Photoshop, 1940s style

I recently bought a small bundle of 1940s knitting patterns, because I wanted one of the patterns included. In in the collection (but not the pattern I specifically wanted) was this Bestway leaflet.

Bestway knitting booklet 78

One of the designs looked familiar, and checking through my small but growing pattern library I found that I already owned something very similar.

Spot the difference - the Bestway booklet is on the right

In fact not just similar. The photograph is almost identical, apart from the fact that the Weldons pattern appears to have bands of plain colour where the Bestway pattern has a diamonds pattern.

My initial thought was that the Weldons version with the plain bands had been issued first, and then amended to include more Fair Isle details, to make it easier to knit with oddments. But the instructions are identical, apart from the fact that Weldons pattern uses W.B. Melody Knitting 3-ply, whereas Bestway uses Sirdar Super Shetland Wool 3-ply.

Bestway booklet on the left, Weldons leaflet on the right

Looking closely at the Weldons image, I noticed that the knitting in the bands of plain colour isn't entirely smooth, and then it finally dawned on me - the band is knitted in two colours, but the difference is lost in black and white.

There is another photograph of the jumper on the back of the leaflet, which shows the design clearly. I wonder if this was down to different lighting, or if it was a version knitted in slightly different colours?

The design shows up clearly in this version

The jumper is knitted with a white background, and uses yellow, green, red, brown, turquoise and saxe blue for the Fair Isle. I charted out the design.

The two coloured bands have an identical pattern

Obviously, I couldn't recreate the shades of wool used in the original, but removing the colour from the chart shows how similar some of the colours become.

Now some of the colours are hard to tell apart

Both the Weldons leaflet and the Bestway booklet were published by Amalgamated Press, who owned Bestway patterns.

The small print - Weldons on top, Bestway below

It seems safe to assume that this design was first released as a Weldons pattern, the problem with the cover photograph was noted, and when it came to be reissued by Bestway the negative was manipulated to add the missing design element. The work must have been tricky, but it was very well done.

Someone had to draw this in, stitch by stitch!

I haven't been able to find out anything about the link between Weldons and Amalgamated Press. Before the war, Weldon's (with an apostrophe) used to publish its own magazines as well as knitting and sewing patterns. I’m guessing that either it was taken over by Amalgamated Press, or they had an arrangement whereby they shared some knitting patterns. Either way, I will be keeping an eye out for other replicated patterns in the future.

Pattern haul

I am actually doing some sewing (yay!) as well as some knitting, but nothing is advanced enough to merit a post. So instead, here's something I bought at auction a while ago, and forgot to blog about.

A suitcase full of old patterns!

The auction also included a lot of beautifully constructed clothes made by the lady who owned these patterns; she was clearly a talented seamstress. She also made clothes for other people, which may explain the variety of pattern sizes.

The collection includes five 'high end' Vogue patterns.

Vogue Paris Originals by Nina Ricci and Patou

Vougue Couturier from 1958/59

1970s designer patterns from Ireland and America

As well as these, there are a number of 'ordinary' Vogue patterns, including ones for day dresses, nightclothes, and eveningwear. (I'm not showing all the patterns, just a few from each brand.)

Day, night, and evening by Vogue

Like me, the owner of these patterns was clearly a dress fan. There are very few patterns for separates.

Simplicity - red dresses from the 1950s and 1960s

The Butterick patterns include a fitting shell, and some half sizes.

Butterick from 1957 to 1971

There are no McCalls patterns, but several from British brands Maudella and Weldons.

The Maudella patterns are also 1960s-1970s

The Weldons patterns are mostly for underwear

Happily for me there is also a good selection of my favourite brand, Style.

Style Print patterns

1970s-does-1940s, and 1970s-does-1970s

The 1980 pattern is the most recent in the collection

The previous owned may have sewed beautifully, but the way she stored her patterns was rather haphazard - several have the tissue pieces bunched up into a ball and shoved into the pattern envelope! It's going to take me a while to sort them all out properly.

Birthday presents

It was my birthday recently and my mum, whose options for independently going out gift-buying are rather limited these days, gave me some money and told me to "treat myself". So I did, and here are a couple of the things that I bought.

This Vogue Pattern Book dates from June 1941, when it was still a separate magazine attached to attached to an issue of Vogue (which was by then monthly rather than fortnightly) with string.

Vogue Special Design 4295, and a lot of hat

On the back cover is an advertisement for 'Chessboard' silk threads, which I have never heard of. I could find very little about them online either, the company seems to have vanished into total obscurity.

Clearly they could afford expensive advertising in 1941

Inside, pasted to the editorial on page one, is this.

A last-minute addition

The circumstances in question were the April 1941 bombing of the Pattern Book offices and the destruction of 350,000 patterns in the resulting fire, as described in this book. That "there may be difficulty in supplying Vogue Patterns from our headquarters" seems rather an understatement!

Other than this, and the opening of the editorial being, "Brides will be having smaller trousseaux; ordinary mortals buying fewer clothes", you would hardly know that there was a war on. As it's the June issue, there is an emphasis on things bridal - although surely it's a bit late to be starting sewing for a summer wedding now?

A mere seven outfits to make for a trousseau

This is the pattern book's idea of "simplicity itself for a war wedding". Given that clothes rationing was announced on 1 June 1941, wedding dresses were presumably about to get even simpler, and the editorial's suggestion that brides-to-be should ask for a sewing machine, "a Singer for preference" as a wedding present seems like particularly sound advice.

Something to run up a couple of weeks before the wedding

The only other photographic illustration is on the inside of the back cover.

Summer outfits (and more hats)

Everything else is line drawings, although even this surprised me with the amount of colour printing used. Naturally, the most colourful spreads are for the most expensive patterns.

Couturier patterns

Special Design patterns

Elsewhere, a single colour is used.

For dresses, . . .

ensembles, . . .

and suits

I wasn't aware that the 'little black dress' was a thing in 1941, but obviously it was.

Black dresses? For June? Actually yes, that is quite groundbreaking.

One of the illustrations seemed familiar, and when I looked at it closely, I realised that it was another of my presents from Mum.

The same image in positive and negative

The envelope is very fragile, but the pattern seems to be complete.

Vogue 9039, with bonus mad back view of the hat

Because the pattern was printed before clothes rationing began, there is no reference to 'coupon value' on the back of the envelope. What there is, however, is this.

Nooooooo!

Leaving aside the poor noun verb agreement (yes, I am a grammar nerd, and I expected better of Vogue), I'm very glad that its previous owner ignored this request.

Vive Ste Anne

26 January is probably the most inappropriate date possible for this subject, but I realised that I hadn't explained the first picture in last week's post, so here goes.

Some time ago, when looking online for a particular image of a woman sewing, I kept coming across picture postcards of women sitting at sewing machines with a vase of flowers placed somewhere totally unsuitable.

Accidents waiting to happen

All of the images, like the three above, had "Vive Ste Anne" on them. I discovered that St Anne's Day is 26 July, i.e. six months from today, and that she is the patron saint of seamstresses. St Anne's Day cards seem to have been very popular, with manufacturers producing lots of variations on a theme.

Clearly all taken at the same time

That particular huge vase appears to have had a lot of use.

Different flowers, sewists and machines, same vase

If you didn't want a vase (or you had already accidentally knocked it onto the floor and broken it), you could just scatter the flowers around instead.

From 1916, one of the earliest examples I found

Or you could relegate them to a nearby table, and have a photograph in the way instead.

A variation on the theme

What almost none of the images show is any understanding of how to actually sew. I'm going to be charitable, and assume that the first one of these was the result of a printing mix-up. The other examples just seem to have completed garments placed randomly under the needle.

Left-handed sewing machine?

How could you even sew like that?

The world's clumsiest alteration

How is she going to get out?

This one is a rare example of something which looks almost realistic. The fact that there is a pin rag wrapped around the machine suggests that it was actually used for sewing, and not just a prop.

The pin rag obscures the last two letters of SINGER

This lady in her very chic 1930s top does also seem to know what she is doing, but I'm intrigued by the fact that two photographs obviously taken in the same session have different names on them. Perhaps the photographer took a lot of shots, and then offered them to different printers. (Also, the only time I ever look that pleased to be interrupted when I'm sewing is if the person is bringing me a cup of tea, but that's by the by!)

"PC" and "FOX"

Then there's a whole category of images which would give health and safety officers nightmares.

Do not point scissors at your eye . . .

or cut things without looking . . .

or guide fabric through the machine with your elbow

All of this (apart from the 'danger to life and limb' pictures, obviously) prompted me to try creating my own St Anne photos. The first one I did aimed for a 1940s look with my Autumn Roses dress, and the second was teens era using my Armistice blouse.

'Sewing' through my press cloths

More random fabric, and an antique thread spool

I was wondering what to do next, as St Anne's Day cards appear to be a 1910s to 1940s thing, and I don't have many 1920s or 1930s clothes. But then, I found this.

1960s?

Challenge accepted. So now I have six months to create something similar!