Are We Seeing a Pattern?

A couple of posts ago, I posted pictures of handmade toys and guessed that my Grandmother had made them.  I do not have difinitive proof, but I have more evidence.  While digging through the bins with her things in them, hoping that my new, sterner resolve would let me release a few, I found these.

The pale one on the bottom, left, is the dog in the other post and the one on the on the right is the rabbit.  As I say, not complete proof, but suggestive. 

Those were not the only patterns in the bin.

The page in the upper right is an invoice and the yellow envelope has the address of a craft supply company on it.  Several people have mentioned that she earned money doing crafts while her children were small.  I've only seen two or three invoices, though.  And as thourough as she was keeping other things, that may be telling.

She kept the patterns, though.

She kept lots of patterns.  Those little, cup-shaped envelopes each has a pattern.  Sometimes more than one. 

Shamrocks.  Dogs.  Scimitars.

The larger patterns may have been for toys, but the little patterns in the envelopes were for making felt jewelery.

I don't know how big a fad it was, but during the Depression and WWII, it was something that you could make if you couldn't afford real jewelry.  She obviously bought some of the patterns.  And some of the labels say they were her own design or that she had modified the design.

 

Some of the patterns are on scrap paper.  You can tell this one used to be a paper bag, that one was a cardboard shirt facing. 

 

Some of the jewelry patterns were a bit flamboyant.  Others were more restrained.  Embroidery, sequins, and beads were used to upgrade the felt to jewelry status.  She also kept samples.

 

 

 

As you can see, political correctness was a concept that was decades in the future.  Sometimes it's good to be reminded.

 

I've already recycled the paper patterns.  I may be able to sell some of the toys and jewelry at an antique shop where I've seen similar things.  I'm also ready to try to sell the baby blankets and baby clothes.  And if not, maybe the thrift shop.

 

I don't know why the thrift shop seems a little less respectful than the antique shop.  It does, though.  Maybe it's because it will take more effort.  The thrift shop has a drop off area.  I wouldn't even have to get out of my car.  I will have to talk to the owner of the antique shop.  We will have to look at the pieces together.  It will feel more like saying goodbye, I think. 

 

 



Not Guilty Yet

I'm of two minds about these things.  They are handmade felt toys.  There's a very good chance that my Grandma L made them.  Or at least some of them. 

I can't imaging any child playing with them.  The felt would fall apart.  On the one hand, keeping them as a kind of tribute wouldn't be a bad thing.  On the other, what kind of a tribute is having a bunch of things stuffed in boxes where no one sees them?

They're cute.  But they're not the only handmade things that she left. 

They were in boxes at her house that I had never seen.  Then they were in boxes at my Aunt's.  Now they're in boxes at mine. 

When I was in a quandary about other items for another relative, my sister suggested making a shadow box.  In that case, I think I'll eventually do that.  In this case, I'm not so sure.

I keep starting sentences with, "these are cute, and all . . .", but I'm not really sure that they are.  The idea that they're stuffed animal toys is endearing.  And the idea that they were made by our grandmother is nostalgic.  But they're worn and aged.

 

And with Grandma L, you don't know that the wear came from kids playing with them.  She made crafts to sell at more than one time in her life.  These could have been samples that got worn by knocking around in the box.  I think that if they had belonged to one of her children, they would have had a label.  That was certainly the case with the baby clothes, baby shoes, rattles, and locks of hair. 

 

Well, they've been memorialized here. If I do toss or sell them, I've kept the images. I may send the pictures to cousins and siblings to see if anyone else remembers or wants to keep them.

 

I suppose they don't quite qualify as antiques.  My father was born in 1930, so that puts an upper limit on their age.  I'm fairly sure they were made long after that.  But you never know. 

So here they are.  I haven't found any evidence that she made the patterns.  She both developed her own patterns and used purchased ones, for other craft things she did. 

Most of the patterns she developed were flat, or mostly flat.  She had a knack for drawing.  Oh, the background runners came from the other side of the family.  Those may or may not have been done by a different grandma.  I'm going to have to decide about them, too.