Vintage 1959 Girl Scout Fabric vs. 2010 Robert Kaufman Girl Scout Fabric

As a diehard, green-blooded Girl Scout, I have been a collector of vintage Girl Scout memorabilia for years.  And as a seamstress and designer, anything to do with fabric gets my attention.  So you can imagine my delight when I acquired some yardage of the original vintage Girl Scout fabric produced in 1959.  This fabric is what the Robert Kaufman Girl Scout fabric released in 2010 was based on.

This photo is the vintage1959 Girl Scout fabric:

And here is the Robert Kaufman 2010 Girl Scout fabric:

The two fabric designs are very similar with some imagery duplicated, other imagery slightly modified.  Overall, it's almost the same design.  In this example, the vintage 1959 fabric is on the left; the 2010 image on the right is crisper and slightly smaller, but otherwise the same:

Here the hiking girls are the same, except that now the blond is a redhead.  The border colors have changed too, but the new fabric has retained the hand-stitched style outlining of the old fabric:

The 2010 Girl Scout fabric (on the left) better represents the diversity of the organization's membership:

Here, Robert Kaufman 2010 Girl Scout fabric is on the right:

One thing that isn't visible to the naked eye is that the older, 1959 Girl Scout fabric is a slightly thicker cotton, not quite a barkcloth but definitely thicker than quilt weight cotton.

The vintage 1959 Girl Scout fabric and the Robert Kaufman 2010 fabric are both charming, and the imagery is as delightful today as it was 54 years ago!  I'm so happy to have both of these wonderful fabrics in my collection..... time to get stitching!

Go Girl Scouts!  

Girl Scout Sweater Pattern

I've been digging through my vintage Girl Scout collection of books and memorabilia and came across this sweater pattern.  It comes from a vintage Girl Scout handbook for the older girl.  It appears that after the sweater is knit, the trefoil design is cross stitched on.

What makes this a neat project is that you could cross stitch the pattern onto a ready-made sweater if you aren't a knitter.

This would also be a great project to do with younger Scouts too.  Have the girls practice their cross stitch embroidery on simple grid fabric as they learn to sew.

A terrific knitting and cross stitch pattern from a vintage Girl Scout handbook ready for Scouts today!

Vintage Girl Scout Badge Quilt

This vintage Girl Scout badge quilt was crafted using Girl Scout badges from the 1920's and the 1930's and accented with a vintage 1920's 3 star membership pin.  Some of these badges are quite interesting... The khaki badges from the 1920's include the star fill "Stargazer" and the thrifty bee "Economist" as well as the wise owl "Economist" and the all seeing eye "Observer."  The grey green square badges from the 1930's include the baseball "Athlete" badge, the tent shape "Woodcraft Scout" and the lightning bolt "Electrician"---what a cool badge!  Then there are the round badges from the 1930's including "Aviation" which must have been a pretty amazing badge to earn back in the day, and "Motorist" another awesome badge for a girl in the 30's.

My favorite badge is the GS "Rambler" badge, it just says it all -- Go Girl Scouts!