Hi everyone, I am Lisa from Condo Blues where I blog about green living, DIY, and money saving tips with a dash of humor on the side. I don’t think eco has to be ugly. That’s why I’m so excited Jessica invited me because I am completely mad for Mad Men!
Although, most people think I am completely mad and leave it at that. Save your opinions on that until the end of my guest post, OK?
Peggy Olsen is one of my favorite characters. I started my writing career in local television. I was a television promotion writer/producer. Like Peggy, I wrote a lot of copy.
In the Season 4 episode The Chrysanthemum and the Sword Peggy rides a Honda scooter around a TV studio to fake a rival agency into thinking Sterling Cooper Draper Price is shooting a spec ad in hope of landing the Honda account.
I don’t know what I like better. How adorable Peggy looked riding the scooter in circles in the studio or the cute little red scooter itself. I dream of owning a vintage Vespa. It doesn’t have to be a red like Peggy’s scooter. I’ll take one in any color. I’m not picky.
To celebrate the show, I recreated Peggy’s scooter using a popular craft of the 1960’s –embroidery – on something every kitchen in the 1960’s had and used regularly – flour sack kitchen towels.
PEGGY’S SCOOTER EMBROIDERED KITCHEN TOWEL
You will need:
1 flour sack kitchen towel
Scooter artwork
Dressmaker pencil
Embroidery hoop
Red embroidery floss
Embroidery needle
Scissors
Sewing Machine
Red thread
1. Print the scooter art. I included the clip art I used for you.
2. Trace around the artwork with the dressmaker’s pencil on the right side of the flour towel to make your embroidery pattern. My towel is large. I traced the scooter artwork three times in a row on the bottom edge of my towel per my Art Director/Project Manager’s suggestion.
3. Put the towel in the embroidery hoop.
4. Separate a length of embroidery floss into three strands.
5. Outline the scooter design using a backstitch.
6. After embroidering the three scooters, my towels still needed something. I decided to jazz up the edge of my towels with some new fangled (my sewing machine is from 1972) sewing machine technology – cam stitching!
I selected a retro stitch and put the corresponding cam into my sewing machine. I sewed around the edges of the towel in red thread.
Stitch! Stitch! Stitch!7. Iron it, scoot on over to the kitchen, and hang it up!
Vroooooooooooooooooom!I hope you pop over for a visit at Condo Blues. I use everything from a sewing machine to a jackhammer (did I mention I am 4’11”?) to build, repurpose, repair, and make things over to make my condo stylish and green on a budget. My projects have appeared in This Old House Magazine, on Apartment Therapy, and WBNS-10TV. I also write about real food, real quick for real budgets on Lazy Budget Chef. I am the food blogger for Lifetime Television’s The Balancing Act. If you visit me at Lazy Budget Chef , I’ll give you a not from a box mix brownie. Promise.
How fantastic are those little scooters? The Chrysanthemum and the Sword is a fabulous, uncomfortable episode and Peggy’s scooter is a fun moment that breaks the tension. Thanks so much to Lisa for this tutorial.
Lisa is a pint-sized powerhouse on Condo Blues, cranking out all kinds of amazing projects like her Painted Porch Floor Cloth, this Lavender Essential Oil Tutorial and her amazing Porch and Garden Renovation. Make sure to pay her a visit!
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