22 February 1956 “Dress Challenge Debacle, Spring Fabrics, Marilyn and Daisies, Automobile’s Across the ‘Pond’, And A Bus Boycott”

I had intended to be sharing my February Dress Challenge success with this post, but I have been having some trouble with it. I have pinned and repined it on myself and changed it three or four times and now it might be a completely different looking dress. But, I promise it WILL be done before the 1st. of March and I will share my results with you.
Here are some fabrics I recently purchased to start my Spring dresses. This is my color palette for the season. The first is actually a lovely spring green but it looks more yellow in the photo. I love the second fabric so much, here it is closer and it looks so vintage. It is actually a new fabric but it was marked down and might be discontinued. I think I have enough to do a short sleeved dress.
Speaking of Fashion,
look how fresh and modern this 1956 Vogue photo looks. Vintage does not have to be frumpy and whip creamy. It can be tailored and smart. Though I do like a bit of froth and twee as well, which is why I love the fashions of the 1950’s. It seemed to embody both the classic clean lines as well as frippery and fantasy. It did not take itself too seriously, yet seriously enough that you knew you better look darn good when you went into ‘town’ and even if you were taking the dogs for a walk in a pair of trousers, you’d still have a hat, gloves, scarf and some jewelry to make the ‘look’.
Here are two lovely Cecil Beaton Photos of Marilyn Monroe taken today, 22 February 1956. It shows the innocence of the early part of the decade and the sultry sexuality that will ultimately form the 60’s and onward. Even the use of the daisy has an odd foretelling of design and style in the coming 1960s. 60’s daisy clock 60’s daisy fabric and even Pyrex It is interesting to view the stages of fashion, art, photography and so on during the end of one decade to see it slowly evolve into the next’s ‘latest thing’.
The Fiat 600 was released this year, 1956, in Europe. When you see the compact size and almost modern lines, you wonder how it was that we were making such larger cars. And the Fiat 600 Multipla could seat six and was a recreation type vehicle, yet look at how small it is. Then compare what the USA was making the same year. As this Chevy and this Ford.
I wonder why it was that we just made larger cars? Could it be the endless space we had and the increased production from after the war? We also had a great burgeoning highway system forming at this point as well. And of course gas was becoming even more big business. It is interesting that small compact cars were being made in Europe this early.
It looks as if any idea of Foreign cars are considered a sports or luxury car at this point in time. This 56 Feb edition of Sports Cars Illustrated features MG’s. I love MG’s. I am much younger (20 years) than my older Siblings. I remember when I was very young, about 5 or so, my sister had a lovely racing green MG convertible. I have fond memories of she and I going shopping together, and I would love to wear a scarf on my head, as she did. Once they had children, the car went away. It was a darling little thing.
This is a photo of Martin Luther King’s arrest this month in 1956. As mentioned in my 1955 year, when Parks was arrested (and even preceding her in the 1940’s a woman was also arrested for not giving up her seat) the year long Montgomery Bus Boycott is still continuing. Blacks had to fill the bus by sitting at the back to the front and the whites sat filling the front to the back. The two races would meet halfway. When the bus was full and a white person got on, a black person in the rows behind the last white row HAD to get up for that white person, no matter if you were male, female, young or old. This year, later in the summer, the Alabama laws of bus segregation will be declared unconstitutional.
I have said it before and I will say it again: if we would try and treat one another as we want to be treated and to respect each other as human beings and then follow the manners of age (such as an older person should be offered a seat by a younger) and gender sometimes ( A man letting a lady have his seat) so much of the hate and violence may not have had to happen.
What is interesting is we see things now that have been changed, yet how badly they have had to come about because of people not wanting it, fighting it and there being horrible violence. Even the rights of women to vote etc was at first intensely objected. Then to the point of horrible cruel treatment to women, but in the end they won the rights. The same with blacks in our country. Yet, we continue, in the case of people who are considered not justified to have rights equal to all, to fight such things. Do we really not see that in the end those rights will out and that the unnecessary hatred and destruction could be easily avoided if we buy consider we are all allowed our own freedoms. We may not all agree on the same religion, politics etc, but we are ALL of us humans and Americans and I do wish people could be more kind, rational and just better mannered. Because we were not in the past, now we have people who are rude and angry for not having their rights. It is not right for them to have that anger, per se, but if we could just, even now, try to be more tolerant of one another, than we might be able to stop future problems such as this.
If we are, each of us, strong in our own convictions (rather it is religion, politics, etc) privately, then what matters it if there are people who live or act differently? If we raise our children to respect one another and to understand our own beliefs, than we cannot live in a world of fear that they will be affected or wronged by ‘those people’ now matter who or what ‘those people’ are. Acting cruel and irrational because we fear, do not understand, or personally loathe another person’s actions is not only damaging but only serves to show us up as brutes. Let us not try to coerice others into what we want, let us show our points of view and feelings through example. If we live as we see fit, as kind, considerate and thoughtful people, than others may wish to emulate us. If we see what we do not like or fear or loathe and then shout and throw mud at that which disgusts us, have we not then, ourselves, become disgusting?
I know I am going off on a tangent, but I really do think if we could think with kindness and consideration first our actions could be better served to a brighter future.

18 February 1955 “Some Fun Bits and Bobs and Making Time For Your ACTION or Doing It All.”

This is a great British short about a movie star/journalist doing over a country cottage. I love the blue paper in the stair hall, though she doesn’t use it in the end. Look for it when she unrolls it to show to her little poodle.

COTTAGE CONVERSION (aka EDANA ROMNEY)

I think I have shown this before, but we have been discussing hair in the Forums and I felt it would be fun to show this one again. If they still made this home perm, I think I would give it a try. I wonder if I could get a salon to do a pin curl permanent on me?

I found this a fun little ‘story’ about a British ‘Farm Girl’ who become’s Beauty of the Month.

FARM GIRL BEAUTY

I have to say, I am not completely in love with her hairstyle after her make over. This is from 1957 and you can already start to see the move to a bouffant look.

Now, one of our fellow Apronite’s, Zebu,  posted this question on my last blog:

Do you ever find yourself with your plate too full when you are always making yourself trying new things rather than saying, “Well, after this or that”? This is an area that I need to work on, and I am just wondering at which point you tell yourself to stop or that learning something new will have to wait until you have less going on. I really appreciate your insight, as I was just thinking, about an hour before reading this, that I have been wanting to try a particular new thing but that this year is taken up with other goals and maybe it would have to wait.

Now, this is something for which I definitely struggle. It may have been a bit more of a problem before 1955, but I do have to watch it now.

I have always wanted to do a billion things. I like to try them and am lucky (or unlucky not sure which) in that my personality and general demeanor is okay with trying something, not liking or losing interest, and moving on. I try not to beat myself up over things tried and failed or interest waned.

Now, having said that, I also know that one good lesson 1955 taught me was Lists and  Prioritize. There are still so many things I want to try, but have put them on the back burner. That does not mean I do not think about them and in fact because they become part of my Hierarchy of Hopes, I can always, of a day, jot down ideas or items to them in my journal of future endeavors. Yes, I have plans or things I would like to try out and then I jot them down and if I think of aspects of it or things I would like to add then I can jot them down with the idea in a journal (like thorough note taking-I was a whiz at note taking, as I loved to procrastinate study and could always rely on my notes last minute to give me a good point by point synopsis of the terms lecture).

A case in point is the website. This was a big undertaking for me. It was not something that I ever really wanted or thought  about before 1955, but due to our wonderful talks and all the information I was collecting and enjoying doing so, I felt it needed a repository of sorts. Now, of a morning, I might have a little grip of panic as I think, “Good lord! I have so much information I want to upload, so many images to scan, to have another hand at laying it out” I get overwhelmed with it. I have to stop myself and say, “Okay, one hour of time on it today. Even if what you do does not immediately show up for others to see, just go at a steady pace and keep it in context to your day”. This will help me to calm down and to, literally, ‘schedule it’ into my day.

It has come to be my opinion that for the most part we modern people (not all of us, as I am sure there are many of you out there that are amazing people who do a million things a day)but we seem to still desire to try and do things but often find our self never beyond the planning stage. And I see, in bookshops, online etc, that there is an entire business niche built around this very attitude. The “Get organized” “You can do it” “Planning” books. I am not saying these are bad and I love my vintage organizers, but they seem a different breed of book to today’s versions. Now, I am not saying, don’t use them or buy them, but realize they are a part of the process of DOING and that simply, wanting to try something, watching a few shows about it, some YouTube, and buying a stack of magazines and books about it is NOT doing it. That is the prep work, at the most.

I was guilty of such things. I am sure there are homes littered with organizing books and magazines that are simply part of the piles of disorder and chaos of the home. This hardly seems helpful and in fact seems to only add to the very thing you are trying to dispel.

Now, as for trying new things, I certainly have a lot on my plate. When I see or hear something, as someone asking about a little scrubby you can make, I become intrigued. I look it up, find out it is crochet, and then I want to try it out as well. In this case, I learned a quick little stitch pattern that can satisfy that need for now. I can hardly crochet a sweater or blanket yet, but I don’t necessarily need or want to. I can learn a ‘bit of the skill’ and still get a great deal of satisfaction from it. So, I feel, in some cases things can be only done half way with still pleasing results. For the most part, if you are going to do something, they say, then do it right or don’t do it at all. That could be true for some things, but I fell, particularly with our modern world of easy diversion and uber procrastination, that sometimes learning only a bit, enough to make one  satisfied and enjoy it, can be enough. Then, if that skill or study becomes of more interest, you will wish to follow through more and make a better show of it. You will naturally be driven to want to perfect it and that is when you could easily let another thing go to the wayside.

I think we see so many reality shows about ‘who is the best, or supreme chef, decorator, designer etc’ that we feel we need to be the best at something or why bother. Just sit back and watch someone else fail or succeed. It is all a competition for the single BEST of that thing. Well, it is not really a great message for the masses. We don’t need to be a great designer and seamstress to have a happy sewing life. I am proof of that. I am only now learning to use the different feet and about more than basic sewing on my ‘new’ machine, but before that I could sew forward and reverse. I did not even change the foot to a zipper foot to put in zippers. I merely figured out a way to do it with the normal foot. This may seem lazy or a half-attempt, but for me, at the time, I needed to make some vintage dresses and things, I knew sewing to be a part of my day in 1955 so I used and learned what I could. Now, I could happily go forward with what I know, but the eventual curiosity of ‘well, now how did they do that?” will find me learning more. But, I did not let a thorough knowledge and understanding of all of sewing and pattern making stop me from sewing and making my own dress style and pattern up.

So, I really think, if you have a list of things you want to try you should, prioritize them. You will also find that some will feed off others. Such as ‘dress more vintage and learn basic sewing’ go hand in hand, two sides of the same coin, really. Don’t be afraid to start something a little bit. Better to schedule an hour or 1/2  hour on a day off to attempt it’s beginnings than to only relegate it to a list and a pile of magazines.

I think the other BIG task in undertaking and beginning to try out and do new things is to take away some of your tv/computer time. I know, I know, I shouldn’t go on about it and yes, I know I am currently writing this on a computer, but we do , we modern people, waste a lot of time. If you have made a little list of things you would like to try/learn then go through your week mentally and think about the tv/computer time. Can you steal half an hour here and there to put towards this skill/idea/ task you would like to undertake? You might be surprised how much time, like pin money with nickels and dimes, you can ‘store away’ to ‘spend’ on trying out new things. Think of it as a little ‘skill bank’ where you collect up minutes and hours here and there to try out your new project/skill.

  I am not sure if that is helpful or realistic for all of us. I would really encourage you to not feel as if you are ‘spreading yourself to thin’ but actually, trying out some things to see which is worth investing more time and energy into. If you like a multitude of things, then see where and when you can steal more time for it. I still think a person would be happier doing a few things not on a professional level, but still a satisfying level more so than not doing anything at all. There is truth to doing one thing very well, but if you are craving more, than you aren’t satisfied with that one thing.

Another aspect of the modern world (and modern education) is the over specialization  of things. There seems to be a very separate way we wish to break things into little boxes.  Thus,  there are 20 magazines, one on sewing , one on knitting, one on crochet, one on cooking, one on decorating country, one on decorating modern etc. When really, many of these things could and should feed off one another and are often all found in one contained copy of a magazine or book from the 1950s. We seem to separate so many things so they become disparate parts when they are, in fact, all intertwined and feed off one another. No wonder we often feel lost or unable to start. We even have people who ‘specialize’ in helping us decide what to do.

Perhaps it is part of the marketing and selling of the modern world as you can sell more magazines and items that way. But,  I think the ‘renaissance man’ approach to life is better: to be well versed in all aspects of life, not just a few and the rest just idleness.

17 February 1956 “Waste Not Want Not, A New Movie and Composer, The BREAD Quest”

I have started baking more of my own bread. It has been something I have wanted to work into my normal weekly routine. So, since this has been happening the past two weeks, I have not bothered to buy any new bread. Then, this morning, as I was retrieving the homemade bread (this one is a whole wheat bread, recipe below) I realized I had somehow forgot to remove the leftover store-bought bread in a bag in the bottom of my large tin bread bin.

I took it and and there was a bit of mold, so I simply took a knife, cut off that bit and tossed it into the yards for the birds and proceeded to cut up the rest into little chunks. I put it back into its original bag and popped it into the fridge to use. I figured, I will make a meat loaf tonight and can use that as filler.

This was all a simple little act that took not much decision and a few seconds of my morning. But, in the middle of it I was suddenly struck by what I was doing. I imagined myself a year ago, 1955, first learning and just getting my toes wet into the ‘ways of the Homemaker’. I think it very nice that such things are more natural or second nature. Really, it took very little more time that just tossing it away and it also made me think ,”How shall I use it? Stuffing? Filler? Croutons?” and that helped me to cement my dinner menu plans.

The old me would have tossed it without thinking. I sometimes shudder when I think of the amount of waste I used to create. It isn't’ even an issue of ‘being green’, but really just common sense. Even if bread is cheap and readily available at any store, why should I toss out any good bread and have to spend more money? But, we modern people, as a whole (I know most of you, my readers, are very smart Homemakers that could probably teach me a thing or two and believe me, I would be glad for the lesson)but as a whole we are a wasteful lot.

Now, I don’t want to go off on some tangent about how we are such bad modern people and we should do this or that. I just really thought it an interesting observation I had while about my ‘busy’ work this morning in my kitchen. I am often finding myself going along as if I have always lived this way and then little memories of ‘before 1955’ slip in and I think, “Wow, I have come a long way”.  I am still amazed at how completely we can change our view and actions. Persistence, determination, work seem to result in real change. That makes me feel good and more in control of my life.

Yesterday the 16th, here in 1956, the movie Carousel opened.

This Rodgers and Hammerstein play had great success on the stage and this was it’s film debut staring Gordon MaCrae and Shirley Jones.

Today, The Second Symphony of Chilean composer Juan Orrego-Salas receives its world premiere in Minneapolis, Minn. I could not find the second symphony, but this is nice and you can hear both the discordant sound of a ‘modern’ composition, but mingled with a sweet promise of the piano that seems to me often true of the 1950’s. The shattered way in which it came about from the war, the continued rationing, housing shortage and yet the promise and hope of a new tomorrow.

  This 1956 Craft Horizons magazine from this month, ‘56, seems so modern. The organic shapes and the lightness of material could easily be seen in any up market shop or gallery today.

 

As mentioned at the beginning of this post, I have been on a sort of ‘Bread Quest’, making and trying every recipe for bread I can get my eager little fingers on. As with most things I have discovered from 1955, once you just try a thing, just set aside the modern notion of, “Oh, when I have time” or “Well, when I get around to it I  will…” and fill in the blank. That was me very often. Now, I often find myself saying I want to try something and then the modern me might chime in and say, “well, after this or that” and then I turn and say to that part of me, “Now, come one. No time like the present, just get in there and do it!” I often have to be rather stern with myself, but I do learn in the end and anyway, my reward is a warm piece of bread!

Well, this ‘Bread Quest lead me to the recipe. It was a whole wheat bread and was really dense and wonderful, but it did not rise properly. I was not familiar with this form of bread recipe and was confused by its directions to make the ‘sponge’ and wait until it was bubbly.

Well, the sponge was the yeast and some white flour and warm water set in a warm place “ ‘till bubbly and light” which is certainly open for much interpretation. The recipe was rather vague about directions and it’s method called the yeast flour mixture a ‘sponge’ and I think I did not let that get ‘bubbly’ enough. It did get a little bubbly, and the this was a ‘no-knead’ bread, so I already felt as if I was cheating somehow. It did rise, but I don’t think I let it rise enough. However, the resluting little dense rectangular loaf was lovely!

My hubby even told me he shared half a slice with a co-worker who was eyeing his lunch. This happens a lot to hubby and he often gets a few people anxiously asking, “Oh, what did you get today?” recalling days of childhood sat at long tables littered with little brown bags and trading of Twinkies and ho-ho’s with the kid whose mother ‘baked’. The coworker took a bite, looked at hubby and said, “This is the best bread I have ever eaten”.

This made me smile, because I certainly knew it was NOT the best bread I have ever baked and I really have only been baking bread a few months total. I would sporadically try it in 1955, but was often left telling myself my 1955 counterpart would have happily filled her cart at the new Grocery stores with sliced bread. Even the saying, ‘better than sliced bread’ told of the greatness of the enriched pre-made loaves of the day. But, I digress…

The bread, though not properly risen, was good.

Here it is. It is a sad little rectangle loaf, but really good. It made me think of images I had seen of the ‘national loaf’ they had used in the UK during the war which was made from potato flour and was suppose to be in taste, similar to cardboard. Mine, however, was really good.

Here is the recipe I used:

EASY WHOLE WHEAT BREAD
1 c. warm water
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tbsp. sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1 env. yeast
1/4 c. hot water
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. shortening, melted
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
Mix hot water with brown sugar and shortening and cool to lukewarm.
Mix first 5 ingredients and beat until smooth. Set in warm place, free of drafts, until light and bubbly.
Add the lukewarm mixture to the sponge and mix well. Add the whole wheat flour and beat smooth, but do NOT knead. Place in one greased loaf pan and let rise until double in bulk. Bake at 350 degrees about 45-50 minutes.
As this is a sponge type of dough, be careful not to move or shake the pan while rising.

So, I began, as I often do, to do some research. What was this ‘sponge’ of which the recipe spoke? So, I did some research and found an answer in another bread I have been wanting to try: Sourdough Bread.

Now, the making of bread for me has a three fold directive. First, I enjoy it. The making of food, I have found, is not unlike the creative process in a studio or art class. It is both tactile and cerebral. Secondly, the taste is far superior to anything I can buy and the quality is good and healthy as I know what is going into the food. And, finally, cost effective. I often find homemade can mean less money. Yet, with bread, the cost of each loaf would always be so highly affected by the cost of yeast, it does not seem to come cheap. So, with my research into the infamous bread “sponge”, my piqued interest in the realm of sourdough, I found the answers to both those questions.

First, the SPONGE: this is for all intents and purposes a bowl of warm fermented batter. Setting a bowl of this ‘sponge’ in a warm place to let it ferment or ‘proof’ is what was needed for my bread recipe. It was not clear about the time and I see now I did not let it ‘proof’ long enough. It can take only an hour or two or up to 6-8!

Now, my sponge was made by using store bought yeast added to flour and warm water. As I researched the sponge I found I had stumbled onto sourdough bread making. Wonderful, one path hooks to another trail I had hoped to follow ( I find this happening a lot in homemaking skills).

Now, I love sourdough bread and really had no idea what it was made from. I assumed, sour milk? Well, I was wrong. The wonderful thing is you make sourdough bread with a ‘sponge’ and the ‘sponge’ is a living thing you create and keep and feed. The best part is, you don’t need to start with store bought yeast.

Basically, from what I understand, it is a cup of warm water and flour and then over a few days your ‘feeding’ it gives you the starter that you then can keep and use and add to forever! This was an exciting find. This would and could help in overall cost and also be rather fun. Like a little helper, quietly growing in my icebox.

So, I have not made this sourdough starter to make my ‘sponge’ as of yet, but it is the next bread quest. I shall share my results and pictures of it and if it works, I may have a new little friend around the house, my little ‘starter’ happily residing in an old crock in my ice box that I can occasionally feed.

It really does begin to bring you closer to our connection with food. We modern people really are separated from the source and chemistry of what we eat. It is probably good we are, because when we begin to look at what is in what we actually eat, all the store bought pre-made, it can be a bit disconcerting. I am not sure, in this case, if ‘ignorance is bliss’. But, just as keeping your own chickens, gathering those eggs and using them makes a connection and a realization between animal and food, so to does bread making. I begin to see how with a small arsenal of flour, butter, eggs, milk etc you have the key ingredients to so many things. At one point in our distant past, this was our arsenal of food. We needed food, we didn’t just want to eat the grass and raw kill, so we, (We women I might add!) began to mix and meld and create. Food was born. Dishes made and created. The fresh smells of bread and food cooking, the very basic nurturing scent that makes all of us, close our eyes, inhale and think, “Ahhhhh”.

Forget aromatherapy candles and odd bamboo sticks sat in glass bottles filled with odd oils to soothe your frazzled nerves. Take two minutes to throw together an easy bread recipe (This one is good) and when it begins to rise and then bake, grab that magazine, a cuppa and sit back and let the relaxation begin.

13 February 1956 “My ‘New’ Best Friend, Dress Planning and Some Recipes”

I would like to introduce you all to my new best friend: Isn’t she a beauty? Since my sewing machine breakdown in January (which resulted in my borrowing a friend’s machine so I could do my January Dress Challenge.) I began researching the ultimate Vintage Machine.

In my research I found that the Singers up until the mid 1960’s were all steel work horses made in the USA.

I had at first thought to get the coveted Singer 401. These were from the mid 1950’s and are a coveted work horses. It’s abilities to sew through layers of leather and heavy sailcloth, the strong steel construction and the amount of various feet for different jobs keep that at around $300.00 or so in good condition on eBay ( or cheaper if you are lucky to find one locally at a yard sale!) I began to see the 500, which was called the “ROCKETEER”. I found, for some reason, that these tended to sell for less, despite the fact that they are the same machine inside and out (though I actually like the exterior Design of the Racketeer) and that it has a few more stitch abilities than the 401.
I had been squirreling away money here and there from grocery shopping and my ‘weekly allowance’ (I do the books for our marriage and give, based on my budget, a weekly ‘allowance’ of cash to hubby and I to spend or save for ‘niceties’ as we like). I finally came across a 500 at an incredible price (they are usually around the $200 range on eBay) with all the feet, the cams(that let you do different stitches etc) and original instruction booklet. So, I ordered it and have been waiting patiently for a week. I have even kept my mouth shut here on the blog and the forums, as I did not want to talk about it until it was in my hands!
I have to say, so far, I am not disappointed. It is a beautiful machine. I read an article that said to get a modern machine of this quality and abilities today would be around $2000.00. And to think my machine was made around 1950/60 and it still works wonderfully is a lot to say about its construction. There is not ONE plastic part. IT is all steel built in the USA. Even the feet are of such quality metal it feels as if they may have used silver in their makeup (they have the feel of an old quarter compared to a modern quarter).
You can really see why a homemaker of yesterday really appreciated her sewing machine. This machine was the top of the line in its day and would have been close to 1400 dollars, so would have been a major investment like a car. But, when you consider what you could do with it. There was no Old Navy to go to, so clothes handmade were a savings as were house goods, as curtains, tablecloths, you name it. We are lucky today to have at our disposal the well made wonderful machines of yore to be had at affordable prices. The sewing machine was really a tool that gave a woman endless creative outlet as well as the power to clothe her family and dress her home and anything her little heart could desire. An entire art school/studio space all rolled into a few pounds of steel!
Besides basic stitching, there are endless ‘specialty’ stitches for decorative as well as bindings etc. I was also lucky to get all the feet it came with as well as a specialty foot for embroidery, that I am very excited about. Though I have only tried it a bit, I think it will really be a great way to do pockets and decorations on aprons, skirts pillows etc. I also can envision some fabric art happening. Here it is, you can see it has a little spring and a guide to help hold things in place. I really just  did a little filling in for practice, but it works wonderfully. The little foot bed under the needle raises up for embroidery work and for darning of socks/sweaters any thing that needs mending (there is even a mending setting which shows how much this type of machine would mean to a homemaker).
Here are two feet that I am excited to try: First is the Binder Foot. (click to enlarge) this is a wonderful attachement, as it not only makes a folded roll hem, but you can feed bias tape over the edge as well. This allows for there to be a finished hem edge of bias tape with a decorative stitch if you wish. Wonderful possibilities for this.
The second foot is the Ruffler foot: This contraption looks like something out of science fiction. Here are the wonders it can make: Ruffles (obviously, hence the name) And these lovely pleats: I have made a few skirts with simple pleats, but I had to hand pin all of them. I also think the second picture with the ‘group pleating’ would make a lovely Valence/Pelmet for a curtain topper, don’t you think?
I promise myself to slowly learn the intricacies of this machine. Right now my sewing skills involve, sewing a straight stitch back and forth. I have never even used a zipper foot (just the standard foot, but looking at the zipper foot, I can see how much easier it shall be). This also came with a wonderful Buttonholer, which seems an interesting machine. But, I want any of you out there who have not sewn before to realize, you can do it. I have had NO ONE teach me to use the machine. I have taught myself the simple things I can now do with it, yet have made dresses and skirts and aprons for myself. I want, know with my wonderful Singer ROCKETEER, to be able to make curtains and slipcovers and better tailored clothes with details etc.
In fact the first ‘challenge’ with my machine is to use the Ruffler foot to so pleats in my February Dress Challenge and to also make ruffles and make myself a new bathroom curtain. I shall share, of course, the success or failures and the ‘how to’ with you.
For my February Dress Challegne (as I want to keep them somewhat simple how-to’s for beginners, as that is what I am) will be taking a men’s shirt, here I bought this lovely chocolate brown one for 5 dollars at a local shop. and these few yards of this lovely pink and brown cotton. Here, for scale, you can see the print and the shirt cuff together. So, my plan is to take the shirt and the fabric and make a dress. I will add darts to the shirt as need be to make it ‘fitted’ and the skirt will be hemmed and attached to the shirt. And to tie the dress together I will take excess pink fabric and either add to the shirts cuffs or collar and possibly a pocket square. IF it turns out is should be similar to this. I could even shorten the sleeves, as they have them here  and add the skirt trim as the shirt cuffs. Here you can see a darling belt. I might make one with the pink fabric and can use one of the buckles I got in my goodies from Ann’s Estate Sale.  So, I am hoping this turns out. I think if it does, I will be scouring resale shops for nice men’s shirts and can have an arsenal of easy to wear clothes for ‘daywear’ or even good ‘housedresses’.
Now, onto some cooking.

I have often referred to  and used my Boston Cooking School Cookbook in 1955 and this year as well. My copy is from early 50’s but I just found online HERE that this original book is free to read online! You should check it out.
Last night I made my own soup invention. “What Came First Soup” Hubby named it, as it is egg drop soup with chicken in it, so both the chicken and the egg.
“what came first soup” (named by hubby)
4 cups chicken broth, divided (so easy to make your own broth by boiling chicken-even better with bone in-in water, add spices, then you have the chicken and broth to make the soup.
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
chopped and cooked in butter garlic ( a few cloves)
Broccoli
(This is REALLY good with chives, but I had none in the house)
Dash of cayenne pepper
Salt and Pepper to taste (about 1/4 –1 tsp each)
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 eggs
cooked chicken

Directions

1. Reserve 3/4 cup of chicken broth, and pour the rest into a large saucepan. Stir the salt, ginger, garlic, broccoli  into the saucepan, and bring to a rolling boil. In a cup or small bowl, stir together the remaining broth and cornstarch until smooth. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs together using a fork. Drizzle egg a little at a time from the fork into the boiling broth mixture. Egg should cook immediately. Once the eggs have been dropped, stir in the cornstarch mixture gradually until the soup is the desired consistency. Pouring the egg through the fork gives it the long strands you see in restaurant egg drop soup. I usually give a good stir to the pot to get it going in a circular motion and then pour the eggs through the fork.

I served this with these lovely biscuits. They rise so wonderfully. I can’t even remember where I got the recipe, but it is a great one, so give it a try. I take the extra dough when I make these and roll sugar into them and shape scones and brush them with cream and sprinkle sugar and they make a great breakfast scone as well.
Best Biscuits

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/3 cup Butter (5 1/3 TBS)
• 1 cup milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gradually stir in milk until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.
3. Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead 15 to 20 times. Pat or roll dough out to 1 inch thick. Cut biscuits with a large cutter or juice glass dipped in flour. Repeat until all dough is used. Bake on a paper lined baking sheet.
4. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges begin to brown.

So, I hope you are ready for some new sewing challenges ladies! Until next time, keep those aprons on and march into ACTION!

12 February 1956 “Lucy’s Connecticut Kitchen, More Kitchen Ideas, and Some Bread Recipes and Results.

After my last post I didn’t want anyone to think I don’t enjoy and appreciate the value that entertainment, such as TV and movies, can have. I do enjoy that form of entertainment, but before 1955 I found myself using it as a means to ‘forget about not doing anything’ rather than as a means of pleasure and learning.
On my kitchen post the other day, someone reminded me of one of my favorite I Love Lucy episodes, where she raises chickens. Those episodes, when Lucy  and Ricky move to Connecticut, are my favorite. It also made me realize how I DO want to use mid-century Early American in my own Kitchen Redo. Here, let’s look at part of the show.

Obviously this IS a 1950’s kitchen, as this is the 1950’s and they are in a designed kitchen space. I love the toile work cannisters on the window sill. The fabric is very Early American. The shelf paper in the open cabinets and clear glass jars. The old cookstove for heat and ambience. The lovely big round farmers table with a built in lazy susan. Even the wrought metal “L” brackets and handles on the cabinets. I would LOVE to know what color those cabinets were painted. I bet either a ‘colonial Blue’ or a ‘Buttercup Yellow”.
In one of my American Home magazines from mid 1950’s there was a lovely article about just such an “Early American” style kitchen. The owner was a happy grandmother, who collects Colonial antiques adn so wanted her kitchen to be authentic looking but modern and functional. It is an interesting look on their take on mixing old and new in mid 1950s.
Here you can see her with the item I have been contemplating, wall ovens. It is true you would need to stoop for the bottom oven, but for the most part you would use the top. It would be nice to have a cake, roast and bread all cooking at once and this does happen to me at times, though I have to have things wait ‘their turn’ to bake. I love that she has a working fireplace in the kitchen.
This same kitchen also has a main working area for dishes and ice box, table and where the cook top resides is a darling bar where she served her grandchildren lunch. This sort of separation between the cooking and prep areas with a view of the fire at the kitchen table is rather a nice set up. I love the wall and trim color she used and you can see it is matched in the Formica counter tops. I know they are Formica, because as I was thumbing through another magazine, I saw what looked very familiar to this kitchen. So, I compared the two and it was. They used the kitchen in this ad. You can click to see it enlarged. It gives a better view of the counters. It even shows a slip of the other aspect this kitchen has that I love, a Greenhouse. Here is the picture from the original ad with the lovely lady in a darling blue flowered dress as one of her grandsons comes down the back stairs into the kitchen. I particularly like this kitchen, as it has the ‘Early American’ hardward on the cabinets. Even the doors to the powder room and the built in pantry (located next the wall ovens) have the actual old Colonial type hardware. You can see the latch style door handles on the powder room, this is the type of doors and handles in our 1718 cape we now live it. The doors are very thin but made from wide old hand planed planks and no knobs but these latches. So, this form of a 1950’s kitchen is beginning to be the ‘model’ of ideas I will most likely use in my own remodel. I have more photos and info on this kitchen that I will be sharing in the future as we discuss kitchens and my eventual remodel.
Even if you do not love the mid-century version of a Colonial kitchen a very ‘Country’ air can be had while still making a Vintage Mid-Century look and still have it feel rather modern. For example:This kitchen has a definite country feel, though not necessarily Early American. It is rather ‘country modern’ Country in its paneled doors and use of blue and things like the potato bin. But, the sharp red contrast interiors the the bold wallpaper give it a very modern feel. I have to say, I am really beginning to love the idea of wall ovens, but not sure one tucked in the corner like this is such a great idea.
Perhaps it is because I am a New Englander, but there is something about the Cape Cod style house or it’s bigger cousin, the colonial, that has a ‘homey’ feel. In America’s early days as an English Colony these were the styles of choice, as they were easier, inexpensive to build and had the advantage of being easy to add onto. The Saltbox was often the result of a Colonial with an added room off the back giving it the steep roof in back.   These house styles were  also familiar to the transplanted Englishman from the hamlets and shires of his homeland.
After WWII, the baby boom also meant a building boom. Many returning soldiers were becoming families and there was a housing shortage. So, in steps  the Cape Cod style. It’s efficiency in building and its ability to have an unfinished attic or 1/2 story that can easily be ‘done over’ when money permits and the family size increases, made it again the perfect American House style.
If you were not lucky enough to have the ‘real deal’ and live in a colonial original cape style, then the coveted architect of the period Royal Berry Willis was the man for the job. His firm still exists today and the esthetic of the ‘Early American’ house still lives on. This bit about him on Wikipedia does a good job of describing  him:
Royal Barry Wills (1895 – 1962) was a preeminent Boston architect and author. He was the master of the Cape Cod style house, in its Colonial Revival incarnation (1930s to 1950s).
The "cape" house is ubiquitous in New England and elsewhere, due in part to its simplicity which sometimes simply means "inexpensive" but also allows for versions that are pure elegance due to their distilled, crystalline nature as a perfectly refined product. Will's unmatched talent was that of bringing a level of refinement to every level of planning and detail for the cape model.
In 1938 Life magazine selected four modern architects and four traditional architects and had them prepare home designs for families in four income categories. In the category for people with $5,000 to $6,000 incomes, the modern design was by Frank Lloyd Wright and the traditional one by Royal Barry Wills. The family chose the Wills house over the Wright design, and the home was built in Edina, Minnesota.
Houses built to his designs still fetch a premium in the Northeast.
So, rather you have a hooked rug, or some copper pots, that old coffee grinder or even a lovely 19th cook stove in your kitchen, there is much to be said, modern or vintage, for infusing ‘Early American’ elements into your kitchen design. I am going to continue to discuss and show images of this Early American movement in the 1950’s in future posts and to highlight in on the website in the future.
Now, again, what happens in kitchens? Exactly, recipe time…
I tried two new bread recipes the other day. The first is a lovely oatmeal and honey bread that is so divine, you must try it. This was the first time I had done this bread and in the future I belive I will let it rise a little more the second time before I bake it, but it is very moist and dense and is a great sweeter bread.
This is after it’s first rise, before you punch it down and shape the loaves for the second rise. Here is a slice, you can see I wish I had let it rise a tad more, but it still was a good size and an AMAZING taste. Here is the recipe:
2 1/3 cups water
1 cup rolled oats
2 pkgs dry yeast
1 T salt
1/2 cup honey
2 T melted butter
4 to 5 cups flour
Pour 2 cups boiling water over rolled oats; let stand for 1/2 hour. Then, soak yeast in 1/3 cup warm water. Add salt, honey, and melted butter to oats, then add yeast. Gradually add enough flour so the dough is knead able. Knead 5 to 10 minutes, adding flour as necessary. Rise until doubled; punch down and divide into 2 loaves. Let rise again. Bake at 325 degrees for 50 minutes.
It would be lovely rolled out with cinnamon and sugar and raisons put it and made into a swirl bread and would make a wonderful French toast.
Now, the other bread I tried is a good all around EASY white bread recipe. I think it would make a good Wheat bread as well, just use 1/2 wheat 1/2 white flour. Even if you have NEVER made bread, this is an easy and inexpensive one to try:

3/4 cup warm water

1 package active dry yeast

1 tsp salt

1-1/2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp butter softened

1/2 cup milk

3 cups all-purpose flour, approximately

1. In large bowl, add the warm water. Slowly stir in dry yeast. Continue to stir until yeast is dissolved.
2. Add salt, sugar, butter, and milk to bowl. Stir.
3. Mix in the first 2 cups of flour.
4. If needed, begin adding more flour, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough chases the spoon around the bowl.
5. You do not need to use up all the flour called for in this recipe, or you may need more flour than called for. The amounts vary depending on many factors, including weather, which is why most bread recipes only give an approximate amount of flour needed.
6. Turn dough out onto floured board and knead, adding small spoonfuls of flour as needed, until the dough is soft and smooth, not sticky to the touch.
7. Put dough in buttered bowl, turn dough over so that the top of dough is greased. Cover and let rise in warm spot for 1 hour.
8. Punch down dough. Turn out onto floured board and knead.
9. Preheat oven at 375 degrees F.
10. Form dough into loaf and set in buttered bread pan. Cover and let rise for about 30 minutes.
11. Score dough by cutting three slashes across the top with a sharp knife. Put in oven and bake for about 45 minutes or until golden brown.
12. Turn out bread and let cool on a rack or clean dishtowel.

Here is is after its second rise, slashed and ready for the oven. and fresh from the oven. It rises a treat! And slices wonderfully And, of course, I do like my close up shots. This really shows the texture of this easy bread. So, even if you have NEVER made a bread before they this one first. You will feel a success and then this recipe can be easily made different ways. As wheat breads with grains and nuts. As a cinnamon swirl bread etc. Really, homemade bread is so good for you and rather inexpensive. Once you get the ‘hang’ of it, you can simply set aside a bread making time, much as you have a laundry day etc. You can even, if you chose, bake your bread for the month and either freeze the dough or bake it all up and freeze it already made. I prefer to do it weekly, as it is part of my overall schedule now. So, give it a try.