Four vintage patterns…

Look at what my Mum found, when she was clearing out some things from my Grandma’s house!

None of the envelopes have dates on them, but the style of the illustrations and the style of the clothes suggests late 1950s/early 1960s.

Even better – they’re in a size which I can modify to actually fit me! They’re sizes 18 and 20, which translates roughly to a modern size 14 and 16.

Four vintage patterns

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The dress that I’m most likely to make and wear is (surprise!) the Maudella a-line shift dress. I might leave out the hanging fabric for daily wear, but I do love the contrasting circles.

In fact, I might even take that envelope with me the next time I go to the hairdresser. I love everything about that outfit.

Oh dear, I am now fighting a terrible urge to make this dress from camouflage fabric, with elephants peeping through the holes! I’ve almost certainly got enough fabric left over from the elephant dress to do that…

New Toys, or I Love My Yarn Winder.

I have a new yarn winder! It arrived a couple of days ago from Texere. It was quite expensive for a little plastic gadget, but it’s definitely going to be worth the money.

Yarn Winder

The first thing I did when it arrived was to immediately set to work winding balls from the odd skeins of Colinette from my stash. In fact I loved my yarn winder so much that I actually re-wound a couple of balls that I’d previously done by hand, as the little flat “cakes” of yarn that the winder produces are so much nicer! You pull the yarn out from the centre to knit with, so they keep their shape as you work and, they don’t roll away across the floor! They also stack really nicely.

I’m working out a pattern for a jumper which I plan to knit using Colinette Cadenza. I really didn’t fancy winding five hundred grams of wool into balls by hand, so I’m really pleased that the yarn winder works so well.

Before and After…

Before: 1 REM t-shirt, size XL. This is what happens when you’re at the back of the merchandise queue.

After: 1 REM t-shirt, much smaller. This is what happens when you have a sister with a sewing machine. 😉

My sister bought this t-shirt when she went to see REM at the Milton Keynes Bowl, approximately one million years ago. She has kept the t-shirt all this time even though it in no way fitted her. In fact, her fiancĂ© wore it when they went to see REM in Hyde Park, slightly more recently. Apparently it was also too big for him, and he’s over six feet tall!

It’s actually quite nerve-wracking, chopping up other people’s precious t-shirts. All it takes is a snip in the wrong place and you’ve got a hole, or a t-shirt that’s too tight. Band t-shirts in particular come with a lot of memories attached, which imbue them with greater significance than you might expect in a mere item of clothing. Being entrusted to refashion someone else’s beloved t-shirt is actually quite an honour.