Twelve Ways to Decorate a Dog: December

1976's crafting ends with sparkles—

A couple of special b-days—

And a variant spelling—

Twelve Ways to Decorate a Dog: November

"Stacked Arrowhead Stitch is used to suggest feathers and to attach the Indian's head to the background..."

Results...

Twelve Ways to Decorate a Dog: October

October's pooch—m.a.d....

..."Machine Appliqué dog," that is—

And October 1976 had a dual celebration—

Divided Attention

Childcraft (v 2): Storytelling and Other Poems
1949 - Field Enterprises, Chicago

It seems this volume first appeared in 1923, as The Child's Treasury. The original publisher, W.F. Quarrie & Company, issued several editions into the 1930s; editions from 1939 to 1947 were published by the Quarrie Corporation.

Fields Enterprises (headed by an heir to Marshall Field) had moved into publishing by buying The Chicago Sun in 1944. From 1945 to 1978 the company owned the World Book encyclopedia. It seems the Childcraft series also was marketed by encyclopedia salesmen.

Other titles in series.

Endpapers—

The text has at least one illustration for page, with a single artist illustrating a 2-page spread. As a number of different artists are represented, the book is interesting for variations in period styles aimed at children.

Text is grouped in three sections: "Poems for Everyday," "Humorous Poems," "Storytelling Poems and Ballads."

Near the end is this colorful spread—

Patriotism here—

Followed by some broadening of the sales market—

I'll have to get to more illustrations in future, but another item of interest for now is an item left in the book. It would seem that around the 1980s, this copy was handed down to a child with more up-to-date daydreams than those the Fields Co. promoted—

Page from a tear-out sticker book (to scale)

Twelve Ways to Decorate a Dog: September

"The Quickpoint dog is done in Leaf Stitch..."

Twelve Ways to Decorate a Dog: August

Patchwork pooch—

His exciting "pattern of textures" explained here—

On the agenda side of the month—

And there's this important official reminder—

Twelve Ways to Decorate a Dog: July

Beaded Bowser—

Twelve Ways to Decorate a Dog: June

"Chinese Buttons make the eyes of the macramé trimmed dog..."—

Twelve Ways to Decorate a Dog: May

Felt Fido...

...and Finals

Twelve Ways to Decorate a Dog: April

April for Appliqué—

Satin appliqué—

On the April 1976 agenda: nothing noted, other than "Easter Vacation"—

... I would settle for it (sigh)...

Twelve Ways to Decorate a Dog: March

"The Hooked Rug dog

is made on a canvas with five squares to the inch, using knitting yarns..."

And then there's that enviable calendar note, which students get to make...

Twelve Ways to Decorate a Dog: February

Bargello bow-wow—

Twelve Ways to Decorate a Dog: January

Front cover of a publication—

Explained by the title page—

Clever idea; inspired, perhaps, by this?

Oka's book was contemporary, and influential for designers. According to a reviewer here, the first English publication was in 1967, but a revised version (still in print) was done in connection with a 1975 exhibit. It's a likely inspiration for this calendar's concept, if the end product is not quite Japanese design chic.

I see a few of these for sale online, and they include a pattern for a stuffed dog design that's missing from my copy.

I haven't been able to find if stuffed dogs were a store mascot, or just a product aimed at a particular age group, but seen here is an ad from around the same time.

In any case, each month of the year features a project and instructions, next to the engagement calendar.

The target demographic? This particular calendar copy was used by a well-organized college girl: prepared for all birthdays and sorority rush week, while no doubt fashionably dressed.

Well, this is a reminder of another thing about the dying out (or, murder) of print: less likelihood of such twofer finds as strange hand-written notes used to mark pages in old books.

But back to 1976: the calendar has no obvious connection to the store's products, and it also seems like doing the projects would have taken free time otherwise available for shopping. But the store did finally go under, in 2005.

Though after that date, this guy cites Casual Corner as short-hand for fashion faux pas.

A different view expressed—

My favorite store is closing ! Casual Corner - Crossdressers Forum
www.crossdressers.com › ... › Male to Female Crossdressing‎
3 posts - ‎2 authors
My favorite place to shop for womens suits is closing. They had a lot of nice clothes for the professional woman. Now I don't know where to shop for excellent ...