two crafty dames : deeply fabulous vintage-inspired handmade fashion

Whilst perusing the Penguin Markets during The Dames’ recent trip to Tasmania I came across a quaint little stall selling vintage clothing, patterns,  material and other vintage goodies. Whilst scrounging through a table of old magazines I stumbled across  a few editions of the Australian Home Journal from the 1950′s and early 1960′s. I was immediately attracted to  the covers of the magazines which are beautifully decorated with illustrations of lovely ladies dressed in the latest fashion outfits of the time. More fashion designs are illustrated inside, which back in the day, readers could get patterns of via mail order. The rest of the magazine features recipes, knitting and crochet patterns,   fashion-related DIY and handy hints, short stories, advice columns, and plenty of ads for powders and potions to keep you regular, make you slim, and get rid of your freckles. With every issue, a paper tissue pattern was included with instructions on how to make them. A couple of the copies I picked up still had some patterns intact which I was happy to discover.

Left: The cover of the April Edition 1958 Australian Home Journal. Right: Designs for mail order patterns.

Left: The cover of the July Edition 1960 Australian Home Journal. Right: Designs for mail order patterns.

Along with the journals, I also picked up some cute spotty Bias Binding and floral fabrics.

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