Happy Peasants

Being a peasant must not be all bad. I mean, if you're female you get to wear peasant blouses. And if you're male you get to enhance your rustic masculinity with embroidered suspenders, shiny shoes, and lederhosen. A lucky few were even immortalized on 1940's embroidered luncheon cloths, like this enthusiastic duo. I have one complete, uncut sheet, with a pattern for a peasant apron and hearts and floral embroidery motifs. Also a big bonneted girl stencil to make a big ol' trellis that just might keep doggies from doing #1 on your lawn...

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Mexican luncheon

I love this shocked-looking senorita - perhaps she's astounded at the sheer volume of fruit one can balance on one's head? Or maybe senor is singing something a bit risque to her, somewhere along the lines of "Aya en el Rancho Grande?" In any case, they make a cute couple, and according to this sheet, are a "corner motif". The center motif is cut out of my sheet and missing. The rest of the sheet has patterns for heart-shaped mother and daughter aprons and bonnets- cute, eh? Also a couple of kissing doves, smooching bunnies, and two shocked-looking fuzzy kitties, and cursive lettering that says "Big sis", "Little sis", and "mom."

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Mexican tea towels

Love... and a burro. Can it get any cuter than this?! Here are some Mexican cuties on an unnumbered sheet. I have 5 of the 7 tea towel designs - my sheet is cut and incomplete. Also on this sheet are some Mexican-style borders for guest towels, a cute panholder design, a pattern to make felt baby shoes, a bib pattern, and small floral designs for baby clothes.

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Little Girl DOW

Okay, I'll admit I squealed with delight when I saw these sweet little girl days of the week patterns. It's quite embarrassing for me to squeal with delight, so I'm glad there was no one around... :) There are 7 girl designs with the words: Cleaning, Baking, Washing, Ironing, Shopping, Mending, and Resting. I love the 40's-style drawing - it reminds me of old Blondie funnies. Also a cute winter hats border to use on clothes, some nautical designs (which give me terrible 80's flashbacks - ugh), a floral motif for a tablecloth, and 3 cute baby designs, one of which has a baby with a crown and scepter as if to say "I'm the man..." :)

I have one complete, uncut sheet from Eydie.

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Mailorder 2-937 - Kitten DOW

This is a large, red-lined sheet with tons of different projects. The cute kitten days of the week towels are 1 project, with this cute fuzzy kitten doing various tasks with the words: Cook, Wash, Shop, Sew, Iron, Clean, and (for Sunday, I presume) Worship. Lots of lazy daisy designs in flowerpots for kitchen curtains and a panholder, and a big amazon parrot design for a luncheon cloth or "yard ornament" saying (as all parrots do, I suppose) "Keep off the Grass." :)

I have one complete, uncut sheet from Eydie.

this pattern donated by

About Workbasket patterns

The Workbasket was a mailorder magazine that began publication in 1935. It was filled with project ideas, lace and needlework patterns, and iron-on embroidery transfers.

Unfortunately the embroidery transfer sheets don't say "Workbasket" on them anywhere! But they're usually very large, red-lined sheets with many different project ideas and stitching directions. Also most are numbered, somewhere on the page, with these numbers or these numbers.

More about the Workbasket:

• a great history of Workbasket magazine
• index of Workbasket embroidery transfers
• index of Workbasket embroidery transfers #60 - 100
  

A very special present!!!

So, it's time for me to tell you about a very generous blogging friend of mine, Eydie! Not only does she make some of the sweetest embroidery pieces I've seen, she recently surprised me by mailing me some vintage transfers she wasn't using. I went to the mail expecting to find one or 2, but there were so many I could hardly count them! A modest count of this motherload is over 50 transfer sheets!

I'll be sharing what she shared with me over the next few months.

Every time you see this little icon (embroidered by her) you'll know you're seeing a transfer donated by the generous Eydie.