Patons and Baldwins archive part three - 1930's swimsuits

I've been saving these photos for a while, waiting for the sun to shine for long enough that I feel up to talking about swimwear. As the past few days have been scorchers and humid beyond belief, and I have been wishing that I could spend 24 hours a day floating about in very cold water, it seems to me that now is as good a time as any!

I have shown two lots of 1930's knitting patterns from the Patons and Baldwins archive here and here and explained how I came to see them. I grouped all the swimwear patterns together as it is a great way to see the variety in designs. In the 1930's swimwear became more like swimwear of modern times in that things like long sleeves and bloomers disappeared, bodies are no longer completely covered and the garments are more practical for swimming and more revealing for sun bathing.

The back is very low in many of these swimsuits, reminiscent of 1930's evening gowns. I assume the central strap helps give a bit more structure when actually swimming.

This is a nice two tone example, the way the dark colour carries on in a little diamond into the lighter colour is a nice touch.

I like the effect the stripe wool at the sides gives, it would give an illusion of a smaller waist.

I really like the little sun cape that goes with this swimsuit. It appears to attach by two buttons near the waist to make it easy to add and remove.

I like the harlequin top on this one. She must be serious about swimming as she has a bathing cap.

I was pleased to find some patterns for men's costumes, notice the large cutouts at the sides. The stripey yarn was obviously that year's trend!

This looks very similar to the first pattern, except that she is posing on a diving board.

I was also pleased to find children's swimsuits. This one looks lovely in the striped yarn.

I am assuming this is a crossover strap version of the previous costume

Looks like the side cutouts are slightly smaller on this one.

Never mind the costume, checkout the beach shoes!

Diagonal stripes were popular on 1930's knitwear.

Geometric patterns were also popular.

Do you have a favourite?

There are many, many garments on my to knit list, which, incidentally, never decreases and is regularly added to. Some of them are for me, some are possibilities for my Easy shop, some are commissions and some are just things that I want to knit out of curiosity, just to see what they would be like. Swimwear and underwear are the two main types of pattern that fit this category and I keep earmarking patterns that I will get around to trying one day.

So, luckily for me, Helen from Pretty Old Patterns has decided to run a vintage swimwear knit along. Hooray! This gives me a push to try out one of my patterns! Helen has made three patterns available if you want to try one or it is fine to use one of your own. You can read more about the knit along to help you decide if you wish to join in here.