Dewhirst 3038 - Lady's Blouse

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This is a great blouse with a lace yoke and a sweet bow
Date: estimated late 1940s or early 1950s

• Measurements: Bust 34 to 36"; length 21.5"; sleeve seam 5.5"
• Materials: 4-ply or fingering; 3.25mm US 3 and 2.75mm US 2 needles; small zip or 4 buttons
• Original used 7 ozs Valleydew Knitting Wool 3-ply
• Tension: 8 stitches and 10 rows to 1 inch using 3.25mm US 3 needles

Bairnswear 567 - Zerline Lady's Blouse

 

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This lovely blouse has a lace yoke and can be worked with either long or short sleeves. The overall pattern is fully written out and easy to follow.

Date: late 1940s or early 1950s

Measurements: 34" bust; length 19"; sleeve seam 6 or 18"

Materials: 4-ply or fingering; 3.75mm US 5 and 3.25mm US 3 needles; 4 buttons

Original used 6 or 8 ozs Femina Crepespun

Tension: 7 stitches 1 inch

5 Pages

Bestway 1318 - Lacy Jumper in Leaf Pattern

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This is a lovely close fitting ladies jumper with a great arrow lace pattern and a sweet turn down collar

Date: early 1940s

• Measurements: Bust 34"; length 17”; sleeve seam 4"
• Materials: 3-ply or Light Fingering; 3.75mm US 5 and 2.75mm US 3; 3 buttons and crochet hook
• Original used 6 ozs (approx 170g) of Emu 3-ply Pure Botany Fingering
• Tension: 1 pattern repeat to 1.75" after a light pressing using 3.75mm US 5 needles

Arderns 4626 - Knitted Blouse with Scallop Lace

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This is such a pretty blouse and would be perfect for keeping cool in the summer 

Date: estimated early 1950s 

• Measurements: Bust 34" 86cm; length 19" 48cm 
• Materials: 3-ply or light fingering; 2.75mm US 2, 2.5mm US 1, and 2mm US 0 needles and 4 buttons Originals used 7 balls of No. 10 Ardern's Crochet Cotton 
• Tension: about 8 stitches to 1 inch possible using 2.75mm US 2 needles

5 Pages

Jaeger 573 - Lacy Afternoon Blouse

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This great mid 1930s patterns used odd sized needles to produce an openwork or drawn thread look. It works up quickly and looks fabulous. I mean, just look at the points to that collar

Date: mid 1930s

Measurements: bust 32 to 34"; length 18"; sleeve seam 5"

Materials: 3-ply or light fingering; 3.25mm US 3, 7.5mm US 11, and 5mm US 8 needles

Original used 3 ozs Jaeger Feather Fleck

Tension: 7 stitches and 8 rows to 2 inches (possibly over pattern)

5 Pages

Contessa 268 - Jumper Coat with Magyar Sleeves

 Contessa 268 - Jumper Coat with Magyar Sleeves

This chic 1950s blouse or jumper coat comes in 2 sizes and is great for summer

Date: mid 1950s

Measurements: 34-35" and 36-38" bust; 20.5" and 21.5 length; top of shoulder to sleeve edge 11.5 or 12.5"

Materials: 3-ply or light fingering; 3.25mm US 3 and 2.75mm US 2 needles; 9 buttons
Original used 7 or 8 ozs Contessa 3-ply Fingering

5 Pages

Twilleys 530 - Charming Lacy Blouse

 Twilleys 530 - Charming Lacy Blouse

 

This is a lovely summer blouse made from cotton. The all over lace pattern and cap sleeves makes it perfect for those hot days

Date: Early 1950s

Measurements: to fit a 34 to 36" bust

Materials: 3-ply or light fingering; 3mm US 2.5, 2.75mm US 2, 2.25mm US 1, and 2mm US 0 needles; 9 buttons
Original used 8 ozs of Lyscordet Soft Knitting Cotton

Tension: 8 stitches to 1 inch

Friday Free Pattern - Jumper for Parties

 

This elegant jumper with plain body and lace puff sleeves comes from Stitchcraft in April-May 1944.

Date: 1944

Measurements: 32 to 34" bust; length 19"; sleeve seam 4.5"

Materials: 3-ply or light fingering; 3.25mm US 3 and 33mm US 2.5 needles; 3 press studs
Original used 4 ozs of Patons Beehive Fingering 3-ply

Tension: 8 stitches to 1 inch using 3.25mm US 3 needles

4 Pages

Just click on the pattern picture for a copy of the pattern

Spring to Summer Knitting - Free Pattern

 

Knitting for Spring and Summer can seem like a weird thing. Wool is warm so why use it for the warmer months? It's used because it is also a great insulator and regulator of heat.

I could bore you silly with my explanation of how modern sheep have been bred them to have thick fleeces but their ancient counterparts had scraggly locks that would fall naturally but that's something for another day. Instead I shall share this lovely jumper with you from the early 1930s. 

The pattern says the model is Nancy Carroll who was an actor active in Hollywood from 1927 to 1938. I think this was from her most popular times so will date this from 1932 to 1934. She received the most fan mail of any actor of the early 30s (according the Wikipedia) but was 'difficult' so was released from her contract and was no longer considered an A-lister.

To get the pattern, just click on the image and it will take you to the pdf.

A Summer Day Jumper

The Lady Needlework Book No. 2

34 and 36" bust; length 20"; sleeve seam 5" - for 36" bust use 3.75mm US 5 instead of 3.25mm US 3

Original used 6ozs Beehive Fingering 3-ply in pale green

Easy and Quick . . .

. . . . well until I get distracted again and start something else.

I have been working on a pinwheel cardigan and it's gorgeous but it takes so long to go round now I wanted a rest. And I found this wonderful late 1930s beauty to give me some quick and easy relief.

It's a great blouse that is made from thick yarn and big needles so shouldn't take too long to make. I have 2 of those huge 400g balls of aran something with wool and hunted down my 7mm needles and away I went. In just over a day I have made the front so if I'm lucky I might even get to finish is this weekend.

With Spring nearly here . . Marriner's 443

. . . what better thing to do than start planning your spring and summer wardrobe? And this lovely should take pride of place.

This pattern from Marriner (No. 443) is such a pretty summer blouse and comes in 4 sizes so can be easily sized up a couple more inches either by altering the weight of the wool and or needles sizes to fit a larger size. If you do go this route, make sure you don't use a yarn that's too heavy as it could alter the drape of the blouse and you'll just get left with a saggy mess (ask me how I know). 

The original wool was a relatively lightweight 3-ply and the tension 7.5 stitches to 1 inch. Increasing the tension size to 7 stitches per inch will give you approximately 1 inch gain over the width of the jumper. 6.5 to 1 inch will add 2 inches or 4 inches overall but I think that this might make the yoke huge and you'd lose the lovely ribbing at the neck so perhaps it's time to grab your adventurer's pants and crack out the calculator and grade the pattern up to the size you want.

With muti-size patterns it's easier than you think and using a spreadsheet programme to get the calculations right means you can see across the whole range to see if anything look wrong. To start you need to read through the whole pattern and mark where numbers change. Rather than write out all the figures, here's the link to the google doc I used with some notes to hopefully explain better. I've used the established numbers for bust sizes 32" to 38" to take the pattern up to 40", 42", 44", and 46"

For the purpose of this, I've assumed that most larger women are larger overall, so bigger waists, bigger arms and wider necks and bigger busts. If you are slender but have a large bust, you could use the smaller sizes for the casting on and then increase to the larger sizes or use bust shaping to get to the required number of stitches for the yoke.

Like most knitting, the proof is in the making and I have not made this up so please use the figures with caution and if you see any glaring errors please comment so I can update the chart.

To download the pattern, please click on the pattern cover above.