CRAFT crimes

As promised, some "Craft to be avoided" from the beloved “Golden Hands Encyclopedia of CRAFTS”

The more I look, the more I realise that the "recycling” and "money saving" crafts are the most guilty! Here are some hilarious examples of what not to do with old denim.

The handy light cover with pockets idea was so innovative it was featured twice! Once as a handy kitchen light ("Now where did I put the cork screw, honey? In the light shade pocket of course!So glad we have such a handy place to put things!What on earth did we do before we had such a handy light shade?" Perhaps it could be used for condiments and cuttlery???)

And the denim light cover appears again - this time with a group of crafty ladies doing macrame under it, utilising the pockets as handy holders for pens and brushes.

And don't these two girls look dead impressed with these foot stools made from old cans? I'm sure they toppled off as soon as the shutter went click. That's why they look so grumpy. It's take two and they are sitting very still and nursing bruised elbows. Mind you I'm seriously envious of the girl on the left's stripy socks and patent leather clogs!!!!

Oh and more denim - love the embroidered pocket detail from a pair of lovely flared Jo jeans no doubt.

And yes, my mother did make a version of these foot stools from beer cans(for you younger folk, beer cans were made of steel back then)and I also went to school with a bag made from the top of a LARGE pair of jeans, complete with pockets. Worse still, mine was made from WHITE denim. Hmmm. Guilty of craft crime!

posted by Julianne Sister outlaw

Golden Hands Encyclopedia of CRAFTS

Recently I inherited my mum’s collection of craft books. My favourite is the Golden Hands Encyclopedia of CraftS  -with the word “crafts” printed in a stencil font. 

They were published by Marshall Cavendish Ltd in the mid - late seventies and arrived in weekly instalments.  There was always great excitement in our house on a Friday when Mum had gone “up the street” to do her shopping. This was a once a week epic journey on foot for mum which involved stopping and chatting with everyone she came across and often took all day, walking up the longest main street for a small town in Australia  - yep! What a claim to fame our town had. Long and skinny like a stretched out piece of elastic. Mum would return with the much anticipated craft magazine. We poured over each edition. Later we would spend evenings flicking through past copies, all collected into folders. Well - we lived in the country. Not much to do...

Before I packed the books into a box and brought them home from Mum’s, we took a trip down memory highway looking through the volumes, usually collapsing into waves of laughter at some of the ridiculous and ugly crafts on offer! The funniest part being that Mum would say, “Oh yes I made that.” Quite dead pan and serious!

Over the weeks I’ll share some of the funnier things – crafts to be avoided – as well as some of the lovelier images for inspiration – crafts from the past.  The  books also had a weekly chapter on recycling and money saving craft! Mind you if I look through these books much more I might get a page boy hair cut and start wearing William Morris fabric smocks... in fact...I found a pattern for that on page 820!

smock made from head scarves