Retro Crafting Friday: Cozies

 In an hour or so I will put on a vintage dress and head over to Rosemont for the Reaching Forward conference. I will be speaking there about Vintage Cookbooks and food memories and handing out Moon Pies. It should be lots of fun. I enjoyed pulling together my most unusual photos and slides from my collection for the presentation.

But first it's Retro Crafting Friday. The caption for this first photo is "Make this tea or coffee cozy, the oven glove and the egg cozies in matching colors to brighten up a kitchen and give the day a cheerful start."

This is from the Sterling 1979 Christmas Crafts Book, but I think they would be cute for Mother's Day. Readers here know that after years of struggling with infertility before adopting my wonderful boys I am ambivalent about Mother's Day. That day used to be torture and my family does nice things for me most days, so we spend that day appreciating each other in a more general way.  My husband feels the same about Father's Day. This year I'm having 30 folks over to celebrate both boys' birthdays and Joshua's 1st communion on Sunday. I even have a pinata...

But on to cozies. I was intrigued by egg cozies - I even have some vintage egg cups here I've never used. There was definitely an era where no appliances or things were left naked on tables but this tea cozy is pretty charming. I did like the other photo of accessories, too, though I can't identify all of them.

Here are the instructions for the Tea or Coffee Cozy:
The cozy is for a pot measuring 300 mm (12 in.) wide and 340 mm (13 1/2 in.) high. You need two pieces of foam 350 mm (14 in.) square, green, dark and light blue felt and lining material.  The blue strip around the cozy is 2 in. wide and about 34 in. long. Cut a paper pattern for the two main panels, rounding off the top symmetrically.  Cut out.  Trim the two pieces of foam to measure 3/8 in. less all around than the felt.  With tailor's chalk, divide each green panel into squares as shown. Pin the felt to the foam and sew along the chalk lines to join them.  Sew the blue side panel in between, turn the lower edges inside and hand stitch.  Pinch the felt loop between the two green panels and sew from the inside.  Make a soft lining to the same pattern, push it into the cozy and slip stitch in place.  Stick on felt leaves and flowers.

I put my romantic suspense stories Treasures, Missing Andy and Felled by Fruitcake up on Amazon for Kindle this week. They will soon be available for other readers as well. They are all about Alana O'Neill, a bookkeeper for an antiques mall, and all have recipes from my handwritten recipe collection.