At the end of 2023 I decided to attempt a replication of an outfit my Nanna had knitted for my second birthday gift - a top and skirt with straps. I searched for the pattern she had used but wasn't able to find the exact pattern online, though I did find similar vintage patterns for knitted skirts with straps and knitted blouses which I was able to adapt and rescale for a 20 inch Sasha Studio doll. I commissioned some sandals to roughly match those I wore in one of the photos of me wearing the original outfit (thank you Lisa Hartley).
I bought 2 ply jumper weight Jamiesons & Smith of Shetland yarn (purchased via Woolwarehouse) to make the outfit and plotted out the flower garland design for the skirt on a spreadsheet grid, which is the tool I use for plotting out stranded knitting patterns. I don't think I got the proportions of the skirt and flower garland band quite right, and the skirt is a bit longer than the 'just above knee' look I had as a child. I knitted socks in finer yarn (1 ply), by Jamiesons of Shetland.
Trudi has had the outfit for several months now - I finished it before the Sasha Festival in Milton Keynes during June but was too busy and stressed about job issues to do anything about photographing it at the time. So at the close of 2024 it seems a fitting time to look back and reflect on this creative project before planning future craft projects for 2025 (after I finish knitting a current project for one of my daughters).
I have photographed Trudi standing on the quilt given to me by my friend JoAnn when we attended the 2022 Sasha Doll festival in the USA. Despite adjusting the colours a bit on the computer, the skirt colour looks more orange in the photo than it does in real life.
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| Photo of toddler me in the original outfit with Trudi wearing the replica knitted outfit |
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| Me wearing the knitted outfit on my second birthday |
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| Me wearing the knitted outfit outdoors in the street where I grew up in Cape Town |
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