It's Not Always Me, Me, Me

Baby Eve wearing Nicole Needles!

I love having a blog, and have learnt so much since starting it and made contact with some great people, but I always have the niggling feeling that it's an ultimately narcissistic hobby. I'm always conscious of not wanting to sound all 'Look at me! Look at how clever I am!'. But then I've never been very good at receiving complements - I'm one of those 'Oh, this old thing' people who gets all embarrassed and starts tripping over their words.

With that in mind, today's project features a cardigan worn by little Eve Noyce, my husband's second cousin. I've never wanted to make clothes, etc, for a living, but I love surprising people with something now and then. Plus childrenswear is great to make - it's really small, so quick to make up. I was actually able to make this cardigan with leftovers from another project. And babies don't generally have an opinion on fashion, so they're pleased with everything they receive!

Here's the original pattern I used, from 'Knitting Illustrated',  by Margaret Murray and Jane Koster, published by Odhams Press, 1949:

I made it minus the embroidery - I just couldn't get it to look right...

This project also brings up another subject I've been interested in - Odhams Press, in particular their sewing and knitting books.

I came across my first one about 20 years ago, and since then have collected a total of 6. If you see one in a charity shop, jumble sale, etc, I thoroughly recommend you snap it up. Even if you don't sew or knit, they're packed full of brilliant images and graphics from the 30's and 40's, and give an insight into life before chain stores and fast fashion. I particularly like the wartime/ rationing editions, with tips on how to re-knit items, or even how to make men's shirts into aprons and undies:

 Here are some examples of the great graphic design from the inside covers:

And this one even supplied the Nicole Needles' logo:

 Sadly, Odhams Press no loger exists, the result of being bought up and merged into another group in the 1960's. But you can still find their books on Ebay and Amazon. For now, I'll leave you with a few more images:

1939

1939

1949