sew retro

How to make a worksheet play.

2009-05-04T01:37:00.002+12:00

Read the small print: The only way to make a worksheet fun is to print it out and make a paper airplane out of it...

Source: Flickr

Women in the War

2009-05-01T15:21:00.000+12:00

We can't win without them!

You can smell the rich coffee flavour!

2009-04-27T09:26:00.002+12:00

We all just LOVE that "Natural" coffee aroma!!! ;)

Source: we love typography

What's on Your Powerbook?

2009-04-27T01:33:00.002+12:00

Both men have the latest in cutting edge computer technology. Only one has any fashion sense.

Source: Flickr

1948 | Mobil Gas Tires

2009-04-26T10:16:00.000+12:00

Yep, I'd buy tyres from such a cute man in uniform... ;)

Source: we love typography

ANZAC Day

2009-04-25T10:12:00.002+12:00

Pliofilm

2009-04-25T09:25:00.001+12:00

Source: we love typography

Carte Postale

2009-04-23T16:04:00.002+12:00

What the heck is Electronic Mail?

2009-04-22T07:53:00.000+12:00

Source: Boing Boing

Striking It Rich

2009-04-13T01:29:00.002+12:00

Steve continued to strike it rich after appearing on Time's cover, managing to scrape enough money together to loose the Freddie Mercury look and shortening his name.

Source: Flickr

System 7

2009-04-06T01:27:00.002+12:00

When pressed, Steve Jobs admitted he could only come up with 7 really good reasons.

Source: Flickr

Your Brain on Drugs

2009-04-03T21:44:00.000+13:00

The early nineties was a crucial time for the war on drugs in the USA, sadly however, the Partnership for a Drug Free America only managed to put people off eating eggs.

The Ad Agency was later busted by the DEA.

source: analog, January 1991.

PC vs MAC

2009-03-30T01:25:00.002+13:00

Back in the day when it didn't matter if you had a PC or a Mac, neither was cool.

Source: Flickr

Return to the Fold

2009-03-27T21:40:00.000+13:00

If "sanity" means good adjustment to particular circumstance, it's a highly relative thing. But is it really that simple?

I don't know about sanity, but I do know about proportions, and even factoring in perspective, those hands are very big, and the face mask, the dude's head must have had a growth problem...

Source: analog, September, 1984.

Message Pad 2000

2009-03-23T01:22:00.002+13:00

Introducing the Message Pad 2000, the only handheld computer you can actually use. If you have three hands.

Source: Flickr

Questar

2009-03-20T09:37:00.000+13:00

Naked androgynous cavemen and evil plotting Egyptians were the stuff of historical fantasy in the late eighties. If you look closely (click on the image for a bigger look) you can see a female explorer pointing out the lack of reproductive organs...

Source: analog, May 1987.

Know Your Flea

2009-03-19T12:42:00.002+13:00

Know Your Enemy - The Flea! Health warning poster from World War II.

Spontaneous Combustion

2009-03-18T14:55:00.002+13:00

This photograph from 1916 is of a fire at the Treasury Dept.'s "Bureau of Engraving and Printing," presumably in Washington, D.C. Mysteriously, however, whomever labeled it described the fire as "spontaneous combustion."

Source: i09

The Future of the PC

2009-03-16T01:19:00.002+13:00

In the beginning there was Jobs. Then Gates came along for a ride. Together they would create a new nirvana. Only Gates wanted to be a god so he was cast out into the fiery abyss to create Microsoft.

Source: Flickr

Cadbury Flake

2009-03-14T09:31:00.002+13:00

Cadbury Flake gained some notoriety for its highly sensual advertising. In the UK, the adverts showed people - almost always women - enjoying a Flake whilst relaxing.

The Flake Girl became famous as a symbol of indulgence and secret pleasure. Her emphasis - voted third most memorable of all time - was on allowing herself a guilt-free luxury. However, many saw in the delicacy with which she nibbled the crumbly chocolate bar, more than a hint of sexual pleasure. That, of course, was why it was so successful.

In the 1970s, an advert was taken off air following complaints about the suggestive manner in which the woman bit into the bar.

C ...is for COOKIE!

2009-03-13T11:09:00.002+13:00

C...is For Cookie is one in a series of character-centered Sesame Street albums released in 1974. Although some tracks are from the earlier Columbia and Warner Brothers albums, some tracks appear here for the first time.

Later versions of this album replace "The Birthday Cookie" with "We'll Do It Together". That version of the album was also released as part of the 2-LP set Just the Two of Us.

P.E.

2009-03-13T05:55:00.000+13:00

As a good teacher once said. "Nobody can teach you anything. The best I can do is to help you learn."

Obviously the teacher wasn't helping the architects learn anything looking at that random staircase in the air...

Source: analog, July 1982.

Luftpost Zurich

2009-03-11T14:09:00.000+13:00

The Element of Environment.

2009-03-10T13:40:00.002+13:00

You can tell a lot from a job advert, such as, if you're having great difficulty in understanding what the advert is saying, then the job probably isn't for you. Looks like I won't be applying for any jobs in weapons engineering anytime soon.

Apple Logo

2009-03-09T01:17:00.002+13:00

In the beginning there was Jobs. And Jobs had a logo. Then the logo became simpler, much simpler, thankfully.

Source: Flickr

Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin

2009-03-08T12:20:00.002+13:00

Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838-1917) was born in Konstanz, Baden on 8 April 1838 and was the first large-scale builder of the rigid dirigibles which eventually became synonymous with his name.

Count von Zeppelin's military career was somewhat varied. During a leave of absence from the Prussian army in 1863 he served with the Union army during the U.S. Civil War. More conventionally he served with the Prussian army in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, during which he was commended for bravery.

He married, in 1869, to Isaballa Freiin von Wolff from Livonia; they had a daughter, Hella, born in Ulm in 1879.

Zeppelin first conducted balloon trials whilst in the U.S. as a military observer during the 1860s. He subsequently founded an airship factory at Friedrichshafen using his own funds, retiring from the army in 1891 with the position of lieutenant-general. Zeppelin proceeded to devote the remainder of his life to the design and construction of engine-powered dirigibles.

The first successful trial of one of his airships took place on 2 July 1900. Eight years later Zeppelins were making routine commercial mail and passenger flights over Germany, with a remarkable safety record despite the risks in using highly flammable hydrogen gas to inflate the airships.

Zeppelin successfully persuaded the German military of the potential of using airships during wartime. Consequently Zeppelin's LZ-3 model was accepted into German army service in March 1909 as the Zeppelin Luftschiff 1. In the event, during the First World War, the German military deployed 115 Zeppelins for a variety of missions including reconnaissance and bombing, despite their vulnerability to attack and bad weather.

Zeppelin aircraft were effectively removed from front line service at Verdun in 1916, as improved Allied aircraft succeeded in achieving a higher destruction rate. Even so, newer models were introduced that could fly higher and higher, although this impacted their bombing accuracy. Their use was more or less discontinued in 1917 as Allied bombers demonstrated a consistent ability to destroy the airships.

Ferdinand von Zeppelin died on 8 March 1917 in Berlin.

Old Family Photo

2009-03-08T09:38:00.002+13:00

A family photo (not any one we know!) from 1904.

Source: Flickr.

How Far Can You Go?

2009-03-07T15:49:00.000+13:00

Retro Triptych

2009-03-06T10:24:00.002+13:00

Created with images found on Deviant Art.

To Boldly Go...

2009-03-06T07:30:00.000+13:00

Before JJ Abrams there was Simon & Schuster, creating cutting edge Star Trek computer games for IBM, Apple and Commodore computers. Cutting edge, text based adventures...

Source: analog, April 1987.

Hot Waffles

2009-03-05T14:54:00.002+13:00

Apple invents...

2009-03-02T01:14:00.002+13:00

Apple invents the personal computer. Again. And again. And again. In fact, Steve Jobs will have you believe that he can invent the personal computer on a yearly basis. At least that's what he did before the iPhone.

Source: Flickr

Mountain Gun

2009-02-28T18:40:00.004+13:00

Commando was a staple of my childhood. Those small glossy covers with their heroic scenes always had me parting with my money! Published in September 1971, this isn't one I would have read!

McDonald's Big mac

2009-02-28T05:10:00.000+13:00

Brainchild

2009-02-27T07:26:00.000+13:00

It seems that back in the early eighties, before Richard Dawkin's rise to popularity, the connection between humans and apes was still allowed to be in the realm of science fiction and not science fact.

Source: analog, June 1982.

Comfortable Heights for Household Tasks

2009-02-26T19:15:00.003+13:00

I think it's worth noting that in each of these common household tasks, it is a woman pictured in the diagram...

Paddle and Splash

2009-02-26T05:03:00.002+13:00

What all the fashionable kids are wearing to the beach this summer!

Source: Stitchcraft No. 401.

Steeplechaser, New York City

2009-02-25T09:07:00.001+13:00

Found this lovely old photo on Flickr.

You can Trust Singer

2009-02-25T04:55:00.002+13:00

Now from Singer - world leaders in sewing machines - comes Britain's most advanced model ever!

Not only straight stitches.... Not only 'Swing Sewing' stitches.... But a pull-out tacking stitch too!

Source: Stitchcraft No. 394.

Slip Into Orbit

2009-02-24T04:41:00.000+13:00

Gay, elegant, strictly for sophistikats... Designed to give morale a wicked whirl. Who knew that 1966 was the year that the Scotch Wool Shop would start using sublime messages to appeal to the growing number of closet lesbians?

Source: Stitchcraft, May 1966.

A is for Apple.

2009-02-23T01:11:00.003+13:00

The first thing you should know about personal computers.... is that Apple knows how to spell...

Source: Flickr

Happy Nappy Days

2009-02-22T16:35:00.004+13:00

Apparently, washing nappies in Stergene will keep them fleecy soft and comfy. What a floating head needs clean nappies for is never discussed.

Source: Pins And Needles No. 11 (Summer 1952).

Jitterbug

2009-02-20T22:18:00.000+13:00

Despite sounding like a dance craze, you can tell from the campy photo that this was a serious novel, written in a time when you could have an Evil Arab overlord without running the risk of death threats from radical Muslims. Things had gotten so bad on earth, that 'Even in Hell there are some things worth fighting for..."

Source: Analog, September 1984.

Harry | the puppet

2008-11-08T17:26:00.000+13:00

Isn't he gorgeous? I picked him up at Mr Bo Jumbles today. He has a velvet nose, bow-tie & mouth and boggly eyes.

Matroyshka Tea Cosy

2008-10-29T10:55:00.000+13:00

I picked these up on Trade Me this week. Three little napkins (tomatoes, onions and dill) and a very cute Matroyshka Doll Tea Cosy.

I hope to base a little cloth doll on the tea cosy at some stage over on the sew-funky blog, or at least that was the plan when I bought them! Who know's when I'll get the time. I've been planning to make one since the beginning of the year!

His After Swim Jacket

2008-10-19T14:07:00.000+13:00

Is it just me, or does he look like he's about to expose himself!!?

Good knitting starts with PATONS

2008-10-18T11:36:00.000+13:00

Buttons

2008-10-17T14:47:00.001+13:00

To kick off this new blog we're featuring Mrs Sew Funky's latest addition to her all consuming addiction: her button collection. No one likes rummaging through collections of old buttons quite like Mrs Sew Funky, and no doubt by the end of the weekend she'll have them all sorted into colours, with pictures posted on her blog.