Cascade Collar

I always want to make these lovely sort of 30's collars, but I've never had much luck acquiring thread small enough to do so (or perhaps I just haven't looked hard enough - very likely the case).  Anyway, for your crocheting enjoyment, I give you the Cascade Collar.  This has been sitting in the drafts section of my blog dashboard for lord knows how long now, so I'm afraid I have long forgotten source details on this little beauty.

Peter Pan Frill

Oh my, I have been quite terrible about blogging for the past  . . . oh six months?  Hope this sort of makes up for it.

(not quite) 100 Clever Fashion Ideas for Lace

Hellooo out there . . . I know I've been wildly neglecting this blog.  Please allow me to make amends by sharing a few of these "100 clever fashion ideas for lace". 

An Afghan for the Modern Home

Here are the knitted instructions for the lovely afghan you see below.  I didn't realise till I was back in Belfast that there were alternate crochet instructions as well, which I failed to photograph but I'm confident you crocheters are clever enough to work them out for yourselves (or you can always drop me a line the next time I go back to LA and I'd be more than happy to find the "official" instructions for you).

Tap Dance Tuesday

Wow, this is pretty much a tap master class right here.  I have to thank my dad for bringing this clip to my attention.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Handkerchief Case

Continuing in this series of random patterns I photographed on my most recent trip home, may I present this charming Edwardian handkerchief case.  I'm not entirely sure how it's meant to work, but isn't it absolutely adorable?  If any of you make one please send me pictures so I can see it in action.

The Roundabout

Hello there!  Here's a lovely little 30's hat for you to crochet.  

Tap Dance Tuesday

It's been awhile since the last instalment of Tap Dance Tuesday and since it looks as though things are going to stay busy for me until the new year, I thought I'd share this selection of five (yes five!) tap acts from the 1930's - just in case I don't get around to posting anything new in this department for awhile.  I hope this satisfies all your vintage tap dancing needs for the time being.   

Two 60's Pullovers

I don't really "do 60's" too much anymore, but I definitely used to and so my archive of knitting patterns is absolutely full of books and magazines from that era.  If memory serves, these are from an "Around the World in Knitwear" supplement to Woman's Day magazine or something along those lines (sorry, I really should've taken a few source notes when I photographed them).  At any rate - enjoy!

Collar and Cuffs Militaire

Oh my, things have been busy around here of late.  I got back to Belfast last week and immediately started a new job which has really been taking it out of me.  But please don't think I'm anything other than absolutely thrilled to be gainfully employed again.  It just means that most nights blogging is the absolute last thing on my mind.

Anyway, whilst I was in LA I took the opportunity to go through my pattern collection with a view to sharing some of them here.  I didn't have access to a scanner, so these were taken with my phone - I hope you're able to read all the relevant information.

Hello there readers!  Apologies for the lack of posts, but for the past three weeks I've been visiting friends and family here in the fair city of Los Angeles.  I'll be back in my old digs at the end of this week, and I have at least a few fun things to share with you from my LA collections.  But before too much more time passes, I thought I'd show off my Halloween ensemble.  Yet again, my clothing hoarding tendencies have come through for me in the form of a last minute costume.

Dressing up as a flapper did seem a bit of a cheat as a) this is how I might dress on any given night out and b) I think everyone has probably dressed as a flapper at some point in the past two years what with all that Gatsby business in 2013.

Nevertheless, I used to get a fair amount of teasing growing up for my rather scrawny frame and gangly limbs.  So I've finally just decided to embrace my shape and take up the Charleston (which looks so good when you're all elbows and knees anyway).

Much like this well known picture by John Held Jr:

(my mom took this shot and wanted me to pose with lipstick - a little cheesy, but it does show off the whole outfit)

Cossack Coated

What I've been up to . . . pt 2

Here is something I never ever thought I'd be doing: darning socks.  Mr B's socks no less - I think that puts me in the running for housewife of the year.

 The thing is, yes, darning is a massive pain in the arse.  I think the majority of people would rather just buy a new pair of socks than spend the time repairing something so cheap.  That said, I find there is something very satisfying about taking a hole and essentially reweaving it into a new fabric.  There is also something lovely about how truly unique the construction on each pair of socks is - something I would never have noticed had I not started doing this.  I know, how different can a pair of socks be (aside from the obvious colour and pattern differences)?  But take this Calvin Klein sock above, it's stitches are a lot tighter than say the grey Reiss pair pictured at the bottom - it makes it much harder for me to run the stitches through easily.  The fibre content is clearly different too - something not so noticeable when you put them on, but somehow very evident when you're working on smaller scale.

I'll be honest though, a very large part of the appeal of this new pursuit lays in the fact that I get to use this lovely vintage darning mushroom I bought on eBay.  Isn't it a thing of beauty?

Now, I'm not really going to suggest you all start resuscitating every single pair of your socks, but for those interested in taking up the noble art of darning, I used instructions from this book which is also excerpted over at the Colette Patterns blog.  

Tap Dance Tuesday

If memory serves, my first ever Tap Dance Tuesday post was of the Nicholas Brothers (it appears said video has been taken down, so there's no point in my linking to it).  Anyway, I was looking into other tappers from the era to share with you, but I kept feeling that I wanted to be watching these guys.  Of the several clips I could've chosen, I went with this one as I'm huge fan of the vocal stylings of Dorothy Dandridge.  This number has all the acrobatic flair you would expect of the Nicholas Bros including those mental leaps that end in the splits (as someone who has never been able to do the splits even as thirteen year old dance team-er, these fill me with both awe and horror).

What I've been up to

I truly wish I could tell you that I've been busy sewing away on beautiful vintage inspired patterns, but it just isn't true.  Maybe it's because I've discovered several new (to me) sewing blogs of late and have been voraciously devouring them (any one else out there guilty of going through six years of archived posts in one sitting or is it just me?) that I feel I too should be making up muslins and tweaking flat patterns.  But here's the thing: I have a small handful of my pattern collection here and an even smaller selection of my stash fabrics and somehow the two just haven't been clicking (I'm only two weeks away from a trip home though, so I fully plan on bringing back a suitcase stuffed with fabrics I haven't seen in awhile - that should remedy the situation).  

Anyway, I haven't been completely idle.  As it happens, I have been indulging in two rather old school pursuits, the first of which I will share with you today: patchworking (hopefully to be quilted in the not too distant future), and not just any patchwork. Like a true depression era housewife, I've been breathing new life into my husband's old jeans.  

This is proving to be a rather slow going project  - aside from being my first real attempt at quilting, sewing together squares of fabric really doesn't have the same excitement factor for me as sewing garments does.  Still, I'm very happy with the results to date, so perhaps in another year or so I'll have new quilt!

Stay tuned and I'll tell you about my other new crafting enthusiasm, which is truly archaic . . .

Paris Fashion for the Autumn

Here are a few more 1920's fashions courtesy of The Needlewoman:

The Jumper Suit

Have you heard about the new "Jumper Suit" that's all the rage in Paris this season? . . . no? . . . Well then let the good ladies of The Needlewoman tell you all about it. 

Isn't the sweater at bottom right amazing? Sadly there is no pattern available for it, but I bet some of the more advanced knitters out there could figure it out (and if you do, please send me a copy of your pattern - I would love to make this!).

Decorative Trimmings

New Acquisitions

I don't really buy old needlework magazines so much anymore.  They're just too expensive and hard to find these days and going to down the eBay rabbit hole is not something my budget is prepared to take on.  However I do get lucky every now and then as was the case with these copies of The Needlewoman.  I uncovered them at a very reasonable price at a bookstore on a recent trip to Wales and ran to the cashier as though some other vintage knitting collector was going to pry them out of my hands at any moment.  

I'll do my best to get some scans up for you in the next few weeks.

Tap Dance Tuesday

Tap classes start again next week and I have to say I have not been as productive a dancer as I had hoped to be this Summer.  I had rather ambitious intentions of practicing for an hour every day, but an injured foot at the beginning of the break made a very good excuse for not doing so.

Anyway, here is the "Queen of Tap" herself showing us all how it's done.  I'm not sure where this footage is from or what makes it so rare, so if you do know, please pass this info along to me.