Wednesday, February 13, 2013

First 40s Dress



I have a crazy love of vintage patterns, and I desperately wanted to try something from the 40s. I stumbled across this pattern at a vintage shop in St. Louis, and dug through my stash to find the perfect fabric! The front center seam was just begging for a chevron design, but this presented quite an issue during cutting. As you can see, it turned out pretty darn good! The dress is a bit thin, so I had get to wear a slip with it.

This dress is a typical 40s silhouette with a snug neckline and broad shoulders. The top is a bit loose because there aren't any darts--just the pleats in the neckline and in the back. The pattern calls for shoulder pads, and at the risk of looking like a linebacker, I just might put some in.























In all, the dress took about 7 hours to complete (this includes the difficult cutting and redoing the neckline--twice). But hey, I'm still learning!

An added bonus--I went to the Springfield Antiques Expo this month, and found the perfect Bakelite jewelry to go with the dress! I was hoping for red, but the orange matched nicely (and was a bit less pricey).


















I would like to make this dress again with longer sleeves and I might try wool or gabardine to make it a bit dressier. I also did not do any top-stitching,but I will next time I crank out one of these beauties.

Sew on,
Christina

3 comments:

  1. I bloody love this! The shape is lovely and beautifully enhanced with the fabric placement. Excellent work - I'm very jealous!

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    1. Thank you, Rosie! I'm so glad it turned out so well :)

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  2. Everything about this dress (and whole outfit) is so timelessly pretty, elegant and perfect. Red heels were the perfect shoe choice, they really help the colours in the dress pop.

    Wishing you a fantastic 4th of July, dear Christina!
    ♥ Jessica

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