1940's Dress Finished But Do I Like It?

Have you ever finished making something and try it on then realise you look awful in it?! Well that's what happened to me for the 1940's dress. I really wasn't happy with the neckline. My husband of course said it looked beautiful and thought I was panicking over nothing but you can't really trust your husband now can you?!

Here are a few pictures - sorry about the rubbishness of them I was in a rush to make it right! I did smile though :-) 

My blog writing laptop in the corner :-)

I actually liked the back.

So late that night only two days away from the ball I go about unpicking the front section of the dress. I did have a few topless moments of Hugh Jackman in some robot movie to ease the pain of undoing all my hard work ;-) 

The next morning I start to construct a new front for the dress. I used my dress form to the max and just pinned bits of fabric to it until I liked the look of it! I wanted to make it into a v-neck rather than the round neckline. I saw a few dresses which had this kind of shape so based the new design on those. I didn't have much time to take many photos, but here are a few of the work in progress.

The starting of the v neck shape. I added gathers under the bust and at the shoulder to add more interest

I added a straight piece of fabric for a makeshift shoulder pad look and gathered fabric onto that.

This is what I decided to go with so I just did the same on the other side and sewed it together!

 So after all that drama I was very happy with the results and was pleased I decided to change the neckline. Cinderella would be ready for the ball after all!! 

Have you ever done the same thing to one of your creations? What did you change? Did it work in the end? I would love to hear your stories so please feel free to comment. I will post some pictures of the actual 1940's ball very soon....

Going Vintage with a 1940s Dress

Next month my husband and I are going to a 1940's Ball and I can't wait!! There will be swing dancing, old airplanes, vintage cars and 1940's drinks and food. The only problem is I don't happen to have a 40's dress - so here is my next project!

Pattern

I normally make my own patterns from scratch but I wanted to get a genuine 1940's style that someone would have worn back then and thought the only real way to do that is to buy a vintage pattern. I found this pattern on Etsy at a store called Old Clothes and I instantly fell in love with it. I am going to make the short sleeve version with the back girdle. I love the dropped waistline on the back and the puff sleeves, hopefully it will suit me! 

Fabric


To make the dress look as authentic as possible I wanted to use red rayon crepe, which was a very popular material at that time. However, after spending almost a whole day searching in fabric stores and online with no red rayon crepe to be found, I settled on using a polyester crepe. The downside to polyester is that it retains a lot of heat but on the upside it looks almost identical to rayon so it won't change the overall style of the dress. I took a few photos of the fabric so you can see the color and texture of crepe.

Polyester Crepe

Close up of the fabric

Pattern Grading


Unfortunately, the size of the pattern is too small so I will have to do some grading to make it slightly larger. Apparently a size 16 in the 1940's was a 34" bust and 37" hip! My bust is 36" and my hips are 38", so luckily I won't have to do too much. I will be grading the pattern next week and will be posting tips on how to do it with a few photos of what grading should look like. It is a lot easier than you first think trust me!



On my next post I will take you through the process I use for pattern grading and following that I will show you how I put the dress together with various sewing techniques. Please subscribe to keep updated!! 


Happy sewing!