The Swish of Vintage Silk

A most wonderful swap box arrived at my house this week:



(well, two wonderful swap boxes arrived, but I'm going tell you about this one in particular).

See that long flat package? I happened to open that last and do you know what it was? This!



Three 1929 fashion sewing booklets full of gorgeous pen-and-ink dress drawings ...... with the PATTERNS!!



My friend who sent the box - a most amazing designer and yarnie from NYC - was online while I opened it, and she told me that friends of hers brought these booklets back several years ago from a trip to Spain.  They are of course in Spanish, but the language of vintage fashion is universal isn't it? I love them immoderately and think she was so, so generous to pass them on to me! Here are a few gorgeous pictures for you to enjoy:





















I do plan to make some of these and the one I'm going to make first is this (I'm thinking grey mauve silk satin and/or midnight blue):



My last adventure into 1930's fashion sewing was HERE...

Bunny Ears, Oysters and Spring Hats

Yesterday, we went for a long drive to visit the boyfriend's relatives. Yes, that is one of his relatives wearing bunny ears. Everyone thought it was very cute but I was deathly and silently afraid she was going wear them out the restaurant for lunch! I'm such a wimp sometimes... now, if she'd been wearing a quirky vintage hat or cloche, like these in my 1923 April Needlework Magazine, I wouldn't have batted an eye!



We went to a wonderful restaurant called The Wicked Oyster.



The walls were lined with the most beautiful paintings by local artists - all very expensive but mostly of the ocean...





The menu was all oysters. Others ordered spinach salad, but my boyfriend and I ordered buttermilk fried oysters with homemade cocktail sauce. They were incredible.



I looked through my stack of old Needlework Magazines for the April versions, but only found two, one from 1923 without a cover and the other from 1934:



The New Spring Styles were loose and flowing


and the patterns were focused on filet crochet



There was a beautiful Anemone Tea Cloth illustrated, by the wonderful Mary Card of Australia, but as usual the pattern wasn't included.



I've always wondered if they expected the readers to copy the pattern by just looking at the over-sized photograph of her gorgeous filet designs.

There were no recipes for oysters in these April magazines, but they recommended lots of eggs - deviled eggs being the finger food of choice for a spring holiday luncheon:



and their argument for a Spring diet of eggs:

It's Spring, and Easter, and Nature is "recovering" from winter according to her own ancient laws, while poor old human nature is muddling along, trying to correct the mistakes they have made in selfishness, and greed, in war, and in peace. Learning the laws of being, and being true to them, is all that brings a good crop, be it in the cabbage patch, in the university, or in the college of Life. So much for our brief Easter sermon, and nobody can corner the joy to be had in the spring - it's there for the looking and the sniffing; the earth itself smells good in the spring as the frost leaves it... Use your senses in the spring- meet it with an alertness and an awakening to the simple joys that are free to all. If you can 'sit on a log and pat a dog, do it; it's fun in the springtime.

The 1934 recipe for spring eggs:

Eggs Florentine

Place two cups of minced buttered spinach in a baking dish. Break four eggs over this, season and pour over all half a cup of medium white sauce to which a quarter cup of grated cheese is added. Sprinkle with two tablespoons of melted butter and slip under the broiler to set the eggs and brown lightly.

Happy Spring! May you have a new (vintage) bonnet on your needles!

Spring and All That...

Spring
by Pablo Neruda

The bird has come
to bring light to birth.
From every trill of his,
water is born.

And in between the water and light
which unwind in the air,
the spring is now beginning,

now the seed is aware of its own growing;
the root takes shape in the corolla,
at last the eyelids of the pollen open.

All this accomplished by a simple bird
from his perch on a green branch.



My same friend who send me the vintage booklets in my last post, sent me this beautiful page of spring sweaters from an unknown vintage magazine. It looks very much like the Needlework Magazine, printed in Augusta Maine and spanning the globe in distribution. And I appear to be correct in that assumption, because I just went to look at this page again and it says clearly: The New Sweaters, selected by the Needlework Editors!

The drawings - quite beautiful! - were made by M.E. Musselman and all reflect a lighter brighter sensibility for Spring. I love the greens especially, but the coral oranges are spot on for this year's trend of tangerine!



In the description, silk is extolled as the perfect fiber for this time of year. They go on to say that silk sweaters are "chiefly ready-made garments" and "It is a matter of personal choice between the silk and the worsted, as both are good. The worsted sweater, however, can be made more easily by hand than a silk one." Ah, don't I know it!



I am very drawn to scarves that incorporate hoods, and it appears that this is a fashion trend over 100 years old.

Scarfs in silks and in worsteds, too, offer most pleasing substitutes for fur neck-pieces for every-day wear, especially for the school girl and the business girl, and for outings in kinds of weather they are just the thing.
Illustrated in the upper left-hand corner is a very new cap and scarf with crocheted flowers. This design can be carried out in many charming colours - in blue with red roses, in orange with blank bands and deep yellow roses, in pale blue with pink roses, in grey with white roses, etc.
For motoring or driving a scarf hood in worsted, as illustrated above, is a real luxury. It is all in one piece.

And finally, a little note at the bottom says that a pamphlet containing the working directions for the items shown will be supplied for 15 cents. Oh how I wish that someone had sent away for this pamphlet and that it had made its way into my hands! I would love to make the motoring hood-scarf, the white center-top sweater-jacket, the coral Spencer with its gathered neckline on the right, and the green cut-away sweater with its white collar and cuffs on the left - just for wearing in the Spring!

Front Page News in Knitting

A final wonderful birthday package arrived on my doorstep, from my friend in Australia! I love the pattern books and ephemera that he sends me so, so much! These booklets are from the late 1930's through the very early 1940's.

This Stitchcraft No. 60 from 1937 is a great example of how knitting styles were becoming more sporty and suitable for everyday wear.



A belt and a hat made a knitted blouse or sweater "office wear" while a pair of trousers or shorts made that knitted sweater just right for the weekend...



I love the little neck bow on this one, and it's always the details that charm me:



Stitchcraft features several crafts, as well as lots of knitting patterns and this magazine still has it's embroidery transfer inside. There are recipes (ham loaf served with beans and sliced boiled potato - a regular starch feast!), sewing tips, and other crafts. This style page is called "Knitted by the Sea" by Anne Talbot and the designs are all knitted, even the suits and coat:



It's only meant to show the reader what's in style though; the patterns aren't included, sadly. The top blouse in the picture is described this way: "A soft boucle yarn in dusty pink is used for the plain little model above, with its pointed collar and puff sleeves"

and the cute striped one says: "An attractive sports jumper uses horizontal stripes, with a navy scarf slipped under a buttoned-over strap of the striped pattern"

But Ms. Talbot's description of hte fashions of the that summer of 1937 are particularly charming, so I'll quote just a small portion of here for your review:

Deauville, Le Touquet, and other Channel resorts are now crowded with smartly-clad Parisiennes and fashionable cosmopolitaines. In the fifteen years that I have been going to Deauville and Le Touquet I have noticed a very gradual, but markedly definite, change in the type of informal costumes work by the "smart set." These daytime clothes have become more practical and more "sporting" in every way. But what is of most interest to readers of Stitchcraft is that the importance of knitwear can scarcely be exaggerated. Knitteds have become so essential to the holiday wardrobe that no fashionable Parisienne would dream of being without a variety of models.

For very hot weather there are lovely, fine linen and cotton threads, delightful for both crocheting and knitting. Synthetic threads, such as artificial silk and kindred substances, are likewise very cool and when mixed with wool, as they so frequently are, make most practical and beautiful yarns...

The next booklet is Style, by Patons & Baldwins, Volume 7. The corner where the date was is torn a bit, but it definitely appears to be from the same late 30's time period. Note the charming Robin Hood hat!



In some ways, the fashions of that time were like costumes - the cosplay of the 1930's! And here's a jaunty Sailor style from this booklet:



This blouse is cute with its ruffled collar, big puffed sleeves, and little cables... it's called The Charmer"



The next booklet I'll review is called "The Economy Knit Book - 18 Stunning New Styles." from Woolworth's.



I have a couple of very old Woolworth's knitting books and they are so wonderful! This one is no exception, and appears to be from the early 40's when this style of slightly military-looking cardigan jacket was popular:



This booklet is unique in that throughout the booklet the knit patterns are modeled by contemporary Hollywood stars! It's so adorable, with pattern titles like:

You'll Look Ultra-Smart in this Jaunty Viennese Model
Imagine This Unusual Puff-Sleeved Style in Three Colours
Stylish for Weekends - Smart for Business Too!
When You Get That Cruising Feeling!
This Will Look Very Sweet on You
Look Lovely on Your Next Holiday - Here's How!
Knit This for Lots of Use in the Snow Country!

Here is the Woolworth version of the Sailor Suit, with the title, "Announcing the Roly-Poly Neck - Present American Craze!" The placement of that little sailboat applique certainly ensures that it will bob up and down on the the...erm...waves, doesn't it?



Some of the movie stars are Frank Forest (Paramount Studios), modeling "The Favorite Sweater of Men About Hollywood"... Binnie Barnes (Universal Studios), "Introducing a Smart Twin Set"... Nola Warren ("Australian Film Star")... Eleanore Whitney (Paramount Star) "Shows How to Hike in Chic" (though it's hard to believe that she's going to hike in that outfit!):



The final booklet for review is the Lux Knitting Book for 1937. This is a fabulous booklet, one of series put out by the Lux Soap Company.



The booklet is 61 pages and along with the black and white photos there are funny and delicate pen and ink drawings of the knit-wear in use, drawings such as you find in the more expensive knitting magazines of that era!



There's something for everyone in this book - men (that chapter is called "Manly Comforts"), women, children, babies and teens...even tea cosies for the tea table!

The undies are always cute, called Warm Beginnings, but I always wonder how someone could wear Shetland wool next to their skin?



There is fashion commentary here, too, titled Front Page News in Knitting:

"The editor of this book has been in consultation with the Knitting Editor of Vogue regarding the very latest ideas in knitting and crochet"

So interesting, that little note at the bottom of the fashion page. How do you suppose it happened and what does "in consultation" mean? Do you suppose they 'took a meeting'? How about a phone call? I would have liked to have been a bird on wire overlooking that conversation! In any case, here is what came of it:

A classic winter this, simple straight lines, subtle tailoring to your cardigans... and jumpers with concentrated interest on intriguing stitches. Tailoreds, too, and so much the better if you go utterly masculine and sport a trim and spanking "weskit" with your tweeds - or tuck a man's paisley hankie in the neck of your jumper. For the Rest, keep your neckline up and inflate your sleeves a little at the top.

And yet, the styles in the book are distinctly feminine - more so than in the other three magazines!

This gathered, dolmen-sleeved blouse, for instance, dramatic and soft:



My favorite, though, is this bed jacket and I'm determined to knit it for myself:



It's called Snug Simplicity because it is such a simple pattern. The shape comes from the way the knitting is put together. I can't quote the pattern here, because it is not old enough to be in the public domain, but I can give you some hints!

This is knit in a silk and wool blend (British 2-ply) on 7 mm needles for a size 34 bust. The two pieces are garter-stitch knit in two separate rectangles (with a 15 stitch slit at the central point of one long edge on each rectangle to form the collar) and then half of each short end is sewn to the other in a clever way to form the back, the turned-back collar, and then the sleeves are folded over and sewn.

My final treat in this wonderful package was tucked into one of the books - a Lili Knitting Card for another bed jacket!



This is described as "a modernized card system for convenience. A big improvement on the 'page torn from a book' method" The pattern itself would make a great cardigan for summer!

What a super birthday box, wasn't it!?!

In the Fields

The next day at Brimfield the fields opened and we were lucky to get a good parking space in the local church's lot for a contribution to their activity fund. I had vague memories of our Brimfield visit a few years before and, unrealistically, kept expecting to find the same vendors and booths! I had to make myself let go and just let the experience flow over me. It was a beautiful sunny day with a nice cool light breeze. The antiques glowed with a "Buy Me" glimmer, but we feared for the rows and rows of glass-wear in that breeze!



The people-watching was very rich in the fields. There were many people wearing vintage, looking so cute! And it was a bit easier to take photos in this vast outdoor area.



The antique clothing on their racks waved at us. I think we looked at every item! E was looking for 40's dresses for a movie costumer, M was looking for 30's to 50's haberdashery for the next Fifties Fair in Sydney, and I.... well, I really really wanted to find some vintage knitting or crochet tools: needle gauges, wool-holders, needles or hooks, stitch holders and counters, even little flat bone, bakelite, or mother-of-pearl bobbins for colour-work.



Only M found what he was looking for, although E found a pair of pointy-toed shoes. M and I speculated that many antique dealers just toss the knitting and crochet items thinking that they are of no value. Anything needlework related - other than finished lace itself - was very hard to find! I was lucky enough to find several vendors with stacks of knitting booklets and they were happy to move them on to a buyer - happy enough to always throw in a couple free when I bought a handful.

Here are a few of my finds...

Vintage Vogue Knitting - including the 8th volume of the magazine!



Potholder patterns:



(this is the back cover showing more patterns)





A WWI (1918) pattern booklet for soldier's items from Star Needlework Journal:



Some 30's booklets:





Bedjackets (these would make beautiful sweaters) and an early 1900s Crochet Nightgown and Corset Cover Yokes booklet from Clarks:



40's fashions and Juvenile Styles:



The two hard-cover books I picked up are The Big Book of Knitting from the early 40's and the 1920 volume First Steps in Dressmaking from the Women's Institute series (I already have this series' volumes about sewing lingerie and sewing for maternity and infants):



The sewing book is a self-study textbook that contains directions and patterns for beautiful characteristic 20's clothing:



The patterns - just like 20's knitting patterns - are simple, with mostly kimono-type sleeves and the layouts are easy to copy by drawing out the shapes and measurements given in inches onto paper or cloth. The booklet also gives information on how to send away for "pre-printed paper patterns for the items in this book" for 10 cents.











The Big Book of Knitting is full of patterns for knitting clothing for everyone, all ages, as well as accessories and the home. I also found some patterns for knitted bathing suits - very similar to those finished items I saw displayed all through the Fashion Fair!



But, although all the stockings, scarves, men's vests, and other patterns are wonderful, the best - in my opinion - are the women's knitted blouses!









and, the hats! Oh, those caps and cloches! I've already identified a couple that I'll make for my winter hat-wearing, and I found these wonderful vintage celluloid hat pins for them:



That was the extent of my fun finds at the Brimfield Antique Fair. Two days is really not enough to explore all the fields full of booths and tents! But I needed to return for work and for our local Sheep & Wool Fair. What a busy time of year!