Patterns and Stories

Helping my mother to sort and declutter her home, I had to keep reminding myself that I had this same process to face in my own home. We kept turning up little items that evoked memories or simply charmed my vintage-loving heart. What might have happened if I didn't have the prospect of  a long haul flight to discipline my magpie tendencies, doesn't bear thinking about. But as I had been meaning to make a frilly tea cosy simply for the fun of it,  this booklet came home with me.

I can remember the two cushions shown at the top of the cover in my grandmother's and my aunt's houses. Mum doesn't recollect making any items in the book but by the state of it, it has been well used, possibly by her mother or her sisters.

 I have to admit though that I had almost forgotten about it since coming home. Just by chance, scouring the Internet for a pattern for something else, I happened to find a picture and instructions for the cottage tea-cosy. I recognised it immediately and the reference to Madame Weigel, Series 6.  (I suspect that most of the patterns in the book are now available from that site.) Having jogged my memory about the book, I had to dig it out along with some left over bits and pieces to try knitting up a swatch of daffodil stitch for the ruffly tea cosy. I had been curious to see how the ruffles were created. Just knitting a swatch solved that and seems to have sated any enthusiasm I might have had for the project. All that extra casting on every 14 rows is just more hassle than fun for me.

It doesn't end there. This blog is my place to store the things I find amazing, amusing, delightful or delicious and deciding not to follow up on something wouldn't really count, would it? I couldn't help but wonder who this Madame Weigel was. Each pattern, especially the koala, has a rather whimsical little introduction before the instructions for the distinctive designs. Back to the Internet for some research and what I found was a fascinating story. Knitting and crochet patterns for household items were a  minor part of Madame's enterprise. During the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, she had a thriving paper pattern company. At a time when many women would have made clothes for themselves and their children, paper patterns were hugely popular. She had emigrated as a young girl from Posen in what was then Prussia, to America where she worked for the McCall's company, learning to draft patterns. She later married and while she was on honey moon in Australia, initially intending to stay for 6 months ( ah, honeymoons just aren't what they used to be!) she began to make patterns for her own clothes as her style was obviously admired and women she met were keen to copy it. She and her husband spotted the gap in the market and set up business and home in Melbourne designing and printing paper patterns and publishing a fashion journal. There is much more in the story, fire destroying a lovely home, anonymous charitable donations, extensive travel to ensure the business reflected the latest fashions,  mystery surrounding the graves of the couple.
The company no longer exists but its publications are highly sought after by vintage fashion enthusiasts, particularly the paper patterns in unopened condition complete with instructions. Along with Florence Broadhurst she becomes one of my Australian style heroines.

Mm, maybe this booklet should have gone into the box of things that Mum and I took to donate to the local museum.