Grownup Styles in "Knitwit" Patterns (1983)

 Knitwit sewing patterns were multi-sized and designed to be altered.  Twice a year Knitwit would issue "collection" guides with instructions on how to turn older patterns into the newest looks.  Theoretically, one could cut and remodel a pattern until it fell to pieces... or buy a newly reissued pattern and start again.

These patterns are copyrighted 1983 and the photos illustrate what the resulting garments would have looked like before any adaptations.  These clothes are eighties classics which could have been worn from the late 1970s up until the early 1990s. 

We'll start with the blouses.  On the left is a pussycat bow blouse, popular with career women and female politicians (and most famously worn by Margaret Thatcher).  On the right, another working woman favourite, a front buttoning shirt blouse with open rever collar.

Here we have two pairs of slacks, with pleated fronts, fly fastenings and straight legs.  Styles like these would have been conservative enough to wear in the workplace—or with a change of tops and accessories, for any semi-casual situation.