2024 review

I know full well that there isn't going to be a sudden burst of productivity in the next two days, so I can safely write my review of the year now. Not that there is a huge amount to review. A combination of increased family commitments (which are only going to grow), and a disinclination to sew (which I hope is not going to grow) has made this a sparse year.

So. Much. Blue. (And a bit or orange/brown)

Being able to sew practical solutions to problems always gives me a great deal of satisfaction, and my tote bag and yarn holder have both seen a great deal of use.

What dressmaking I have done this year has all been from tried and trusted patterns, partly because I just couldn't muster the enthusiasm to alter, and possibly regrade, a new pattern. My experiments with Simplicity 1777/4463 continued, this time with the V neck option (left). I made another Grace dress, with no variations from its well-worn predecessor (second right). And after a long period in my pattern drawer, old favourite New Look 6000 made a triumphant return (right).

On the plus side, all of these were made from stash fabric. On the minus side, the stash grew because I haven't used any of the fabric I bought this year. I do also have several works in progress, as starting a project and then running out of steam has been a theme of the year.

Shameful

My proudest sewing achievement was one which I had to finish because it was part of a course I was doing, making a toile from what turned out to be a very well-drafted 150-year-old pattern.

The fashion plate and the toile

While I may not have sewn much, I have definitely expanded my knitting repertoire. I had my first go at lace knitting with the Dahlia shawl, and loved it. I also learned top-down construction on the Confidette bolero, and then went on to make not one but two Express Line cardigans, for myself and for my mum. In total, I think that I knitted up about 2,160m of yarn (1.34 miles!) in completed items. Not bad for someone who could barely knit a couple of years ago.

There are lots of things which I would like to do next year, but I have too much else going on to give myself the pressure of setting goals. I do want to finish my Lothian shawl before my birthday, but that’s about it.

Knitting update

My sewjo is still feeling shy and elusive, and is rarely sighted. Matters haven't been helped by the fact that I've been knitting to a deadline, which was an alarming experience. But I have finished my mum's Christmas present with a whole two days to spare, so can breathe a sigh of relief!

(I should add at this point that Mum isn't online at all, so I can talk about her present here without any danger of spoilers.)

Completed, phew!

As I mentioned in a previous post, Mum had asked for a longer version of my Express Line cardigan, so I measured a favourite RTW top of hers when she wasn't looking, and worked from that. Happily, the pattern has top-down construction and no waist shaping, so it was easy to lengthen. Mum also favours more jacket-like styles, so I just did a short bottom ribbing for interest (the pattern can be knitted without ribbing, if preferred), but using the same size needles. I also fixed the slightly too short sleeves of my version by knitting two more rows, but those were the only changes I made.

Comparing the two

Meanwhile, I have continued to work on my Lothian shawl whenever I'm at Mum's. I had to stay there for a couple of days recently, to take her to medical appointments, so got quite a lot done. I've just finished the second set of five 'routes'.

Showing all 10 'routes'

After this, there is one eyelet row and three plain rows of grey, and then I am onto the border - two rows of each of the route colours, interspersed with two rows of grey. At present it's bunched up, even on my longest cable, but I'm looking forward to the transformation when it is blocked. Hopefully I will get it finished before my birthday after all, and that will be two of my three projects done!

The shawl so far

Finally, although I haven't started my Poppy jumper, I've been unable to resist practising colourwork. I've knitted another swatch, this time following an actual pattern.

This really could get addictive

This time I was more consistent about carrying over yarns at the back.

Tidier

My fabric use review of the year is going to be terrible. I think that I may need to calculate my total yarn use for the year, in an attempt to redress the balance a little!

Winter 1989

It's full-on 'running around doing stuff with no time for anything creative' season for me just now, so here's another rummage through my Vogue Pattern Book archive. Last Friday I went for Christmas lunch with my former work colleagues (most of us are retired now), so I thought that I would look at what I could have been making from Vogue patterns when I started that job, way back in December 1989.

Party like it's 1989

There are fewer evening clothes than I was expecting; perhaps the assumption was that readers would have already finished their party frocks - or at least chosen the pattern and supplies - by the time this issue came out. I'm intrigued by the 'new attitudes' to evening dressing; if frilly sleeves and large bows don't count as "excessive embellishments", then I hate to think what does!

2409 by Albert Nipon, and the new rules of the game

This bears some resemblance to New Look 6000. I wore my latest version on Friday, so I was on trend - for 35 years ago!

2408, by Belville Sassoon

This is very similar, apart from the ginormous sleeves. Clearly the combination of pleating at the waist and a faux-wrapover skirt was A Thing.

2405, by Ungaro

I did have a party dress very like this in 1989, albeit with a straight hem, and not made from a Vogue pattern.

7614, in velvet and taffeta

I also had a couple of work dresses with the same silhouette as the white two-piece top right. What I definitely didn't have though was a workplace in the style beloved by the Vogue Career line. Chic minimalism definitely wasn't part of the décor in the I.T. department of my local electricity board!

Dressing for Vogue Career land

Something else which I didn't have was a wardrobe of beige. I'm guessing that this was 'quiet luxury' for the late eighties, but there's a lot of beige in this issue.

Beige

More beige

Even more beige

Stop it now

Ooh look, grey

I must admit that as someone who favours deep, strong colours, this gives me the heebie-jeebies. But that's the beauty of making your own clothes; your colour scheme is limited only by the fabric available.

A tale of two Hollies

When I saw a picture of a Pierre Balmain 'Holly' dress on Kerry Taylor Auctions' Instagram, I assumed that it was the annual repost of the dress which I fell in love with in 2015. But it looked a little different, and when I read the text I discovered that this is another Holly dress, and it's in the Passion For Fashion auction this coming Tuesday (10 December).

The dress for sale, and the original image from L'Officiel

I still have all the images of the first dress stored away, so I thought that I would compare the two. (All images, apart from those of my own dress, are copyright Kerry Taylor.)

Front views

From this, it's obvious that the dresses are very different shapes. The 2024 version is longer, and looks less full-skirted. The short, bell-shaped, skirt appears to have been a feature of Balmain's 1955 dresses, as it also appears on the 'Medallion' dress sold by Kerry Taylor in 2022.

Why yes, I 'would' like to recreate the Medallion dress one day!

Of course this difference may just be because the client for whom it was made was a different shape from the owner of the 2015 version. However, the dress currently for sale has a narrower and deeper front neckline, and wider shoulder seams. The difference between the necklines is even more obvious at the back.

Back views

The differences are explained in the condition report on the Kerry Taylor website, which states that the dress has been heavily altered. The report speculates that the upper part of the dress may have been damaged, and the lower section used to make a new dress. If so, it has been very skilfully done, given that the embroidered leaves on the bodice go over the princess seams, as on the 2015 version.

The princess seams on both are nigh-on invisible

The embroidery is, rightly, described as "superb", but there is no doubt that it differs from the dress sold in 2015. This is perhaps best illustrated in the side view.

The side seam is more apparent

Unsurprisingly, I have never bought a dress from a couture house - the nearest I have come to that is watching Mrs Harris Goes to Paris - so I have no idea how much the client can influence the overall look of their purchase. But there is no denying that the embroidery on the two versions is very different. The most obvious variation is in density. It's apparent in the two images above that the leaves on the 2015 version are far more tightly packed, with some overlaps, and the berries more bunched. Of course, the more widely spaced leaves of the 2024 version may be due to it being made from the lower section, where there are fewer leaves. Equally, some of the berries may have been snipped off and redistributed.

Another difference is that all of the leaves on the 2024 version are a broadly similar shape and all, with the exception of those around the neckline, point downwards. The dress sold in 2015 had a number of different leaf shapes, and they were orientated in different directions.

The actual design of the leaves is different, too. On the 2015 version, the central spine is indicated by a slight gap in the embroidery, whereas on the 2024 dress it is embroidered in silver thread. Also, all of the 2024 leaves are made with one side in a more blue-based palette and the other side more green and gold, whereas in 2015 there were some leaves entirely in the cooler shade, and less densely embroidered.

Close-ups of the embroidery

I should add that none of this is in any way meant to denigrate the dress currently for sale, it's just that having spent far longer than is normal studying the dress sold in 2015, I was fascinated to explore the differences. The idea that there are different versions of the Holly dress out there pleases me immensely, as I feel that my version has elements of both of them.

My version - this remains my proudest sewing achievement

And yes, I did base my jewellery choices on the L'Officiel image!

Update, 10 December: Despite being unlabelled, heavily altered, and having an estimate of £200-£300, the dress sold for £2,400. Clearly I'm not the only one who loves the Holly dress!

Colour!

Woot! I have tried stranded colourwork, and it wasn't nearly as scary or complicated as I had feared.

I am absurdly proud of this

My local fabric and yarn shop has stopped stocking a particular brand of 4 ply, and was selling off the remaining stock absurdly cheaply, so I bought a few balls of that to practise with. I knitted a swatch with a few rows of stocking stitch as a base and then, armed with a YouTube video and my trusty copy of the Ultimate Knitting Bible by Sharon Brant, I launched into it.

The book recommended starting with a simple chequer pattern, so that you can concentrate on just handling the yarns rather than trying to follow a pattern as well, so that's what I did. It also illustrates various methods of holding the yarns in one or both hands, but I settled on a sort of hybrid method which would no doubt make knitting purists weep, but works for me. Hopefully, my technique will get better over time.

The video was Susan Crawford's second video for her colourwork KAL, and she demonstrated how she knits stranded colourwork in the round. Much of the information was equally applicable for knitting flat, and I found it really helpful. The main thing I learned was the importance of consistently passing one colour over the top of the stitches, and one colour over the bottom. It gives a neater finish, and stops the yarns from getting tangled. I did do this the wrong way round on one row of my sample - it's at the top, where there are two yellow strands close together.

Stranding across the back

The best way to keep the upper and lower stranding right seems to be to work with one yarn each side of you. But because I prefer to knit in a chair without arms, I had the two balls of wool balanced on my lap, which didn't work at all well. I considered putting them in my tie-on pockets, but those aren't really the right shape and size for the job. The basic idea was fine, though, so I have started making a new set of pockets just for holding wool. They are more shallow and open than my original pockets, almost like small baskets.

Pocket making in progress

I added a deep pleat at the centre, so that hopefully the ball of wool will stay securely in the pocket and not fall out.

Holding a ball of wool

Knitting-wise, the next stage is to try another practice piece, but this time following an actual pattern. There's still a long way to go before I'm at all proficient at this, but I'm excited to be adding another skill to my knitting education.

And then there were three

As you can see from my Ravelry projects page, my plan to only have one knitting project on the go at once has failed dismally! It's actually even worse than it looks, as my slate Wondrella with cable details is set to 'hibernating' status for the time being.

Oops!

In my (feeble) defence, I always take my knitting when I go to my mum's, and I could hardly knit her Christmas present in front of her! She asked me to make her a longer version of Express Line, so that bit isn't a surprise, but she doesn’t know what wool I'm using. It's Stylecraft Special xl Super Chunky, so essentially the same yarn that I used for my version, but without the viscose flecks which provided the tweed effect. Other than the length, it's the same size as mine, so I can just follow the notes I made previously. Mum isn't a fan of light colours (like me), so the yarn options were quite limited. Fortunately, she shares my love of blue, so I know that she'll like this shade, called 'Petrol'.

Upper back

Meanwhile, my Lothian shawl is coming along nicely. I have completed the first set of five 'routes', complete with the zig-zag effect.

My five route colours

Zig-zags and termini

As this was my Edinburgh-related 60th birthday present to myself, I would like to get it completed while I'm still 60, but with so many other things to do just now that is looking unlikely. Despite this, I've taken on another project! I decided to join Susan Crawford's Colourwork KAL as a way of finally tackling stranded colourwork. My current plan is to knit Poppy from A Stitch in Time volume 3.

Poppy

Only the yoke is patterned, so it seems like an good way of easing into the technique. Plus, the pattern gives full instructions for knitting flat, which is how I will knit it. I can see why knitting in the round is so popular, but because I was taught to knit in the Scottish manner (with the right needle held against your body by your right arm), I find it ridiculously hard to hold two knitting needles. I've tried, but just can't do it. When I do knit on circular needles, I end up with the right needle end either wedged against me in some way, held in my left hand, or resting on the work. There's a lot of plain stocking stitch in Poppy, especially as I may knit the sleeves first to get them done, so that will give me plenty of time to practise working with two (stash) yarns before I have to do it with the good stuff.

And what good stuff it is. I bought the kit from Susan Crawford Vintage, and the yarn is gorgeous.

The yarn kit

So far, I've only knitted the gauge swatch, but the yellow has a wonderful depth and variation, and the knitted fabric blocks beautifully.

Blocking the gauge swatch

It is so much finer than any yarn I've used before, though - this is going to be a long project. Still, a short-sleeved jumper is not something I'm going to need any time soon.

Tricks of memory

It's been one of those weeks where I've done a lot on various things, but not enough on any one thing to be worth a blog post. Instead, I'm raiding the archives and looking at a 40-year-old copy of Vogue Patterns. I've chosen 1984 because last week I was at an event related to the Liverpool Waterfront Transformation Project, and talking to someone about when I first came to the city in the early eighties - so the decade was on my mind. Although looking at some of the images now, they seem more alien to me than many of the illustrations in 1940s-50s issues. Even though I can remember many of the styles, it feels odd that I actually lived through that period.

Autumn 1984

In November 1984 I was a second year geography student, and most definitely not using Vogue patterns as they were well outside my budget. (For example, a Style blouse pattern from that year cost £2.25, while a Vogue blouse pattern cost £4.00.)

One thing which immediately struck me was that whereas in the 1950s and 1960s there were a lot of large advertisements for fabric manufacturers, complete with a list of stockists (usually department stores), by this time most of the advertising was for individual fabric shops.

Two of the fabric shop adverts

There are a couple of features on fabric brands: the much missed (by me at least) Viyella, and John Kaldor which, 40 years later, is still producing top quality fabrics.

Sadly not forever

I never knew the John Kaldor was originally an Australian firm

By 1984, Vogue patterns were clearly into the 'dress like a rectangle' years.

Why?

At least I like the shoes

The 'long skirt and flat shoes' combo was popular, too. I do remember dressing like this - at 1.63m/5'4" I must have looked swamped in fabric!

Worryingly familiar

I'm rather taken with the jumper in this illustration; I might need to look out for the issue of Vogue Knitting which contains it (because obviously, I am in desperate need of another knitting project!).

Promising

This jumper however I can definitely live without!

Bright and batwing and mohair oh my!

Skirts may have been long, but apparently trousers were not.

For that 'shrunk in the wash' look

After all these up-to-the-minute styles, it's rather a shock to turn a page and come across these.

Possibly aimed at older readers?

This issue also features Vogue's foray into patterns for interior décor. They are, to put it politely, not to my taste.

Frilled to bits

Readers were advised to "watch for more patterns in this series", which to me sounds more of a threat than an enticement! Certainly I won’t be rushing to hunt through later pattern books for them, although I do wonder how long this line lasted.