More golden memories

This weekend has been full of great things (although I completely forgot about Earth Hour). Gorgeous weather.
Gardening.
Brunching.
a Date Night.
Some sewing (using up my stash of deep, dark denim. But that's for another blog post) and soaking up some inspiration, flicking through the latest addition to my craft library: Golden Hands, Volume 1-18 and a stash of Golden Hands magazines from the early to mid 70's.



Anyone who has a set knows what an amazing (at times frightening) resource they are. Others have written informatively about them before. This set I have spent my whole life flicking through. They lived on my mother's craft room bookshelf for many years, and finally they've moved home to live on mine. They are a little weary, and the spines are perishing, so I need to treat them with care now.

Some of the images seem like old familiar old friends. I fondly remember the projects that I read and re-read, keen to embark upon (but for the most part, never did). Flicking through the pages is full of moments of recognition, remembering images and ideas and drawings that fascinated me. They were a big part of my craft education and (perhaps because clothing and making were so closely intertwined in my upbringing) my childhood attempts to understand what fashion was all about (or not, as the case may be).

When I pulled out Volume 1 I also found a collection of magazine pages inside the front cover. I don't remember seeing them before, but obviously at some stage mum must have been thinking of knitting some dolls clothes. Perhaps a cluster of stalled ideas, inspiration set aside for one day when they might rise to the top of the project list. I find it amusing that they were the first thing that I happen upon, when I have an unclothed, in-need-of-repair doll, and a cluster of appropriately sized doll clothes patterns, sitting in one of my folders of patterns. I must do something about that. Maybe next weekend.