Handmade Australia Magazine 20 to 25 - becomes Womens Weekly publication and includes some Australian craft classic patterns

Handmade Magazine 25

Handmade Australia was bought by Australian Consolidated Press from Fairfax with number 21 in Spring 1988. This change lead to changes in the content and I have to say the content in these issues is extremely familiar to me from my youth.

Handmade Magazine 21

My grandmother crocheted the tartan blanket featured which is still in use on my armchair today.

Tartan blanket from Handmade Magazine 25

My sister embroidered the ant buttons for Christmas one year.

Embroidered Buttons from Handmade Magazine 25

The animal seats look just like those motorised versions creeping around shopping centres these days.

Animal seats from Handmade Magazine 23

The issues in this group still contain lots of fashion sewing, knits and crochet but you can see the craft aspect is becoming more important.

Cat cross stitch softies from Handmade Magazine 25

Handmade Magazine 20

Handmade Magazine 22

Handmad Magazine 23

Handmade Magazine 24

Reupholstering Chair from Handmade Magazine 23

Handmade Australia Magazine No's 13 to 19 article summary (I like the sneaker makeover the best)

Handmade magazine16

Handmade Australia magazines number 13 to 19 were from 1987, right in the heart of the 80's.  The fashion knits and sewing were very much of their time and these issues did not disappoint with the Australian Bi-Centenary feel around at that time.  But aside from the knits, crochet, and sewing fashions there is still the increasing craft content in Handmade Magazine.

Handmade magazine 13

Handmade Magazine 15

Cute soft cloth bags from number 18

Sneakers Makeover from No 17

I found some wonderful crafts that are back again.  My favourite was the upcycling of your sneakers using marking pens (back around for another go today).

This group of magazines actually is missing number 14.  I don't have it at the moment and I couldn't find a back issue picture of the cover or a coming next time list of projects.  This content will have to wait until I have that magazine.

Handmade Magazine 17

I think the covergirl of Handmade July/August 1987 (no 16) was Annie Jones the Neighbour's actress, but I cannot be certain (there is no credit inside the magazine).

Handmade Magazine 19

Handmade Magazine 18

Australian Handmade Magazine Issues 7 to 12 Contents (and my interesting bits)

Handmade Magazine 7

This post explores the Handmade Australia magazine numbers 7 through to 12. These magazines date from Summer 1985 to December 1986. 

Like the first 6 issues of Handmade there is a focus on women's and to a lesser extent men's knitted and sewn fashions although you see as the issues go on more emphasis on crafting and how-tos.

There is a couple of stand-out projects that I want to revisit from these issues - the Barbar the Elephant applique T-shirt (Jan-Feb 1986) I'm sure I saw around lots as a kid. Also the zouave pants pattern (Aug-Sep 1986) and the jumpsuit (Summer 1985-86) look like they would be great to make up and wear. I wish I could knit because the scotty dog jumper (Jan-Feb 1986) is very nice.

Handmade Magazine 8

 

Handmade Magazine 9

Handmade Magazine 10

Handmade Magazine 11

Handmade Magazine 12

Australian Handmade Magazine Summary List of Issues and Issues 1 to 6 Explored

This blog is created to be an archive of my collection of craft magazines.  I have an enormous collection of Australian craft magazines built up over a long time and I wanted to find a way to archive them for future reference.

Handmade 1 Winter 1984

In this first post I will start with Handmade Magazine. As at this week (12 June 2016), there have been 304 issues published of Handmade magazine. Because of issue numbering changes over time, I will refer to the actual number in publication order of the magazine from its start throughout my comments, but will also refer to the actual naming used on the cover at times, for example, the first issue was called Winter 1984.
The magazine started in 1984 with Winter 1984 and was published by Magazine Promotions Australia.  Initially, the magazine was published quarterly until 1986, when they started having 5 issues a year. 
In 1987, it became a bi-monthly publication. and then in January 1988 with the 20th magazine published, the magazine was purchased by Australian Consolidated Press under its Women's Weekly banner. Handmade Magazine became initially a biannual publication, then in 1990 became quarterly.
Up to the start of 1992 the magazines were all referred to as a season in the title, but starting with Summer 1992, they commenced adding a volume and issue number, starting with Volume 8, issue 4.  These volume and issue numbers don't seem to match with the actual dates issued of the magazine but they do tally with the age roughly, that is, in 1992 it was 8 years later than 1984 which was the year of the first publication.
Handmade Magazine became bi-monthly in Jan-Feb 1994 with volume 10 issue 1 which is also the 40th magazine published.
The magazine continued at ACP until number 71, volume 15 number 2 in Mar-Apr 1999, when it was purchased by Express Publications, who are the current owners of the magazine. In this year, Express published 7 magazines per year.
 From Volume 16  Issue 1 (Jan-Feb 2000, number 77), the magazine becomes 12 issues per year. Sometimes these 12 issues do not match up with a date but rather a theme eg Christmas. The dates completely disappear from the titles commencing at Volume 18 Issue 6 (no. 106).
I have attached a 3 page summary document to detail the issues.  For the eagle eyed reader m you may notice that there are a few numbers missing from my list - numbers 14,66 and embarrassingly 303.  These are issues I have not been able to track down yet or accidentally missed when out.
Because this list is for my benefit, I have also marked some of the later issues with a note about having one of my projects appear in the issue. I have to date had 19 projects published in Handmade Magazine, and I am personally very proud of this because its nice when your efforts as an artist are appreciated by others.

I will progressively add information about individual issues over time and I start now with numbers 1 to 6. These notes are really my summary of basic content plus individual things that are of interest to me.

Handmade 2 Spring 1984

Handmade 3 Summer 1984

Handmade 4 Autumn 1985

Handmade 5 Winter 1985

Handmade 6 Spring 1985