To demonstrate how little I know about needlecraft, I thought Columbia Minerva was the woman on the cover. Turns out, it's a corporation specializing in yarn and how-to needlework books. Personally, I cannot operate a needle - I couldn't sew a button if a gun was to my head. However, I do have a strange fascination with vintage needlecraft books. Go figure.
The reason I'm fond of them is that they are perhaps the best sources of vintage fashion out there, along with catalogs and old magazines. If there's one thing I've learned from hundreds of trips to hundreds of flea markets, it's that women hang on to their cookbooks and needlecraft literature - making these two items abundant. Whereas, women threw out their old catalogs and magazines, making these vintage articles harder to come by.
Anyway, here's a few scans from the needlework booklet pictured above, published in 1968. I particularly like this one because the photographs are so colorful, crisp and clear - plus, the fasions are very (ahem) interesting.
