Full Magazine Scan – Stitchcraft October 1953

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One of my charity and Antique Shop finds from my hols, hence it’s creased condition. Here is a full scan of this issue of Stitchcraft from 1953. It includes these patterns:

For 8 -10 year old’s a lumber jacket.
Men’s lumber jacket in chest sizes 37-38, 39-40 and 41-42
Ladies turtle neck dolman sleeve top 33-34 inch bust
Ladies twin set on cover in 35-36 and 37-38 inch bust
Suggestions for Christmas gifts in embroidery and other stitches (advertising the transfers which were sold via mail order)
Ladies Angora tippet
Ladies Fringed shawl
Ladies “Hug Me Tight” waistcoat 33-34 inch bust
Woofy dog toy
Ladies warm button up jumper 34-35 and 36-37 inch bust

Before we get to the patterns – I’m in a quandary over reproducing one of the pages, due to racism. The doll on page 14 is the problem. To the white female readers of Stitchcraft at the time, I don’t suppose they were looking at it thinking “oh goody, a way to teach my children racism by othering those of African heritage” and more a way to use up scraps of leftover yarn. But whether something is intended to cause offence or not is hard to guess at this distance, and is less important than whether it does cause offence. This is offensive doubly, in it’s language and the toy itself. So I’ve left the toy out. My parents, in an attempt to give me a world view in which everyone is the same and we are all humans, gave me black and white baby dolls when I was very tiny. I consider that something entirely different from giving a child a weirdly grinning “gollywog” or a caricature “piccaninny” doll such as this knitting pattern. (To digress slightly- I hated both the plastic baby dolls equally and as soon as I could talk, insisted upon toy rabbits, koalas or cats and have remained a cat loving, un-maternal, but not racist person.)

Pages 8, 9, 10, 11, 16 and 17 left out of this scan intentionally. Several embroideries and cross stitch patterns that you had to send away for are featured.