• Literary Pursuits

    The Workbasket – November 1951

    Is everybody ready for another vintage Workbasket installment? The next magazine in my small collection is from November 1951. It is Volume 17, Number 1. According to my calculations that means The Workbasket started in October 1934. Recently an older lady friend of mine was letting me go through her crochet patterns… Be still my heart! The vintage patterns she…

  • Literary Pursuits

    The Workbasket – October 1951

    Yes, ladies (and any gentlemen who are interested), it’s time once again for an irregular installment of The Workbasket magazine from almost 60 years ago. Send along your 15 cents (in cash or stamps, please) and you, too, (along with Miss A. L. Davitt–whoever she might have been) can learn how to make a cross-stitch rug, along with many other…

  • Literary Pursuits

    The Workbasket – February 1951

    Check it out! Color printing! But The Workbasket is still only 15 cents! What a deal! “Ideas for the Bazaar, the Home, Gifts, Sparetime Money Makers, with Many Articles, Easily Made and Inexpensive, that find a Ready Sale.” Is that the subtitle?? No, I guess not. There is actually a shorter subtitle at the top. Then why in the world…

  • Literary Pursuits

    The Workbasket – December 1950

    The December 1950 issue of The Workbasket had a new cover design. I wondered if this was the first month for it, or if it debuted the previous month? I am missing the November issue. Still no color, though. And notice the 15 cents price! Check out this ad for a convertible shopping bag See how it unfolds into a…

  • Lifestyle

    “I Remember Laura” – Buttons

    “Ma had saved buttons since she was smaller than Laura, and she had buttons her mother had saved when her mother was a little girl. There were blue buttons and red buttons, silvery and goldy buttons, curved-in buttons with tiny raised castles and bridges and trees on them, and twinkling jet buttons, painted china buttons, striped buttons, buttons like juicy…

  • Lifestyle

    Workbasket comes alive!

    Recently I’ve been showing you clippings from some old Workbasket magazines that I picked up at a garage sale a few weeks ago. I’ve enjoyed poring over them and scanning some of the pages to share here. (Don’t worry. I’m not through yet!) Last week I showed you a picture of a sunflower potholder pattern that I said I wanted…

  • Literary Pursuits

    The Workbasket – September 1950

    I don’t know if anyone else is enjoying these nearly as much as I am… but for your viewing pleasure I present the September 1950 issue of The Workbasket! Such a pretty crocheted tablecloth. It was patterns like this one that initially caught my eye in this stack of magazines. This pattern, on the other hand, looks just a little…

  • Literary Pursuits

    The Workbasket – October 1950

    This week’s Workbasket magazine is from October 1950. The cover features a “Hairpin Lace Vanity Set.” Interestingly enough, I have recently learned to make hairpin lace. A friend of mine gave me a hairpin loom and showed me how to do it, after I admired an afghan she had made. I won’t be able to make the vanity set, though,…

  • Literary Pursuits

    The Workbasket – July 1950

    This past weekend, while out garage-saling, I “scored” a stack of 25 vintage Workbasket magazines from the early 1950s for $2! At the time I was thinking there might be some vintage crochet patterns I would enjoy making… but there is, oh, so much more! Just so many “precious” things, I have to share. Here is the cover of the…