World Fashion with the Australian Home Journal of 1938

Many moons ago, Australians used treadle sewing machines, flannel fabric and buttons made of shells to create pyjamas and nightgowns for their children. Plus the most adorable bunny slippers!

For Robyn's theme of World Fashion, I've used an original page from the Australian Home Journal magazine, published in 1938. Amidst cries of  'oh no, you didn't' and 'why didn't you photocopy it' from my historical fashion loving Mum (retired dressmaker and designer), I cut up all the elements of the page including the children with their captions and mini-me pattern overviews. Its not like I've used a page from her collection (yes, she has this one and omg, no way, I'd never do that).

Besides, its beautiful paper, worth preserving in a wonderful art journal.

All the illustrations are so beautifully drawn. The wonderful very fine paper has aged in colour to a greyish tone but isn't as brittle or as fragile as some paper of the same era.

To get started I found a pink sheet of scrapbook paper that would compliment the pink journal as well as the era of the Australian Home Journal page I've used.
Torn and put back together using a matte medium gel. I then used some washi tape in similar tones... pink, green with roses and stripes - and all seems to suit a pjs theme well :)

Just for a change, I only used 2 different colour acrylic paints... Finnabair Art Alchemy Sparks in Butterfly Spells (such a pretty pink) and Finnabair Art Alchemy Metallique in Ancient Coin (gold).
Using the Ranger Ink Blending Tool (with round foams), I blending through 2 stencils from Tim Holtz, Lace and Flourish.

Once the pink paint was dry, I threw on some white paint by dipping my splatter brush into a bottle of white acrylic paint and flicked it everywhere.

While the page was drying, I coated the sewing machine shape with the Finnabair Metallique Ancient Coin gold paint using a brush.

I used up the rest of the paint in the brush over the page, dusting gold everywhere, breaking up the pink and washi tape background.

Its a sewing machine, therefore it needed a spool of thread and to look like it was in working order.
Using my trusty Tim Holtz Craft Pick (sharp pointy awl type tool), I poked a hole in the top of the machine, about where the eye would be.
I've wrapped a length of cotton quilters' thread around the spool, threaded it through the eye to the back, and laid it along a strip of glue down to the needle.

While waiting "patiently" for my sewing machine to dry, I dug around in my jar of lace and glued a piece to the page.

Using my Tim Holtz Scratchy Tool (its a retractable tool with a mini wire brush), I scratched up the end of a strip of Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Ruler Ribbon... a fabric tape measure to use in crafts! Its not accurate for measuring but looks really cool :)

The Ruler Ribbon was attached using matte medium. The sewing machine was glued to the page using double sided tape at first, but then also added matte medium around the needle and spool.

The sewing thread was covered in matte medium and placed over the page in loops. Luckily it took ages to dry because it needed moving a few times to make room for the banners, captions and illustrations.

All illustrations, captions, mini patterns, paragraphs and buttons were glued to the page using the matte medium. A couple of pieces were torn in half but they survived!
I love these illustrations, they remind me of the kids in Enid Blyton's stories like Famous Five and Enchanted Wood! Check out their little slippers, so adorable.

Thanks for reading! Hope it makes you smile too :)

Happy Creative Day!
:)
Jenny