Per request, here’s the other pattern shown in a previous post from Minerva Vol. 40. Inspired in equal parts by jaunty sailor and 60s taxicab, the pattern features a checkered collared top, skirt with checkered pockets, and a giant crocheted coat for those nippy cruise ship evenings.
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Tags: 30s, blouse, coat, crochet, dress, knit, minerva, sailor, skirt, Thirties, vintage, volume 40
Candy apples and razor blades; I remember Halloween. Unfortunately, as evinced by last year’s sorry excuse for a scare, my pattern collection does not and so I’m forced to get a little more esoteric in the search for something in the macabre spirit.
This week’s pattern comes from the very specifically themed 5th Avenue Fashions, shot on and around the Empire State Building. Tourist magnet, glowing beacon, the very symbol of the city, what frights could possibly await at the top of New York’s famous icon, barring a giant gorilla on the loose?
Wooooooh! Wooo! woo. Eh. It’s no Q The Winged Serpent, but tell me that underlighting and sly grin don’t imply she’ll push you off the balcony the second you turn your back? What inspired the book’s photographer to light her like that? Especially given that, in the 1930s, underlighting was shorthand for ‘terrifying monster’?
Eh?
Eehh?
Eeeehhhh?!
At a time when Hollywood had gauze shortages from soft focus ‘glamour lighting’ their leading ladies, harsh underlighting screamed menace and terror. Also it doesn’t help her direct gaze resembles a more modern movie psychopath:
All work and no crochet make Jack a dull boy.
Tags: 1930s, 30s, blouse, crocheted, deco, peplum, sweater, tee, Thirties, top, triangles!, vintage
Hello all,
Perhaps you’ve noticed a lack of posts recently. Perhaps you’ve been too enomoured of the changing seasons to even notice. Perhaps my ego’s puffed up enough to assume anyone actually notices anything about a particular website before immediately clicking on to the next series of animated GIFs (featuring kitties, of course). Of late time has become a more precious commodity, due to the slowly dwindling amount of daylight to burn, the toll of the daily grind, and what I’ll loosely refer to as ‘The Saturn Return’. Mark Twain said it best when he wrote, “Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” I’d hate to think of this site as work, and, for now at least, will limit Free Pattern Fridays to a vague schedule of every other week-ish, or whenever I find a genuinely exellent pattern to write about and share.
So much for the ‘bad news’; on to the good: this week’s patternsssssss(plural) include a most delightful removable Peter Pan collar, a dainty belt, wee rosebud jewelry, and a change purse. The change purse (or ‘compact cover’, to hide the shameful fact you powder your nose) I could live without, but who knows, perhaps someone on your holiday gift list has been dying for some way to keep their loose change just like the folks on ‘Mad Men’.
(Here’s what’s on the table this week.)
Tags: 40s, 50s, belt, collar, earrings, fifties, forties, jewelry, necklace, peter pan, purse
With bright sunlight still shining, though not quite as long, and weather still warm but carrying a cool breeze, Free Pattern Friday will slowly drift back to knitting as the weather changes seasons. In the meantime, this week’s pattern continues the 50 State flower quilt and features Utah, a state known mostly for a small splinter group of a larger religious movement. If you’re desperate for some hint of Mormonism, you can read this pleasant conversation between two friends about one’s life in a Mormon family. Or actually, read this breakdown of Twilight via Mormon symbolism, wherein Stephenie Myers didn’t realize how much she imbued the book with Temple learnings (or creepy gender politics).
Instead, here are a handful of gorgeous images from a genuinely beautiful state. Utah has numerous national parks, including Arches National Park which contains the famous natural bridge featured on the Utah license plate. As a bonus, hiking trails run the gamut from several hours to 30 minutes, and all will make you feel as if you stepped into a Wile E. Coyote cartoon.
Tags: 50 states, embroidery, flower, mormons, Utah
I did some basic research on Oklahoma hoping to find some edifying tidbit to share on the Sooner State, instead of lazily going for the obvious reference. That didn’t pan out so…
We know we belong to the land! And the land we belong to is grand!
You may notice the ugly new watermark covering the image – please feel free to thank Ebay user bythelightofthemoon, aka Etsy’s toknittowoo, as their repeated theft of free patterns led me to this decision. Also note that it says right there in plain Latin that this stuff is FREEEEEEEEEEE for personal use. Do note if you’ve not already the clarifying paragraph on the RIGHT under HEADS-UP, stating the specifics of this personal usage.
Tags: 50 states, embroidery, Oklahoma, stop stealing stuff
