Knits, Part One

I'm always so jealous when I see those lovely 1930s knits that I have, so far, not been able to get my hands on. Baroness Von Vintage seems to have an unending collection of beautiful vintage knits, including this one, which makes me especially covetous. I'm also ridiculously envious of those who know how to knit and can make themselves reproduction garments from vintage patterns. Here is a wonderful sweater recently knitted by Jennie of "The Life and Times of a Vintage Obsessive", and here is another one expertly made by Tickety Boo Tupney. I would love to learn how to knit and crochet, but even "Knitting For Dummies" is apparently too advanced for me! Since I haven't been able to learn yet, I have been putting my sewing skills to good use by altering. I have found that '80s knits are often good candidates for this, as many of the style features are similar to '30s knits: pointelle and crochet accents, chevrons, colorblock, leg o'mutton sleeves, etc. The fit is usually way off, though, as everything was so blousy during that time (how well I remember it). Here is a sweater that I recently altered:



Here's how it started out. I originally removed the sleeves intending to move up the shoulders a few inches, but once I had them off, I really liked the way they looked on their own. Of course, I made another sweater using the sleeves, as they were the feature that prompted me to purchase the original in the first place. It's just too darn hot to get any pictures of that one now!



The jabot is made from the ends of some old crochet gloves. The fingers and palm sections were filled with holes, but the ends were still intact, so I just cut them off, sewed them together, and wove them through the holes in the top of the sweater.



I took it in by about 6 inches around. I also shortened it by cutting off the waistband, trimming off about 5 inches, and sewing the waistband back on. I don't have a serger, so I use the zigzag stitch on my sewing machine to alter knits. The gloves are vintage from ebay, and I blogged about making the skirt here. The shoes are brand new; I have them in brown, too. Sorry they're not very visible; it's been so hot here that my husband has not been in the mood to mow the lawn as often as he should!



This is my new favorite hat. I found the original at Goodwill for $2.00. It was huge; my husband tried it on, and it was even too big for his large head. Of course, I forgot to take a picture of it before I started cutting it up, but here is one that I took after I cut the crown off.



It was originally a fedora of sorts; you can see how the crown was shaped. After I cut off the crown, I shaved about two inches off of the bottom. I then got it wet and shaped it so that it would be more rounded on the top. After it had dried, I sewed two tucks lengthwise across the top of the crown. Since the hat was so big to begin with, I was able to put three pleats in the brim. I then sewed the crown and brim back together, trimmed it with some vintage ribbon and a vintage mother-of-pearl buckle, and finished it off with grosgrain ribbon on the inside.



I love it so much! When I wore it to the Farmer's Market, an elderly man approached me and said, "My mother had a hat just like that in 1934." How great is that?!



I've got many more altered knits to show, so stay tuned!