1940s sewing pattern – Sew through time

I have wanted to make a quick and easy basic summer dress for awhile and when I saw this Hollywood pattern for sale last fall I just had to buy it. I had no particular fabric in mind nor really an idea of what I wanted other than the fact that I wanted to make this pattern.

Fast forward to the first warm summer days in May and I still haven’t figured out what I want to make so I go rummaging around my fabrics and find this extemely thin airy vintage cotton that I bought some time ago with no clear vision in mind. Well then looking through my ribbons I notice I have a matching yellow velvet ribbon for the ties. So I toss the fabric in the wash so I can start working on my new summer dress thinking I’ll be done the next day…

The envelope promises you it’s a sew simple design. Well yes very simple, just an a line dress with extra fabric in the front piece that then gets gathered by the ribbon. But what they didn’t tell you is that it takes surprisingly long to actually do because of all the fiddling with tape placement to get the casings for the ribbon. Well since I had alot of historical sewing this summer and alot of me just being too tired to bother with anything it took basically most of the summer to finish! 😀 I like the finished dress and will probably wear it quite a bit but I don’t really think I’ll be making this pattern again anytime soon. I much prefer more challenging or quicker projects not something easy but that still takes quite a bit of time projects.

This pattern had for once really good instructions for shoulder pads though, a huge plus since most patterns will just tell you to make shopulder pads and attach them without telling you what kind or how or how much stuffing. From the pattern picture I was not expecting huge shoulder pads but as it turns out this one has the biggest I’ve ever made.

I was kind of rushed for these pictures and only afterwards realized this one would have come across better on a background with stronger contrasts than a sunny lake since it is so light in it’s candy colors. But with this one I’m going with the costuming mantra of better done than perfect. lol

Also apparently I need to wear a full slip with this one as this part of the 40s has such a short hem all my half slips are a tad too long

The hat is vintage 30s and shoes are modern rieker (thirfting find) in a very convincing 40s look, I’ve found a few styles from them that look very vintage and they are always super comfy to wear.

Till next time! xxx

I’ll get back to writing about my historically accurate Belle look in a later post but I wanted to write about my latest outfit I just finished. I actually started this in the winter before the Belle costume took over all my time so now I just had the finishing up to do.

The skirt is from an 1939 suit pattern that I made once last summer. Though I like the first suit I wasn’t completely happy with how the back side hung on me. My hips are much wider than suggested in the pattern so the flounce that is created by drape didn’t really have enough fabric to gather into a big enough flounce. I changed the anle of the center back seam to give me more room in the back for the fabric to drape right. This time I’m very happy with the result and will most definitely be making more skirts with this pattern, I think the next one will be the full suit again.

Here you cna see how much better the back drapes with the extra fabric

The skirt is made out of a very light 100% wool felt I found a few years ago. Such an awsome material, I wish I had bought more. It doesn’t even need hemming, the raw cut edge looks perfect.

The shirt is from a pattern from 1940. This one I don’t own the original pattern but bought a digitalized copy from evadress https://evadress-patterns.myshopify.com/collections/1940s/products/1940-ladies-hooded-blouse-wide-leg-trousers-and-overalls-t40-3322 . I’ve made the pants from this pattern before and have wanted to make the shirt but for some reason I don’t seem to ever find blouse fabrics that I’d like so it was left to marinate for a while. After christmas when I was sorting out fabrics looking for something else I realized I had this lovely light striped wool suiting piece that wasn’t quite big enough for slacks. Well since I’m too cold to wear blouses most of the time, the reason why I usually wear wool knits instead, I figured that it would make a lovely blouse. The hood in the pattern was way too small for my head (kind of like most vintage hats, curse my big noggin lol) so I scaled it up to not only fit but to drape a bit since I like my hoods slightly oversized. It also gives me the extra room to turn the edge so that you can see a fabulous hood lining fabric, a small scrap of vintage 30s/40s very light weight wool crepe, the kind you can’t find modern made.

Just a quick selfie for the hood sorry, hubby didn’t get the importance of having the tip pointing up and showing in the pictures lol

Now for the picture galore! I’m really happy with how this outfit turned out and am completely in love with the hood. I feel like an elf or fairy with it.