This post continues a series of lessons from the 1924 book When Sue Began to Cook. The series began with the post When Sue Began to Cook. Now in Lesson 5, the date this Saturday is December 23. What a good time for Sue and her friend Ruth Ann to make a winter vacation treat like Sue’s Favorite Cocoa.
Hot cocoa is good almost any time of the year, especially with marshmallows. However, it becomes especially welcome during the colder months. This hot cocoa recipe from the Bettina’s Best Recipes cookbooks is a family favorite at our house, too. This is an updated recipe from the 1917 cookbook A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband with Bettina’s Best Recipes. It uses cocoa powder instead of a square of chocolate, which makes it much less expensive to make.
Sue’s notes from the cooking lesson
Here’s what Sue had to say in her cooking notebook:
At first Mother said we wouldn’t have a cooking lesson today because it was so close to Christmas, but Ruth Ann and I begged so hard that she finally relented, only she said we must make something easy.
“I know, Mother, let’s try cocoa. The kind with cinnamon in it!” I suggested. “Just think how much it will help if I really know how to make it!”
“Sue’s Favorite Cocoa?” Mother said, because that’s what she always calls it. “Perhaps if you know how to make it, you’ll make it so often that you’ll get tired of it.”
“Oh, I know I won’t!” I told her. “I think cocoa is delicious when it’s made right, but deliver me from a Mother who doesn’t cook it at all — just pours boiling water over it!” (That is the way Emma Jane’s mother makes it. I discovered that when our club met there.)
“If my mother would only come home, I wouldn’t care how she cooked!” cried Ruth Ann, bursting into tears.
Of course it is especially hard not to have your mother at home for Christmas, but I could tell from Mother’s face that she hadn’t realized how badly Ruth Ann was feeling. “Would it help any, Ruth Ann, if you stayed over here and hung up your stocking with Robin’s and Sue’s?” Mother asked.
“Oh, Aunt Bettina, of course it would! Won’t you ask Grandmother yourself? She’s sure to let me if you do the asking.”
“Goody! Goody!” I said. “Hurry, Mother. Telephone her first, and then come and teach us how to make the cocoa.”
Ruth Ann’s grandmother said she could stay, and perhaps that was the reason the cocoa turned out so well. It was seasoned with happiness as well as cinnamon, Mother said.
Sue’s Favorite Cocoa
Here’s the recipe for Sue’s Favorite Cocoa, just as it was written in When Sue Began to Cook.
We mixed the cocoa, sugar, salt and cinnamon together very carefully with a teaspoon. (If they aren't mixed well, Mother says the cinnamon floats on the top and the cocoa isn't so good.)
Then we each put our mixture into a saucepan and added the water. We cooked it slowly, stirring it all the time, until it got to be like a nice thick chocolate syrup. Then Mother had us add the milk slowly. We turned the fire low, and heated the cocoa till it was steamy and hot. (Mother told us not to let it boil.) When it was steaming hot, we added the vamilla and then beat the coca for a minute or two with a Dover egg beater. (Mother said that would keep it from getting scummy on the top. Robin likes the scum, but once he burnt his tongue on it, so I think Mother's way is best.)
Note: A Dover egg beater is a hand-operated mixer with two mixing blades. It was generally used to mix eggs, whip cream, and combine liquids. Oxo Good Grips makes a modern version that works relatively well, or you can use a whisk.
Mother had me put the four marshmallows in four cups and when we were ready, we poured the cocoa in on top of them. Of course people can use whipped cream instead of marshmallows if they have it, but most families don't, I've noticed. Anyhow marshmallow cocoa is very good.
Sue and Ruth Ann make wheat cereal in 1920s double boilers.
On her third cooking lesson, Sue cooks Wheat Cereal with Dates. This lesson took place on Saturday December 9 according to When Sue Began to Cook. This would be considered a warm winter breakfast, although some Twenties families served it throughout most of the year for its nutrition.
Sue’s notes from the lesson explain why they are making cereal for their Saturday cooking lesson:
It all came about because Ruth Ann told us her Grandmother was always fussing at her because she wouldn’t eat any breakfast food. “But I just can’t, Aunt Bettina. Not even for Mother’s sake!” she said. “I’m never one bit hungry for breakfast.”
Eating breakfast
Ruth Ann is an emotional child, and when she told us about the great big dish of oatmeal her Grandmother set in front of her every morning, her eyes filled with tears, and she shivered almost as if she were cold. “In a thick old bowl, too!” she added. “No wonder I hate it!”
“What’s the bowl got to do with it?” jeered Robin, who always hangs around on our cooking days. “You don’t have to eat the bowl too, do you?”
We all laughed at that, although Mother shook her head at Robin and told him to run out and feed his rabbits. “I know just how you feel about the bowl, Ruth Ann.” she said. “Because I was your kind of a little girl myself once. Of course you must eat your breakfast food, but I’m going to show you just how you can do it and really enjoy it. First, you’ll have to make it yourself!”
Ruth Ann making her own
Ruth Ann looked doubtful. “Maybe Grandmother won’t let me,” she answered. “And besides I don’t know how.”
“You can soon learn,” said Mother. “In fact, you can learn today. And then I am going to give you a little blue bowl to eat it in, a bowl I had when I was a little girl.”
“Oh Mother, the one that used to be Aunt Mattie’s?” I cried, very much surprised. I knew that was one of Mother’s chiefest treasures.
“Yes, dear, Aunt Mattie’s,” Mother said. “Ruth Ann may have it for hers, and I know she’ll take good care of it. See, Ruth Ann!”
I was full of envy when Mother brought out the lovely little round porridge bowl, so thin and dainty. She would scarcely let Robin or me touch it, not to mention using it for our breakfast food!
“It seems to me even oatmeal would taste good in that,” said Ruth Ann with shining eyes. “That is, if I didn’t have to eat too much of it!”
“Wait till I show you how to make my kind of wheat cereal with dates,” said Mother. “It will give you as big a breakfast appetite as Robin’s! But in order to have the charm complete, you must do a third thing for me.”
“Oh, I will! I will! What is it?” cried Ruth Ann eagerly.
Nutrition and exercise go hand in hand
“While the cereal is cooking in the double boiler, you must put on your coat and hat and run around the house six times, no matter how cold and snowy it is.”
“Of course I will if you say so, Aunt Bettina!” (Mother isn’t truly her aunt, you know. She only calls her so because her Mother and mine were such good friends when they were little girls.)
“And then you must come in, finish cooking the breakfast food, and eat a good sized dish of it in the little blue bowl.”
“Oh, I will! I will! And I’ll write and tell Mother all about it!”
“Splendid! said Mother. “But now we must get to work on our third cooking lesson and learn exactly how to make Wheat Cereal with Dates.”
Make it yourself
Here’s the recipe for Wheat Cereal with Dates as it appeared in the book.
1tspsaltDon't forget this if you want it to be good
½cupseeded dates, cut fine
Instructions
First, we looked over the dates and washed them well. Then we took out the seeds with a sharp little knife. Then we cut them very fine. (The dates, not the seeds.)
We each put three cups of water in the top of our own double boiler and set it directly over the fire. We had the under part of the double boiler half full of hot water on another part of the stove. We let the three cups of water come to a slow boil and then we added the salt. We stirred the cereal in slowly, mixing it with a spoon all the time. (Mother told us not to let the water stop dancing while the cereal was being added.)
* Note: Today's double boilers are not usually designed to sit on a stove's heating element without the bottom portion. Only the bottom part fits on the stove. If you use a double boiler, it will take longer to bring the water to a boil with both sections together. Or you can use a heavy pot directly over the flame, but it must be stirred well or it will stick and scorch.
When all the cereal was in, we let it boil hard for about three minutes, stirring it all the time.
Then we each set the utensil (I mean the upper part of the double boilder holding the cereal) into the lower part that had water in it, and let it cook that way slowly for about forty five minutes.
After the cereal had cooked for thirty minutes we added the dates and let it cook fifteen minutes more. ("The kitchen clock is the cook's best friend," Mtoher says.)
If you'll just try it yourself and serve it warm with sugar and cream, you'll never say again that you don't like breakfast food! Mother says we can use raisins or seeded prunes cut fine the next time we make this cereal, but as for me, give me dates!
This week I finally finished a long-awaited project. For many years I wanted a Twenties kimono robe for summer wear. It’s called a kimono robe because it uses kimono sleeves, which means the sleeves are cut as part of the garment’s front and back. This robe is in no way an actual Japanese kimono. It is a Twenties kimono robe creation through and through.
As I paged through a 1924 magazine the other day, I saw an article I’d seen many times before. Every time, I admit, I longed to make one of these for myself. The article itself said “The instructions require no pattern, and the time for making is of no consequence, two hours proving ample.”
“The instructions require no pattern, and the time for making is of no consequence, two hours proving ample.”
Inspiration, 1924
Whether you call it a negligee, a peignoir, a kimono, or a robe, this creation ended up quite satisfactory. It definitely took more than two hours to put together, so set aside at least four hours if you want to wear it tonight.
One of the nicest additions to this simple piece of clothing is the deep tuck that goes over the shoulders and down to the hip in back. It helps to shape the negligee a bit. Darts over the front hips help with that as well.
This is how the finished Twenties kimono robe looks in my size.
Completed robe in a light, gauzy fabric.
What you will need
To make your own, you will need:
Two lengths of 45″ or 60″ fabric. A length here equals the distance from the base of your neck to your ankles or the base of your neck to the floor. Three yards total should be about right.
4-5 yards of 1 – 1.5 inch satin ribbon for belt tie
Thread
Sewing machine or needle
Scissors
Pencil or chalk to mark your fabric (without a pattern, you need a way to mark cutting lines)
Ruler/ dressmaking ruler/ tape measure and straight edge — something to measure with. I use my trusty Picken Square for pattern drafting. (Link goes to Lacis, who reproduced the Picken Square in the late 1990s and still has some.) Anything that will help you draw straight lines will work.
If you wear a size small, medium, or large, 45 inch fabric should work fine. If you wear an XL, XXL or larger size, you will probably need 60-inch fabric. Basically, whatever your hip measure is (36”, 56”, etc.), that measure needs to be about 4-7 inches less than the width of your fabric in order to get a nice loose fitting robe. So if your hip measures 36 inches, 45 – 36 = 9 inches. 45 inches is plenty in width. If your hip measures 56 inches, 60 – 56 = 4. That will work too.
Fabric type: You want a cotton or rayon or polyester that drapes nicely. Too stiff and it won’t hang like a kimono. Prewash your fabric to see how it will actually hang. I made mine from 60-inch wide mystery fabric. When I began I thought it was a cotton, but by the time the project was complete I am pretty sure it is a polyester. And I love it. It’s loose, comfortable, and was completely made from my stash.
Creating your kimono
Even though this robe uses no pattern, that doesn’t mean it uses no measurements. You will mark your lines right onto the fabric with your pencil or chalk (dressmaker’s chalk works great) and then cut along those lines.
First, fold your material lengthwise so you have the long selvedges together. It should be half the width of your fabric and the full three yards long.
Then fold that piece in half crosswise so that all the selvedges are together and it is half the length it was. Your fabric should now measure 1.5 yards in length on the table, and half the fabric width. It should look like this:
This is how your fabric looks folded on the table.
Place the fabric on the table with the long folds away from you, the selvedges closest to you, and the crosswise fold to your left. Now you are ready to measure and cut.
(If your fabric is slippery, pin the layers together here and there so that the fabric doesn’t move while you cut it.)
Ready to cut
Refer to the illustration above as you make the marks and cuts on your own fabric. The layout illustration shows all the letters for marking placement.
First read through all the instructions so you know what you are about to do, and then take it one step at a time.
Slash the upper one of the two lengthwise folds from a to b for the full length front opening.
Measure and cut down the crosswise fold at the left 2.5 inches from b to c.
From your own shoulder, measure down the front to the low waist you want to emphasize. Starting at b, measure that same distance to the right along the fold, and mark d.
Cut a straight line diagonally from d to c, cutting only the top two layers of fabric that were slashed down the fold. Leave the bottom fold as it is.
After you remove the triangles cut from the top two layers of fabric, then cut a curve in the lower two layers from c to b. This forms the back neckline.
This competes the front/back centers of your robe.
Cutting the shoulders and sleeves
Now we move around to the left of the diagram, and down the side closest to you to finish the cutting instructions.
To shape the shoulder, measure 3.5 inches from e at the fold and place a mark for f. Draw a straight line from f to c.
Cut through all four layers of fabric from f to c to form the shoulder.
To the right of f, measure 10 inches and place mark g. Note: This is the sleeve width. If your upper arms measure more than 16 inches in diameter, this will not fit. To determine my sleeve width, I took a measuring tape and looped it very loosely around my arm how I wanted the sleeve to hang. If I made a loop of 24 inches around my arm, then I measured down half that, or 12 inches, instead of 10.
Once you determine where to place g, measure up 4.5 inches or more and place h. This is the length of your sleeve. If you are slender compared to your fabric width, you can make this measurement larger. Make sure you have enough fabric left after you cut away the sleeves that the robe body measures 1.5 to 2 times your hip measure.
Measure up from the corner i the same length from g to h, so 4.5 inches or more, and place j. Draw a straight line from j to h.
Cutting through all four layers, start at j and cut toward h. When you reach 3 inches from h, begin to curve and cut to g.
Congratulations! You just drafted and cut out a pattern of your own making. If this is the first time you’ve done anything like this, you deserve a hearty Well Done. This is how patterns are drafted. If you can do this, you can learn to draft your own patterns from your measurements.
Putting it all together
Don’t throw away any of the fabric you cut away. You’ll use most of it, if not all of it, later.
Here’s how to assemble the robe:
Join the shoulders with a 1/2 inch seam.
Make a 1 inch dart over each hip on the front layers only. This is an optional step; it makes the robe just a little more full in the front if you do.
Take three of the four pieces that you cut from under the arms and join them to form a long strip. You may need all four of them if you increased the depth of the sleeve at all.
Use a 1/4 inch seam to join them together. You will use the entire 4.5 inch width of the fabric to create the wide band that edges the front of the robe. Trim as little of the curved portion from the strips as you can; you will need all the fabric.
To attach the binding, lay it on the front of the robe, right sides of the fabric together and long edges even. Using a 1/4 inch seam, sew up the front, around the neckline, and back down the other side of the front.
Press the seam, and turn under 1/4 inch on the long free edge of the band and press it as well.
Fold the band to the inside of the robe so that the turned edge just covers the stitching.
Sew in place by hand, or sew with a machine stitch close to the folded edge.
Take a designer shoulder tuck
About halfway between your neck and shoulder, like at k, fold a tuck one inch deep, letting it extend to the bust line in front and to the low waistline point in back.
Cut your length of satin ribbon in half, and slip one end of each ribbon into the tuck on the back, near the low waist point.
Then stitch the tuck down along the outside folded edge, from the front bust point to the back hip/low waist point. Catch the end of the ribbon in the stitching to hold it in place like the top illustration. Make sure to finish off the threads securely so the belt doesn’t pull out.
The last thing to do is turn up an even hem all the way around, wherever you want it. Turn 1/4 inch down on the top of the hem and sew it into place. Then slip into your new negligee and admire your afternoon’s work.
If you want inspiration on building the rest of a Twenties wardrobe, check out the post I wrote on Creating a 1920s Capsule Wardrobe.
When Sue Began to Cook, one of the books in the Bettina’s Best Recipes series, tells the story of Bettina’s young daughter Sue and her adventures in the kitchen. On her first Saturday lesson, she and her friend Ruth Ann made Cocoa Drop Cookies. You can find that post here. For Lesson 2, Sue cooks Frizzled Beef on Toast. This recipe is known over the midwest and southern United States as chipped beef, SOS, S— on a Shingle, as well as by other names.
Basically, Sue and Ruth Ann are learning to make a white sauce. Many Twenties recipes used a good white sauce as gravy over a main dish course. Or perhaps mixed into left over meat and bread crumbs to make timbales or patties. A good white sauce also forms the base for some cream soups. All in all, learning to make white sauce is a good beginning step for any cook, because it’s a skill utilized in the kitchen over and over again.
Sue’s thoughts on the lesson
Here are Sue’s comments on the recipe, from her cooking class notebook:
When Mother said at breakfast this morning that she was going to let us make frizzled beef for our cooking lesson today, Robin butted right in and said, “Jinks! I don’t call that anything to make! Why don’t you make cream puffs or fudge or something folks really like?” (Meaning by “folks,” himself and Ted that always hangs around anytime there’s any cooking going on. Especially doughnuts or candy or frosting.)
“Maybe you and Teddy think we’re doing this cooking just for your benefit!” said I scornfully, looking as sarcastic as I could. [At times Sue could be a nicer older sister.] “Ruth Ann and I are learning to be practical cooks, and we aren’t planning our lessons just to suit two silly little boys that can’t even do their arithmetic problems without help!”
I had him there, as Father says. Even though he is a boy, I’m lots better at mathematics than he is and many’s the time Mother has to help him in the evenings.
Frizzled beef for lunch
“Don’t quarrel, children,” said Mother, not noticing that as usual it was Robin who was doing all the quarreling. “This frizzled beef is going to be just as good as doughnuts or fudge or icing. And we’re going to have it for lunch today, too. So if Sue and Ruth Ann are willing, you may ask Teddy to stay, Robin.”
Robin seemed quite pleased at that. Just as pleased as if he hadn’t said anything about the frizzled beef. And he went off whistling.
The frizzled beef was so easy to make — lots easier than the Cocoa Cookies. And it was awfully good, too, all brown and creamy and curly just the way it ought to be. I had thought mine would be enough for us all (Father doesn’t come home at noon). But the boys were so hungry that Ruth Ann very generously had us eat hers too. (Of course she stayed to lunch.) We had big baked potatoes with the frizzled beef, and big glasses of milk, and cookies and applesauce. After Robin had been served three times at least, he was polite enough to say that it was the best meal he had in a long time. But not one bit of the beef was left for Father!
1tspsaltAlso leveled off with a knife. Nearly everything has salt in it if it's really good.
¼tsppepper
2cupsmilk
4slicesnice fresh toastI cut mine in triangles and it looked so nice and partified.
Instructions
We tore the beef all up in tiny little pieces. Then we each put the butter in a frying pan over the fire (not too hot a fire!) and when it was all melted and bubbling, we added the dried beef. Then we let it cook, and kept stirring it around all the time till the edges began to curl up. Then we added the flour and mixed well. We let the flour get light brown (we kept stirring it all the time!) and then added the salt, pepper, and milk (still stirring!) and cooked it slowly till it was all thick and creamy.
Mother had us make our toast first, so it was all ready waiting on two hot little platters. We poured the frizzled beef over it as neatly as we could, and then decorated it with little sprigs of parsley from Mother's parsley box in the kitchen window. It looked almost too pretty to eat!
On a rainy, dreary November afternoon, Sue complains to her mother that there’s nothing to do. Her brother is at a friend’s house, As for her best friend Ruth Ann — well, she cries all the time now that her mother has been sent away for her health. This is the beginning of When Sue Began to Cook, the last book in the Bettina storybook trilogy by Louise Bennett Weaver.
The complete title of the book is When Sue Began to Cook with Bettina’s Best Recipes. Bettina’s Best Recipes became the brand name of a whole line of cookbooks in the 1920s. Bettina was an authority on cakes and cookies, desserts, sandwiches, and salads. And each topic found its way into one of the Bettina’s Best Recipes cookbooks.
Like all the Bettina books, Sue’s story begins with some really bad poetry:
To every other little maid Who longs to learn like Sue, But feels a tiny bit afraid It’s all too hard to do, To all the little girls who sigh, “I need a simple book To help me!” “Here it is!” we cry, When Sue Began to Cook
Dedication, When Sue Began to Cook, Louise Bennett Weaver and Helen Cowles LeCron
Bettina suggests that Sue invite Ruth Ann over for weekly cooking lessons. Then Bettina will teach them both to cook. The plan will occupy Sue at the same time that it gives Ruth Ann something to think about besides her sick mother. (In 1924 when the book was written, Ruth Ann’s mother probably has tuberculosis and was sent to Arizona for the dry air in hopes that it would cure her. The book, however, never says.)
Sue loves the idea, and runs to tell Ruth Ann about the new Saturday plans. The girls’ story unfolds from the notes that Sue keeps after each cooking session. Here are her notes from the first day:
I found Ruth Ann crying, as usual, but it didn’t take her long, after she heard about the Cooking Class, to hustle into a clean dress and hurry over. And oh, the cookies were delicious!
I intended to save mine for dinner tonight, but of course Robin and Ted came in perfectly ravenous and teased so hard that I had to give them ten or twelve apiece and that doesn’t leave many for Father when he comes. But how proud he’ll be to try his daughter’s first cookies. That is, the first ones I’ve made entirely alone, even to lighting the oven and washing the dishes afterwards.
When Sue Began to Cook, page 14.
As a first recipe, Sue and Ruth Ann make Cocoa Drop Cookies. Then the next week they start at the beginning and learn to make Frizzled Beef over Toast. This recipe is known regionally under many different names in the United States. Chipped beef, SOS, and S—- on a Shingle are but three of the ways people refer to this dish.
Each week Sue and Ruth Ann tackle a new recipe or cooking method, and they build a nice repertoire of recipes through the year. A winter Wheat Cereal with Dates progresses to gingerbread. Then spring brings Baked Ham with Browned Potatoes. The heat of summer brings recipes for Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce, Fruit Sherbet, and a Fruit Gelatin. Then the autumn rolls around again, with its traditional Twenties recipes for doughnuts, peanut brittle, and popcorn balls.
In Chapter 52, the last week of the year’s lessons. the girls present a party for their friends. They cook an entire meal from recipes in the book, and proudly present the fruits of their yearlong course.
When Sue Began to Cook makes a good beginning cookbook for teens interested in cooking history, for cookbook collectors, and for people who want to learn to cook simple recipes. Currently this book is unavailable in any free downloadable format, so you’ll have to search out a 1924 copy yourself.
If you’re new to the world of Bettina cookbooks, I wrote about the first one in the post A Cookbook Worth Reading.
2½tspbaking powderLeveled off with a knife, too. This is important.
¼tspsaltAll good cookies have salt in them.
Instructions
Mother had us each put the lard in a nice round-bottomed yellow bowl and cream it. (That means mash it down with a big spoon until it is very soft.) And then add the sugar and keep on creaming until the mixture looked all one color. Then we broke the eggs into a little dish and added them one by one to the sugar mixture. (Mother said to break and add them one by one so as to be very sure they were good.) Then we kept on stirring with the big holey spoon for two whole minutes. Then we added the water and the vanilla.
We put a little more than two and one-third cups of flour through the flour sifter and after it had been sifted once, we measured it out and took exactly two and one-third cups of it. Then we put it back in the empty sifter and added the cocoa, the baking powder and the salt. We sifted them through twice all together.
(Mother says we must always be very sure about the level spoonful. She had us take a knife and level the filled spoons off very carefully. This is important.)
We dumped the flour mixture into the bowl with the other things, and stirred just enough to be sure everything was well mixed.
Then we each greased our cooky-sheet with a clean piece of paper that had been dipped in a little lard. (Several pie pans will do instead, Mother says.) Then we took up a little of the cooky-dough on the end of the mixing spoon and scraped it oiff on the cooky-sheet with a knife. (She told us to be sure these little cooky mounds weren't too large; they oughtn't to be more than an inch across.) We dropped these bits of dough about three inches apart on the greased sheet and flattened each of them down a little with a knife that had just been dipped in warm water.
Then we baked the cookies in a moderate oven for about fifteen minutes. [Moderate oven: 350-375º F] Mother had us light the oven a few minutes ahead of time, and then turn it down so it wouldn't be too hot when the cookies were put in.
Chocolate or cocoa cookies burn easily, she said, so we looked at them often. Sometimes those on the edge of the pan got done first and had to be removed carefully and slipped onto another flat pan to cool. All our cookies couldn't be baked at once, so we kept the dough in a cool place (not near the stove!) until the oven was ready again.
As soon as the cookies were all finished and cool, we each packed them carefully away in a stone jar.
Notes
This recipe is taken directly from When Sue Began to Cook, copyright 1924, by Louise Bennett Weaver and Helen Cowles LeCron.
The book sat wedged between two other volumes at the used bookstore. With a worn spine that was unreadable, the book looked forgotten and forlorn. That’s when I decided that regardless what its pages contained, Saturday Mornings needed to come home with me. I gently pulled the book from the shelf, opened it, and realized I’d found a treasure. Saturday Mornings was a housekeeping story.
Written by Caroline French Benton in 1906, Saturday Mornings is instructional, but uses a story to get its point across. Like many of its competitors through 1919, the book explains how to complete tasks within the framework of a story. I’ve always loved these books and have several in my collection. This one is actually titled Saturday Mornings: A Little Girl’s Experiments and Discoveries, or How Margaret Learned to Keep House.
I recently found it on my bookshelf again, nestled between a few vintage cookbooks. I decided it was time for an airing, to use an old housekeeping term.
The Book’s Story
Saturday Mornings began as a series of articles in Good Housekeeping magazine in 1905. Titled “Margaret’s Saturday Mornings,” each article became a chapter of the book, with a little more added. The articles were edited a bit before their final form. I found that words changed between the Good Housekeeping article and the printed book. Fun became delightful. A list of bathroom tasks was shortened to clean the grates and other things. Overall, however, the book and the articles remained almost the same.
Margaret’s journey begins at the Christmas Tree, where she finds everything she needs to run a household tied to the branches. In addition, a small red book nestles among the branches. Its title is Saturday Mornings, and it holds everything she needs to begin her adventure in housekeeping.
Throughout subsequent chapters Margaret learns the best way to keep a kitchen fire alive, and set and serve various meals in the dining room. She learns about laundry and linen, bedrooms and bathrooms. The last short chapter takes Margaret through an entire day’s work, where she showcases everything she knows.
Looking over the pages, some housekeeping tasks remain the same over 100 years later. Others, however, changed quite a bit. We no longer clean anything with gasoline, for instance. It was used to cut deep grime and for other tasks, but I couldn’t imagine wetting a cloth with gasoline to clean anything. Of course, in 1906 your choices for cleaners included ammonia, vinegar, cake soap, and other similar chemicals. Since fiberglass tubs and electric clothes washers stood far in the distance, the materials used to clean these items were unheard of as well.
Caroline French Benton wrote many other articles and books on the home and the women’s sphere. Her most well known book is probably A Little Cook Book for a Little Girl in 1905, although she went on to write about women’s clubs, motherhood, and thrifty lifestyles.
Read it Yourself
You can find a copy of Saturday Mornings, a housekeeping story, at Project Gutenberg, and download it in several formats or read it online.
If the history of housekeeping interests you, you will enjoy this book. In fact, you might also like Never Done: A History of American Housework by Susan Strasser. (Amazon link).
And if you enjoy stories of youth from 1905-1915, you might enjoy this post on the Motor Maids School Days, where Billie and her car find friends and solve a mystery.
Bibs keep babies tidy. They go in and out of fashion, but a stack of baby bibs was a must-have to any vintage household with a baby in it. Some were for utilitarian use, and they got thrown into the laundry hamper after one messy meal. Others were designed for decoration, and matched or complemented the baby’s wardrobe. You can embroider a baby bib that falls in between these extremes. Make one to match a special outfit. Or create a couple special warm weather bibs for that baby in your life.
Lots of vintage bib patterns exist, because the bib became a staple of the layette. While looking through a stack of old patterns, I came across these two that I just had to share. They’re from an undated layette pattern set, probably from the 1940s or at the latest, early 1950s. I thought they were darling and I wanted to pass them along in case anyone could use them.
To Embroider the Baby Bibs
These patterns measure about 8 1/8 to 8 1/4 inches from side to side, and 8 to 8 1/4 inches from back to belly. They should print well on US size letter paper.
To embroider the bibs:
Two 10 x 10 inch pieces of white or pastel fabric, light to medium weight like quilting cotton, batiste, or muslin. You can also use 1/4 yard of any of the fabrics.
1 yard of bias tape to coordinate or match your base fabric. This will edge the neck and form the ties.
Embroidery floss in your choice of colors.
Embroidery hoop to hold your fabric taut.
Sharp embroidery needle – not a cross stitch tapestry needle. This one needs to have a sharp point to go through the fabric.
Use these stitches:
French knots or satin stitch for the dots.
Satin stitch or lazy daisy stitch for the flowers.
Outline or stem stitch for the lines.
Buttonhole stitch for the edges.
Rambler Rose stitch for the roses. (See below for illustration).
This is a rose stitch.
Colors You Will Need
Really, you can use any colors you want. Traditionally these were embroidered in light, wispy, pastel colors. But as you can see from the first picture, the original artist colored them with bright reds, yellows, and blues. Is this because it matched their pattern envelope brand colors? We will never know.
The pattern itself does suggest some colors:
Work entirely in one color. This is great for a more formal bib, or one where you want it to match a particular outfit without question.
Flowers: pink or blue, or any pastel color on white. Or white on any pastel fabric color.
Centers: light yellow or white.
Leaves and stems: light green.
Ribbons and dots: pink, white, or blue, depending on colors used for flowers. You can match them or contrast.
If you need ideas for embroidery stitches, or instructions on how to do the stitches suggested, I created a whole set of blog posts with vintage embroidery lessons. It’s called Lessons In Embroidery.
Creating the Bibs
Here are the steps to putting one of these bibs together.
Print out the design you want to use. The original bib measures about 8 x 8 inches or 8 1/4 by 8 1/4 inches. Either is fine. I printed the image at 45% to 46% to match the size.
Transfer the design to your fabric. You can trace it, use fabric carbon paper, prick the lines with pins and rub powder over them, whatever you like.
Embroider the main design.
Use a buttonhole stitch to go around the scalloped outside edge of the bib. This finishes it off.
Cut out the bib carefully. Be sure not to catch your buttonhole stitches. Cut along the cutting line at the neck. You’ll have about a 3/8 inch seam line.
Fold your bias tape in half. Attach the middle point to the middle front of the bib neckline and pin it around. Sew the bias tape onto the bib, either by hand or machine. Fold it over and hem the tape to the back of the bib. Sew the long edges of the bias tape straps together so they don’t unfold. You can sew the ends of the tape, or not. It’s cut on the bias. It won’t unravel.
The Patterns
Here are the patterns you will need to create the bibs.
Baby bib number 1 with a sweet bow and bunches of flowers.
And here is the second design.
Baby bib number 2, with roses and scrolls.
The thin line around the outside of the bib shows where to place the buttonhole edging.
Where to Go from Here
If you enjoyed this project, you might also like some of the projects in Lessons in Embroidery. Here’s Lesson 2, all about various straight line stitches. This is the information that hooked me on vintage embroidery stitches, many years ago. Check it out. Lessons in Embroidery: Outline Stitches
Last winter I had a problem. I needed to sew a storage solution for cloth dinner napkins and other kitchen linens on their way to the washing machine.
My washer and dryer are in the kitchen. This is exactly what I wanted when we moved to our house a few years ago, and it took a few houses to locate one with very accessible laundry. Unfortunately, that means that I have nowhere to store the normal soiled linens waiting to be laundered, like dish towels and dust cloths.
I also needed a place to store a set of reusable “paper” towels. I love them. They are wonderful, easy to clean, and they work great for small projects like “oops! I just overwatered the cactus again. Grab me a paper towel, will you?” However, they are not easy to store. I solved that problem by sewing a storage solution called a door pocket. You can see the happy perpetual paper towels peeking from their pocket in the picture below.
My cloth paper towel stash peeps at you from the top pocket.
Door Pockets in History
Door pockets have been around for a long time, well over 100 years. They became popular in the 1920s in small bungalows and apartments that afforded very little storage space. These homes usually provided a small pantry or cabinet door, and these became prime real estate for the door pocket storage rack.
Then the Great Depression hit and many people barely managed to eat, much less afford supplies for decorating. But they did have access to outgrown clothing and flour sacks. And flour sacks make wonderful door pocket organizers. They’re colorful, wash easily, and the happy prints brought a smile in the kitchen or wherever else they appeared.
Plus, sometimes a shopper ended up with one or two mismatched flour sacks. Each sack when opened created one yard of fabric. What could you do with one yard of fabric? You can cut it up and create quilt blocks. Another alternative is to make an organizational or household helper like one of these door pockets.
Making Your Own
Visual instructions for your door pocket
You can sew a storage solution like a door pocket to fit your own needs. Sure, you can purchase a fabric over the door shoe rack (where do you think that idea came from?) but everything doesn’t fit into a shoe-sized hole. The benefit to making your own is that the pockets fit the objects you need them to.
Originally, the instructions for these items told you to sew bone rings at the top and bottom of the completed pocket set and then hook them onto the inside of your door. That assumes that we all have hardwood pantry doors, which since the 1960s at least, most of us do not. In the United States at least, room doors are often made from a wooden framing and wood veneer. Hooks will not hold in the very thin wood layer that forms the large flat part of the door. If anyone or anything poked a hole in one of your plywood veneer doors, you know exactly what I mean.
Modernizing the Instructions
Instead of the rings and hooks, I purchased some over the door hooks from Amazon. Something like this may be available from your local hardware store as well. I sewed thin strips of fabric into sturdy straps. I folded them and cut them into lengths suitable for over the door hooks. If I were to make another one I would make the top loops much longer. Over the door hooks only hang a couple inches below the top of the door, and I am quite short. Reaching the perpetual paper towels proves to be a challenge.
To make your own door pocket organizer, you will need a medium weight cotton fabric. The original diagram suggested chintz, which you can find in the drapery department of your local fabric store. It’s a shiny cotton, usually with flowers on it.
When this design was originally published in the Thirties, fabric was sold in lengths that measured only 36 inches wide. Some fabrics, like woolens, were wider, but the majority of cottons appeared in the local store sewing departments at 36 inches. So a door organizer that measures 24 inches wide by 36 inches high would need 2 1/2 yards of fabric. If your fabric measures 41-43 inches wide, you will still probably need about 2 1/4 yards fabric. You may as well purchase the entire 2 1/2 yards and make a matching potholder from the leftovers. If your pocket will be less than 24 inches, you will end up with extra fabric. Or you can use it to make matching binding instead of buying prepackaged bias tape. Everything is cut as one layer; nothing is lined in this organizer.
You will need
To make your own door organizer, you will need:
about 2 1/2 yards of fabric. This is a great project for leftovers. All the pieces don’t have to match.
8 – 9 yards bias tape binding. You can make your own from spare fabric, see below.
over the door hangers. Here’s a set I found on Amazon. You may be able to find some closer to home. You will want to make sure that the door hanger width matches the width of your door.
First, you calculate
The only one who knows exactly how to make your door storage pocket is you. You know how wide your doors are, how long a space you have for hanging something, and what you need to store. If you look at the illustration of the construction, and then at mine at the top, you’ll see that they don’t look much alike. My pantry door was only eighteen inches wide. There was no way I could fit a 24-inch organizer on the back of it.
Once you figure out how wide your pocket can be, grab a spare sheet of paper and sketch what you want the pockets to look like. My whole reason for making a door pocket was so that I could have a large bottom pocket like the illustration. I needed that to hold my cloth napkins. I also made a large pocket in the top to hold my reusable paper towels.
Your upper pockets will be eight inches deep. A large pocket might be 12 inches to 18 inches deep.
Each pocket will have a box pleat in the middle to give you room to actually store something in it. If you don’t know how to make box pleats, here’s a tutorial: How to Make Box Pleats.
When you measure for the pockets, take the width of your finished item (24) plus 1 inch for each 1-inch pleat per pocket: 24 + 4 (1-inch pocket pleats for four pockets) = 28 inches for each strip. (It’s much easier if you cut them a couple inches longer so you have some material to play with. You can always trim it even later.)
For a 2-inch pleat in a larger pocket, add 2 extra inches to your width (24 width + 2 inch pleat = 26 inches long).
Assemble the organizer
Trim each pocket top with bias tape. It will act as a top hem and strengthen it at the same time.
Then attach your pockets one layer at a time. Since you will have two to three inches between pocket layers you can start at the bottom. Attach the bottom pocket by basting along the sides and bottom. Remember to pin your pleat into place before you stitch the bottom edge.
Take your next pocket strip. Fold in your box pleats and pin them into place. Determine where you want the pocket to sit. Mark the bottom edge of the pocket by pinning the two sides of your backing piece. Turn the pocket upside down, with the bias tape towards the bottom and the wrong side of the fabric facing you. Move the pocket up so that the edge is 1/2 inch over the marked pins. Sew along that line, and fold up. You now have a 1/2-inch seam on the bottom and your pocket base sits exactly where you wanted it to sit. Your pocket will be about 7 1/2- 7 3/4 inches tall.
Reinforce the seam you just sewed by sewing again 1/8 inch above the seam line to hold everything in place.
Then sew two seams close together between each pocket, as you see in the illustration. Baste or sew the sides of the pocket to the backing.
Repeat with your other pockets, all the way up. Leave a space between the new pocket and the one below it so that you can insert and remove items easily.
When you are finished, baste the sides of your pockets to the backing and then apply bias tape all the way around. At the top, cut a 9-inch strip of bias tape, and sew it along the open long side to create a strap. Cut your strap into three 3-inch pieces and fold them in half.
Pin each folded strap upside down to the front of the top edge of your organizer. The raw edges of the strap should meet the top raw edges of your backing.
Then apply the bias tape across the top, catching the loop ends as you go. After you’re finished, fold the loops up and sew over them a couple times to strengthen them so they won’t pull out.
Make your own binding
You don’t have to purchase pre-made bias tape. You can make your own. Or you can use straight strips as binding.
To use straight binding strips, cut long strips of fabric straight on the grain that measure about 1 1/2 inches wide. Two of them should be a bit longer than your backing sides, two a couple inches longer than your top and bottom, and several long enough to sew along the top of your pockets before you attach them.
You sew straight binding onto a piece of fabric just like you would bias tape. Sew 1/4 inch seam on the back and press or fold 1/4 inch hem down the long loose edge. Then fold the fabric from the back to the front and sew down along the folded edge, covering all the loose edges. When you attach the last two pieces, usually the top and bottom because they are shorter, fold the two ends in to match the width of your fabric before attaching the binding to your project. This will create a smooth hem on both ends.
Show Off Your Work
Drop a comment and show how it came out. If you made this project, are you interested in making it again? Once you make one, any others will go much faster. Like lots of home decorating projects, the most difficult project is the first one.
If you enjoyed this project and you have some fabric left over, you might also like making a Patchwork Fan Potholder from leftover scraps.
What can you throw together when a friend stops by for a chat? If your pantry’s afternoon tea shelf is stocked, worry no more. Pull out a few tasty nibbles and treats you can combine quickly, assemble them on a tray, and pour the tea.
This idea comes from 1923, and like many ideas it needs resurrection from its current space, buried within the pages of a woman’s periodical. The general emergency shelf concept wasn’t new. It took its place among the solid advice offered to new homemakers: Always have a small shelf of ready to use foods for unexpected guests or that long day away.
Your Own Afternoon Tea Shelf
The afternoon tea shelf, however, gives a new twist to the idea. Especially if you like the idea of holding tea parties to entertain close friends, you might see the advantage in the suggestion. You clear off a shelf in your pantry or a small shelf in a corner cupboard that you don’t often use. Designate it the Tea Shelf. But what do you put on it?
Of course, you would include a box of crackers. Pour them into a bowl, set them out side by side covered with 1/4 slice of your favorite cheese, or spread with a bit of cream cheese and sprinkle with a flavoring spice like garlic, Italian seasoning, or your favorite mixture. (Better yet, combine the flavor with the cream cheese before spreading.) You may even want to include two boxes of crackers. Simple rice crackers always taste light and airy, while a heavier entertainment cracker like Ritz or an allergy-safe alternative creates a great base for simple spreads.
Another good idea is a box of favorite cookies that have a long shelf life. Oreos, chocolate chip, or Vienna wafers give you some ideas, but the cookie aisle is filled with options. Choose a favorite.
Easy Shelf Stocking Ideas
Here are some other ideas:
Make some cookies and store them on your shelf. It will ensure that you visit the shelf often as you eat them before they become stale.
Marshmallows, either mini or regular.
Chocolate in small bar or individually-wrapped form. You will want to unwrap the chocolate before you present it, however. Guests seem to have an aversion to opening sealed items.
Nuts, either one kind or mixed. Small containers don’t take up much space. This is not the time to buy a huge container of Costco peanuts.
A jar of marmalade or preserves.
Small jar of honey. Again, a small container works here. Store the 2 pound glass jar that you use for everyday cooking on another shelf.
Sugar, turbinado sugar, or brown sugar that you can use to sweeten the tea.
A small jar of mayonnaise if you don’t always have some in the fridge, for savory sandwiches.
Peanut butter
Dried fruit, with or without extra sugar: cherries, pineapple, crystallized ginger.
Once you have all these things, plus the refrigerated items you always keep on hand (like cream cheese), you can combine them into all sorts of novel treats.
Easy Combinations from Your Stash
Use the cookies as the base for a sweet sandwich. Take a couple tablespoons of cream cheese and stir in 1/2 teaspoon sugar and some melted chocolate or 1/4 tsp cocoa powder. Spread this on molasses cookies, vanilla wafers, or sugar cookies. Press two of them together to make a sandwich.
Stir a few chopped nuts into a spoon or two of honey and use that to glue two cookies together in a sweet sandwich.
To add spice to those plain table crackers, stir together some peanut butter, a teaspoon or two of half-and-half or full cream (if you have it on hand, milk or milk substitute if you don’t), and some confectioner’s sugar. Use it as a cracker sandwich filling. You can also mix peanut butter with honey for an excellent filling, or peanut butter and some leftover frosting from that cake you made a day or two ago (This is why I never throw away that 1/2 cup of leftover frosting. It may need to make its way to a cookie or cracker.)
Take a marshmallow, place it onto a cracker or round cookie, and stick it in the oven at 350° F for a few minutes until it puffs and begins to brown. Bring it out of the oven, and if you like, decorate the top with a nut or piece of dried fruit like a cherry or pineapple.
Bread slices, cut into 3/4-inch wide pieces, after de-crusting, can be toasted. Then while warm spread with butter and sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. This is a grownup take on the ever-favorite childhood breakfast of cinnamon toast.
Adding Cake or Muffins
If you have time to whip up a cake (this is where boxed mixes can shine), bake it in one or two loaf pans. When it’s cool, cut it into thin bread-slice type pieces. Then mix together 1 cup powdered sugar with a Tablespoon or two of milk. Add whatever flavoring you like and stir in some chopped nuts for texture and added nutrition. Then use the frosting as a filling between two pieces of cake. Cut each sandwich into thin finger strips if you like.
Mini muffins can be made from the simplest recipe if you cut off the top, scrape out a bit, and fill the hole with a bit of marmalade or preserves before popping the top back on.
Savory Options for Your Table
Create a savory topping by mixing 2 hard boiled eggs, some diced or ground deli ham, a tablespoon or two of grated cheese, and either dijon mustard, mayonnaise, or a mixture of both to hold it all together. Spread on crackers, or take two to three slices of bread, remove the crust, cut into quarters, toast, and top with the mixture. Voila! Eight to twelve open faced sandwiches.
Top cheese crackers with mayonnaise mixed with nuts. Or spread them with mayonnaise mixed with minced celery. This, of course, will require a larger cheese wafer than your ordinary small 1-inch square cracker. If you have the small kind on hand, toss them into a bowl for free snacking.
Entertain with Impunity
Keep enough small, prepackaged things on hand that you can throw together a tea party at a moment’s notice, and with little to no anxiety. Life is too short to stress over cups of tea and finger sandwiches. Using only three of the ideas from this list will give you an inviting, tasty tea table. And because most of the ingredients came from your afternoon tea shelf, you have the time and energy to enjoy your friends.
If you want more complicated (and impressive) recipes for your afternoon tea party, check out this post on a collection of Recipes for Your Porch Party.
The cover of the Mary Frances Knitting and Crocheting Book
Mary Frances needs to learn all kinds of skills. She needs to learn to cook, clean, sew, knit, crochet, garden. Her world is full of learning! Mary Frances stars in an entire series of instruction books, beginning with a cookbook in 1912. In The Mary Frances Knitting and Crocheting Book she learns to knit and crochet. She makes clothes for her doll along the way. Her teachers are the Knitting People, a delightful set of tools that come to life and tell Mary Frances exactly how things should be done.
In the pages of The Mary Frances Knitting and Crocheting Book we meet Knit and Knack the knitting needles, Crow Shay the crochet hook, and Yarn Baby, a yarn doll. These characters, along with their friends, show Mary Frances the ropes of creating with yarn. She makes doll clothes, a baby doll’s set, and a few things for herself. And you can find patterns for all of these in the book. Because The Mary Frances Knitting and Crocheting Book was published in 1918, the last set of patterns is from the Red Cross. A flyer of knitted articles for World War I soldiers gives Mary Frances experience with adult-size clothing.
Dress your baby dolls in the finest handmade outfits.
Note: This is a book of its time. It may contain outdated references or illustrations, like most books from 1900-1930.
One Adventure After Another
By the time Mary Frances graduates to knitting and crocheting, she’s much older than the little girl who started the series with a cookbook. She’s had adventures with the Kitchen People when she learned to cook. The Thimble People taught her to sew. She learned the basics of housekeeping from the Doll People. And in her last adventure before she learns to knit, she meets the Garden People. Her knitting and crocheting book is more advanced than any of the other books. It contains more projects and less chatter. The story line still exists, but it’s not as all-encompassing as the story you find in the Mary Frances Sewing Book.
When the story opens, Mary Frances is accosted by her great aunt Maria, who is, of course, a paragon of the textile arts and cannot believe that Mary Frances doesn’t know how to knit or crochet. She offers to teach her, and Mary Frances says that she’s been wanting to learn for the longest time. Then Mary Frances remembers how Aunt Maria taught her father to knit, and how much he hated it.
She sits down with her knitting bag after her aunt scurries away, and wishes that helpful fairies like the Thimble People could teach her to knit and crochet. Crow Shay the hook begins to talk to her, and she realizes that real help waits for her after all.
Learning from the Pros
She endures one lesson with Aunt Maria before her aunt is whisked away by a family emergency. Mary Frances finds herself alone with her brother, talking knitting needles, and Katie, the household cook.
This gives Mary Frances the freedom she needs to concentrate on the lessons from the knitting needles and crochet hook. With their help she creates a doll’s wardrobe. A little over the first half of the book teaches crochet. Then the chapters switch to knitting instruction. Black and white photographs from 1918 show how to form the stitches.
Mary Marie ready for a day on the town
Illustrations throughout the book show how the finished articles should look. In the original book several color pages show the progress of a sixteen inch doll’s wardrobe. Mary Marie, the doll, received a complete handmade wardrobe in the sewing book, but now she needs coats and hats, shopping bags and mufflers. The book even gives instructions for an aviator doll outfit and a Teddy Bear Suit. The suit looks like a WWI army uniform, but teddy bear suits were actually one-piece sitcot jumpsuits. WWI airplane pilots wore them. So although it’s quite cute with its trousers, jacket, and tam, I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be, or why it’s called a Teddy Bear Suit.
Mary Frances can even knit herself a fashionable sweater.
Read It For Yourself
Whether you’ve wanted to learn knitting and crochet like Mary Frances, or you’d like a romp through a century-old instruction book for children, you might enjoy this book. Download The Mary Frances Knitting and Crocheting Book from the Internet Archive or Project Gutenberg. And let the yarn adventures begin.
