#anAWWyear - March 1948: Craft

At the end of my last post, I said that the fashion would be continuing this month, and that is because  March 13 1948 was a Special Knitting Issue. 

To start, let us look at the outfit on the cover of this issue, because I'm going to confess that 1940s would not have been my first guess for the decade of this outfit. This could easily pass for several later decades, and I love having the reminder of what really casual outfits could look like. This sweater is the 'Swagger Sport Shirt' by Pierre Balmain, who we are told is "famous in Paris for his casual sports clothes". 

Outfit on the cover
 Australian Women's Weekly, March 13 1948 

It is also a good example of how colour and styling can change one's opinion - the same sweater, styled differently, and in a black and white photograph, has far less impact and I would have passed straight by it. 

Believe it or not, the same sweater as above
Australian Women's Weekly, March 13 1948, p 37

There are instructions for about ten cardigans and sweaters in this issue, several of which are quite standard. I like this checkerboard design, although wouldn't wear it myself.  Of note, the 'New Yorker' twin set, shown here in the yellow top and rust coloured cardigan over it in the (the middle and lowest photos on the right hand side) is designed for the "not-so-slim" and has a bust measurement of 42", which while still terribly inadequate for me, is unusually large for the free patterns that tend to be in vintage magazines. 

Just some of the knit patterns in this issue
Australian Women's Weekly, March 13 1948, p 9

There was no craft I actually tried this month - partially because I've been having a renewed attack on unfinished projects in my stash, and partially because nothing really appealed. There was one crochet project, this unusual purse with a cord decoration, but said decoration was a little too snake like for me (I have a phobia) so I'd never include it in my collection.

Australian Women's Weekly, March 6 1948, p 37

There was also instructions for this embroidered cushion, but I suspect if I made another cushion my husband might complain. We have... quite a few already.

Australian Women's Weekly, March 20 1948, p 36

I've actually been surprised by how many issues don't have any craft projects. If I get the time, I might see if there is a seasonal pattern to when they have them. Or maybe the editors were well aware that their 1948 readers had a limited amount of time!

#anAWWyear - September 1947: Craft

This post, the alert will spot, is actually being posted in early October, and that is because I fell victim to ambition- I was absolutely determined to finish a particular one of the September craft projects before I blogged about all of them. Sadly, the month ended before I could manage it.

Being a crocheter, September 1947 had a few solid crafty offerings for me. This traycloth, designed to be worked up in join-as-you-go motifs in fine cotton thread, is apparently able to be mastered by 'even those who are just beginning to crochet'.

Delicate crochet traycloth.
Australian Women's Weekly, Sep 20 1947, p53.

While this sort of thread crochet isn't something I can use in my life right now, I did want to test out the motifs, so I made a square of four in a heavier, green crochet cotton as a sample.

My test version, in a heavier cotton.

The motif pattern is indeed quite simple, the joining is easy, and the joined motifs absolutely must be blocked. This has been, and it still needs an iron and perhaps a starch. 

There is also a fantastic two page feature on 'crisp lace accessories for spring' 

This lace jabot will 'revive' a frock or suit.
Australian Women's Weekly, Sep 6 1947, p45

It features a jabot and three different bows. I made the butterfly bow and you can blame the jabot for why this post is so late. 

These are mislabelled- the top one is actually the butterfly bow, as is easy to guess.
Australian Women's Weekly, Sep 6 1947, p45

The butterfly bow - indeed all the bows - are designed to lie flat to be starched and ironed and then are gathered together with a crocheted tie with a button or snap to form the blow shape. I know I crocheted my tie. I blocked it. But somewhere between choosing a button and going to sew the button on, it disappeared. So my butterfly is still in its flat state at the moment. I am searching some more before I admit defeat and crochet another. It has also not yet been starched. 

My flat butterfly bow, waiting for its centre tie,
which may or may not be somewhere in my laundry

I worked up the butterfly in no. 60 crochet cotton and a 1mm hook. This still feels quite big, but it is meant to be a statement piece - the article says that they 'may be placed in lapels or at the yoke of a frock with good effect' or would be 'a smart finish for a belt' so they can't end up tiny.

The jabot, shown made up by the AWW above, and as an artist's impression worn on the second page of instructions (and below) is made in three rectangles of a lace pattern and then pleated onto a neckband. 

Such a chic jabot!
Australian Women's Weekly, Sep 6 1947, p47

I worked this up in an unlabelled cotton thread from my stash but I'm fairly sure it is also a no. 60 cotton and a vintage hook labelled 'Milward' on one side and '4, Made in England, 20' on the other which measures between 1 and 1.25mm on a hook gauge.  It is supposed to be made up in a finer thread (ideally I would have used no. 100) but again, I'm trying to stash bust with this yearly project and not buy supplies.  This is one panel.

One panel of the three needed for the jabot.

If you look at the start of the panel, when you've only completed a short depth, it looks effective to use as an edging.

I think this would look nice on vintage style nightwear, as a sleeve or neck edging.

I only got one and a half panels completed, but I'm going to keep going and finish this one!

Rounding out our September craft is a rather odd craft project, the "reminder of how much we used to smoke" handbag.

Novelty handbag. Yes, it is.
Australian Women's Weekly, Sep 20 1947, p45

Made up of a cigar box and a heap of burnt matches, there was no way I would be making this one, but I thought you'd appreciate seeing it as much as I did.

Now onwards, to October!

The Plan for Aug 2017 to July 2018 - An Australian Women's Weekly Year

I've been watching my sister Tanith's Trove Pattern Project with much interest. I spent a long time trawling through microfilm issues of Australian newspapers and journals during my honours and PhD theses. Part of me wishes more had been digitised at the time, so my research could have been more focused, but there was a certain charm in browsing through whole issues, being able to read the fiction and advice columns as well as the advertisements I was ostensibly there for.

Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 9 1947. 

While I've enjoyed doing vintage crochet patterns from the Trove archive, particularly the Australian Women's Weekly, I also wanted to explore some recipes, some fashion ideas...

You know I'm going to have to test out those pineapple sandwiches.
Australian Women's Weekly, Oct 18 1947, p41

My plan, starting in Aug 2017, is to work through the corresponding months of 1947-1948. I'll spend that month going through the issues on offer, trying out some appealing and not so appealing recipes, working up some of the craft projects, looking at the fashion. I'm planning on weekly posts - for each month, one on craft projects, one on recipes, one on fashion and beauty and one to cover anything else that catches my eye - although this may be flexible. It will depend on what appears in the magazine!

We can talk about how gorgeous these coats are.
Australian Women's Weekly, Feb 14 1948, p11. 

One thing I do feel the need to say before I start is that although I am a historian of business and advertising, I won't be analysing the contents of the magazine in an academic way often. This is going to be a more casual and less rigorous reading of the contents than I did while I was studying.

A busy making time

I have been so slack about blogging, but like many others I've been busy making things.  I blame the New Year and resolutions involving using up my stash and increasing my sewn wardrobe. I have even joined a Facebook stashbusting group to keep track of how much fabric I use during the year. (So far: sewn 9 metres and bought 2.5 metres)

This post is really going to be a round up of selected makes from the last few months

A baby sunhat in cute spotted cotton

 This adorable sunhat was a gift for a friend with a young baby. I'd forgotten (even in the scant few years since my boy was that small) just how little fabric you need for baby items. The hat was made entirely from a single fat quarter. And that is with a fully lined crowned.

Zinnia hat, from a 1962 Australian Women's Weekly pattern

I've been crocheting some 1960s hats from patterns from the Australian Women's Weekly. Above is a 'zinnia hat' - the original was yellow with red flowers and I've made it in a slightly more subdued fawn and burgundy colour scheme. Below is the charmingly quirky 'field flower hat' which I've made in very close to the colours suggested in the original. I may redo the pompoms on this one, as I think I'd like them to be fuller. Both of these hats will be listed in my etsy shop soon. 

Field flower hat

Close up of the field flower hat 

 Several years ago, I treated myself to a 'I've finally finished the PhD present' and went to a ten day embroidery convention run by Koala Conventions. One of the two-day courses I did was on Mountmellick work and I did a beautiful design. Well I have finally made it up into the bolster cushion it was designed to be!

The finished Mountmellick bolster. 

I also, as part of both stashbusting and increasing my 'me made' wardrobe, made a kimono style dressing gown, decorated with lace I got for a ridiculously low sum at a garage sale. The pattern isn't a true kimono, although the sleeves are very close, and it is from a BurdaStyle magazine Plus Size special (E030, for anyone who might want to look, although I've checked and this isn't available online). It really needs an iron, but what doesn't?

Dressing gown. 

Close up of sleeve under construction - and the amazing lace!

 A lot of my crafting and blogging time has been curtailed by actual paid work now that my son is at preschool two days a week. Still, actual paid work has funded the purchase of some clothing patterns that I really, really wanted, so I hope to be blogging about those makes soon.  I'm also having some bad days on my medications, which eats into the time I have too.

Vintage Snood Pattern reviews: a belated Snoodtember roundup

As part of Tanith's #snoodtember initiative, I wrote a guest post for her blog, giving some quick read-only reviews of some free crochet snood patterns from 1930s and 1940s Australian papers. In doing so, I got intrigued by several and decided to try them.

I have crocheted two snoods before, using patterns that other people had discussed.  I tried the 'Perky Snood', seen and well discussed at the lovely Bonita's blog Lavender and Twill in a white stash yarn and that saw a lot of wear during #snoodtember. I really like this pattern as it has minimal shaping and it is easy to get into a groove.

The Perky Snood during Snoodtember

Back view of the Perky Snood

I made this pattern in black but made the elastic a little too tight so it kept creeping off my head. I decided to use this snood to experiment with ribbon instead of elastic and discovered that I am Not A Fan of that method.  This pattern does require a bit of attention as the chain lengths vary each round, but it does produce a lovely back view.

Back view of the snood showing its centre detail

Having made two different snoods, both fairly basic meshes, although one worked in the round, I was eager to try some variations.


Lacey Snood with Rosettes:

Weekly Times, Aug 6 1947

The snood itself was not that much of a variation from a basic mesh apart from the central curtain ring (I used a 2cm split ring from a key ring I was decluttering) and it worked up quickly. I used Sullivan's Royal Rayon 3-ply crochet yarn and my trusty vintage 'Stratnoid 13' hook (2.25m) The instructions were basically complete, although I decided that it was meant to be worked in completed not spiral rounds and hence needed slipstitching to the centre of a loop to start each new round. (The original was a bit vague.) It certainly looks neat this way.

Lacey Snood, without rosettes yet, and temporarily attached with a ribbon. You can see the foundation 'curtain ring' at the centre back. 

Rosette from the lacey snood pattern, 

I only did one rosette and was actually really impressed with how much volume was achieved from this pattern. With two able to be 'propped' up against each other thanks to the central metal rings, it could give a suitably frilly look. The contrast white bands at the edges of the two layers of frills is very effective.

I only made one as I could already tell that the whole snood wasn't going to work for me. I find the way the metal ring looks at the back of the snood a bit odd and it just isn't to my taste. I can see how it would suit other people though.  (I didn't follow the instructions to crochet over the elastic for the same reason. I think it is there because the pattern says to do the snood in coloured thread, and this way the elastic wouldn't stand out in the very wide edge holes.)

Snood and rosette, flat. What will I do with this?

Snood and Collar Set

Weekly Times, Dec 6 1944

I made three attempts to start this. I did some detailed tension calculations, working out how many rows would be in the completed diameter and taking an average diameter size from several other existing snoods, hence getting a number of rows per inch  -- and I couldn't make that happen. Two different hook sizes with one yarn, and one with a different yarn and none of them worked. I know which way I need to go on hook and yarn for my next attempt but it may never happen as I abandoned it in favour of...

Basic Crochet Snood

This pattern was incredibly basic- make a mesh and follow these size instructions. It didn't even have a picture, as it was an answer to a reader request rather than a featured pattern. In my review I said that as the sizing information was so complete, one could do any density of mesh or even a solid pattern to these specifications and get a good result. I decided to test that by using one of my favourite mesh patterns - a trellis stitch  - and I love the final result.

The trellis stitch underway.

I used yarn leftover from a cardigan I'd made - I remember it was a sock yarn but can't recall brand or exact details- and a 3mm hook. It handily used up all the yarn I had left with maybe 25cm over. Perfect stashbusting.

Back view of the completed trellis stitch snood

I used their instructions for where to put the fullness and gathering, and did the ribbon binding at the top too. I am so happy with how it looks on me.

Finished! I missed doing so in #snoodtember though

The snood on a display head; you can see the ribbon binding more easily here. 

I have a sneaking suspicion that unless I am testing another specific pattern, I'm just going to make up whatever stitch suits me into this size for any future snoods I need. I do at heart prefer working up my own patterns and so this middle ground - taking a workable sized template and filling it with whatever stitch pattern I prefer - suits my crochet style.

I hope these further reviews help if anyone is thinking of venturing into the world of vintage crochet snood patterns.