Vintage fashion and children's books--

I was wandering around Flickr looking for quilt-related inspiration photos (which I hoard away for future reference), when I came across someone's collection of vintage sewing patterns.

Take a look at these patterns using towels. Here are a few photos from the set to tempt you:

The flowery one? Straight out of Mrs. Roper's closet. (Extra points if you know who in the world "Mrs. Roper" is. ;o)) And the yellow one looks like someone just sewed fancy fringe along the short ends of the towel, then cut a hole in the middle for the head to go through. Très chic!

Then we have several stylish options for the young lady in need of a terrycloth poncho (or jacket):

And finally-- these look more like dresses to me, but they're labeled robes. In any case, I actually kind of like these-- especially the turquoise one. I can't imagine wearing clothes made of towels, though. . .

There's lots of vintage/retro stuff on Flickr. There are more patterns, magazine ads, cookbooks, etc. than I care to sift through, honestly, but it's a fun way to spend a spare hour.

Art Enthusiast's photostream is full of things that catch my eye. There's a collection of advertising and ephemera and children's illustration (from books, magazines, paper dolls, vinyl, etc.!) and signs-- and more! Among the Little Golden Book collection, there are a few I recognize-- such as Things in My House and Mary Poppins-- ooh, and Old Mother Hubbard. There are even a couple scans from A Day on the Farm, which I remember very well. When Mom would read this one to us, we'd get her to substitute our names and the names of family members/pets for the names of the characters.

Here's just a sample of Art Enthusiast's ads to entice you (g):


Tiny Muffin's collection of vintage illustrations is fun, too! Some very cute images.
For example:


Here are few links to some scans (sometimes just the cover and a few pages, sometimes more) of a few vintage children's books:

• I Can Fly (and more)
• Just a page from Miss Lollipop's Lion (one that Mom liked, I remember)
• Here's Once Upon a Wintertime. I don't think we had this book, but I remember seeing the animated cartoon version.
  
• Anyone else here read those Choose Your Own Adventure books? I used to check them out from the school library, mostly, but I also owned one about unicorns-- Magic of the Unicorn? Ah, yes, here it is! Isn't it amazing what you can find in under a minute, these days?!
  

While looking for Choose Your Own Adventure books, I stumbled upon this-- Lost in Austen-- some sort of CYOA book for Austen fans. Could be fun, for the non-purist. Maybe the library has it. . . It seems a bit too iffy to spend money on, I think.

Well, that's enough time wasted for one day, I guess. . .