Sunday, 16 November 2014

Grafton fashion fabrics


A couple of weeks ago at knitting club my lovely friend rummaged in her knitting bag and produced this leaflet for me. It was such a great find on her part and kind of her to give it to me. It is a concertina folded leaflet showing a range of Grafton fashion fabrics, made up in the styles of the day.

Grafton Somakan - a 'soft, gleaming acetate rayon that
looks and feels like fine silk crepe'.
I love this dress, that back detail is so interesting and the fabric is pretty. I wish it was in colour!

Grafton Range 3 - 'gay separates for leisure wear,
 with the emphasis on leisure! Cotton skirt print.'
Fabulous daisy and stripe print skirt.

Grafton Range 16 - 'casual sophistication is the theme of
this distinctive stripe design in rich, glowing colours.
screen printed poplin.
Mind out for the cacti! This photos wins one of random use of props awards.

Grafton Range 19 - 'for elegant town wear, a geometric one
colour design styled in a high necked dress with three
quarter sleeves and a detachable over skirt.
I also want this one. It is so elegant.

Grafton Barcarolle - 'novelty basket weave 'Minimiron'
cotton  in many plain colours, guaranteed fast'.
I very much like the structure and shaping of this dress and the fabric sounds interesting. Minimiron sounds great to me!

Grafton Range 9 - 'luxurious Caple screen printed cotton
satin. The superb two tone design of huge poppies on a
white background is a bewitching choice for evening wear
and the fabric's soft draping quality is shown to
perfection in this specially designed dress with deeply
swathed skirt.'
Gorgeous and bewitching no less!

Grafton Range 2 - 'beguiling young dress with the cool
look of summer enchantment. Range 2 cotton in a print
of delicate shaded flower heads against a darker trellis
of leaves on white ground'.
Beguiling and enchanting?! You can't go wrong in one of these.

Grafton Range 5 - 'charming 'young miss' dress with
trimmed cross-over back and big patch pockets. Any little
girl would be enchanted with the nautical design of brightly
coloured fishes and mothers will like the hard wearing
 cotton.'
Big pockets and brightly coloured fishes?! I will take one.

F.W.Grafton & Co Ltd were based at 65 Oxford Street in Manchester and was first started as a calico printing business at different premises in 1856. They then expanded into other fabric types. I have struggled to find out much about the company but I have found examples of their furnishing fabrics here and here.


Friday, 14 November 2014

An outfit for an autumn day revisited

On Wednesday I got home to find that a parcel had arrived for me. I wasn't expecting anything so I was very excited to see what was inside this mysterious package. I was overjoyed with what I found.


The parcel was from my auntie who had read my previous post and had hada rummage around which came up with this photo of my grandma in the coat that I now have! I am so very pleased to have this. It is great to see her wearing it. It made me smile to see her feeding the ducks as she was always feeding ducks, garden birds, hedgehogs etc.



My auntie also included two scarves of my grandmas, both of which would go marvellously well with the green coat. They are both well worn and I am very pleased to have these further physical links to my grandma.

This scarf is particularly autumnal with that gorgeous array of coloured leaves and the conkers in each corner. I am pleased that it contains orange and purple as it will go well with my hat and mittens that I wore in the previous post. The colours are more vibrant in real life. It has been raining here the past couple of days and the light has not been brilliant for photos but I didn't want to wait any longer to post this. Excuse the creases. I hate ironing!



This is the second scarf which is a beautiful midnight blue with lovely golden roses scattered over it. Again it will go really well with the green coat and several other outfits in my wardrobe.

I wanted to share these to further tell the story of my grandma's coat and it has made me very happy to have these pieces of hers to take care off. Many thanks to my auntie for kindly giving them to me.

Sunday, 9 November 2014

An outfit for an autumn day


It was a beautiful autumnal day today. Sunny with a nip in the air, a bit damp after rain, glorious colours, fallen leaves to swish in and the smell of woodsmoke. I wanted to reflect the colours that I saw around me in my outfit and thought that using nature as my palette should hopefully work out pretty well. I recently completed some knitting projects, in fact, I stitched one piece up this morning so I wanted to give them their first outing too.


I started with my coat which is a gorgeous shade of green and lovely and warm as it is made of wool. It was my grandmas and I am very pleased to be able to wear it. I am hoping to be able to find a photograph of her wearing it. You can see Grandma in a rather amazing coat in my header photograph, she is on the right. I wish I had that particular coat, look at the glorious collar and buttons!


My scarf is a perfect autumn accessory as it is a leaf print in shades of red, orange, green and cream. I gave a little squeal of joy when I found it in a box of scarves in a charity shop. My fabulous poppy brooch, apt as it is Remembrance Sunday, is from the wonderful 1940's style for you.


I do love a clasp top bag, they are my favourite as they remind me of my grandma. I can picture her walking around the town with hers in the crook of her arm, bustling through the crowds. I can also picture her opening it up in the passenger seat of my granddad's Triumph Herald to dish out humbugs to those of us sat in the back. This lovely brown bag was one of hers and I treasure it. It is showing quite a bit of wear which I don't mind as it means that it was well used and loved but I daren't use it all the time as I don't want to wear it out more.




It was my second mitten that I was busy stitching up this morning. I fell for the burnt orange yarn and thought it would be perfect for some autumnal mittens. The pattern is a 1940's one, I think the cabled cuff is a really lovely bit of detail. They are very comfy and marvellously cheery which can be important at this time of year. I am putting a couple of pairs into my Etsy shop in the next day or so.



My new hat is so cosy and warm! I knitted it from a late 1950's pattern; it is a lampshade shape. I do like the ribbon trim, it is so smart. I did enlist my mum there as I wasn't happy with where I had sewn it on and couldn't face altering it so Mum kindly unpicked it and sewed it on again. I really like to see purple and green together so I felt happy pairing it up with my coat.


I am looking forward to more outings in my autumnal outfit.