February » 2010 » Vintage Homemaking

Wednesday’s Duties – Mending

We know that Monday was laundry day and Tuesday was ironing day but what took place in the vintage home on Wednedsay?

Although it seems that it was common advice for a homemaker in time’s past to have a set day for doing a particular household task. Just what task to do on what day most definitely depended upon the workings of the home in question.

For many Wednesday seemed to be an ideal time to mend the family’s clothing.

A great example is how Sara Corey Rippey, in her chapter of The Complete Home on The Machinery of Housekeeping imagined Mrs. Grundy (of the infamous children’s nursery rhyme) might have accomplished many household tasks on a Wednesday.

“On Wednesday Mrs. Grundy mends and puts away the clean clothes and picks up some of the household stitches which had to be dropped on the two preceding days. The kitchen must be put in order, the refrigerator must have its semiweekly cleaning, and the ashes which have accumulated in the stove removed, a new fire built, and the hearth washed. While the oven is heating for the mid-week baking there are vestibules and porches to wash, walks to sweep, the cellar to investigate, and a dozen little odds and ends to attend to which, with the baking, make a busy morning. The cleaning of silver dovetails nicely with the Wednesday work and during the canning season the preserving of fruit can be done at this time with the least interference with the other work of the house, though when it becomes a case of the fruit being ripe, other work must give way for the nonce. In short, Wednesday is the general weekly catch-all into which go all the odd jobs for which room cannot be found elsewhere. ”
~The Complete Home

Mending

Take a needleful of quite fine thread the right color, start at the extreme end of the opening, and holding the goods as flat and even as you can, take a short stitch through from one side, across the rent, and into the other side. Draw the thread close, without puckering, and come back the same way.

Do not get those stitches too close together the first time you go around, as you might unconsciously “full” one side more than the other, but when you have reached the other end, turn and come back the same way, now putting your stitches in between the first set. Also take them a little deeper, so they will catch more of the material and make the sewing hold better. The second time around, if you will notice, you will see you have left a little hole at the sharp corner (in the middle), so put in a few extra stitches there, spread out fan shape to strengthen that particular place.

~Sewing for Little Girls

Grocery Shopping in History

Imagine if your refrigerator was gone. If you had to grocery shop for fresh meat pretty much when you needed it because frozen meat, and vacuum sealed were unheard of. And if you had never heard of tacos!

Such was life before the industrial revolution. Well during too but it was the inventions coming about during this time that led up to these wonderful refrigerators and freezer we love today. Although household appliances and conveniences were rapidly upon the horizon for much of America they were still not available or affordable yet.

So how did women provide three healthy meals a day???Well first of all know that the diet was much more limited than what we have today. Dishes were simple and according to what was available locally and what innovative thing the cook could dish up.

There was still an aim to store up as many groceries as possible. Less often trips to the grocer is always advisable. But because the area of storage was usually a “cool room” rather than a freezer or refrigerator much care had to be taken when store foods and it was advisable to check often for spoilage.

“Green vegetables should be purchased only when needed. If asparagus or lettuce must be kept for a day or two, put some water in a shallow dish, and let the roots rest in the water, which should never be more than an inch deep.

Winter vegetables should be perfectly ripe before being gathered. The skin on fruit or vegetable, when fully ripe, forms an almost impervious covering, through which but
little moisture can escape. If, however, it is picked before it is ripe, the moisture passes through the porous skin, and the fruit or vegetable shrinks.

Eggs are cheapest in the late spring, summer, and fall. Many housekeepers buy a quantity of eggs when they are cheap, and preserve them for the time when eggs are scarce and expensive. If the shells of the fresh eggs are coated with some substance that will exclude the air, the eggs will keep very well for many months. It must be remembered, however, that eggs absorb flavor through their porous shell, and they should not be coated with or packed in any sub- stance that can communicate a disagreeable flavor to them. Sometimes quite fresh eggs are spoiled by being packed for a few days in musty oats.

To test the freshness of eggs, make a salt solution of one quart of water and two tablespoonfuls of salt. A fresh egg will sink in this; an egg that is not very stale will
give just a suggestion of rising, and a very stale egg will float readily.

Milk.The greatest care should be exercised in deciding upon where the supply of milk comes from, and, when it has been delivered to you, in keeping it where it shall not become contaminated or absorb odors.

At a slight advance in the ordinary price one may now get milk that has been bottled and sealed at the farm, thus insuring a fairly pure article. Good milk will be slightly straw color of colored and have a pleasant flavor and odor. When the milk is thin and blue, it has either been skimmed or watered, or there is something wrong with it. If there is the slightest reason to think that the milk is contaminated, boil it before using.

The greatest care is required in the treatment of the milk after it is received into the house. The vessels in which it is kept should be thoroughly washed, scalded, and then cooled. The milk or cream should, if possible, be kept in a cool, well-lighted and ventilated room. Fresh and stale milk should never be mixed, unless they are to be cooked at once.

Every store-closet should be supplied with sugar, flour, tea, coffee, chocolate, eggs, breakfast cereals (if used), molasses, salt, pepper, spice, rice, macaroni, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar, baking-powder, flavoring ex- tracts, vinegar, gelatin, barley, starch, bluing, soap, and salsoda.

All dry groceries and cereals should be kept in glass, pottery, or metal. The store-closet should be cool, dry, and well ventilated; heat and moisture, lack of ventilation, and insects are the enemies of all cereals. “

~Home Economics

Victorian Paper Dolls

Paper dolls have been around as long as paper. A simple way to keep children occupied the child could not only color the doll and outfits but take her hand at drawing her in the first place.

In the Little House on the Prairie books we hear Laura mention her mother making outfits for Mary and her paper dolls. The largest American producer of paper dolls was McLoughlin Brothers which was sold to Milton Bradley in the 1920′s. Some famous Victorian era papers dolls were the infamous Kewpie Dolls, Lettie Lane and Polly Pratt.

These sweet sister’s have made some beautiful paper dolls, Daughters of His Story, for the little girls of today.

Beautiful paper dolls for the collector in you.

Paper Doll Reproductions

Click here to find much more on the history of paper dolls.