Beautiful Bluebells - 1940's Jumper

Hello! It's been a while, I do apologise.  

Things have been a bit busy round here.  There's been the normal end of term shenanigans of frantic marking and box ticking; so glad school has finished for the summer.  I've been sewing some blouses, making lots of 2.5" hexies for my first ever quilt and doing plenty of knitting.  We've had family visiting us and then we travelled West to stay with the Mr's family for a couple of weeks.  I'm quite worn out!  

We're home now, returning to a boiler that wouldn't light.  The boiler repair man has been and gone and given our ancient old boiler a new lease of life, for now, and the Mr has just taken the girls to the local computer shop to see whether they can recover the data from the hard drive of his less than two year old laptop!  

So I have about an hour to myself, and what better way to spend it than showing you one of my top five favourite woollies.

This recent jumper is a commission piece knitted for the lovely Kitty Lou.  An Australian pattern from the 1940's, you can find the pattern here, the wool chosen was a gorgeous dull gold colour by Patons, part of their Diploma Gold 4 ply range.  

The pattern repeat is worked over 36 rows, and although the design looks quite complicated, there is a logic to the pattern.  However, for ease of working, I did type up the 36 pattern repeats into a word document which helped keep me on track.

 

Unlike the other bluebell one I did, which you can see here, the yoke on this one was nice and simple, so no pattern matching up and over the shoulders.  

Back and front knitted up well, albeit slowly, but the sleeves were a right pain in the rear end.  The shaping from the underarms simply didn't work out.  I tried and ripped them back 3 times before disparing and writing my own shaping instructions.  I won't lie, tears were shed.  Tears of sheer furry!  :)  I think there was an error in the pattern.  My mother in law mooted something along the lines of a bad workman blaiming his tools, but I don't think so.  

Following the picture on the front of the pattern book, I still managed to achieve the same look.  The boxy sleeves turned out really well, and the knitted shoulder pads finish the look off perfectly.

Although there was the slipup with the sleeves, this was one of my favourite jumpers to work on.  I'm really impressed with the quality of Paton's Diploma.  It's heavier than some of other 4 ply brands, so the jumper weighs in at just under 1lb, but the beautiful quality of the wool shows off the intricate detail perfectly. 

Wool - Patons Diploma 4 ply in Gold

Weight used - 9 balls

Time taken - 100+ hours

 

Farewell to February

The month of March has dawned bright and sunny in my little part of Suffolk this morning.  Happy 1st of the month to you lovely lot; hope it’s a good one for you! x

February seemed to go by in a flash.  It was a busy one, two birthdays and a much longed for half term week off.  

I know we aren’t alone in our love of school holidays.  It seems that as soon as one is finished, we are already counting down to the next one.  Four weeks and counting until Easter break.  Does that sound bad?  It’s not meant to.  The Mr is happy in his new job, but teaching is a hard, and time away from routine is very precious, so we make the absolute most of every day of it.

C had a birthday last week, my beautiful girl turned 9.

A birthday isn’t a birthday without a cake; a chocolate mud cake, to be precise.  Gone are the days where the topping for the cake is my choosing.  My decisive little Miss picked a polar themed cake to feature her beloved toy polar bear, Racey, who was once cream, but is nowgrey; a rather threadbare bear!

My dad also celebrated his birthday.  Peter Pan at heart, he’s not too keen on this getting old lark.  He’s my handyman, decorator and fixer of things that I break in my house.  A very dapper chap much loved and adoredby my girls and the rest of us.  

A great lover of cake, he picked a carrot cake for his celebration.  My first time making the Hummingbird Bakery version and it seemed to be a hit.  I don’t eat the stuff, can’t stand to eat cake, or biscuits for that matter, with bits in them, so I didn’t taste test it.  But it disappeared at a rate of knots; the last piece polished off yesterday, so it must have tasted good.  

A few rather special patterns found their way into my collection last month.  

My favourite is the Service Woollies for Women.  It’s somewhat battered and tatty, the pages are all loose and without their original staples, but I love it.  

I also picked up a Knitted Comforts for the Royal Navy badge from WW2, and a white Beehive wool holder, which was a Valentine’s gift from the Mr.

Despite my best laid plans, I didn’t get half as much making time as I thought I would, but that’s so often the case in the holidays.  I made progress on the commissions I’m working on.  One is a real go slow project, taking an hour a pattern repeat!  

I also managed to make a couple of anemone corsages which I will be listing in my Etsy shop later on today.

I’m off to make the most of this fine day.  I hope you enjoy whatever you are up.  I aim to be back to post some free pattern downloads this month.  Anything in particular you fancy seeing posted?

We've Been Making Memories

To all of you who celebrated the festive season, I hope you had the Christmas you wished for.

We were very fortunate and had a very relaxing time, making lots of memories with our little pickles, and the rest of the family. 

Mr Y has been on holiday for over a week now, how is it that holidays fly by so quickly?!  To be fair, it seems like he has been on holiday a lot longer as we have kept ourselves very busy.

As soon as my Mr had finished for Christmas, we popped out of the county and over the boarder into Norfolk to make a rather special visit to the man of season; a ride on the Santa Special on the North Norfolk Railway.

Although we’ve taken countless rides on the NNR, it was the first time we’d taken the girls on the festive special steam train.  The Black Prince did the pulling, and it was such a crisp, clear winter’s day, with stunning views, it was truly magical for them and us!! 

After sherry, a mince pie and a little bit of carol singing, we had a warming lunch in Whelks Copper and a brisk, blustery (freeeeeeeezing cold) walk along the prom before heading back into Sheringham for some last minute Christmas shopping and a trip to the fudge shop!!  The coffee fudge from there is divine!

A quick journey in the car to Norwich, where we were resting our heads for the night, an overindulgent dinner picnic and the final of Strictly Come Dancing, our weekend couldn’t have been better!

On the 22^nd, we made our yearly pre-Christmas trip to the local pantomime; this years offering was Cinderella.  It really was a great night, highly entertaining and engaging.  The evening’s entertainment was only slightly marred by the beastly man to my Mr’s left who felt it necessary to belch loudly after every sip of his seemingly never ending supply of Pepsi!!!  He looked like such a sweet little old man - proves you can never judge a book by it's cover!!! ;-)

Anyway, I finally managed to track down that illusive golden marzipan, so was able to finish my booze laden Christmas cakes!  We’ve made a start on the one for us; the others were for gifts and seemed to be well received.  I don’t eat Christmas cake, can’t stand dried fruit, so ours should last well into January.

For the first time since we’ve been married, we had Christmas Eve as just the four of us, and it was perfect.  Of course, there were some last minute preparations to be done, a mountain of vegetables to peel and chop, those last few presents to wrap, but we crammed the rest of the day full of family games, and festive baking to ensure that the little monkeys were tired right out! 

Watching Santa fly through the night sky at about 5.20, flying from West to East, added an extra special touch of magic to the day, before they tucked into a meal of roast gammon, jacket potatoes and pickles, then we all snuggled on the sofa to watch Arthur Christmas.  

Once offerings had been left for Father Christmas and his Reindeers, (yes, I burnt their cookies!), it was time for bed, and time for Mr Y and I to put our feet up with Foyle’s War and a box of Roses for company!

Christmas Day went smoothly, and all the days and weeks of preparation really paid off.  We spent it at home, cooking a roast dinner for my parents and brother, and the crackers that I made only a few days before went down really well. 

With the exception of my mum, everyone else spent the afternoon constructing some of the Lego that the girls had received for Christmas.  You’re never to old for Lego!   

I was lucky and was gifted some truly lovely things, including some scrumptious vintage goodies.  There were more knitting patterns from Mr Y (he knows me so well!), 6 brooches to add to my ever expanding 1940’s brooch collection (he had apparently been collecting these for months, sneaky thing!) and two new wool holders, one in a bright lemon yellow, the other grass green!

But my all time favourite gift was a Womens Land Army brooch, just like my Nan would have worn during WW2, given to me by my parents.

The tree is looking a little worse for wear, a few bald spots on its bauble heavy branches, and I’m itching to take it down, but it’s my birthday tomorrow, and I’ve never had a birthday without the tree being up, so I’m resisting the urge to de-needle everywhere; that can wait until New Year’s Eve!!!

xx

1940's Wedding Buttonholes

Almost a year ago, I was contact by a fellow blogger, Emily, who blogs over at Emily’s Vintage Visions. 

She asked me whether I would be able to make some of my felt corsages to be used as buttonholes for her wedding!  

I was honoured, and a little overwhelmed, as well as nervous, as I’d never done anything like it before, but I needn’t have been concerned, because Emily was an absolute pleasure to work for.  

The theme for the wedding was 1930’s/1940’s vintage.  Emily chose the colours she wanted, to match the wedding bouquets she was so cleverly making herself, and I set to work on some posy designs using original 1940’s patterns, the end result being these beautiful, bright posies.

For some reason, I didn’t get any proper photographs of the posies before they left England, bound for America, so please excuse the over bright photograph which was taken at night, using my phone!

I posted the package off in May, and was thankful that it arrived safely, but I thought nothing of my little creations until I received a happy email last month to tell me that the wedding had been a huge success, and that my corsages had gone down very well. 

Emily kindly sent me these photographs, taken by Kris Jarrett Phtography and Media Productions, so I could show how they looked on her special day.  You can read Emily’s blog post about her beautiful day by clicking here. 

Congratulations Emily and Cori! x

Weldons So Easy 86 – 1940's Wartime Silk Blouse

Back in 2013, I bought a rather large suitcase of 1940’s fabric at auction.  I paid a pretty penny for it, in excess of £100, but the case had some beautiful dress lengths of novelty rayon silks and autumnal shades of crepe.  In amongst the fabrics was a small piece of 1940’s silk in a delicate shade of duck egg blue.  Over time, silk can rot.  I’ve had silk in the past that I’ve been able to tear as easily as I can tear a piece of paper.  Structurally, the piece of silk I had was strong, but it had a 1” tear, a couple of holes, and a few water stains, so it got put in the back of the cupboard until the right pattern came along. 

Always on the lookout for new patterns of the sewing and knitting variety, I recently picked up a wartime Weldons pattern, a Special Coupon Saving Design!

Designed to save the original purchaser valuable clothing coupons, the fabric usage was very economical indeed, requiring just 1 1/8yds of 36” fabric for the 34” bust.  I had about 2yds of the silk, but with the damage that I had to work around, it was still quite a squeeze to get all the pieces cut.  This was the sort of damage I was working around.

The blouse I went for was the green one, as I liked the idea of trying a neat little collar, and challenging myself to add a pocket, something I’d never done before.  The blouse required bias binding to keep the sleeves neat, and although I didn't have exactly the right shade for a perfect match, I was able to find some vintage binding in my stash that did the trick.

I think the “So-Easy” is very misleading.  Actually, it’s a total fib!  I’ve worked from plenty of vintage patterns in the past, but this one proved a real challenge.

Unlike today’s patterns, most vintage patterns are unprinted, meaning they have no written markings on them at all, they have punch holes instead, and that’s fine, but this one had absobloominglutely no chuffing punch holes at all.  Absolutely didly squit!  It had me turning to my sewing bible, The Pictorial Guide to Modern Home Dressmaking, and when that didn’t help; I had to turn to my sewing guru, my mum!  A quick over the phone sewing lesson, and I was sorted.

Plenty of head scratching, chalk marking, tape measuring later, it was done, and I’m really rather pleased with it.  Teamed with the skirt from one of the 1940's suits I have in stock, I think it really looks the part. 

I originally planned to add glass buttons, but the 1930’s buttons I had were slightly rounded on top and therefore a little too heavy for the silk so, for now, it has faceted plastic buttons on.  If I find more suitable buttons before I sell it, then they will be swapped.

I strayed very slightly from the pattern.  I top stitched the yoke to the blouse front, because, personally, I think it gives a cleaner finish.  I also top stitched around the collar and cuffs because, again, I prefer that kind of finish.

The pocket was far easier to add than a thought it would be, it just took patience, lots of measuring (note the no markings comments!!!) and plenty of tacking and pressing. 

The photographs don’t really do justice to this exquisite piece of fabric.  It’s genuinely far nicer “in the flesh”, and I hope it finds a happy new home soon, as it would be perfect to wear in the summer sunshine.