Pippi

Lately I have been reading a lot about how children and women were liberated from the Victorian corset. I was inspired by the pattern, Corsage, I knit while watching Edwardian Farm on YouTube. I loved the part when Ruth Goodman takes a bicycle ride. Freedom, she cryes.
It reminded me of the Liberty Bodices, invented 1908 in Leicestershire by Mr Fred Cox. He was inspired by Lewis Tomalin who came up with the concept for Jaeger after reading the work of Dr Gustav Jaeger, a professor of zoology and physiology, who pioneered the benefits of wool in clothing. Tomalin was the one who translated the doctor's work Health Culture (London, 1907) into English
I found some photos of home made Danish "Livstykker".

The reason why children had to wear those was to keep their stockings on. They were often buttoned at the back and it had buttons sewn on the vest and the stockings. An elastic garter was connected to each button and kept the stockings from concertina.

In Danish the word "Livstykke" also means a person who is an extraordinary lively and generous person. A character like this is Pippi Långstrump, created by Astrid Lindgren
Here is a description of Pippi`s appearance.

Her hair, the color of a carrot was braided in two tight braids that stuck straight out. Her nose was the shape of a very small potato and was dotted all over with freckles. It must be admitted that the mouth under this nose was a very wide one, with strong white teeth. Her dress was rather unusual. Pippi herself had made it. She had meant it to be blue but there wasn´t quite enough blue cloth, so Pippi had sewed little red pieces on it here and there. On her long thin legs she wore a pair of long stockings, one brown and the other black, and she had on a pair of black shoes that were exactly twice as long as her feet.

And this is what happens at her first day at school:  

Pippi then lies down on top of the teacher's desk, one leg flung into the air, casually displaying her garters, mismatched stockings, and over sized shoes for all to see.

The first book was published in 1946 and I have read that the character was based of Anne of Green Gables. That book was published in 1908.
Here is the finished bodice. I will wear it as a vest under a jacket.

frostproof

 I was trained as a teacher and one of my senior lecturers, a linguistic genius, used to point out that a language lesson should imply both accuracy work and fluency work. That goes for knitting, too.

Accuracy work this week has been finishing the chemise, I started just after Christmas using my gift from Sophia. I wanted a pattern worked top down so that I could knit peacefully, in a meditative state of mind without bothering if I was running out of yarn. Here is what is left, wound up on a flint stone from my beach.

The pattern is here and in English here. It is called Corsage, and is an adaption of a historic piece of vest, or undershirt almost every Danish man and woman over 70 years, wore when they were kids. The vest was invented in 1908 and was a replacement for the corset and considered to be healthier for the children.The Danish word for this is "Livstykke", The German word is Leibchen, the English word is liberty bodice and the American ditto is emancipation waist.
My vest is now lying flat and drying. I will post a photo later.

The buttons for the vest are vintage linen buttons. I found them at a thrift shop, a fantastic place for all vintage stuff for needlework. I promised the volunteers there, to show and tell and here is their address. . If you visit Aarhus, please pay them a visit.

 

Fluency work is the Saroyan Scarf, a great pattern from Feministy. I had in my stash 4 skeins of Easy from Sandness. I bought it to work a pair of warm beanies for my boys, adult sons, but they both told me that it was a girl´s colour?? Now I hope to squeeze a 130 cm scarf out of it for their (female)cousin. I guess it will call for a good blocking.