Steamy Edition of Vogue - 1939

On Sunday I bought "Vogue's 15th Knitting Book" at a local vintage market for $2.00. A quick flick through the book told me it was from the 1930s so I quickly snapped it up. It was only when I got home that I realised that most of the pages in the book were well and truly stuck together.
Time to try steaming them apart. I know the theory, but I'd never actually tried it. I boiled a saucepan of water and gave it a go.

Separating the cover from the first page was the most difficult and took about half an hour. There was a fair bit of damage to the inside cover and some tearing. I'm not sure what made this book stick together, but I suspect dampness as there was no sign of food or drink.

As more pages came free I saw that the models had 1940s hair dos, so I though maybe the book was very early 40s. I just love this ad:

 

Those braided evening coats are well left behind in 1939 if you ask me.

The original owner of the book had filed lots of newspaper clippings on various topics inside the pages of the knitting book. The stuck together pages formed little envelopes which, on being steamed open, released their little treasures. I had quite a collection of these by the time I finished steaming the book. Some were from the 50s, but some bore the partial date: "193..." Aha, I thought, 1939! It all makes sense. What was special about these articles? There were two articles from 1939 about a bread price cutting war and the union campaign involved, a few celebrity photos from the 40s and 50s, a society wedding snap and two clippings from a religious publication, one showing a nativity scene and the other the Saint Ann's Mission Church. I can't see why anyone would want to keep any of them. I guess it is just a cross section of a woman's interests, and gives us a glimpse of her personality.

During the many hours I have spent trawling Pinterest and putting together my fashion decades boards I have noticed that the very end of a decade heralds the following decade. Likewise, the early years of a decade echo the second half of the previous decade. Here, in Vogue in 1939, we had distinctively 1930s patterns, with the new wartime hairdos, the "Victory Roll", and echoes of the fashions to come in the early 40s.

As I stood there for an hour bringing this book back to life, strange thoughts filled my head. What were these newspaper articles and why had they been kept? 1939, the war. Was there something special about these articles, and had they been deliberately sealed up and hidden inside this book? Spies!! I looked for a secret code. My over active imagination ran away with me. The other thought I had was, what a lot of steam, and what a shame I hadn't put the Christmas pudding into the pot before I began. The ingredients were still staring at me from the bench top making me feel guilty.

My 1939 theory was confirmed when I found this ad:

 

Note at the very top underneath the heading "Darnley's London 1912 - 1939" .

Here are some fabulous turbans:

This gorgeous little evening jacket features knitted smocking.

When I finished I came to the conclusion that this book takes the award for best photos inside the most uninteresting cover.

 

That, and the fact that the pages were stuck together and difficult to see explains why I was able to purchase the book so cheaply. I have not been able to find another copy of this book on the internet. The oldest editions of Vogue knitting books I could find came from the early 50s.

The book is in fairly good condition now, except for a little invisible tape repairing the tears on the inside of the cover. I have committed the collector's sin of repairing the spine of the cover  with invisible tape (on the inside, of course). I have too much OCD to tolerate the tatty when I can easily have the neat. It looks beautiful now. Thank goodness it was stuck together and full of secrets wonderful and ordinary, just waiting for me to come along and discover it.

Yarn updates thanks to the Glen Waverley Bazaar

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Finally, I have got around to updating the most popular segment of this blog, the Yarns page. I went to the Glen Waverley vintage bazaar in suburban Melbourne with my daughter today, and amongst other treasures, I bought a pile of old Australian knitting books. Two of these were a kind of book I have never seen before, and believe me, I've seen a LOT of knitting books. (I have at least two thousand.) These books appeared to be an annual catalogue of Patons knitting books and the designs they contain, a boon for a collector like me. Also, one of them contained descriptions of all the wools produced by Patons at that time, which I estimate to be in the early to mid 1950s. I wondered why I had never seen books like this before, and I guess that although there is general knitting information, and a pattern or two, such books were not often kept for long by knitters, and mostly ended up in the rubbish bin.

The other great source for trying to find information about vintage yarns is Trove. Trove is the digitised pictorial collection of the National Library of Australia and several other State Library collections. Most of the information about knitting yarns comes from advertisements from old newspapers, such as the following:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/58969601

I have just discovered that all the patterns published in the newspapers are also indexed, so there's a another few hundred hours of my life gone.

So I will continue to update the Australian yarns as I find the information and the time, but I rely on overseas readers to share their knowledge of what current yarns could do as equivalents to vintage yarns. Let's hear from readers in the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand, and the rest of the world too, please.

Bedjackets and Sleepwear

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Bedjackets

Knitted Nightingale, or convalescent's slip-on - early 20s



When I first started collecting vintage patterns, I thought, what is this with the bedjackets? There were so many books of bedjackets around. They were obviously a must have for decades, but you don't see or hear of them these days. That got me thinking, when did the bedjacket drop out of the well dressed woman's wardrobe?

I have bedjacket patterns in books from the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and the newest bedjacket pattern I can find is in a Patons book from the late 70s - early 80s.

They were considered lingerie, and a necessity for the bride's trousseau. They also feature occasionally in books of baby patterns. I thought about this for a while...why? Aha! Because a pregnant woman needs a new bedjacket for her impending visit to hospital, of course.



Book of Bedjackets and Baby Wear - 1940s

 Bedjacket patterns tend to be lacy, but not always. They are usually knitted in 2 or 3 ply.

Many would make beautiful cardigans or jackets. Here is one which I thought would do particularly well as a cardy, I just love it.

Sun-glo pattern from the 40s

Sun-glo pattern from the 30s









I think the bedjacket capes were especially beautiful. Here is one from my favourite Sun-glo book. This book was one of the first in my collection and belonged to my grandmother.







                                                              
 Here is a more dramatic bedjacket cape from Patons in the 30s.

I have also found bedjacket patterns for children (but only for girls) and even one included in a layette for a baby in a very old book.

I remember knitting a bedjacket for my grandmother when I was a teenager, after her eyesight failed her. That's the last time I thought about bedjackets, until I started collecting with a vengeance earlier this year. Let's finish the bedjacket section with an entry from 1954.

1954 Bedjacket

 

But not just bedjackets...

 In a book I acquired last week I found this pattern for a knitted nightgown. Now that would be nice and warm. But not so sexy. And difficult to launder, I would think.

 The Lux Knitting Book for 1936 says: "And why not? - don't you think we've laid the old-fashioned bogey that woollen nighties are dowdy? Just look at those frivolous cape sleeves!"

I have also come across several patterns for knitted dressing gowns. What a huge quantity of wool must have been required, and how cheap wool must have been in those days. Surely they would have had trouble with the weight of the garment making it drop out of shape. And imagine trying to get it dry if you washed it in those cold houses, and having to dry it flat. Here is my favourite dressing gown pattern.



Loveliness Dressing Gown - 1930s



What a huge amount of labour with all that lacy knitting, but what a beautiful garment. This is from the same Sun-glo book as the lacy cape bedjacket above, from the 30s.

And finally, you couldn't be without these:

Bed Socks

My nana knitted me some when I was a child in the 60s. My daughter laughed when she saw these, and I thought, "Gosh, don't people wear these any more?" Of course they don't, 40 years have gone by, Joanne!

To copy or not to copy

VintageKnitPatterns Shop

I've noticed that some vendors, particularly on e-Bay, turn up their noses at the suggestion of copies of knitting books.

As a collector, I'm not interested in purchasing copies.

However, as a knitter of vintage fashions, I would jump at the chance of purchasing a cheap copy of a single pattern I wanted, rather than pay three or four times the price for an original book. So, I consider providing copies a service to knitters.

I've also noticed that some non-knitters are purchasing copies of patterns, and paying knitters to make them. If only I had time to knit on commission. My most interesting request for a custom made item has been to crochet chain mail for a battle re-enactment! There's work out there for some crafty retired people. If you want this work, send me your contact details and I'm happy to pass on any requests which come to me, and which I regretfully have to decline.



Bed socks https://www.etsy.com/listing/100541726/bed-socks-1930s



It's such a shame that people don't knit much these days. The reasons for this include cheap textiles being available in the shops, but also that women don't have time to knit, and they don't have time to hand wash woollies. Let's face it, most women work outside the home and don't have the time or the inclination for such domestic chores. Also, wool is so expensive. At about $7.00 per ball for good quality wool, a garment is expensive in both time and money. So why learn to knit these days?

This is why I knit.

1. It's relaxing. There's something about the rhythm of it that's soothing. I also like to have a pattern to keep me from getting bored. I like to knit with fine wools of good quality. I have to have the TV on.
2. Garments are individual and unique. Nobody will have one like the one you make these days.
3. It stops me biting my nails.
4. It stops me raiding the fridge.
5. It provides me with lovely gifts for friends who've had babies.
6. I love the vintage patterns, and you just can't buy garments in the shops like them.
7. People are impressed that I've made things myself.
8. My daughter has taken up knitting .
9. My daughter's friend took up knitting after receiving a hand knitted baby jumper from her.

I have recently taken up knitting again after many years of being too busy.

Valley Heights - 1940s

Anyone can knit. Even men !

Vintage Knit Patterns at Etsy

Well, I have cleared out about a dozen op shops this week looking for old knitting patterns. I have found quite a few, but not so many really old ones. I suspect most of the really old ones are in antique shops, but I will keep scrounging.
About 80% of the patterns I am finding are Patons patterns, which form the bulk of my collection. However, these are still covered by copyright, as are the old Paragon books in Australia. So, I can collect these, but I can't sell copies of the patterns. The good news is, that I have duplicates of quite a few of these lovely old books, and am selling the spare copies on Etsy. Patons have, however, given me permission to use their images online, so I am planning to share quite a few on this blog.

Op shops have an enormous supply of knitting needles, by the way, if you ever need any.
Op shops? Do you have these in other countries? Maybe you call them charity stores, or thrift stores.  We call them Opportunity Shops, or Op Shops, in Australia. They have a pervading odour of moth balls.

Welcome to Vintage Knit Patterns! - (Now Louisa Amelia Jane Vintage Fashion)

Welcome to my Vintage Fashion blog. Customers from Etsy

 and anyone else, please post your comments about my patterns

 or any others.

I aim to post some of the information I have been gathering related to vintage patterns, such as conversions for sizes and yarns. I would also like to post what I am learning about pattern copyright. Not to mention, what I am learning about what styles were fashionable when. Please help if you know about any of this stuff.