Vintage patterns and making

1940s flower corsages made from shoelaces

Today we have been digitalising items from the 1940s and came across these lovely flower corsages which  were made in the wartime 1940s. They were made from old shoe laces as in those days, women had to be inventive about what they could use to embellish and decorate their clothing. 

They decorated their clothing with pins and embellishment to really disguise the fact that they did not have a lot of items in their wardrobe!

Today you may be able to find a fair few spare laces as a lot of the youngsters take out the laces in their trainers and converses, either to add new coloured ones or just wear without them....(its not so many years ago that my daughter got told off for doing that by an older lady, who said she would get a 'claw toe' if she didn't tie her laces properly..... ....scary stuff but her feet seem normal today so it can't have been too bad!)

We have seen corsages made from lots of items, but this is the first time we have seen shoelaces used! I think we are all familiar now with flowers and corsages made from old zips, so maybe these will catch on as well....

here are the instructions

You could of course also add vintage buttons and beads into the centres....enjoy making these and have fun using up old laces....!

Vintage crochet flowers and corsage pattern for pins, embellishments etc

You probably already know that we love instructions to make all sorts of flowers here at Vintage Visage- and these beautiful crocheted flowers are no exception. These are not your usual little 2 or 3 row crochet flowers, these are a lot more fancy and out of the ordinary. yes, they may take a little longer to make but they will be worth the effort as they will look spectacular as pins, brooches, corsage or even bouquets if you are clever enough to put lots and lots together .....

This one has so many petals and looks wonderful in red- and you could also make it in lots of different shades of reds and pinks for the petals-  you could use up lots if left over yarns that way.....this daisy too is fabulous in white- wonderful for brides and wedding,- imagine these on a wedding veil or headress or in a crocheted bouquet..... and they could also be made in pastel colours, or bright colours like gerbera flowers too....

These pretty apple blossom flowers are so sweet and would look wonderful mixed in with the daisies.....I think I would be tempted to add some fragrance too - don't you just sense the lovely smell that apple blossom has.....little lavender or rose petal bags in with the flowers would be so lovely......

Why not use these to embellish hats and bags too? A cluster of apple blossom would look fantastic on a hat

and these carnations are so deceptively easy to make- you could tape them to wire stems, pop them is vases and have them as centre pieces for the wedding or dining table.....or on a napkin ring......

These carnations are rather fab too- personally I 'm not so keen on the yellow colour, but again they are so simple to make and you could have reds, russets, golds and oranges all together....or go pastel with softer colours altogether- lilacs,primrose, bluebell, shades could look lovely.....

As always , all of our patterns can be found on the Vintage Visage website- just click here to go there instantly.....

 

 

Vintage 1920s,1930s fair isle jumper patterns pdf

Today we have digitalised these very pretty little fair isle design jumpers which date from the late 1920s, early 1930s. There are 2 designs with fair isle patterned bands and fair isle design collars with a 2 button neck detail. They are made with the usual yarn for fair isle at the time, which was a 2 ply shetland wool, and old size 8 and 10 needles- we give you the modern equivalent charts for needles in the pattern.

These have such pretty details such as a moss stitch waistband and collar band trim. Today they could be made in really soft merino or cashmere yarns and gorgeous colour schemes to make quite upmarket jumpers.

As you see, if you are looking for a period late 1920s, early 1930s look for a little girl for a TV drama or film then these will give you that look instantly. (add in the lovely bob hairstyle too though!)

They will fit aged around 8 and measure 28 and 26 around the chest, just to give you an idea of size. Of course, this will depend on your tension and if you decide to use a thicker yarn for a bigger size too- they would look lovely on grown ups too. You could even make them simpler by not shaping at the sleeves and having a more modern drop sleeve shoulder if you are more comfortable with sewing in straight sleeves .

We can imagine these in all sorts of really pretty pastel colours- pinks, lilacs, primrose, bluebell, soft turquioises - or with lots of leftover or odds and ends of yarn....the backgrounds could be pastel too, or the more normal grey, black , faun cream.....

Have fun making these-the patterns can be found on the Vintage Visage website and purchased as instant downloads. Click here to go straight there

 

Vintage Victorian Hardanger Embroidery Instructions booklet pdf

We have 2 booklets of instructions for Hardanger Embroidery on the Vintage Visage website. The booklets date from the early 1900s Victorian era and have instructions and illustrations of how to work and make the embroidery.

Hardanger embroidery is said to have originated from Denmark where there is a city named Hardanger, and was also worked in Norway and Sweden. However- the origin of this type of embroidery can be seen as far back as ancient persia and Asia where it was worked in silk and a fine gauze netting.

As you can see from the illustrations, its a sort of mixutre of embroidery, cut work and drawn thread. It was used to make 

"pillow slips, tea-cloths, sideboard cloths, tray cloths, mats, sheet decoration, centre pieces, collars and cuffs, aprons, blouse trimmings, belts and button ornamentation. Indeed, each and every article designed for  household or personal use can be ornamented with this work, which is not difficult to learn and not expensive to do...."

And as you can see from the illustrations above, the ebooklets give you comprehensive instructions and very good illustrations to show you exactly how to work the stitches

Its an interesting skill to learn, and inside each of the 2 booklets there are lots of ideas and designs for anyone wishing to research more about Hardanger, or as it says on the second booklet, Hardangen, embroidery

If you wish to purchase the ebooklets along with other Victorian Embroidery instructions-- they are available by clicking here which will take you directly to the Vintage Visage website- enjoy!

Vintage 1940s wartime Lux family dolls knitting patterns

This family of dolls is so cute and dates from the 1940s. It has a baby doll, a little girl, a little boy, a mummy , a soldier and a sailor. They are all knitted and also pretty simple to make and would make great period toys in a drama, or lovely 194os memorabilia as well as being funky toys to make for today. You could have a great time making them modern clothes too!

You can make them from odds and eds of yarns and leftovers form other projects- after all, they were designed to be made form that in the austere wartime years when yarn and new toys were hard to come by for lots of families.....they make great stocking fillers too.....

Find this cute little crew on the Vintage Visage website as a download by clicking here

 

Joan of arc helmet hat crochet pattern

Sometimes in our researching we come across interesting  and intriguing little items like this one. This Joan of Arc helmet hat dates from the early 1900s and we are racking our brains to think what it may have been designed and used for at that time. 

We must admit that we do rather like it, although we would possibly make it a bit less austere by adding some crocheted or fabric sewn flowers to the side.

Has anyone got any ideas what this hat would have been designed for at that time? Was it a fashion item (and to go with which fashions?...) or somehow a functional item? But for what? All ideas and suggestions gratefully received. The pattern is available on the Vintage Visage website for those interesting in making it.

Vintage 1940s fair isle beret knitting pattern

We have just popped this set of gorgeous fair isle design knitted childrens berets  onto the website. They re so cute, even when photographed in black and white....

The little girls have also got such cute 'little girl ' faces...is it just me or do little girls these days seem to have faces which are much more 'grown up'?

Fair isle is so useful for using up odds and ends of yarn, and these berets use tiny amounts of each colour. You could make them in lovely creams, whites and neutrals for a classy look, a range of soft chalky pastel colours for a pretty look, or how about using lots of bright colours on a white or black background for a more dramatic look. We think that one of the best things about fair isle knitting is choosing your range of colours before you start- but thats because we love all types of colours and we have an arts training background.

We do know that some of you are a little nervous about choosing colours that 'go', and our advice is always to look at something that you like - it might be a picture in a magazine, or a flower, or a painting- and see which colours are in that, and try to reproduce by using yarns of similar colours. For instance, if you like a bunch of nasturtiums, you will gets yellows, golds, oranges and greens. If you take yarns of those colours, add a cream, faun or black background and use them for fair isle designs and change the yarn every couple of rows (as usually instructed in the pattern or chart) it would look so pretty.

Please note that we do not recommend these patterns if you are a beginner at knitting. These berets incorporate 2 methods, which is 'knitting in the round' (on 4 double pointed or a circular needle) and multicolour knitting, so we recommend that you have experience in both of these methods before starting these.

You can find these patterns as a set on the Vintage Visage website by clicking here

Vintage butterfly crochet patterns- for pins, embellishments, jewelry etc

This is one of our favourite vintage publications and we are pleased to let you know that we have now digitalised it and it is available on the website as an ebook.

Butterflies are such a pretty shape in design and colour, and there is so much that you can do with these beautiful little butterfly designs. The original book gives you designs for hats, gloves, light pulls, bedspreads, table decorations etc. All of which are lovely, especially if you after a vintage feel and look. However- we do think that these little beautys would look fantastic today as pins, brooches, hair decorations, in corsages ( in amongst a lot of crocheted flowers...), necklaces- bib necklaces would be fab- , and also to decorate accessories such as hats and bags, and clothes.....

Take a look at some of the pretty butterflies available to make below

This hat and gloves are so pretty and elegant- if the hat was made in whites and creams then it could look fantastic for a bride

We love this idea- lots of tiny wee butterflies made from lots of odds and ends of left over yarns and appliqued to a blouse. These could easily be made into pins or brooches- you could leave them nice and soft, and make lots of different colours and sizes from different thicknesses of yarns. You could also stiffen them with old fashioned starch or modern fabric stiffener- try also backing them with a stiff fabric with fusible interlining/bondaweb. You could use plain fabrics or lovely printed fabrics for a wonderful contrast.....very sellable!

Here is a selection of the butterflies in the ebooklet which have been appliqued onto a bedspread, net/organza curtains and a lampshade....if you ar elooking to make home decor items you could make lots of plain granny squares in plain colours and pop a pretty multicoloured crocheted butterfly on the top of each one.....

These little  chaps (or chapesses ) have been popped onto a doily for the table- but again could just as easily be popped onto bags or hats to give pretty embellishments

These are so pretty- they were originally meant to decorate the ends of light pulls but we think that they are so pretty that they should be found more places than that! How can you se these being used?....let us know your ideas.

As you can see, this is such a useful little ebook and its available on our website which you can get to by just clicking here (it will open in a new window) Enjoy and have fun making these wee beasties- but be careful- making them can be addictive!

Vintage 1960s mod mini skirt suit knitting pattern modelled by Grace Coddington

Well- this is such a rare find- its not often that we find a supermodel modelling for knitting patterns- (except Twiggy of course who we have featured before) but here we find the wonderful and iconic Grace Coddington on this mod knitting pattern.

This is a wonderful mod style 1960s mod suit vintage knitting pattern , consisting of the box jacket with three quarter length sleeves, the mini skirt and the blouse underneath, all knitted! We love the pretty pink and red colours- we also think that it would look pretty fab hip and groovy made in black and white too- a white suit with black squares, or a black suit with white squares.....

It has instructions for 34-40 inch bust, and 36-42 inch hips and so unusually for vintage patterns is quite generous in its sizing .

As you probably know, Grace Coddington started as a model for Vogue, worked on British Vogue and then became creative director on American Vogue.

You can find the pattern here

1920s fabric flower corsages sewing pattern-Lady Crawley, Downton Abbey

You may be watching the new series of Downton Abbey TV series  which is set in the early 1920s. The series is full of lovely costumes and in the last programme it showed the ladies of the manor getting ready for the wedding of Lady Mary. We have already shown some patterns very much like the long lean dresses they were wearing- but did you see Lady Crawleys corsage and hat?

She had the most lovely fabric rose chiffon or organza flower as a corsage and the same flowers on her hat. Now can make your own beautiful fabric rose corsages from our instructions which are downloadable from the website (links below the pictures)

Now here at Vintage Visage we have mentioned how much we love sewing fabric flowers- they look so pretty and are useful as they use up lots of scraps of beautiful fabrics. We have a selection of very pretty genuine 1920s sewing instructions for these pretty flowers below. The first one, the wild rose, is very like Lady Crawleys corsage on Downton Abbey....

its so pretty- imagine lots of these set together on a hat too- gorgeous!

This one is smaller but still so pretty- its been made here with a spotty dotty fabric but you can of course use plain or printed fabrics- vintage floral fabrics would look lovely...

This one for instance is made from plaid or tartan fabric- you also get the instructions for the wonderful bunch of grapes too

These fabric flowers were made from black velvet for a very luxurious feel

And if you are looking for something pretty but slightly less fancy, then these little 1920s fruit and leaf clusters made from tiny scraps of silk would fit the bill nicely.

All of these could be made as gifts, or to sell- try presenting them on pretty cards for a cute touch.

As always, the patterns can be purchased and instantly downloaded from our Vintage Visage website by clicking here- it will take you straight to the correct page in a new window.