Sizing up vintage knitting patterns - My own experience
- Emily
- Apr 30
- 4 min read
I love vintage knitting patterns, especially ones from the 1930s, 40s and 50s, however with a 43 inch chest, I struggled to find patterns from this time period that would fit.
Majority of knitting patterns I find are for 34-36 inch bust, with a few going up to 38. However vintage patterns that are 40 inch and above do exist, but tend to be labelled for 'matrons' and have pleasant older grandmotherly types as models. I found these designs either to be too plain for me or dowdy/frumpy.
Desperate to knit and wear the lovely patterns I had in my collection, I started to look into how to size them up.
The obvious first port of call was good old Google where I came across subversivefemme.com and vintageknittingparty.com which both give tips on how to resize vintage knitting patterns.
After some more research I found two ways of sizing up patterns:
1) Going up a needle size, so using one larger than stated in the pattern
2) Increasing number of stitches
Going up a needle size
This way of sizing up is used in some original vintage patterns and has the advantage of not needing any math equations to make the pattern bigger. However this technique does have it's limitations. If you only need to go up 2 inches in chest size, for example from 36 to 38, then this way works well, however if you need to size up further than that, then you'll may encounter some issues, especially if the ply of yarn required by the pattern is quite fine.
A fine ply used on larger size needle creates an open, lacy knitted fabric which is fine if that is your preference, but if you want your knitted garment to be as close to looking like the original as possible with a closer knit, then you might want to consider the second technique.
Increasing number of stitches
This way does involve more calculations but when done right, creates a garment that fits your measurements and is more likely to become a well loved staple in your wardrobe.
This is the technique that I have used when sizing up vintage patterns.
Sizing up by increasing stitches
If you're sizing up a pattern for the first time, I would suggest going for a simple design to start off with.
My first garment I sized up was 'Lady's quick to knit jumper in Openwork Pattern' which is basically two rectangle shapes with no shaping required that I knitted on 4mm and 6mm needles with Aran weight cotton yarn.
Pattern can be purchased from My Vintage Wish on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/207885284/1950s-rockabilly-style-sweater-pd
First of all take your measurements. Using a measuring tape, measure around the fullest part of your bust/chest .
Divide your bust measurement by the finished size of the garment as stated in the pattern. This will give you a factor for example 40 inches divided by 32 = 1.25
Multiply the original stitch count by this factor to help you know how many stitches to cast on
1.25 x 100 stitches = 125 stitches
The original pattern states that the finished garment measures 32 inches around the bust (but stretches to fit up to 35 inches because of the lacy pattern) with the tension of 4 stitches and 5.5 rows to every 1 inch square on 6mm needles (no.4 in old UK sizing)
I divided my 43 inch chest measurement by the finished garment measurement of 32 inches
43 divided by 32 = 1.34 (the factor)
The original stitch count is 60, multiplied by 1.34 = 80.4, so I cast on 80 stitches.
Always remember to check the tension and also increase the length of the garment as well as the width.
To make sure the garment wasn't too short on me and I didn't feel like I needed to constantly tug it down over my waist, I increased the length by 3/8 of an inch for every 2 inch bust increase (for example, 34, 36, 38 etc), so the difference between 32 inch bust and a 42 bust is 5.
3/8 of an inch is 0.375 as a fraction, so I used this number to multiply it by 5.
0.375 x 5 = 1.87 inches
I rounded the total up to 2 inches, and increased the garment length from 18 inches in the original pattern to 20 inches. I knitted these extra two inches before the armhole shaping, which leads nicely to...
Increase armhole depth
Again with a bigger bust, it's not only the width but the length that needs increasing.
While researching, I came across this great site by Craft Yarn Council.
They have tips on how to take your measurements for knitwear, and goes into more detail about fit, including negative and positive ease.
They also have a handy size chart with average measurements in inches and cm. Chest sizes included in this chart start from 28 inch all the way to 62 inch.
This chart has been vital in helping me size up my knitting.
As my bust measured 43 inches, I fell in-between Large (40-42) and X-Large (44-46) on their chart.
The armhole depth for Large was 7.5-8 inches and for X- Large was 8-8.5 inches, so I knitted the armhole depth to 8 inches, before shaping/casting off for the shoulders.
And this is the finished top!
For a first attempt at sizing up a vintage knitting pattern that was smaller than my body measurements, I was so proud with how it turned out.
It gave me the confidence to apply what I had learnt to more complex patterns, which I will share in future posts.
I hope what I've shared 1) makes sense and 2) helps you to size up patterns to fit you.
I'll list the website links that I have mentioned below and if you would like to keep up to date with any more of my projects, then please either subscribe to my mailing list or follow me on Youtube, Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok @ultimatepinupvintage
Thank you for reading x
How to size up vintage knitting patterns
Body measurements and sizing chart
Knitting pattern
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