Vintage Article- Stitch n Sew, Aug. 82, Craft Pattern Review

I reviewed patterns for assorted House of White Birches (and Tower Press) magazines for fourteen years total. I'm not going to post the rest of the reviews, but I thought I'd post this one for a couple of reasons.

#1. Because it has an official introduction to the the column that I wrote in this magazine, called "Craft Pattern Review", though the editor saw fit to mention my *reviews*, and I can just picture her using air-quotes. 

#2. Because the very first line of the review harkens back to a previous review, so it's obviously not my first for this magazine. Either that, or the reviews were printed out of order.

#3. Because though later on I did get patterns and kits for free, sent by manufacturers and designers specifically for reviewing, at first I had to buy all of my materials. Did I mention that my pay for each column was $50? And that's $50 total, with nothing allowed for materials, or postage, or photography (which the Hub did, and not too graciously, I might add. Seeing his name in print was never one of his ambitions, and being interrupted to take pictures was not one of his favorite pass times). Me? I was so delighted to have a regular gig, that I would probably have paid them for the privilege.

Vintage Article- Winter '81 The Miniature Magazine, Mini Embroideries

I think I only did two articles for The Miniature Magazine- or at least there are only two issues in the box I'm going through (there are other tubs and boxes with magazines, most of them published a little later, and most of them less awful than the ones I'm posting now) (I hope).

This project is another one that would be okay now, with some color changes. Again, I made a color chart- man, I don't know how anyone used those b/w symbol charts. They make my eyes cross, and these things are my own designs. It was especially hard with this one because the symbols aren't lined up on the graph properly- I'm pretty sure that's not my fault. These teeny little framed pictures are kind of cool, though. I wonder what happened to them.

These samplers didn't rate color pages, so you'll have to imagine the colors.

And if you're wondering why there's no bottom border on the Home Sweet Home, or why the flowers are asymmetrical in the vase- beats the hell outta me. I'm just transcribing, not editing... heh...

Vintage Article- Summer '82 The Miniature Magazine- Bedroom Ensemble

Though The Miniature Magazine featured how-to projects here and there, it was primarily a magazine for miniature enthusiasts. I think I only sold them one or two articles, but I really do love doll houses and would still love to have one.

This set actually holds up pretty well, style-wise: change the colors and you're good to go. And since I don't know how anyone ever followed hand-drawn black and white symbol charts, I redid the charts in color. As always, download the pages to your computer, and print them from there if you're so inclined.

Vintage Article-Super Scraps 1984 Christmas Annual- Velvet Hanging Boxes

I had regular columns in several House of White Birches magazines, and each of those magazines had special one-off issues during the year, and most of them also had a Christmas Annual. That meant that there were lots of pages to fill. In the 14 years that I wrote and designed for magazines, I don't think HWB rejected a single one of my projects (though several certainly should have been). If the magazine I targeted couldn't use the design, one of the others did. It was fun, and it kept me busy, and it paid well enough for the times ($25- $200 per article, and since I had 4 or 5 things out every month, and back then, gas was barely $1 a gallon and shoes were $10, that money went a fairly long way).

The point of Super Scraps (which I think started out as a quarterly but ended up bi-monthly) was in using up leftovers, which is a good notion, even now. My column was called Sew Special (no Taylor puns this time around), and since HWB wasn't into subtlety or sarcasm, you can assume that all of those column projects dealt with sewing in one way or another.

 These things are actually not a bad idea- little velvet trinket boxes that can be used as ornaments or gift boxes. They're horribly photographed, and the embellishments are terrible, albeit Of The Time, and the colors were peach and burgundy (urk), but the idea itself would work just fine now, with better fabric and maybe some embroidery.

 Again, I liked doing the illustrations. I'm assuming they had a lot of white space in this issue, hence a full page for these drawings.

I don't know why this one came out upside down, but if you download it and print it, you can flip it around... heh...

If you download the pattern page, print it with 1/2" margins all around, and it should come out okay.

Vintage Article- Women's Circle Feb '84, Needlepoint Nell and Perforated Paper Valentines

I promised you horror, and by cracky, you're going to get horror.

Sit down.... are you sat? Prepare yourself.... are you prepared?

Okay, today's Vintage Article uses.... Plastic Canvas!

A plastic canvas doll! With her own little plastic canvas carrying case! I would ask myself what the hell I was thinking, but there's no point- whatever I was thinking, it worked in that I wrote the article, and it was accepted, and I got paid for it. And this may actually have been my first cover project. (I did get better... I promise).

Women's Circle was a House of White Birches/Tower Press magazine. It came out every other month, and was filled with horrible craft projects (many of them my designs), health tips, pen pal requests, recipes, heart warming stories, and page after page of ads for other HoWB/TP magazines. There were hundreds, and I wrote for most of them.

Here's the back cover- and in case you are wondering why they're selling new 1983 Christmas Annual one-off magazines in a Feb. 1984 magazine, it's because the lead time on these things was very long. This issue probably came out in October '83, leaving plenty of time to order one, or all, of these spiffy issues.

Though HoWB/TP added color pages later on, in the early '80s most of the magazines were b/w only (or with one color tinting), and printed on pulp paper. Luckily, there's a color shot of Needlepoint Nell in all her horrible glory on the cover, so you can see that I chose the colors really badly- the white yarn doesn't have enough contrast with the peach to show at all.

 If you're so inclined, download the instruction and pattern pages to your computer and print from any graphics program, setting the margins to 1/2" all around. If you try to print from these images, they'll be too small to read or use.

Back in those days, all charts were drawn by hand in pen and ink (back when notations could be made with a blue pencil because prehistoric copy machines didn't pick up that color). Back then, I had to fix inking mistakes with white out, and if I made too many mistakes, I had to start over with a new piece of graph paper.

 Boy am I glad that I don't have to draw charts by hand any more.

 Black and white symbol charts are very hard to read, so just in case you want to make these (HAH!), I redrew the charts in color. I didn't put the little dots around the outside edges for the empty spots on the new color charts.

I noticed a discrepancy between the cover illustration and the published b/w chart when I was entering the new chart on the graph. It's not a big deal, but in case you are making comparisons, you'll notice the mistake too.

In fact, I should mention this now: if you find mistakes in the instructions of these Vintage Articles, you can let me know, but man, there's nothing I can do to fix an article that was published nearly 30 years ago.

Oh, and by '84, I had already flooded my market with designs, and often more than one was published in a single issue. I also designed these Perforated Paper Valentines, from the same magazine. I was busy back then.

 I didn't bother to make a color chart for these items because they're fairly simple. And maybe even uglier than Nell.

Vintage Article- Decorating and Craft Ideas Dec '81- Wax Head Dolls

I finally dug out a box of old magazines with some of my published craft articles (all written and published between 1980-1994, before I segued into fiction). This is far from the only box (I designed and reviewed and illustrated for 14 years, with issues from assorted magazines every month coming out with my stuff in them- sometimes more than one project in a single issue. I stopped counting them after I hit 500 because there just didn't seem to be any point) but it's the first one I've run across in a very long time. This is what happens when you clean.

Most of the magazines appear to be from the early 80's, when I first started out. I thought it would be fun to post a few of those old craft articles and patterns. Though today's project is pretty cool (and I think I still have these dolls packed away somewhere), I warn you that many of them are awful. Terrible. Horrible. Embarrassing. I'll happily post them too.

Decorating and Craft Ideas December 1981 front cover. Felt doo-dads were big in '81.

Also big in '81? Full page cigarette ads. This is the back cover (Now in Beige!), and there are at least 4 full-page interior cigarette ads in this issue alone.

Also big in '81? Knickers!

 And causing your sons irreparable harm and future therapist bills.

BTW- their faces were goofy looking, and asymmetrical on purpose. That was also big in '81 (not that I was good at symmetry, I just glommed onto a trend that happened to fit into my skill set).

 Now down to business- here are the waxed dolls. The heads were made from salt and flour dough (called Baker's Clay- big in '81), and then painted and dipped in paraffin. I'm actually pretty pleased with this design even now (I thought I'd start with one of the Lesser Horrors- just wait... they're coming).

 I did the illustrations and the pattern drafting and drawing. It was part of the job back then.

 If you print these patterns out so that they fit on a full page with 1/2" margins all around, they should come out the right size. Download the pattern and instruction pages to your computer and then open and print them in any graphics program. If you try to print directly from here, the images will be too small.

And if you make these dolls, please please please send me pics. I would love to see them!