Oranges, greys and another 30's knit

Here is another finished project, a 30's blouse inspired by the above image, fished from this blog, definitely one worth following if you're into vintage 30's to 50's fashions and knitwear, with the host often posting many vintage patterns for free.

I noticed that this specific pattern is actually available for purchase here inf anyone case is interested, my blouse is however only based on its visual clue.

Mother came pretty close this time, with a great trompe l'oeil approximation of a lacy design which is more than convincing. It worked really well with the beautiful mulberry silk yarn used (dk weight) which I'm over the moon with.

On the down side, some things still went wrong, like the arm length. Yep, don't know what happened there. 

Also mother is yet to conquer her fear that I won't be able to get things past my shoulders ( in spite of having been "gifted" with the narrowest ones one could get), and as a result a properly fitted waist continues to elude her knits, which can be a bit of a spoiler when it comes 30's blouses. 

A string has been added to compensate but psychologically speaking is counteractive :).  Still, the weight of the silk makes this fall naturally "blousy " so the result isn't too bad. 

I'm going to be happy wearing it as it is, and I think it looks great paired with the muddy greys of this modern jacket and skirt (nope, not trying to camouflage against dirty carpet, though I might need to come back to this idea in future posts).

Triangles and paprika

Here is the next one in the project pile, a blouse in paprika/rusty red and blue mohair. I have no idea what the original colour scheme was, I image something a lot tamer (pale yellow plus brown, or perhaps pale green plus dark green??), but I thought my choice was positively vintage, if  rather intense. 

It should suit an Autumn, but I must be careful with the blues. 

I long for blue, probably because I can't wear it much as most shades look disappointingly bad on me. Still, I thought I could risk an accent. In retrospect I am not 100% sure it was the right shade as the contrast seems particularly vivid, but I think it works overall. It kinda has to, now.

What about the comparison test? The original is crochet, but mothers talents and current eyesight don't go that far. Due to the texture of the mohair, my blouse looks bigger/heavier when in fact it is light as a feather. 

I would have like the blue triangles better defined and only stitched down on the one side, closer in that to the inspiration source, but for some reason mum decided to proceed otherwise.

They are not coming down either as much as in the 30's pic, this is partly to do with insufficient yarn (the blue being a remnant from another project) and partly with the fact that the waist line is really high on this blouse. I felt it was a bit too high to be correct as it sits right below the breasts, empire like, nearly mid way through the blouse. We usually encounter the opposite problem of not being able to place a waist high enough, but not this time :)

I wish I had taken pics without the belt for this to be more apparent - and to check if indeed it looks the way I see it in the mirror!. In any case, in order to correct what I believe to be a departure from the original style I used the belt - produced for a different item - and placed it slightly lower, at the base of the current waistline and where I think the waistline should be. It does the trick, but creates a bit more ruffle around.
The sleeves are slightly longer, and I had pulled them up to create puffiness around the upper arm, but they had slid down again by the time of taking the pics. All in all, it may not be perfect to a "t" but I am pleased. Hurray again to long distance knitting!

 Outfit:

30's inspired top, knitted in a blend of kid mohair and silk - 

the blue one is Debbie Bliss Angel in the shade 08 

(this was called anything from Denim to petrol, air force blue and soft navy !!!!)

70's wool pleat skirt, etsy;

70's rust suede shoes, bought at a vintage fair, because I love this shade 

and the style looks to me very 30's/40's.

The missing blouse

Remember this? It all spurred from the image above. I had started by planning to have the blouse done (left hand side), then naturally needed a skirt to go with it. When that was done too, there was just about enough yarn left for a 1936-1937 style cardigan which took the ensemble to the new heights of a trio.

Mine is not quite so wide at the base and sleeves as in the pattern below right due to the fact that there was a limited amount of yarn left. It came out like something in between the two shown here, and it has raglan sleeves too, though it's hard to tell in that pic.

When I first showed it on this blog last November I photographed the skirt and cardigan only (as above) and the left the blouse out as I hadn't put any buttons on it, and I was waiting for some vintage glass cuties to turn up in the post. Well, those turned up a bit of a disappointment, far too tiny and the wrong shade of green. I eventually abandoned the hunt for the shade of lime that I was fantasizing about in terms of an ideal contrast with the yarn, and settled for simple mother of pearl buttons, which, if less exciting, at least go with the detail in the long cardigan and do the job of keeping the short sleeve blouse closed.

 

As you can see mother had to slightly modify the design and while I still have the fitted waist band, my blouse fastens all the way down from neck to waist with functional buttons. We kept the sweet little pocket (I need a tiny pocket square to go in there), and the detail is repeated on the opposite side of the skirt.

It was mother's favourite yarn to work with so far, a mix of 75% wool and 25% silk that lent itself beautifully to the task at hand. 

As for me, I am loving the end product, it turned up pretty much how I wanted, looks and feels great, has a lovely texture while remaining fine enough, it's easy to wear and, as with most knits, I feel at my most natural while doing so.