Designing a miniature knitting or crochet pattern can take several months. It was decided right from the start that we would design patterns that were scaled down versions of items that would originally have been knitted or crocheted. This idea was later extended to include jersey knit fabrics as well, as these are very similar to knitting and allowed us to design some items customers asked for.
Once the decision has been made to design a pattern for a certain item, the research begins. Firstly we research any fashion trends for that particular time, for example there were three major fashion trends in the 1930’s, which had very different finished looks. Once a date is settled on it makes life easier, as any fashion trends from the years following this date can be discarded.
The next stage is to closely study old photos where they are available to work out the type of construction used in the knitting, this is sometimes aided (when we are lucky) by an actual knitting pattern from the period. As fashions changed so did the way knitted garments were constructed.
Garments from the early part of the 20th Century were usually constructed in one piece, the back and front of the garment being knitted as a single piece of knitting. Then stitches were picked up along the armholes for the sleeves, which were knitted down the sleeve finishing at the cuff.
By the 1930’s knitting patterns had evolved that shaped the garment to fit the body, by increasing and decreasing the number of stitches used in the pattern. Wherever possible we try to reflect these types of construction in our miniaturisation, as this gives a more realistic finished item.
Even if an old pattern is available, it is not much use, apart from telling us how the garment was constructed. Many aspects of the original pattern would not transfer well to miniature work. For example most early patterns already used very fine wool and thin needles. (The Victorians commonly knitted in 1 or 2-ply wool on size 18 knitting needles).
A sample piece of knitting is done to establish the stitch pattern to be used in our pattern and adapt this to suit miniature work. This becomes more important in designing 1:24th scale patterns, as too big a stitch pattern would look wrong. Once the stitch pattern has been decided on, only then designing the actual construction used in the knitting pattern can commence.
It has to be remembered that there is a maximum number of stitches that can be used on the knitting needles when designing clothes in small scales. The type of yarn used can also make a vast difference, which is why some of our designs are worked in wool and others in cotton. See our Hints and Tips pages for more information on this.
This process can take several weeks, as each piece of the garment may need to be knitted up several times to gain the correct effect in miniature. Each part of the pattern is written down and then typed up in booklet format. Once the pattern is typed it is closely checked against the original before the prototype pattern is sent to our pattern tester for further checking. Once the pattern is returned with any corrections we file the pattern for a few weeks before it is knitted up again as a further test.
The next stage is to photograph the items for the front of the pattern, sometimes this is a little scene/dressed doll at other times just the flat garment, occasionally both. The photo is put onto the pattern and then this is ready for printing. Once the pattern has been printed a miniaturised version of this pattern is made (1:12th or 1:24th scale depending on the pattern) and included with the finished full size pattern (this can be seen with the pattern at the top of the page)
We are often asked to design patterns for people (information about this service can be found here) and some of our patterns have come about from these requests from customers, for example those shown below.
