I recently bought a few patterns from a charity shop and in the envelope of the pattern above and it was this lovely little note.
How wonderful! I love it when you occasionally come across things like this. This note is dated Feb 1973 which is interesting as the pattern it was in was dated 1960 but is also not one of the ones listed to me made as uniform. This got me thinking, was the mother cutting out a dress for herself and absent mindedly tucked her daughters note in here? Or was this pattern previously suitable for uniform? Or was she a messy dressmaker like me and left things lying around and it ended up in the wrong place? So I decided to do a bit of investigation.
The pattern was bought at Heelas which was the name of the department store in Oxford which is now a John Lewis. The locals still know it as Heelas and this is the place listed in the letter for the dressmaker to get her fabric and patterns from and according to an old pupil, even their knickers! Theale Green School is now called Theale Green Community School and is still teaching pupils today. The school was originally founded by the very same Ken J V Shield who appears on the letter as headmaster. It was originally called Theale Grammar School and changed names in 1973 which is the year this letter was written. The current school uniform colour is green and previously I have found out (see comments) that it was green and gold and the summer dresses were lilac and white striped. It seems strange nowadays to think that parents had to purchase the materials and make the uniform for their children.
I have also had a good look using the Vintage Pattern wiki to see what I can dig up on the patterns listed.
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| Simplicity 9800 1971 |
This is the first pattern and view 3 is on the far left. I really like this dress and the collar is a really interesting shape and the puff sleeves are really sweet. Also the length is interesting as the letter states 'skirts should not be excessively short' and the pattern is already well above the knee. The letter says it can have any style sleeve, cuff or pocket which I find really interesting as it gives quite a lot of scope for creating something unique.
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| Simplicity 8881 1970 |
View 1 is on the left and is even shorter again. The neckline and fuller skirt are very pretty, I don't think I would mind wearing any on these!
*UPDATE*
I have found (and purchased) Style 3954 and View 3 is the yellow dress with the oh so cute puffy sleeves. I wouldn't have minded wearing any of these to school!
*UPDATE 2*
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| Style 3992 |
My ebay search has come up trumps again! This is the final pattern on the list, view 2 and 3, both with short sleeves are on the list. I really love this pattern too! The little puffed sleeves and the princess seams are really sweet, plus I love that the illustrations are holding hands. Unfortunately this has only come up in a size 16 so far but I will definatley be looking out for this in my size.
So there we are, mystery solved!
