I came across a charming booklet entitled Headline News via the Vintage Pattern Files website and decided I simply had to try out some of the crochet patterns there; it had to be something that I could actually wear, though, which meant the strictly practical ‘head-shawl’ featured on the right-hand side of the front cover [...]
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Most recently completed project: my Quick-to-Knit Target cardigan, finished as part of a knit-along starting on January 1st. As you can see from this, it is quite quick to knit – at least by my standards! Paired here with my 1940s hand-sewn Simplicity 2624 skirt: and when I say hand-sewn, I mean that every single [...]
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Here are two 1950s patterns I’ve knitted up this year: the droplet bolero and the bias-knit sweater. The bolero was knitted using a re-issued version of the original pattern which had been graded into multiple sizes: normally I would just have knitted the single original size, but here I actually had the luxury of taking [...]
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(Click on the smaller images to access fullsize versions) With everybody else raving about Simplicity 3688, I went to Simplicity 6433 and its ‘Fuss Free Fit’ for my first pair of ‘granny trousers’: it suddenly dawned on me that back in the 1980s trousers actually used to fit me right off the rail in addition [...]
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From the moment I saw the pattern cover, that wide-eyed, round-cheeked girl with her tip-tilted nose reminded me of 1930s star Jessie Matthews. So this was dubbed the Jessie Matthews dress… I finished it just in time for a party a few days after Christmas and have worn it quite frequently since – albeit usually [...]
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This is the project I would have made for the “Vintage Modern Design Challenge” – except that my skirt with side pleats took me three months to complete! I inherited a small length of ‘Tootal’ vintage novelty fabric from the back of one of my grandmother’s drawers at Christmas featuring a four-way rotated design of [...]
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This pattern was a present to me from my brother, who found it for 25p in a junkshop and decided it looked like ‘my sort of thing’! Despite the 1960s date it’s actually much more of a Fifties style skirt (View B appears to be an incipient miniskirt, though!), and I thought the generous side [...]
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