A Jaunty Little Hat

I usually find 1930s knitting patterns for jumpers and cardigans quite attractive - many of them could be adapted for today without much difficulty, except that they are usually in a small size and often stop at the waist.  But one thing about 1930s fashion that I don't like is that women were not properly dressed out of doors without a hat.  I never wear a hat except to keep the weather off, so I would have found that hard to cope with.  And proper hats from a milliner seem to have been very expensive (I have vague memories from books and films of indulgent husbands suggesting that their wives should buy a hat to cheer themselves up, or wives guiltily spending the housekeeping on a new hat.)  So if you had to have a hat but hadn't got the money, what did you do?  Obviously, you made one. 

This pattern leaflet for two hats in Chenille yarn is from the Lee Mills collection - one is crocheted and the other knitted.  The description of "Marian", the crocheted model, is a period piece in itself: "On the side of the head, over the right eye, over the face, or off the face, this model lends itself to any wearing angle.  The brim is most accommodating, it stays put in the "line" most suitable for the head it is to grace. A cheeky bow at the front gives just that required finishing touch for such a jaunty little hat."    

The other model, "Christine" is knitted in the same yarn: "This is perhaps the newest hat of the season.  It has height which strikes quite a new note.  A plain bar chromium pin fastened at the side is the only decoration.  The original of this model was carried out in Royal Blue."

I can't help feeling that "Christine" would be quite difficult to carry off successfully.  (It's a knitted hat with sticking up pointy bits!  It's ridiculous!)   If you were aiming at looking fashionable and ladylike,  the rest of the outfit, and your hair and make-up, would have to be immaculate.  Not one to be revived, I think.