{Estate Sale Temptations} Hiawatha Genuine Needle Painting

As best as I can tell this was made from a kit sold by a company named Hiawatha in the 1940s (or 1800s to 1940s, depending on which listing we want to trust.) It looks like it was worth more than the five dollars they wanted for it at the estate sale....if that piece of cardboard it was glued to hasn't leached a ton of damaging chemicals into the fabric. And if someone could remove it from that piece of cardboard without making a scary mess of things. 

I left it behind for whoever wants to figure that out. 

I don't frame things properly, but even I wouldn't have done that!

There's a listing on etsy that gives a little more information about the original kit and how it was intended to be used.

This package contains an authentic reproduction of a famous old print, on fine linen...picture frame with enameled glass mat...embroidery floss...needle and directions.

Mounted in its unique frame this picture may be used as it is ... add a few dabs of floss here and there and you have a most charming piece of artistic needlework. 

I love the idea of "a few dabs of floss here and there." That sound fun!

Someone, at some point in my childhood, must have had these two. I absolutely know that I've seen them before.

For fifty cents, maybe I should have brought them home and worried later about what on earth I was going to do with them. Because when am I ever going to find another set? Just look at her little tulle veil and his pipe.

Edited to add -- I found a blog post by a lady who's trying to figure out the source for the pattern. They're so much older than I thought...now I'm really kicking myself!

My sewing room is going to be decorated in all of the oddball vintage DIY home decor.