body

** Interline jacket with flannel to protect from hair canvas through thin lining **

interline sleeves?
add tiny double welt pockets near shoulder?

Chronically Vintage's Vintage Gift Exchange

Last year I was a bit of a bum and poor in my gifting and my giftee was amazingly generous. So I'll make up for that this year.

My person is newly married, expecting her first child, a crafter/sewer/knitter, and has an Edwardian home. So! I'm going to have four things in this, two of which are from my far-too-large collection in my own home. So firstly are a few trims and laces from the massive stash that I got from Mary a while back. 2 blue laces, a purple, white, 2 tan, red scalloped on white and blue/yellow scalloped on sheer.

I'm also going to give a table runner type object that's embroidered in white. It's currently washing in the sink and I'll press and starch it well too.

The next two things I ordered on Etsy. The first is a set of three adorable vintage framed children's prints. My person had mentioned knitting a baby blanket with bunny puff tails, so I looked for bunnies.

I also got a Marion Harland cookbook from the 1870s. I love my Marion Harland's Complete Cookbook and wanted to share the joy of quirky Victorian/Edwardian cookbooks with their comments about cleaning and how to deal with maids.

The Etsy description is:
Here is a very interesting and hard to find copy of “Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery” by Marion Harland, published in 1874. This antique cookbook is loaded with interested recipes. The spine is nicely decorated with gold lettering. The contents of this book include Blanc-mange, Bread, Brandied Fruits, Butter, Cakes, Candy, Canned Fruits and Vegetables, Catsups, to Clean, Company, Corn Bread, Creams, Custards, Drinks, Eggs, Familiar Talks, Fish, Ripe Fruit for Dessert, Game, Gingerbread, Ices, Ice-cream, Icing, Jellies, Fruit Jellies, Meats, Milk, The Nursery, Pancakes, Pickles, Pies, Preserves, Pork, Poultry, Puddings, Salads, Sauces for Fish and Meat, Servants, The Sick-room, Shell-fish, Soap, Soups, Sundries, Tarts, Vegetables, and Flavored Vinegars! The binding of this book is holding strong with all pages intact. Look at some of the great contents! This book measures approximately 5” x 7 ¾” and has 556 pages. A great book for any collection!

This is an original cookbook from 1874, it is over 140 years old!