Clutter to Chaos

So this past week, in light of my aunt's arrival, I went into my guest room to try to clear the clutter.  I started with several boxes of craft supplies, accumulated over the last 40+ years including my brief stint as an in-home sales consultant for Artcraft Concepts (needlepoint kits).  The intent was to cull out as much as possible, realizing that from this point on, my two hobbies of quilting and genealogy would take precedence over anything else, and that 'anything else' stuff may as well be tossed, given away, what-have-you.  

This is the chaos that ensued.

It stayed that way for the better part of the week, and while I did cull some of it, at this point, all too much of it has just been shoved back into the boxes and lids and set aside - in total chaos.  Of course, my helpers weren't really helpers at all.  Having left it like this the first night, in the morning I went back in to work, and found beloved kitties had added to the chaos by bringing their stuffed mousies and other toys and placing them in the boxes, and dragging lace, ribbon and other items throughout the room and hallway.

I found some treasures though, or at least some fond memories.  It's been a number of years since I've looked in these boxes.  I also realized that it's much harder to part with some things than others!

Floss/yarn holder

 I have several of these floss/yarn organizers - from Artcraft.

threaders

There are also several of these yarn threaders.

patches

Oh so many souvenir patches.  My intent was to sew them to my jacket but that obviously never happened.  I may now sew them to a wall quilt.

Barbie outfits

One year, for Christmas, I decided to make Barbie clothes for my daughter.  I was going to use my cabinet model Kenmore sewing machine.  It wouldn't work, and I didn't have the money for repairs, nor the time to get it fixed, so I sewed them entirely by hand.  Apparently I didn't make all those I'd intended to.  If I remember correctly, many of these outfits were cut from cast-off clothing I had too.  There was no surplus money in those days!

Ready to be assembled!

My daughter now has a little girl (about 20 months), so maybe I'll sew them up for her...on a machine this time!!

Then there were patterns, all the way back to the late 1960s!

Made for my 21st birthday from a slick, polyester!

High school Home-Ec project.

High School Home-Ec project also.

Mid-1970s project. Bell bottomed, one piece, made from denim.  Still tucked away - couldn't part with it.

Mid-1970s project, also made from denim that had a tie-dye look.

Yet another High School Home-Ec project.

Also H.S. Home-Ec project.

8th grade graduation dresses

Aunt Irene made my sister's and my 8th grade graduation dresses.  My sister and I were in the same grade from shortly after I started school until we graduated.  My dress was the one on the left except that I had it in a pastel-ish blue; my sister's was the one on the right and she had it in pink but lighter, and the sleeve was changed to not have the cutouts, nor did she have the little bow.

First Home-Ec Project

That brings me to the last pattern I'll show, though there were many others.  Growing up in the cold winters of the Pacific Northwest, back in the days when the house was heated only by a single wood-burning stove that, for reasons that should be obvious, was not burning at night, one way of staying warm while sleeping was by wearing long-sleeved, long flannel nightgowns.  I made mine as shown in the center style.  The only thing I recall not liking about it was the lace around the cuffs - it was scratchy.  Please don't laugh, but I still have this nightgown, tucked away in a chest, threadbare and well-worn, and certainly too small.  It was my first real sewing project, and I did well on it, and I loved that nightgown!

Yarn

The last picture I'll show today from the craft-box chaos, are the yarns.  I wonder if there's enough there to make a pair of scrappy slippers.  I don't knit but can crochet, and have made slippers.  In fact, the first slippers I ever crocheted were again, in Home-Ec in high school.  They were dark brown soles, and a pretty, light aqua-blue/green upper, and looked like boots including laced up ties.  I don't know whatever happened to the pattern for them, but sure would like to find one.  The tangerine yarn, is from the late 1970s when I crocheted my patchwork bed blanket that I still use.  I forget what the other two balls were used on, but the two remaining skeins came from my grandmother's sewing stuff.  I think the blue/green variegated could date back easily to before the 1950s, but I'm no yarn expert, so maybe not.  

Maybe tomorrow I'll post some photos of some of those Artcraft projects.