Summer Frocks and Jumpers, June 1937.

Outfits for the sporty woman on her summer holiday in June, 1937. The children’s romper suits are cute but also practical for a day at the seaside.

Woman’s Pictorial, June the 5th, 1937.

For daytime outings, perhaps for afternoon tea or a visit to an art gallery: a selection of frocks, a two piece and jacket. These were patterns to be sent off for. It must’ve been rather satisfying to have had a friend compliment you on your outfit and to have revealed that you sewed it yourself.

Woman’s Pictorial, June the 5th, 1937.

Woman’s Pictorial, June the 5th, 1937.

A pattern for a summer jumper, for those cooler British summer days!

Woman’s Pictorial, June the 5th, 1937.

The second part of this knitting pattern is in the column on the right next to an article of recommended daily exercises to maintain a slim figure. The tone is quite stern! Ladies are told that “to wear a middle -aged spread is as out -of -date as wearing a Victorian bustle.”

Woman’s Pictorial, June the 5th, 1937.

The jumper shown below is to be knitted with knitting rayon. I had no idea that rayon came as a fibre to be knitted until I saw this. This is from Woman’s Own magazine, which I acquired recently. It is has a lot of interesting articles in it which I’ll feature in a few future blog posts.

Woman’s Own magazine, June the 26th, 1937.

Woman’s Own magazine, June the 26th, 1937.

The fashion images and knitting patterns can be downloaded here in pdf files. I am useless at knitting, but would be very interested to see jumpers any readers have knitted from these patterns. Please do send me links to photos of them!

JUNE 1937 FROCKSDownload

JUNE 1937 KNITWEAR PATTERNSDownload

1930s Knitwear for Women: recreating the look.

Now its November and decidedly chilly I’ve been wearing my vintage style knitwear. The fitted, snug style certainly keeps me warm. There’s something about the square shoulder style and the fitting of the arms at the shoulder that looks very flattering and is far more comfortable to wear than 2020 knitwear. I’m not a knitter, though (although I’d like to be). The patterns look complicated to me such as the one below from my 1938 Ladies Journal magazine.

Fortunately for me I found a wonderful knitter, Eileen Booroff, who knits jumpers and cardigans from original vintage patterns she has. Her patterns are 1940s/50s but the style of them isn’t much different from the ones in the 1930s, so they work for my 1930s look. Here are four of her wonderful creations which I have bought from her:

Here is Eileen’s website where you can see examples of her knitwear and order something from her:

https://eileenbooroff.wixsite.com/vintagestyleknitwear/knitwear

Below is a Sirdar wool advertisement from my 1938 Ladies Journal magazine showing another example of the style of ladies knitwear. I’ve seen enough photographs of this era’s knitwear online to get the impression that they were usually hand knitted by women and not shop bought, unlike today. It seems that the majority of women were knitters, but I suppose if you were not very good at knitting, didn’t care for it, or didn’t have the time you could pay another woman to knit your chosen pattern for you. I have images in my mind of women sitting by the fireside, with a cup of tea or coffee listening to the radio as they knitted. There’s something I find charming and cosy about that.

The front cover of the magazine is in colour. Sadly there is a rip on one side, but I’m going to get archival sellotape to mend it with.