Cosprop at the Dovecot

Once again, Dovecot Studios has come to my rescue. I was hugely disappointed to miss Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop when it was shown in London, but it was simply impossible for me to travel at the time. So when I discovered that it, like the Biba exhibition, was coming to Edinburgh - well of course I made a trip up to see it.

A Room with a View, 1985

It did not disappoint.

Some of the costumes on display

Founded by John Bright, Cosprop is a major costume house with a collection of over one million costumes and accessories. As well as making costumes, it holds a collection of over 8,000 original garments which are used for design inspiration.

More of the costumes on display

Bright trained in fashion design, and worked in theatre. He began buying antique clothing in the 1950s, initially from Paris flea markets and then in London. These pieces formed the start of the Cosprop collection.

Victorian bodice, one of Bright's earliest acquisitions

The costumes in the exhibition reflect the changes in film and television over the six decades. At the start, television had not moved to filming in colour, so an understanding of how a garment would appear in black and white was important.

Miss Havisham's wedding dress, Great Expectations, 1967

The standards expected in costume design also changed over time. The embroidery and sequins on this suit are painted on.

War and Peace, 1972

Now, costumes now may use pieces of original textiles such as this purple waistcoat, or be embroidered from scratch.

Napoleon, 2023

Jefferson in Paris, 1995

In the early days at least, some productions used original clothing.

1850s dress, The Europeans, 1979

Now if an item is required which is not in stock, it is handmade by Cosprop's team of 40 staff. A section of the exhibition shows some of the work involved.

Making an 1840s straw bonnet

Used in Jane Eyre, 2011

The exhibits are grouped by the film/programme in which they were used.

Pride and Prejudice, 1995

Howard's End, 1992

Jefferson in Paris, 1995

Tulip Fever, 2017

Not all of the items were for humans - this hat was worn by a cat in the 2021 film, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain.

With the illustration which inspired it

Around half of the exhibits are arranged so that it's possible to see the back as well as the front of the costume.

The Golden Bowl, 2000

Sometimes, more than one version of a costume has to be made. For example, if the script calls for it to be damaged in some way.

Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, 2022

While particularly well-known costumes may be removed from stock and used for exhibiting, most are reused. This dress shows signs of having been altered to fit different wearers.

The Bostonians, 1984

The skills involved in making the costumes are astonishing, for example the straw work on this 1790s wedding dress.

Sense and Sensibility, 1995

The details extend even to parts of the garment which may not appear on screen. I shall have to watch the film again to check, but I'm fairly sure that the train of Marianne's wedding dress isn't shown. And yet, it too has intricate straw work.

Straw and silk trimming on the train

It all ties in with John Bright's original vision for Cosprop that these should be clothes that people would actually wear, not costumes. A perfect example of this for me was in two costumes from the 1979 film Tess.

Peignoir and travelling ensemble, both 1880s

Both garments have pockets. It's a very long time since I saw this film, but I doubt if either pocket is actually used at any point. Nor were many audience members likely to spot them, or regard a lack of pockets as historically inaccurate. But their existence helps to make the garments more real for the actor wearing them.

It's got pockets

As a costume drama fan, I recognised a great many of the ensembles. But there was one which I particularly wanted to see.

Out of Africa, 1985

I remember being smitten by Karen Blixen's wedding suit when I saw the film with Mum, so was delighted to be able to study it up close.

One of many detail shots I took

I usually go round costume exhibitions on my own, but this time I had company. Even better, company who also sews! My friend Debi, Ms1940McCall, lives in Edinburgh and had already seen the exhibition - but she was happy to see it again. Being able to nerd out over details with a fellow sewist was a rare and wonderful treat.

With the fabulously-dressed Debi

Costume Couture runs until 16 January 2027.

An end and a beginning

It turns out that the lure of a new project to start is a great incentive to finish the current one: despite having taken seven weeks to complete three-quarters of my latest Close to You shawl, I polished off the last quarter in a couple of days. I had enough yarn to complete two more pattern repeats and still do a picot edging.

The finished shawl

Being worn

The more I knit, the more I realise just what a clever pattern Close to You is, especially for a lever knitter like me. Triangular or crescent shawls usually start at the top centre and work out. By the end, the rows can be very long; the final rows on my Lothian were almost 500 stitches.

Knitting a top-down triangular shawl

As a result, it wasn't something I could pick up and just do an odd row in a spare five minutes. Because I'm not yet a good enough knitter to stop mid-row, for me it became very much Appointment Knitting. In Close to You, which is by the same designer, the length is achieved by rows of knitting. Even with the extra pattern repeats, I only had 160 stitches in the final row.

Knitting Close to You

As a result, it's easy to do on straight needles, and also possible to sneak in a cheeky row or two while waiting for a cup of tea to brew. But the edging keeps it interesting, while not being too complex. Perfect. (This isn't an affiliated post, just the observations of a happy knitter.)

But after saying all that, I will be back to Appointment Knitting with my Shropshire Lass shawl, which I started as soon as the Close to You was blocking. Not only is it a top-down triangle, but it's lace knitting as well. Because I'm using a different wool from the one recommended, I knitted a swatch to make sure that I had the right needle size. The tension was fine, but my motif positioning was very off in places.

So many mistakes

I had decided to have a go at knitting from the chart for a change, and it just confirmed by belief that I should stick to following written instructions! So far, this choice is working well.

Far better

The shawl has an outer edge and centre spine of garter stitch, and uses four stitch markers to separate these from the lace element. Usually I prefer plain round stitch markers, but thank you to whoever it was (sorry, I've forgotten) who explained to me that markers with something hanging off them are better at staying in place when yarnovers are involved. This gives me an excuse to use this cute, if not entirely appropriate, set from Coastal Colours.

Shells and sea glass to mark Shropshire's maritime heritage - or not!

It’s early days yet, but I’m enjoying watching the pattern grow.

A Shropshire shawl

After last week's Glengyle view, here's Shropshire

I'm about three-quarters of the way through my current Close to You shawl, and hope to have a fair bit of knitting time over the next couple of weeks. So I'm already thinking about my next project.

Actually, I already have the yarn and pattern for it. Last winter I decided that I really wanted a large triangular shawl. My original plan was to use the Dandelion Air pattern, making it bigger and in thicker yarn. I bought two balls (1,000m) of Sirdar Jewelspun Aran in a sale at my local yarn shop, and cast on. I loved the colours (Northern Lights), but soon realised just what an undertaking knitting up this many metres was going to be. Then I decided that if I was going to expend that much time on a project, I wanted it to be something special. So I frogged what little I had done, wound the yarn back into the ball, and ultimately gave both balls away in a big stash clear-out I had over the summer.

(At this point I should add that this is on no way a criticism of the yarn, or people who choose to knit with it. Every knitter has their own reasons for making their choices, and all of them are equally valid. As I've become more confident in my knitting abilities the type of wool I want to use has changed, but that's my preference alone.) 

The shawl plan was shelved, mainly because life became more attuned to small, portable projects. Also I realised, even after the clear-out, just how many projects I have planned. But then 3 weeks ago, I went to Ewe and Ply's yarniversary celebrations.

Yes, I bought a goody bag

It contained lovely things, including this specially dyed wool

I'm very lucky to have such a brilliant yarn shop just an easy train journey away, in a town where I'm always happy to have a day out. In the last year of her life, Mum had several stays in Shrewsbury hospital, so for weeks at a time I was over there almost daily. Popping in for a chat with the lovely ladies in Ewe and Ply and Maggie Mae's Vintage (both in the Parade Shops) made a tough time easier.

Inside the shop

It's 10 years since Terri and Becca opened their unit in the market hall, and since then they've moved to larger premises twice, and also opened a shop in Oswestry. They sell a wide range of natural and ethically sourced wools, including their own - my Dandelion Air and second Close to You shawls are both made from their Corrie-Mo yarn. But this time my eye was drawn to the delicious colours of their Shropshire Ply 2020 4 ply - spun from the fleeces of their own flock and other local sheep and then dyed by them. I bought 4 skeins with no idea what to make with it.

So much for stash reduction

Browsing through my shawl and wrap favourites on Ravelry I came across Agnes by Kath Andrews, and realised that the pattern and this yarn would be perfect for resurrecting my Big Shawl idea. 200g wasn't enough for the larger version, so ordered some smaller skeins in the same and one extra colour. Rather than the contrast band at the outer edge, I'm going for an ombre effect through the colours. I recently came across the trick of de-saturating an image to identify colour contrasts, and discovered that there is almost none in the shades I've chosen, but I'm happy with that.

The full set of colours

The yarn is spun from fleeces of Shropshire, Dutch Spotted, Llanwenog, Lleyn, and Castlemilk Moorit sheep, along with coloured alpaca. Most of these I had never even heard of, let alone knitted with. The wool feels unlike anything I've used so far, and it will be interesting to see how it knits up. It's a new stage in my knitting adventure, and I'm excited to start. Once I've finished my current project, of course!

The replacement

My first Close to You shawl wasn't a complete success. The yarn was lovely, and the pattern simple but effective - but the end result just didn't feel 'me'. My loss was my friend F's gain however; it was far more her palette than mine, so I gave it to her, and she adores it.

My second attempt was far better. I love the painterly colours of the yarn, and the beads add something extra to the border. The Corriedale/mohair yarn is very different from the merino/yak mix of the first shawl though, and a non-fluffy version of Close to You remained, vaguely, on my to-do list.

So when I went back to Edinburgh in the summer of course my trip included a visit to Kathy's Knits, and of course I came out with wool. All of Kathy's stock is sourced from small, independent farms and producers from within the British Isles with, naturally, an emphasis on Scottish producers. I bought one skein of lace yarn from Ripple Crafts, and this.

Front and back of the skein from Abercairn Yarns

It's the same 4ply BFL/silk yarn that I used as the main colour of my Lothian shawl, this time in shade Glen Gyle, and the colours feel like a skein custom-dyed to my exact specifications: a blue base, with an assortment of rich, jewel-like hues thrown in. Plus, the silk content gives it all an extra lustre.

Knitted up

It was the perfect yarn for a new Close to You, and I cast it on a few weeks ago. The yarn is a joy to work with, and one of my favourite things working with it is seeing the range of colours in the stitches on the needle.

A pool of blue, then lots of different colours

I love the variations

Abercairn Yarns is based in the Scottish Highlands, and I was intrigued by the shade name - is there actually a Glen Gyle? There is, almost. Glengyle Water flows into Loch Katrine in Stirlingshire.

Loch Katrine and Glengyle

The 100g skein is undoubtedly generous, so I'm expecting to get at least one extra pattern repeat out of it. It's going to be a while before I have a finished shawl to post about, but I can already tell that the end result is going to get a lot of wear.

Learning to sew with Vogue

I remember very little about sewing lessons at school, except that I disliked them. The emphasis was on pinning in a perfectly straight line and ensuring that all tacking stitches were exactly the same length etc, and each step involved queuing for ages to have your efforts inspected by the teacher. A single, simple, garment took an entire term. What made it particularly tedious was that I was making far more complex things at home with Mum. (Shoutout here to my final sewing teacher, who realised this and kindly let me bring my own projects in to work on - thanks, Mrs Pitkeathly!)

Try as I might, I can't recall what patterns we used to make these (frequently hideous) items. But it certainly wouldn't have been Vogue - that would have been far too fancy for a Scottish comprehensive school in the 1970s. At some point however, there must have been some schools which did use Vogue patterns. The Vogue Patterns School Service had existed since at least 1956, when it launched the Young Fashionables pattern line for use in schools.

Early Young Fashionables pattern with the large envelope and flower motif

Vogue's Well-dressed Girl was another part of their offering. It appears to have been published twice a year, in March and September, and features patterns at the cheaper end of Vogue's price range.

The autumn/winter 1961 edition

It makes sense for Vogue to have had a link with schools. Sewists often have a favourite pattern brand but, because Vogue patterns were expensive, they were unlikely to be the first choice for many. If you were familiar with Vogue from sewing lessons however, there was a better chance that you would stick with them.

To me, this is a curious hybrid publication. It isn't like a younger version of Vogue Pattern Book; there is only the most basic actual sewing information in it.

Mostly repeating the information on the pattern envelope

There are no Girls, Teens or Half Size patterns in the booklet

But nor is it just a subset of a counter catalogue. At the front there are 10 pages of advertisements; for fabrics, interfacings and haberdashery, but also for bras and sewing machines.

Berlei advertised regularly in Vogue Pattern Book

Pinnock was a cheaper brand, but still expensive for a schoolgirl

I was amused by this advert for my dressform, which seems to suggest that getting your mother to do it for you is the best way to sew!

Make it easier for Mum to 'run up' your clothes!

The rest of the booklet consists of the front and back pattern envelope art for a number of patterns, starting with nine for sub-teens.

Dresses

More casual attire

For when your child insists on French couture!

The remaining 23 are mostly in Misses sizes, with a few in both Junior Miss and Misses. Because the illustrations are all from pattern envelopes very few of them, even for the Young Fashionables patterns, look anywhere close to school age models.

There are blouses . . .

. . . and skirts . . .

. . . but mostly dresses

Young and fashionable, but still wearing gloves

One of the patterns available in Misses and Junior Miss sizes

A more casual look

Only the advertisement on the inside back cover, for thread and zips, has any reference to information on learning to sew. There are offers for a teachers' guide to inserting zips and a how-to-sew handbook for teachers and pupils.

Both the guides had to be paid for

Nowhere is there any suggestion that Vogue offers any publications on sewing, which seems an odd omission. I haven't been able to find much information on the School Service, so it's possible that Vogue produced other, more practical, materials for schools. The hunt continues.