January 1964

It was my birthday last week. I'm now 60, and delighted about it. My fifties began with what was, in hindsight, an ill-advised weekend away (by then Mr Tulip was far more unwell than we realised, and the whole trip was pretty stressful), and things went downhill from there. The entire ten years haven't been unremittingly dreadful, of course, but it's not been my best decade and I'm happy to make a fresh start.

I didn't even attempt to make anything new for the occasion. I celebrated with a day in Liverpool with friends, went on the big ferris wheel (quite an achievement, as I'm not good with heights), and wore the vintage winter coat that I mentioned last week, a hat which I made four years ago, and the nine-year-old dress which was the prompt for my new green velour dress.

Trying not to look nervous at the top of the wheel!

So in the absence of any sewing, here's the Vogue Pattern Book for the month of my birth, January 1964.

Apparently this is an "at-home dress"

Because the issue is actually December 1963/January 1964 there are some Christmas features, but I have skipped those. The January element of the magazine starts off with clothing for your winter travels.

Sadly, I never look this chic when travelling

The latest Vogue Paris Originals are shown with a couple of Couturier patterns.

Patterns by Grès (left) and Fabiani

I'm starting to develop an appreciation for 1960s suits; they look smart, but not nearly as rigid as 1950s ones. I'm not convinced by the hat in the image above, though.

Patou (left), Forquet (top right) and Pierre Cardin

While most of the magazine is printed on thin, glossy paper, there are a few thicker matte pages almost like pattern envelope paper. The illustrations are taken from the pattern envelopes, and the inclusion of yardage information adds to the effect.

Feature

Pattern envelopes

Another odd hat appears in the feature on 'country clothes', along with some text in French. As this and a piece on evening clothes are the only two bilingual features, and only the pattern descriptions are translated, I'm not sure how much use the 'en Français' mentioned on the front cover would be to French speakers.

Spot the French text

More drawings, this time not from the pattern artwork.

Basic information on some of the newer patterns

The right hand page has a fold-out section, with order forms for patterns and subscriptions. On the back is this guide to the coming issues.

The template for Pattern Book issues

There are few advertisements in this issue; just a couple each for fabric, sewing machines, and alarmingly sturdy-looking underwear. There are also two, on following pages, for my dressform (formerly my mum's).

Buying direct from Adjustoform is slightly cheaper

Mum bought hers well before 1964, so clearly it was a popular design. Hopefully mine will be put to use again before too long.