Using Paper Patterns #MondayBlogs #Fashions #Nostalgia

My mother made nearly all my clothes when I was a child and she often chose a style which could be used for similar dresses for the two of us.

I don’t have the patterns my mother used during the 1950s but this pattern she bought in 1968 was perfect for the psychedelic fabric she bought in Arab Street in Singapore to make me some fashionable culottes.

I loved the bolero top I made with this pattern to match my flares.  I used chocolate brown Thai cotton with a pattern including pink. It sounds awful but it worked.

Returning to a cold English winter in the early 1970s a maxi coat was a must-have.

In 1975 everyone wanted a flared skirt with a frill and this pattern adapted to winter weight cord or soft cotton for the summer.

Woman and Woman’s Realm magazines offered patterns to purchase which my mother loved.

In the early 90s I faced the challenge of making two bridesmaids' dressers for my children but this helpful pattern made it possible.

And we were all pleased with the result.

Family weddings in the 20th century #fashion

In every family photo collection you will find wedding photographs.  I have been looking through my family's photos and am intrigued by the different fashions.  The picture above is my parents' wedding in Scotland in 1948.  It was June but it was wet and windy. I vividly remember my grandma's fox fur falling out of the top shelf in the wardrobe and being scared of the beady glass eyes.

When Grandma married in 1912, she and her mother sailed across the Atlantic to Montreal where my Grandpa was working as an architect.  There are no photographs of them together but this one shows her in a nearby park, after a very small wedding.

Five years later my husband's grandfather used his army leave to marry in September 1917.  I am still trying to identify the regiment of Wilf's army uniform.

My father had the pleasure of being chosen as a pageboy at his older cousin's wedding at St George's Hanover Square in 1927.

Sitting on the floor with a pudding basin haircut he doesn't look very happy.

There is a gap in years in our family until my wedding.

So here I am on a November evening in 1975 with my matron of honour, Jane. My mother crocheted my dress with a pattern from a womans' magazine and Jane bought the blue material to make her dress in Libertys in Regent Street. We both wore silver shoes with high heels.

I will conclude with a group picture from my parents wedding in 1948