Let's Talk About..... The First Outfit I Made Myself
I got thinking about this the other day, after writing about learning to sew at primary school, and I remembered that at about the age of 9 or 10, I made myself a trouser suit. It would have been about 1971, and trouser suits were all the rage.
It had a tunic sleeveless top, with a zip up the front, and a pair of flared trousers. I made them out of bright red crimpolene, a man-made fabric that doesn’t fray, and all hand sewn with backstitch. At that age the sewing machine seemed a scary prospect. I loved the tissue paper, so delicate, yet quite robust, all pinned onto the fabric, then cutting the fabric out. I remember painstakingly tacking the seams together, backstitching it all, and top stitching the zip opening with a contrasting thread. I thought they looked fab. I would have worn them whenever possible, but as a 10 year old you quickly grow out of clothes.
I then wondered if I still had the sewing pattern. So I dug out the shoe box where all my old sewing patterns are kept, and low and behold, right at the bottom was my Simplicity trouser suit pattern. I carefully took the contents out of the paper envelope; the tissue paper pattern and instruction sheet, being 54 years old, were as good as new. And then between the sheets out dropped a sliver of bright red crimpolene fabric! No one had looked inside the paper envelope since it had been put away in 1971.
The price on the front is 35p and labelled Girl Size 8, and was bought from Lewis’s, a big department store in Leicester, and stamped across the paper envelope is written “Lewis’s regret paper patterns cannot be exchanged”.
On the back of the envelope it has the measurements for Girl Size 8, and how much fabric is needed to make the tunic, pants (trousers), and skirt. The fabric lengths are in yards and inches, still using imperial measuring, but the pattern cost 35p. Decimalisation happened in 1970 from shillings to pence, but metres and centimetres were still not a thing. Apparently Girl Size 8 has breast 27 inches, waist 23 1/2 inches, and hip 28 inches. I don’t think size 8 means age 8, it’s just a measurement sizing category.
It is funny, the things we keep without thinking too much about it. I have kept all my paper patterns and put them in a shoe box. They aren’t in an ancient shoe box, so I must have relocated them to something a bit larger at some point. Not all the paper patterns in the box have lasted so well. Some have been used numerous times, and their paper envelopes have become unstuck and tattered, and the tissue papers have lots of pinholes in them, but they are still useable if needs be.
But the fact is they are still there. A time capsule. And here I am rediscovering them all these years later!