Retro Monday is back after a year off.
For anyone unfamiliar with my Retro Monday posts, it’s basically a peek into my vintage pattern collection. (I don’t share the pattern instructions themselves because I don’t own the copyright).
This year I’ll have a theme for each month and and one of the featured patterns will be given away.
For March 2019 the theme is knitted gifts, and the pattern in next week’s Retro Monday will be the giveaway.
Earlier this year I sorted my collection of vintage knitting patterns. I started by separating out the ones I wanted to keep and then filed them according to type – menswear, womenswear, children, accessories, gifts and homewears.
There were a few that didn’t really fit any of these categories, and today’s pattern is one of those. The Sirdar Dog Coats pattern has been filed with gifts like tea cosies and toys.
I’m generally not a fan of clothes for pets, but I can see why a dog might be glad of an extra layer in winter. These little coats are a lot more practical and dignified than the fancy dress doggy costumes that are currently popular.
Dating the pattern
I’ve dated this pattern as mid 1960’s. I’ve based this on three things:
- the address for the yarn company on the back of the pattern doesn’t have a postcode. Postcodes were introduced into Australia in 1967.
- a Google image search of Sirdar Super Nylon brings up a lot of very 60’s looking knitting patterns.
- the colours of the dog jackets are very typical of yarn colours in the 1960’s. The 1950’s palette was more subdued and, in the 70’s primary colours gave way to a palette of browns, oranges and purples.
While I don’t think I’ll ever knit a dog coat, it’s interesting to see how canine fashions reflected human fashions – at least in terms of colour.
