My new pair of Clarks shoes!

After collecting the pretty images of the Clarks shoes past week here I decided to get a pair for myself. Since those shoes were from the 2013 fall collection a lot of were sold out (sigh...) and what was available wasn't on sale (of course). At the end of the day I picked up the Oxford-type 'Alfresco Art', a pair of lace up shoes with 'snake' details in black, which I can wear both with skirts and with trousers. The fit is really great and the inside has a soft cushion which relieves the pressure on the ball of the foot. Though I have wide feet the 'regular' d-width is pretty comfortable for me (a lot of shoes, like pumps are also available in the extra-wide E-width!) Though I paid the full price I'm convinced it is worth the investment. I'm already addicted!

Jumper plans spring 2014

I have already made plans for knitting a few new jumpers!
Moving a bit backwards in time, to the late 30's I choose the 3 patterns above. The 3 jumpers above have their individual challenges to me and all of them need to be resized a bit as well. Of course, I'm not planning to frog and re-knit them like I did on the Victory, so there are no lace stitches this time! Nice, solid knits with geometric patterns, mainly constructed with basic knit/purl stitches for an easy calculation of the gauge.

1. valerie
This pattern appeared in an 1940's AWW. Though it is a 1940 model we know that the AWW used mostly imported patterns which were released overseas earlier. I love the tabs and the all-over pattern which make this jumper special and very 30's. Actually, I already started knitting this one in 2013, but sewing up the pieces and the finishing took more than a month. In te meantime the Knit for Victory challenge started and I just didn't got round to share the finished jumper. Mine has 3/4 sleeves and is knit in a bright, electric blue color. I ordered the yarn (drops baby merino as always) when it was on sale. A short series of the knitting process will follow shortly.

• my challenge: to achieve the right fit and calculate 3/4 sleeves

2. trellis jumper
This is a Lincoln Mills booklet pattern, which is another free pattern from the internet. There is no exact dating possible, but looking at the hairstyle, the small shoulder pads and the button detail it must be released somewhere in the late 30's or very early 40's (though in the early 40's the shoulders 'grew' quickly bigger, like my Philippa's)
Again, the pattern looks rather simple, but very decorative, containing a small cable pattern in the yoke and sleeves. Most vintage patterns include some amount of increase along the torso to achieve a slight V-shape. This pattern instructs to increase in the last row of ribbing to the definitive amount of stitches at once. That way the visual lines of the vertical cables won't be disturbed.
I'm going to use the same drops baby merino yarn in bright blue-ish red, which I also used in my Victory jumper (yarn ordered when it was on sale)

• my challenge: cable pattern

3. easy stitches jumper
Guess what, another free pattern from the net! The main pattern of the bodice of this one looks similar to the trellis jumper, but the spacing between the vertical lines is filled up with moss-stitch here. Also, the jumper has a rounded yoke which is knitted in the round for the front and the back, including the top of the sleeves. raglan style sleeves. This will be a new challenge to knit! Interesting detail: the pattern instructs to cast on more stitches for the front than for the back. The color is going to be medium or light gray drops yarn which I yet have to order. I might try another quality of yarn to avoid too much calculations in the round yoke area. The drops cotton merino yarn is slightly heavier than the baby merino I use and is available in a pretty light-green color which I like very much!

• my challenge: to knit the yoke in round with the right fit

Similar patterns

source image

I came across this 1943 Stitchcraft cover today. The pattern used here is very similar to the Top Honors jumper pattern. There are probably more stitches in between the slip-stitch sections, but otherwise it is the same.
Knit in the Italian (or Hungarian) tricolor it would look very cheerful for spring!

celebrity dress lengths

I posted a few thoughts on designer dresses which are not always made to fit here. Above another example of the same dress which seems to appear in 3 different lengths, though I'm sure the length is not adjusted only the celebrities are shorter than the runway model...
It is a Christian Dior 2014 resort dress:
- On the runway: above the knee length
- Marion Cotillard (left) just under the knee length
- Aura Garrido (right) tea-length. The dress appears to have a train at the back while the original design doesn't even hit the ground.

Jumper styles and shapes from the 30's to the 60's

It is interesting to look at how jumper styles changed through the decades. Before starting to knit you really need to look at the pictures of the finished items and ask yourself the quetion: Will this look good on me? We all have different body shapes and let's be honest, not every garment accentuates the best parts of it. The models, even from 100 years ago seem to have the same, slender body shapes with tiny waists which makes every item look wonderful on them. Frustrating!

When it comes to making vintage inspired garments I think you need to know which era produced the most flattering patterns for your body type.
As you might know by now, I prefer the 40's. This is why:

• The accentuated shoulders are perfect to disguise the lack of shape in the waist. 
• The 30's could also be a good choice because of a wide variety of embellishments, for the same reason. 

I also know which parts to adjust:

• Those era's are well-known for the high necklines. I lower them a bit because of my round face. 
• Since I am high waisted I know it is more flattering to add extra width above the waistline to create a slightly blousy shape.
• Of course, I lengthen the tops too, because a very short jumper with a high waist is not a good combination...

The 60's are not my fashion era, simply because of the lack of shaping in the garments. I can imagine those garments would look fabulous on a thin person with small boobs, but with my swayback and broad shoulders they'd just look shapeless sacks on me. The 50's have a question mark in my book, because the hourglass shape which I simply don't have...

Which fashion era do you prefer and which one looks best on you?
Sloping shoulders or elevated ones, dolman sleeves or puff sleeves, fitted tops or relaxed ones?

Vintage inspired shoes from...Clarks

very 30's: lace up shoes, shaped heels, slingback sandals, suede

very 40's: heavier heels, pumps, suede, platform soles, ankle straps, wedges, fabric & canvas

Continuing the vintage inspired shoes series I've recently found a few gems in the collection of Clarks. you find the other posts under the label 'shoes' To be honest, never looked at the Clarks shoes until now because my mom who has 'difficult feet' loves them. The good thing is, the fit must be good, but on the downside she tends to like really shapeless shoes lately. It took me some time to talk her into buying a few neat and feminine shoes with low heels instead of the Birkenstock-type sandals she likes to wear.
The shoes above have typical late 30's and 40's shapes, they would all look equally pretty worn with a skirt or trousers. Now, that we finally (almost) sold our old house I'm aloud to buy new shoes. Above there are quite a few from the 2013 autumn/winter collection which are amazing but sadly, already sold out here. How about the Alma Kendra? To die for!
From now on I really need to watch the Clarks collections for new, vintage inspired items for myself...

As a little extra, below a 1946 article on tips for buying the right shoes for your feet:

1945 Top Honors jumper - proper pics at last!

I've realized that somehow I missed out on making proper pics of my finished Top Honors jumper (which is one of my favorites to wear right now!) So here they are! You find the project posts here.




Here is one more picture of the finished closure of the back neckline:

1945 Victory jumper - 7. the big reveal!

I'm trying to do the 'phone-pose' here with my grandma's old bakelite phone:
  

Fastest knit ever!!!
A quick recap of the past days:
31/1 Setting in the sleeves!
30/1 Finished the back of the bodice and the neck ribbing and sewed up the sleeves. Only need to set the sleeves in and weaving in the endless amount of yarn ends (did the white stripes with separate pieces of white to avoid a thick string of yarns along the edges)
29/1 Made a mistake while doing the armhole decrease, o had to rip out about 20 rows...
28/1 Finished the front armhole and neckline. Like the neckline shaping better than in my first version.
27/1 Finished the bodice up until the armholes!
25/1 Going from 90% to 30 again, with only one week left to compete the Knit to Vitctory challenge. Ripped out the patterned part of the bodice today and only left the ribbing intact. Re-started from the ribbing, planning to make the bodice wider, going towards 0 to max 1 inch of negative ease.
24/1 finished knitting the sleeves! In theory about 90% of the jumper is finished, but I'm afraid the bodice has to be re-knitted. Hours of work has to go, but now I want it to be perfect, with just a zero ease instead of a negative ease. It is hard to predict how lace patterns are going to look when finished... 20/1 sleeve I started is too wide, need to go... I'm going to restart the project tomorrow .

1945 Victory jumper - 6. close to the finishing line

Yes! Today is the day when I'm going to finish my Victory jumper, knitted in a whopping 10 days! To start, a picture from yesterday evening, when knitting the neckband:


To avoid stretching out I opened up the neckband and did a quick crochet buttonhole with a heart shaped button this time. I explained how to do this here.


picking up stitches - the easy way!
I used a 5:6 ratio for picking up the stitches for the neckband, same as on my Top Honors jumper. What I like about this technique is that you pick up every stitch in the first round, you don't need to count at all. By reducing the amount of stitches when starting to knit the ribbing you avoid holes between the stitches.

- pick up every stitch you come across evenly
- reduce the amount of stitches in the first row of ribbing by ribbing 4 stitches and then knit (or purl) the next two stitches together.
(you knit like this: K1, P1, K1, P1, K2TOG, P1, K1, P1, K1, P2TOG...)


Project of the day: setting in the sleeves and weaving in yarn-ends. (+ taking pics of the finished garment!)

1945 Victory jumper - 5. the victory is close

The victory is close!!! Yesterday was a rather unproductive day. In a hurry I made a huge mistake when decreasing the armholes. Knitted a huge piece with decreasing at both ends of the back while I should have decreased only at the beginning of every row. The evening was again about frogging and re-knitting...sigh...

my armhole shaping
(already used 3 times and works perfect for me)
- cast off 6 sts at the beginning of the next 2 rows
- decrease 1 st at the beginning of each of the following 10 rows

My planning was to finish the bodice yesterday and start knitting the neckband today. But again...I don't give up! Luckily have 2 days off from work, so I should have enough time to finish the back today, block the pieces and knit the neckband. The original pattern instructs to do this in two parts, one for the front and one for the back but I'm going to stitch up the shoulder seams and pick up the stitches all around like I did with my Top Honors jumper. The neckband is going to be a bit wider this time. I like the neckline of this second version of my Victory better, though I did a partly 'freehand' decrease to shape it. The jumper must be ready by friday midnight If everything goes well I only need to set in the sleeves tomorrow and make pics of my finished project.

Inspiration: contemporary knitted jackets

Have you ever tried to knit a jacket instead of a sweater? Knitted jackets can be fun! I've found a few great examples which are both modern looking and versatile. What do these designs have in common?
- the perfect choice of color combinations
- simple lines
- inventive accents

elegant:

knitted in simple stocking stitch with interesting ribbon details.
idea to remember: contrast color ribbon is pulled through the knitted holes.

parisian chic:

double breasted classic white jacket with black accents.
idea to remember: textured cross-stitch pattern imitating fabric-effect

chanelesque:

collarless, straight jacket with Irish cable patterns
idea to remember: crocheted Chanel-like trimming bands along the edges
Patterns from: Bergere de France yarns

1945 Victory jumper - 4. rewind and repeat!

Sometimes things are not working out the way you expect. The only thing you can do is raise the bar, start over again and perform even better...

A quick recap on this project. After a month of 'silence' I pulled out my knit-for-victory project and decided to complete it by the end of january. It seemed an easy task since the bodice was almost finished. After knitting the back part from the armholes up I started with a sleeve. This is how my almost finished jumper looked like last week:


This is how it looked like 2 days ago:

So what happened? On the 23th of january the bodice was finished and I was halfway of the first sleeve. Because the sleeve seemed to be too wide I decided to rip it out and re-start with less stitches, following the original stitch count of the Victory pattern. Re-started the sleeves on the 24th of january and finished them on the 25th. The modification in the sleeves is the different way of decreasing used for the sleeve cap. The original Victory pattern starts right away with decreasing without the horizontal part which is usually formed by casting off a few stitches first. I used the decrease of my 'blueprint' pattern,  without an enlarged or lengthened sleeve-cap:
- started at the beginning of the 4th red/white stripe block
- cast off 3 sts in the beginning of the next 2 rows
- decrease 1 stitch at the beginning and end of every alternate row until 28 sts left. Cast off.

sleeve version 1
you can count more pattern repeats in the width here

sleeve version 2
I was a bit tired so decided to start the sleeve-cap decrease the next day and started with the straight part of the second sleeve next to the first one. That's why there are two sleeves on the same circular knitting needle:

the finished sleeves (not blocked yet)


After finishing the two sleeves decided to take the right step and frog the bodice. It was just to small and I knew I wouldn't like it at all. So why knit something and then not to wear?


Frogged the bodice almost completely, with only the ribbing left re-started to knit on the 25th. Instead of 13 pattern repeats I did 16 pattern repeats in the width, which will give a better fit across the bust. Thanks to a quiet nightshift I managed to knit for a few hours during the night and then sacrificed a day on knitting while watching series 3 of Homeland. I must say, it was a great relax-day with just a little of shoulder-pain at the end. Here we are now, with just 5 days left of the Knit-for-Victory challenge, there is hope I manage to finish it on time:

1945 Victory jumper - 3. progress

After 2 days of 'speed-knitting' 2x half of the sleeves are ready. This time the sleeves are smaller, there is less pattern repeat in the width but a little more lengthwise to achieve the same look as in the picture above.

Actually, after getting to the armhole part I just started knitting the another sleeve instead of starting with the decrease in the evening. (Knitting+watching tv works only if you are not involved in knitting increase/decrease or intricate patterns...) I'm trying to finish and set in the sleeves this weekend and hope to finally see the overall fit!

from designer dresses to body image

   

So, what's wrong with these dresses?
Whenever I see a red-carpet picture of a celebrity the first thing I check is the fit of the garments. Not he total look, the accessories or the colors. Is that weird? One thing I often see is designer garments which somehow seem to be out of proportion, mostly regarding the length. As discussed in another post here designer outfits of celebrities are most of the time samples and not made to fit.

proportions
When we see the garments on the runway or in promotion pictures we see the tall and thin fashion models of 5'9" (=180cm) high and taller. Celebrities come in every size, and although they often are (too) thin, because 'everyone looks bigger on screen' (yeah, right...) most of them don't have the height of a runway model. Often, the petite actresses are wearing the prettiest runway designs. This means, when a garment fits them in the width it will be automatically too long as well. Let's take a look at two examples:

Claire Danes wore this Dior S/S 2014 dress about a week ago. The original runway dress below has a fitted bodice and a high waisted pencil skirt with an elegant, just-below-the-knee length. The pockets add an almost sportive detail. The actresses skirt has an odd length which hits her somewhere between the calves and the ankles. (and it is not only because the picture is made from another angle!)
   

Keira Knightley wore this vintage inspired Chanel dress recently:

Keira's dress looks out of proportion too.  The fit of the bodice is ok, but the skirt is way too long for her. Laura Ingalls, anyone? I couldn't find the runway picture of this dress, but I'm sure it is not intended to look like this. The seam hits her legs at the ankles which gives the dress an oversized, and rather matrony look. A shorter length would be much more youthful and flattering for her. How about a shorter, pretty tea-length?

the intention of the designer
The interesting question is of course, what was the intention of the designer? Would shortening the skirt ruin the total proportions of the garment (bodice vs skirt) or would it help to achieve the right proportions: a skirt with the right length in combination with a well-fitting bodice?
We all are familiar with the never-ending debate about the length and weight of fashion models. Who wouldn't remember the famous declaration of Kate Moss: "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" and the controversial "little too fat" comment of Karl Lagerfeld on the weight of singer Adele. Just look at these idealised design drawings - Miley Cyrus tour costumes by Cavalli and Pucci tour costume design for Beyonce. We know, both ladies have a slender figure, but how ridiculously long are those legs?! Spiderwoman is born...and reborn...


body image and marketing
We are still talking about celebrities, but how does this influence of our,  'average' people's body image? The University of Bath conducted a survey in 2006 about how women felt about thin fashion models in ads. The results were quite surprising (or not?...)

"Researchers from the University of Bath found that two-thirds of women they interviewed reacted favourably to print advertisements featuring thinner female models whereas less than a third liked models of a larger size. Those who preferred thinner models tended to believe that weight can be controlled by dieting or exercise. They tended to think the thinner models were more elegant, interesting, likeable and pleasant."

The population they interviewed consisted of 460 undergraduates, so sadly, this is the way young women felt about beauty back in 2006. I'm sure this image didn't change during the past years.

weight loss
Weight loss seems to be the theme of our times. Not surprisingly, even back in the early 1930's advertisements promoted weight loss all the time. Nothing has changed, they promoted 'simple' methods to lose weight, of course 'without dieting or exercise'. Below two ads from 1934 and 1935. Watch the marketing strategy: While one is quite rude, talking about "unnaturally bulging hips", "unlovely waist" the other refers to health hazards associated with obesity like a high blood pressure... (they didn't tell you don't get high blood pressure from a few extra pounds 'ugly fat' and called their product 'Youth-o-form' which suggested you even could look younger by losing weight:
   

Did you know that back in the 1940's the shape of the mannequins were adjusted for the new fashion trends? Yes, we are talking of the famous Dior New Look, which I personally don't like because the corseted, unnatural lines. (For me, that was the end of my dear, 1940's fashion era) If you read the article you'll discover that the mannequins were made taller and thinner because that was what 'average' women wanted to see. 70 years before the survey mentioned above!

there is hope
Personally, I don't feel good when I try on an outfit which looks fab on the thinner than thin mannequins in the store and looks ridiculously different when I try it on. I'd really prefer to see those outfits on a more 'average'  sized mannequin, and often wonder how would those garments look on an XL body? Don't you? On the bright side, the English department store Debenhams unveiled their size 16 mannequin for a trial in 2013:
   

"Like most retailers Debenhams generally uses standard size 10 mannequins in window displays. But with the majority of women in the UK either a size 14 or 16 it was time for us to take notice and try something a bit different. Our Head of Creative, Mark Stevens, told us about the idea behind this trial: “We are proud to offer a broad and varied choice for women of all ages, shapes and sizes in store. So we thought we should reflect this in our window displays. If it’s popular with customers we would love to roll it out.”

Wow, what a difference! I'd love to see those mannequins everywhere, don't you? Sadly, no other department stores are planning to follow this example. Wonder, what would it take to make that happen?
Anyway, it's time for a recap on the designer outfits and celebrities we started with. We can conclude, that being thin doesn't mean that an any expensive designer outfit would look great on you. I also believe that any garment that is made to fit could look great on you, even if it's not an expensive one.
What are your thoughts on the subject?