Progress?

(In which I have another rant about Modern Life.)

I need to replace my phone. It has been glitching from time to time and apparently this is because, at all of three-and-a-bit years old, it cannot handle the latest technology used in various updates. I'm also going to have to do something about my Windows 10 laptop this year, although at least I've had that for eight years.

Not in need of an upgrade any time soon

As someone who makes most of her own clothes on a 92-year-old sewing machine which is still going strong and for which I can get spares, I am unimpressed, but not surprised, by all this. We live in a world where built-in obsolescence is king, and hang the consequences. I do appreciate that I am not comparing like for like - my sewing machine is purely mechanical and therefore far less complex than something which relies on software. But I still think that lessons could be learned from the way Singer attempted to keep older machines up to date, rather than just encourage/expect their owners to upgrade to a newer model.

The starting point seems to have been the idea that a Singer machine was an investment which was expected to last a long time, and to be passed down through generations (as happened with my mum's machine, which is now mine). So when electric machines became the norm, Singer devised a motor and light which could be attached to a hand crank or treadle model, using fixings which were already part of the machine.

The sewing machine as heirloom . . .

. . . and how to bring it up to date

Similarly, various attachments were designed which allowed a straight stitch machine to do fancier sewing by moving the fabric from side to side.

Attachments for my Singer machines

I already have a buttonhole attachment from, I think, the 1950s, but recently acquired an older version. It's in a cardboard box rather than a 'modern' plastic case, and uses wingnuts rather than plastic dials to make adjustments to width etc, but underneath the cosmetic improvements it's the same.

My older buttonholer

The attachments were made with the same longevity in mind as the machines, with anti-corrosion paper pasted into the box.

It clearly worked, as the buttonholer is rust-free

The 'zigzagger' is mechanically similar to the buttonholer, in terms of the way it moves the fabric. It comes with four different cams, which produce the various style of zigzag illustrated on the box lid.

Wonderful artwork

The zigzagger, with one of the cams inserted

The stitch design is on the cam

Singer also produced further sets of cams for the zigzagger and yes, I am keeping an eye out for them!

The final attachment which I have is the hemstitcher. It is by all accounts quite tricky to use.

Unlike the other two, it doesn't have a casing

It's also the only one of the three which still has its instruction leaflet, but all of these are available online.

The hemstitcher could also be used to produce a picot edging.

From the instructions

My mum can remember picot edging being offered as a service by the local Singer shop, for anyone who didn't want to try it themselves. The effect looked like this.

Picot edging on a frill

Seen from a modern economic perspective, Singer's determination to keep older machines usable rather than sell new ones seems bizarre. Presumably it came from a strong belief in the quality of their original product. Of course, ultimately none of this did Singer any good. They were slow to adapt to the changing market, and eventually folded. (The Singer of today is a different company from the original.) But I'm glad to have at least one piece of equipment in my life which I can expect to last for years to come.

Summer, reissues, and a very strange pattern

After a brief dalliance with warmth and sunshine the weather has reverted to being cold and grey, and I'm back in winter clothes. So I'm taking refuge in a new-to-me issue of Vogue Pattern Book, June - July 1954.

Dressing like this feels a long way off

Here light summer colours reign supreme, in striking sketches of summer dresses with accessories to match.

Pink, and surprisingly modern-looking shoes

Blue, and some covetable earrings

Mauve, with impossibly high (for me) sandals

A whole suit of yellow might be a bit much

Sunshine yellow carries on into the feature on Couturier designs.

The feeling of summer

I thought that I recognised one of the patterns and, sure enough, it was reissued in 2015.

Couturier pattern 800

Reissued as 9105

In fact, summer 1954 couturier designs seem to have been a bumper source of reissue patterns. I have two more in my collection.

794 top right and 797 bottom right

Reissued as 8999 . . .

. . . and 8687

One pattern which Vogue has not reissued (to the best of my knowledge) is 8338. It's heavily promoted in this issue, with a double-page spread.

Vogue's "special choice for summer"

"simplicity itself"

It also turns up in an advertisement for Wemco fabrics.

The striped fabric accentuates the construction

The dress is described as slipping over your head, fastening together at the front with a single hook and eye, and then tying at the back. The line drawing on the pattern envelope gives an idea of its shape.

Full at the front and straight at the back

It's almost a back-to-front version of this pattern, which came out in 1952 and was reissued in 2001.

Vogue 2401

Much as I liked my version, there’s no denying that the skirt was prone to flapping open. At least because the opening is at the front, I could see what was going on, and act accordingly. I really don’t think I would be comfortable in a dress which is similar, but with the opening at the back (especially as the back pattern piece, as shown on CoPA, doesn't look very wide)! To me, the design gives the impression of being something which Vogue put out as a competitor to Butterick's 'walkaway' dress, possibly without a lot of thought to the practicalities of wearing it. I would love to know how well the pattern actually sold.

Welcome to the Wool Fair

As hinted at last week, I've started a new knitting project. (Yes, there will be some sewing again on this blog at some point, just not yet.) Some time ago, I was lucky enough to get an original copy of Lee Target 1232, aka the 'Wool Fair Cardigan'.

All the fun of the fair

This pattern has an unusual construction in that it's almost all knitted in one piece, but not in the modern way of using pick-up-and-knit to add the sleeves. Instead, you start at the back waist ribbing and knit upwards, then cast on stitches for the sleeves, knit up over the shoulders, cast off the extra sleeve stitches, and then continue down the fronts. The cuffs and button band are added by pick-up-and-knit, and the only sewing up is the combined side and sleeve seam. I had intended to finish some other projects before starting this one, but then Killer Kitsch Lizzie announced that she was holding a knitalong for the pattern, so of course I decided to join in.

The pattern uses Motoravia double knitting wool, but both Lizzie and Linda of knitting4victory have mentioned that 1950s DK was thicker than modern DK, so it's best to use a modern Aran (worsted) yarn. I close Stylecraft Highland Heathers, which is the same wool that I used for both my blue Wondrella and my blue Confidette, but in the heavier weight. For once I managed to step away from the blues, and chose the shade Esk. (I have no idea why the shade has this name; there are several River Esks in Britain, but to the best of my knowledge none of them are purple.)

Nice shade, odd name

This is probably a fair bit thicker than Motoravia DK. The pattern uses UK old size 3 needles, with size 6 for ribbing, which are 6.5mm and 5mm respectively. However, the swatch knitted on size 3s came out considerably too big. Three more swatches later (!), I settled on 5mm needles (4mm for the ribbing), which is what the yarn label recommends.

So. Much. Swatching.

The stitch pattern is simple, but gives a nicely textured effect.

The pattern is the top half of the swatch

The pattern only goes up to a 38" bust, and I’m a 39", but in her excellent video for the knitalong Lizzie mentions that there's a fair bit of give in the pattern, so I'm going for a straight 38" without any modifications apart from shortening the length.

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that knitting needles are like zips - no matter how large your collection, you rarely have the exact length/type/size required. As I had a trip to Shrewsbury planned anyway, I popped in to the very wonderful Ewe and Ply to get what I needed. And somehow, I also acquired yarn for another Close to You shawl!

Not blue either!

This is one of their own brand yarns, a Corriedale/British Mohair mix in shade Sea Shanty. The colours are lovely both close up and when seen from across the shop, so I have high hopes for my second attempt. But now, I really must stop lining up new projects!

Knitting fail

I've been sewing for long enough to know that not everything I make is going to be a roaring success. Thankfully, projects as disastrous as the Dress of Frump are rare, but there are things which don't quite hit the mark. The fit may be slightly off, the fabric may not be ideal for the pattern, or the end result might just not suit me. On the knitting front, I've been happy with the way my projects have turned out so far, but there's a first time for everything.

I bought this skein of 4-ply as an add-on to Yarn Unique's 'gemstone' advent calendar last year. The shade is Opal Fire, and it's a lovely mix of the colours found in opals, on a dusty pink base.

The skein

There are lots of shawl patterns for that single skein that you just couldn't resist at the wool show, but eventually I settled on Close To You by Justyna Lorkowska of Lete's Knits, who also designed the Lothian shawl. It's a great pattern - simple enough for me to knit while chatting to my mum, but with a border detail to keep it interesting. A bonus for me was that the way it's knitted meant that I was able to do the whole thing on straight needles; at its widest it was only 154 stitches.

The cast-on edge is at the bottom of the picture

The design can be adapted by adding extra pattern repeats if desired. I had enough wool for one more, and was left with just 5g of yarn.

Leftovers

The shawl is finished with a picot edging, which I had never tried before, but was easy to do and effective.

Something new learned

I really like the pattern, and will definitely knit it again. The issue I have with the end result comes from the yarn. Close up, the colours shine.

Yellows, blues and purples in the mix

Lots of variety

But from a distance, to me they seem to fade into a mostly sludgy grey.

Ugh

I think that the problem would occur whatever pattern I used, so there is no point in frogging it and trying again. However, hopefully I have found a solution. I was explaining the situation to a friend, and showed her a photo of the completed shawl on my phone. Her taste in colours runs to a more muted palette than mine, and she loved it. So, if she likes it as much in real life, I will gift it to her to be enjoyed rather than lurking in a drawer in my home. And no doubt at some point I will have another go with different yarn.

Meanwhile, I have a new project to begin - more on that soon.

Update, 12 March - My friend did indeed love the shawl in real life, so it now has a new home where it will be cherished and, most importantly, worn!

A 'Sweet' surprise at the Museum of Liverpool

I didn't expect an exhibition about a sweet factory to provide material for a blog post, but here we are!

When I was a student in Liverpool in the 1980s I lived near the Taveners confectionary factory on Beech Street, so of course I had to visit Sweet, the current exhibition about the company at the Museum of Liverpool. Like a lot of firms in the first half of the twentieth century, Taveners organised staff outings, and the display includes two photographs of such events in the 1930s. No doubt everyone wore their 'best' for these outings, but they are still a wonderful record of what working people, and especially young working women, wore at the time.

The first photograph was of the workforce in 1930, about to set off for the annual picnic in a fleet of charabancs.

Click on any image to enlarge it

A 'sharra' was a vehicle with rows of bench seats across it. There was a canvas cover which could be pulled up over the passengers if it rained - the covers are visible folded up at the back - but they were usually driven open-top if possible. The destination was probably Blackpool, which is about 45 miles from Liverpool. I imagine that the journey could get quite chilly, hence all the coats and (firmly pulled on) hats.

Hats and berets all round

One lady is taking no chances with the cold, and is wearing a fur stole.

Perhaps she just wanted to show off her fur

A couple of the men in the party are wearing open neck shirts, while others have stuck to wearing ties. Almost all of them have some kind of headwear.

I hope those large caps are well-secured!

The second photograph was taken four years later, in the Spanish Hall of the Blackpool Winter Gardens. The photo is a little blurred in places, but there's still a wealth of detail to look at.

Note the 'Spanish' decor

Even though it's indoors, some are still wearing their coats, including another fur.

Short sleeves and fur coats

A few women are wearing brimmed hats or berets, and there are even a few party hats.

A beret, and two brimmed hats

Mostly though it's a sea of bobbed, waved, hair.

Lots of Marcel waves

I wonder if these two planned to wear similar (possibly identical) jackets? The fact that they're sitting together suggests that they did.

Sisters? Twins?

Leaving aside the party hat, this pair look very stylishly dressed.

Is that some sort of button-on cape?

I would love to see a colour photograph of this print.

Oh to have some of that fabric!

The drapery of this dress obviously got a little crushed under a coat.

Tell-tale creases

Meanwhile these impressive sleeves, surely inspired by Letty Lynton dress, seem to have survived unscathed.

So many 1930s details

Although the workforce appears to be largely young girls, there are some older women there as well.

Similar hairstyles to the younger women

The top table appears to be mostly men, presumably in more senior positions. This seems to have been a more formal outing than the picnic (certainly it involved a sit-down meal), so ties are being worn.

Waistcoats, watch chains, and pocket handkerchiefs

Among the women standing behind them, the lady on the far left looks quintessentially 1930s. Sadly, that part of the photo is a little blurred, so I couldn't get a good close-up of her outfit.

Like a fashion illustration

The rest of the display was interesting, but unsurprisingly these two photographs were the highlight for me. It just goes to show that you never know where a bit of costume history is going to turn up. Sadly, the Beech Street factory closed last month as production was moved elsewhere. I hope that the Taveners archive is retained, ideally by the museum. Who knows what else it contains?