Handkerchief Fashions,Story Book Quilts, and Patchwork story from 1964

Woman's Day magazine from June 1964 had an article about using handkerchiefs to make dresses! The overblouse seen in the photo above was made from five 14" linen handkerchiefs. The hand rolled white edges are seen.

 Above left party dress with a halter top and full skirt was made with fourteen 18" cotton handkerchiefs, plus satin ribbon for the straps and waistband.

The red and white cap sleeve blouse was made from two 23" cotton handkerchiefs with mitered and side slits at the bottom.

The sun dress, 'a flattering compromise between a muu muu and a shift" used fourteen 14" handkerchiefs. Two were folded over to make the yoke, with the others joined and fathered into the yoke.

Designed by Theresa Capuana these quilts had mail order patterns in crib and twin sizes, for the cost of $1.00 each.

 The story in this issue was Patchwork by Sharon Quigley McCann and illustrated by Ted Coconis.

"The tiny bag of minute triangles which had been, to say the least, a strange wedding gift had not entered Christine's mind since the occasion of her wedding shower until one evening about four months after she and Joe were married. She needed something worthwhile to absorb her time while Joe studied...the patches and her Aunt Amanda's desire that she make a quilt came as her salvation.

"She wants me to make a quilt. She gave me the first pieces for my wedding shower: a hundred at least. But there's a catch. The quilt must be entirely hand-sewn, and...after I put the first pieces together I can work on the quilt only when I feel unhappy.

"When it's finished, it will teach me a lesson about life, according to Amanda. She says it's a very important lesson.

"Four years, a pair of healthy twin sons, one law degree, and one dream home later, Christine decided, on Jennie's first day of school, to finish the quilt.

"Perhaps, she thought, she should give the quilt to Jennie on her wedding day, telling her of the events that each section's construction recalled to her mother. Perhaps by giving her the comfort that she had lived through these turmoils, she could cushion the blows that her daughter would inevitably feel.

"Putting the center piece in position, she attached the edges. Yes, that's what she should do: give the ugly thing to Jennie, as a sort of warning.

"She spread the quilt on the living-room floor and went to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee...as she walked into the living room and saw the quilt lying as she had carefully placed it, it seemed to assume and entirely different appearance from that it had had five minutes before.

"How could it seem, now, not to be homely? It looked, in fact, with its character of completeness, like a work of art? ...Why, it was actually beautiful!

"Now, now, is the lesson mine to learn. After so wrongly regarding it for all these years as the fruit of the worst hours of her married life, she knew now--ah, and this was the lesson she had never guessed in all the times she had tried! The quilt now, in its truth, in its oneness, in its deep beauty drawn from each of the episodes it recalled to its creator, declared it had been made lovingly, when she, girl-turning-woman, was at her best.'

July 1964 Woman's Day: Make an Embroidered Denim Coverlet

Has it been fifty years? Now 1964 styles and decor are so old they are all the rage. Thanks to Mad Men and nostalgia for the past. Our son wants Mid-Century Modern inspired furniture. Renovating not remodeling Mid-Century ranch homes is a fad.

Women's magazines at the grocery store check out line offered crash courses in consumer education.  Magazines alway taught women about style and decor, going back to Lady Godey's and other Victorian magazines that came available then. More people could read and the printing press offered cheap reading material. But the huge color ads and pics were a post-war luxury.

They look so small by today's standards. Love that gold fridge!

Big innovation! Moms no longer needed to add the sugar. What a time saver.

Debbie Reynolds was in The Unsinkable Molly Brown at this time, a novel about a woman who survived the sinking of the Titanic 

Hair and makeup advice based on skin tone. Notice the absence of women of color?

Egad! Is that Don Draper at the phone? Pay phones! When did you last see one?

I never asked to go to Disneyland, but I did ask about going to the New York World's Fair. I had friends who went. We lived in Western New York State. I mean we were in the same state after all. To my kid's mind it was like going to the Hamburg Fair. Only bigger. And a little farther.

The great thing in this magazine was the coverlet quilt! it is pretty cool. 

Denim quilt with embroidery embellishments!

Instructions for the quilt:

Blue Denim Quilt
56" x 72"
Each square is 4"

Materials: The original quilt was made from scraps of overalls and jeans. Or buy 4 yards of 36" wide denim materials. Scraps of printed and plain cotton fabric, rickrack, and embroidery floss. Lining requires 4 yards of 36" percale. You also needed 'bedspread cotton' in assorted colors and black to crochet around each square and a steel crochet hook No. 6

Squares: cut 252 each 4 1/2" squares from denim material. Trim as desired with appliqué, rick rack, etc. The appliqué is edged or trimmed with embroidery. Stitches included buttonhole, herringbone, feather stitch, lazy daisy, French know, and outline stitched worked with s strands of 6-ply floss.

Edges: turn under edges of the trimmed squares 1/8". With colored bedspread cotton, work single crochet sc around each square. Space stitches close together and work 3 sc in each corner. Break off. Attach black and work sc in each sc around, working 3 sc in each corner. Break off.

Finishing: Arrange and then sew squares together at edge of crochet to form a rectangle 14 squares wide by 18 squares long. Cut and piece lining to fit top, allowing 1/2" for seams and turn under. Turn under 1/2" all around outer edge and sew to top. Tack through both layers in several place to hold lining in place or tack at corners of each square.
THE END