Witch Stitching

In addition to 'ordinary' ephemera, I collect (and utilise, at times, though I'm in the market for a mold-casting kit so I don't have to use unique, antique buttons I'll never see again) old sewing stuff. And doilies. Love doilies. Seriously--I LOVE DOILIES, just ask my bewildered beau. Anyway, here are a few interesting things I thought some of you might enjoy.

Check out that fabulous spiderweb foil! They are very good needles, by the way.

This is one of my coolest, weirdest sewing items. I've never had trouble threading needles--but who could resist a WITCH Needle Threader? Odd that it says 'Printed in Germany' on the instructional sheet, when this was produced well-before The Cold War ended (see the box, which says 'Made in Western Germany'). Oh, er, yes. I'm also obsessed with Cold War stuff.

Now this spiffing little bit of kit is, as you can see, Victorian. I did not snip off that corner--what sort of philistine would do such a thing? They look mighty useful, though, don't they? I will probably take a pair and put them on a garment as a test.

Trojan

I remember being alarmed by the sight of this thing, steaming (though it had been inactive for years--why steaming, then?) when we removed house to Portland in 2002. For a while there was some discussion of turning it into a Cold War museum, which would've been so very cool. Alas, instead, 'they' decided to implode it. My apologies for the diminutive photo, not sure where the original is, probably on one of our many 'dead' HDDs awaiting data-recovery. But there it is. Longview, Oregon, I believe? Source: Gus and I, digital photo, 2003.