How to hang a picture - February 1953

This is a nice little tutorial about space and hanging pics - from House and Garden, Feb, 1953. I shall scan the article when I get a chance. For now - the reasons behind spacing and multiples is quite interesting - see below. Right click to save if you'd like, too!

Busy weekend for us with guests, trips, painting and getting the front garden done. We now have a little glass house so I am also starting to do research on how to grow from seed and when to plant what - very interesting and satisfying. If anyone knows of a good blog source for 'when to sow and plant vegies' etc let us know!

Have a great weekend, all!

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A hopeless romantic

Most people who meet me get a surprise when they hear I am a hopeless romantic. I love romance - of yesteryear and of today. I love holding hands - a flash of an eye - an intense look of devotion. I love wooing, the flicker of the heart when you see your loved one, the anticipation of seeing them. I don't do candles very well, though :)



I tell friends being a girly girl doesn't automatically mean you're romantic. I am sooo not a girly girl yet I giggle like the best of them. I just hate wearing skirts :)

My favourite part of romance at the moment. Reading my new laptop 'desktop note' from Justin - "Don't forget you are loved". Pure beauty.

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Website sales - available to subscribers only!

We have decided to start offering sales on our website - but sales shall only be open to our subscribers in the first instance (or in entirety). Fill out the form on your right to become a Retro Age Vintage Fabrics website subscriber and keep up to date with new arrivals, general Retro Age news and sales.

We hope you enjoy the sale coming up :)

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Retro Age Vintage Fabrics weekly guests

I love reading about all you crafty peeps. You know who I mean. You guys who whip up divine bags out of scraps, create kiddies clothes about of beautiful things, jewellery out of vintage findings and even you peeps who run business' while keeping the tots out of mischief.

I'd love to hear from you.

I want to give one person a night a week on this very blog. If you love vintage stuff, old fabric, kitsch interiors, sustainability - anything you've read on this blog - I'd love to feature you on a Monday evening. If you're interested in being a part of it all please email us on vintagefabricsatgmaildotcom - we'd love to hear from you, no matter what you do...except if you're a spammer!

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Vintage wallpaper designs - 1955

How gorgeous and how darling! Vintage atomic era wallpaper design - 1955, to be precise. The scans are large enough you should be able to see them in detail if you right click and save the files. Enjoy!

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Lamp shade tutorial - the basic method and Coolie

I should learn to read my mags more thoroughly. I found this lamp shade over-view just before I scanned the Yellow Coolie tutorial (below). It's a great starter editorial if you're interested in making your own uber cool lamp shades.

The 'Yellow Coolie' pattern below is pure modernism - I love it. Don't forget you can right click the images to save them for later. Enjoy!

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The start of Retro Age overhaul #1

A Grant Featherston R160 Armchair And Ottoman Unmarked circa 1953 The contoured wing back of moulded ply with the original buttoned orange upholstery raised on out swept hardwood legs together with a matching ottoman

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I am streamlining. The admittance of the Gemini side getting in the way of structure has propelled me to streamline things even more! There are going to be a few changes around here - thus far, have decided on:

1. We are going to start offering snap sales. But you have to subscribe to the website new arrivals list to be eligible for sales. We're trying to be fair :)
2. The Vintage Day blog is going to be very vintage soon - in fact, dead. More vintage stuff on here instead. Like the Featherston chair above. If it's vintage, is crafty, involves fabric or fibre or fab interiors, then it'll be here. It was too much keeping two blogs going!
3. More stock. More lovely stock. More stock.

Another lamp shade tutorial coming later today!


A Grant Featherston R160 Armchair And Ottoman Unmarked circa 1951. The contoured wing back of moulded ply with buttoned velvet upholstery raised on out swept hardwood legs; together with a matching ottoman.

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How to make a 1950s 'The Drum' wallpaper lamp shade

This is more of a traditional lamp shade - the shape is very modernist. I have also found a great picture editorial on 'new' wallpaper from the early 50s I shall include in tomorrow's post...

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How to make a pleated wallpaper lamp shade - Barsony style

One of my favourite little nooks in our home is my corner in the lounge room. I have a 1960s small primary school desk and my Barsony black lady lamp. These lamps were the bomb in their day and now they are more collectable than every before. The original shades are very hard to come by - but if you had a base at home now is the time to make a new shade! The 'how to' tutorial is for a pleated wallpaper lamp shade and is from the December 1955 Home Beautiful magazine. I'll have more lamp shades tutes over the next couple of days. These scans are large - you are more than welcome to right click and save them to print out.

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How to make six lamp shades - tutorials

Over the next couple of nights I shall be uploading some fabulous vintage 1950 Home Beautiful tutorials on how to make six styles of lamp shades. Our favourite is the Barsony style pleated wallpaper one - and it's so much easier to make than one would have thought...

Stand by...

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Vintage viyella brilliance

These two beauties went up onto the website today. I love the soft feel of viyella - and these mod designs are certainly appealing to retro me!

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Just in case you're tired...this should wake you up...

After watching the MasterChef final and running around like a mad woman all day (toy room - need I say more?) these vintage fabric pics really woke me up...sorry if it's a little loud!

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Flannel love...

We've gotten more than 30 fabrics onto the site this week - some gorgeous flannel is among them...so snuggly and soft for Winter and I can never go past a pair of cute kiddies flannel jammies!

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Tootal bow = pure girly rockabilly

I am taking advantage of a beautiful day by photographing some fabric out in the sun. We're also building three new vegie patches so J has had fun all morning carting rocks here and there. I want my own food. I want chickens - have to convince the husband, first.

And then you have vintage fabric beauty. This is a vintage Tootal, circa 50s or 60s. Light dress weight. Every time I look at it I think girly rockabilly skirt. I adore it. Up on website now...

Have a great Saturday, all!

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Floor to ceiling window coverings...

We're renovating. Very slowly. Very. Slowly. I am taking my time making some choices and some hard decisions and J is taking his time doing it all. Mine in brain drain his is muscle strain. Oh well. Boys rooms shall be neautral colourway with one wall (which has their main windows) completely covered with floor to ceiling curtains. Windows shall have a neutral blind for night privacy. Very romantic to me - to boys? Not that wall - but hopefully the other walls and fab open wardrobes will be!

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Being a gemini drives me nuts

I am a Gemini. Please don't hold it against me. As soon as people know I am a Gemini and 'supposedly' have two personalities they look fearful and suspicious. I am not a Jekyll and Hyde, but I do have the Gemini passion for starting projects - and then the Gemini boredom thresh-hold kicks in to kill it - always within a month. It makes me laugh - after it makes me frustrated! So I had this Grafton vintage fabric scan to pop up on The Vintage Day blog - and, you know what? I decided to pop it on here instead. Why on earth can't I keep a new idea going?

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We love vintage sheeting...in various colourways

These are going up onto the website soon. Wish I had the courage to use them instead of selling them. Strange how giving them to new owners is easier than using them. Mainly as I can't stand to use good things myself - I prefer to give others the joy :)

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Grant Featherston chairs - The Vintage Day

I am having such fun with my new blog, The Vintage Day. I love vintage. I love viewing vintage - and I love collecting it. I adore Grant Featherston design and have always wished to come across a chair for $2. You know the dream.

Six degrees - I know an architect who designed Heide II (Heide - Museum of Contemporary Art, Templestowe) and he also knew Grant Featherston. Found out a few weeks ago he flew to Finland and Japan in the 1960s to evaluate which design ethic 'suited' Australia better. Finland won. He visited the original Marimekko factory and his face, even though he's now in his 80s, lights up when he talks about it. He loved their super graphic prints and brought some curtains back to his own home. And then piffed them out when his design ethic changed. I said Bah! to him and he laughed his head off. Hmmmm....

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Psychedelic ladies on the website

Ness' Gaglio for Abtex 1974 trippy faces fabric is on the website. Well - the last of the bolt...the rest went locally :) (and I think some disappeared in to Ness' stash)...

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Vintage Vogue images on The Vintage Day

I have popped some gorgeous vintage Vogue pattern images on The Vintage Day - lots to look at and the link to the original store selling the wonderful patterns as PDFs is also listed...

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A rug, open fire and coffee day

This fabric cheers me up. Have no idea why. I think it's the colourway and the tree. Perhaps it's a happiness tree. Today it's incredibly cold, overcast and windy. A day for olde world open fires, rugs, wine, lovers and dogs at your feet. If you haven't got any of those then I hope the fabric warms your heart :)

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'Tom Jones' 1964 hat pattern - The Vintage Day

If I have to choose an era or design style I lean towards it would have to be 'mod'. I love the mod cut, colours and design aesthetic. I love this 'Tom Jones' hat pattern. Bring back hats for ladies and gents, please...

View more lovely things on our vintage blog, The Vintage Day.

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Pssst....pretty 1950s frocks on The Vintage Day!

Lookee here.

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Sigh...I want atomic light fixtures

We have basically decided to renovate with a 50s ethic in mind - even though it's a 70s home. So we doing the boys rooms and adding a little zing here and there. Floor to ceiling curtains. Seriously thinking of overhauling wardrobe cavity and covering those walls with wall to ceiling curtains, too. Or a blind, for effect, like I found in a 50s mag today. And I want atomic glass light fixtures. I do. Like what's on the fabric pictures. Atomic pendants. Ohhhh...sublime.

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The Vintage Day - Scandinavian furniture in 1967

I've just finished putting up around six posts about vintage furniture - 1967 style. There's a style there for everyone to enjoy - from American Modern (below), to Oriental, to Scandinavian (above) and German. View the blog here.

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Made in Ireland

My family ancentory is rooted in Ireland - a mixture of the South and North, a mixture of Catholic and Protestant (if you can believe it). I think my great-Grandmother, who was born in Belfast as a 'Proddie', turned lesbian in her later years and then turned Catholic for her lovely 'friend' Veronica. They're out there in Springvale cemetary buried next to each other - and my great-Grandfather is next door. Strange. But love filled, nonetheless.

Made in Ireland vintage linen teatowels coming up. Tried to get them into my kitchen but Justin wouldn't have it. I already have 10. Naughty, Ness.

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A Vintage Day - it's time to focus on vintage...

Most of you know my love for all things vintage. The older I get the more my love and adoration grows. And as I renovate our home within that 'vintage ethos' the more I am addicted to vintage interior design.

I have always popped scans and photos of some of my favourite vintage 'things' in this blog. Now I have decided to focus my love of all things vintage on a seperate, dedicated blog...we've called it 'The Vintage Day' and you can view it here. I've only popped three things on thus far - but they give you an idea of what I would like it to be like...they'll be patterns, craft projects, recipes, adverts, illustration, interior design...in fact, all things I come across, love or get a giggle out of...that's what I intend to show you there.

I want to send you back in time...so I hope you enjoy 'The Vintage Day' ride :)

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Kitsch 70s foyers and 70s promises

I am a child of the 70s. Born in the early 70s. Old enough to remember fab kitsch shows like Charlie's Angels, Love Boat, Space1999, Blake7, Fantasy Island, CHiPs and the like. My 'queen' of an uncle is only a decade older than me so he had a major impact on my life - both back and then and still now.

Just like him, I adored the interiors in Logan's Run and The Tomorrow People. Just like him I adored the kitsch 1970s Miss World sets (and even made pom poms out of toilet paper to barrack for Miss Aussie). I believed when I grew up I would live in a veritable bubble and would have an electric car that would take me to work in a tube. I believed the world would be like Logan's world, as below...



Alas, not much technology at this end of the world. No floating cars like Star Wars. No self opening front doors like Logan's Run unless I go to the local supermarket. No simple polyester dresses for day and night wear that don't make you look cheap.

That's part of the reason why I love this fabric featuring a foyer. So futuristic and yet so today. Love it.

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Relaxation...

Sometimes fabrics really do hit a note within me. Some sing. Some don't. This particular piece really relaxes me. I can almost feel myself walking with the girls, smelling the salty air...

Hope you have a relaxing weekend!

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Star Wars and the Legend of the Logan

Somehow our first born turned six last Friday. Six. Where did that time go? I remember his birth as if it was yesterday. I remember looking down at him and saying "you'll be at school before we know it"...and he is...grade prep...a star pupil, loves learning...but he's growing up too fast!



Apart from the birthday party and list of presents (as long as my arm) he requested a visit to Scienceworks to see the Star Wars exhibition on display. We popped up to Melbourne on Saturday to see a close friend's newborn (welcome Keziah!) and had a great time spending the afternoon reading about Star Wars and the props.



I loved Star Wars. I was a 70s and 80s child so I vividly remember the movies. I even saw Battlestar Galactica at the movies (how did I manage that?) - that was the start of my Apollo and Starbuck crush. I loved those men. Still do :)



So visiting the Star Wars exhibition was not only a great celebration for Logan's birthday - but also a celebration of my childhood, too. I loved it. We're sure to be back before it leaves Melbourne in November. If you're a fan...and you live local...do yourself a favour and dive back into SW for an afternoon of kiddie fun...

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