40's beauty: Carole Landis

"Having recently returned from an entertainment tour in North Africa, pretty Fox star, Carole Landis is now anxious to visit troops in Australia. Despite the many hardships and dangers encountered on the tour, Carol says she likes to think that she is part of the American Army, and at present is at her Santa Monica home waiting the call to take her off again for foreign service. During her tour in England, Carole met and married Captain Thomas Wallace, of the U.S. Army Air Corps." (1943)

Yet another tragic Hollywood story. Carole Landis died too young, in tragic circumstances. After a being involved in a (more or less public) love affair with the married actor Rex Harrison she committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills at the age of 29.



1940 article:

1942:

"Carole Landis, 25-year old blonde beauty from Fox Studios, devotes most of her time to entertainment tours and bond-selling tours in America and the services, and confesses that she gets a tremendous thrill from these. Her latest film is 'Four Jills in a Jeep' with Mitzi Mayfair, Martha Raye, and Kay Francis. The story relates the adventures of the four girls on a recent tour of North Africa. On Sundays Carol assists her mother in distributing coffee and doughnuts to the soldiers in beach patrol." (1944)

40's hollywood starlet: linda darnell

"Although she is only 20, lovely Linda Darnell is one of the most popular glamour girls at Fox Studios. A few months ago Linda eloped with Fox cameraman Sergeant Pewell Marley, and since her marriage has been one of the most tireless war workers in the film colony. This  young star is a qualified nurses' side, hostess at the Hollywood Canteen, and with her friend, Ann Miller runs a special day-nurseryfor the children of mothers engaged in war work. Latest film is "Buffalo Bill" with Joel McCree." (october 1943)

Linda Darnell was another Hollywood beauty. She was very young when she arrived in Hollywood from Texas. She made her debut at the age of 16 in her first movie, was married and divorced 3 times. Hollywood could make you or break you, and although the newspapers picture her as a healthy, non-dinking, non-smoking actress, she turned to alcohol during most of her acting career. Her life ended tragically at the age of 41, she died in a fire.

A scene from the movie 'Fallen Angel' from 1945 - listen to that voice!



All images: AWW through Trove

"Linda Darnell, who just turned 21, has been playing sophisticated adult roles since she was 15. At 19, Linda married cameraman Pewerell Marley, who is over twenty years her senior. Tis glamorous young star doesn't drink or smoke, and dislikes night-clubs. You will see her soon in Fox's film biography of famous band-leader Benny Goodman, 'Sweet and Low down'." (january 1945)

1940 Valerie jumper - the (not so easy) tabs

Wel, I didn't expected the tabs being the hardest part of this project!
I've finished and ripped out the first one twice and had it right for the third try! Two mistakes I made: counting too much and calculating too little. I thought that the amount of stitches to cast on (96 sts) were way too many, so at first try I casted on way too few stitches. The second try I still didn't believe the original stitchcount could be right, but did it anyway. Sigh...thought so.
Below the third version with 74 stitches which worked perfect for me!
After assembling (left) and after steaming from the wrong side (right):
   

The finished tabs, after blocking - looking great!




One more to show you that (before blocking) my Valerie is slightly less wide than my Top Honors jumper:

40's starlet: the beautiful lauren bacall

Who do you think is the most beautiful 40's Hollywood starlet? My favorite is Lauren Bacall. She has a beautiful face and the most fabulous eyebrows ever!

"Lauren Bacall, glamorous 20-year old newcomer, made a sensational screen debut with Humphrey bogart in 'To have, and have not'. Bogart wants to marry her as soon as his divorce from Mago Methot is final. In 1943 Mrs. Howard Hawkins, wife of producer-director, saw Laren's photo in a magazine, and persuaded her husband to give her a screen test. Under contract to Warners', Lauren has just finished her second film, 'The big sleep', and is scheduled for the lead in 'The Fountainhead'." (march 1945)

A scene from her first movie with Humphrey Bogart. The story was based on a novel of Ernest Hemingway. The 20 years old Bacall and 45 years old Bogart met and fell in love on the set. She was is fourth wife, but also the last one. Their dream-marriage ended 13 years later, in 1957 when he died of cancer at the age of 57.

did you know that...
... the famous, mysterious 'look' of Bacall we see in many pictures (when she tilted her head and looked upwards, like below) was caused by her nervousness? Lauren Bacall was so nervous on set, that she had trembling head. "I found that by holding my head at a certain angle, and looking up I could hold it still, so I could either look to the side or look up, but I held my chin down. And that's how that became the look" she said.

"Lauren Bacall, most publicised feminine star of 1945, and wife of Humphrey Bogart, started her career as a model for Harper's Bazaar. Known to all her friends by her real name of Betty, she confesses she is not the fussy type in cloths, and prefers plainly cut frocks and slacksuits. She never wears a hat, and all her jewellery is gold. Since her marriage she has become adept at sailing her husband's yachts and skiffs. Her newest film is Warners' 'Confidential agent' with Charles Bogert." (february 1946)

A documentary about her life and career she built on her own, after her Hollywood years and the death of Bogart:

Source newspaper images: AWW through Trove

1940 Valerie jumper - Introduction

Here it is, a new jumper post!
After knitting my first three 40's jumpers I must say I really enjoy the knitting process and love the fit. Can't wait to make more!


The first pattern above is from an online, 40's edition of the Australian Women's Weekly magazine, the second one was a free pattern, shared by a kind person on the internet and and the third one is from the website of the Victoria&Albert museum. After knitting those you might conclude that I love free patterns, bright colors and my current fav. yarn to use is the drops baby merino, knit with metric size 3 needles.
As you know I'm a bit torn between the 30's and the 40's for various reasons. For the next jumper pattern I went back to the AWW. Let me introduce you Valerie:

color: 33 'electric blue'

"Start knitting this attractive Valerie jumper now: a jumper that combines with your tailored tweeds to serve you smartly all winter through. Note the uncluttered neckline with it's quaint new trim. The pattern is a semi-open diamond stitch with ribbed neck tabs."

'Valerie' appeared in an early 1940 issue of the AWW, but it certainly could be a late 30's pattern. I think the unusual ribbed neck tabs (which I love!) are a rather 30's looking feature. 40's jumpers often have plain, rounded neck finished with ribbing and various versions of scarfs, ribbons, bows are one of the most common 30's feature i.m.o. Just think of Miss Lemon's style!
There are no puffy sleeves yet, and the sweater features a pretty overall diamond pattern too. The original color is blue, looking at the BW picture it could be a lighter shade, but I choose a vibrant 'electric blue' from drops baby merino which I've bought on sale. How about a pretty sweater for about 20 euro's?!!

the pattern chart: 

The pattern is rather simple but very decorative. You only need to use knit and purl stitches. You need to pay some attention, but after the first few repeats it is easy to memorize. You can spot mistakes right away and correcting them is easy as well.


the pattern diagram:
The AWW patterns don't include pattern diagrams though they can be helpful to understand the construction of a knitted garment. As you can see the sleeve-cap is quite different from the other two jumpers I made, because Valerie has a normal sleeve-cap with flat shoulders, without puff:


planned modifications:
- knit round (that way it is even easier to follow the pattern and there are more knit stitches which is faster for me)
- make the jumper with 3/4 sleeves
- use my 'standard stitchcount' for the bodice, since I need to enlarge the pattern a bit
- add more stitches towards the bustline if needed - the original pattern doesn't include increases

Next time I show you how pretty the diamond pattern looks!

vintage baby bootie pattern from 1942

Let's start the week with a quick project!
As you all know I like to knit little baby booties. Not only are these quick projects (you can knit up a pair in a few evenings) they make wonderful gifts as well. It is impressing how many different patterns exist to make baby booties! The most special patterns are from the 30's and the 60's. Vintage patterns tend to have rather bad quality pictures or no pictures at all so sometimes you can only guess how the finished item is supposed to look like. This makes knitting fun!
Knitted baby booties were very popular in the past, but I'm convinced there can be fashionable today as well, especially for newborn and young babies up to about 7-8 months. After those months babies tend to pull them off and they are certainly not safe anymore when they start to set their first steps. I'm planning to test and share more patterns, that's why I call this 'the big baby bootie project'. Another pattern with different construction here.


Today I'd like to share a 1940's baby bootie pattern from the AWW. These booties are special because of an interesting toe-construction. The foot is knitted flat, in an unusual way: in the length. The toe part is constructed by sewing together three triangle shaped parts. The top part features a two-colored ribbing. I used pink for my sample, as instructed by the pattern, but I can imagine choosing a darker grey yarn instead of white to make the contrasting color pop.

construction:
The bootie before sewing:


The ribbing, right side and wrong side:
   



Sewing up the toe:
   

   

   

material and sizing:

• The yarn specified in the instructions is a 2-ply fingering weight yarn, with no.10 needles (metric 3,25) and 8 sts per inch. 
• I used for my sample a fingering weight yarn with metric size 3 needles. My gauge was about 7 sts per in. My finished size from heel to toe is about 3 in or 7 cm. According to baby boot charts this should fit a 3 months old baby.

notes:

There is no good original picture of the finished booties to compare, so mine is the result of following the instructions exactly as they are.

I wasn't totally sure of the top part. It crossed my mind that I possibly knitted the scalloped edge inside out. Still, when you follow the instructions, you should finish the 2-colored ribbed part with the 1st pattern row, which means that you start with the next (1st row) on the wrong side. Both sides look good and by looking at the picture I just couldn't decide which one was the right side. Logically, I did it right, because the foot is knit in garter stitch and the top edge features garter stitch as well.

   

the pattern:

Similar patterns

source image

I came across this 1943 Stitchcraft cover today. The pattern used here is very similar to the Top Honors jumper pattern. There are probably more stitches in between the slip-stitch sections, but otherwise it is the same.
Knit in the Italian (or Hungarian) tricolor it would look very cheerful for spring!

1945 Top Honors jumper - proper pics at last!

I've realized that somehow I missed out on making proper pics of my finished Top Honors jumper (which is one of my favorites to wear right now!) So here they are! You find the project posts here.




Here is one more picture of the finished closure of the back neckline: