A 1940s Dress for Easter

Over a year ago I bought some silky blue floral fabric and tucked it away for a yet-to-be-determined special project. I wanted to save it for just the right pattern. Every once in a while I would flip through my huge and still growing pattern collection and look for the right one, but nothing ever hit me. Then last month when my mother was over helping me spring clean the kitchen I was schooling her in how I find patterns on eBay and we saw this one.

Perfect for my blue fabric and perfect for Easter. After cutting the pieces out I let them sit for awhile, busy with other things. Also I had looked over the first few steps of the directions and realized that deciphering exactly what I should do might be challenging and I didn't quite have the energy and brainpower to tackle it. After all, I have tried to sew while tired and uninspired before and it always has the same result: dumb mistakes. So I resolved I would not get involved with sewing this dress until my mind was completely in it.

Even then, it was slow going. I really didn't want to mess up and irreversibly mar this fabric and I didn't have much leftover to correct mistakes on the larger pieces. I think it must have taken me two weeks to get the bodice done. Looking at it now I think that's sort of pathetic, but oh well. I did it (mostly) right.

The tabs over the gathered fabric were far more complicated to make than you
would suppose at first glance, plus the bound buttonholes took a long time.

What I didn't do right at first was the side drape. In fact, I did it completely backwards so that it would have worked to put it on the right side of the skirt, but then the line from the bodice to the drape would have been ruined. I barely had enough fabric to correct this error, and I had to piece the facing on the back to make it work.

I also learned a new skill with this dress: bound buttonholes. I won't take the time to explain them, but Wearing History has a good tutorial on them. I would alternately stare at the "directions" for bound buttonholes found in the pattern directions and the online tutorial, trying to get my mind around the wording and not make any irreversible errors. Finally that part was finished, and after that (besides the drape snafu) it was smooth sailing. The buttonholes are not perfect (far from it) but they aren't really noticeable behind the pretty vintage buttons (which don't quite match, but are just dressy enough that I don't really care).

I'm very happy with the end result. I still love the fabric, I like the neckline, and that side drape fancies it up nicely for church. Now I just need to locate a navy belt to finish the look. Oh, and I need to find my navy shoes!