Vogue evening and graduation dresses, 1940

The latest series of The Great British Sewing Bee started this week, and the made-to-measure challenge was a dress with cut-outs. Sadly, no-one chose to make Vogue 8884!

Proving that there is nothing new under the sun

This is the first pattern in the 'evening and graduation' section of my 1940 Vogue counter catalogue.

The front page of the section

The patterns available in larger sizes

Although this is mainly dresses, there are a few patterns for outer layers as well, such as Special Design 4264.

I must admit that this looks like a very upmarket dressing gown to me!

Most of the dresses have the straight skirts which I associate with 1930s styles, and ruching features heavily.

8837 (dress) and 8839 (jacket)

However as with the Couturier patterns, some have much fuller skirts.

8825 has a circular skirt

Several come with 'extras' such as a shawl or in one case, a guimpe.

8757 (top) and 8712 (bottom)

Some patterns, such as 8371, look to me oddly casual for an evening dress. In fact, all of the designs on this page can be made short or long.

8371 is here styled to look like a blouse and skirt

This option seems to be omitted for some patterns, however. Special Design 4206, for example, is only shown full length.

Left to right - 4206 and 4213

But it also appears in the 'daytime dresses' section, where it is shown full length as well.

4206 short version, and 4210

Although the front page for the section only states 'evening and graduation', the side tab expands this to 'evening, bridal, graduation'. Unlike nowadays, none of the dresses are shown as bridal only. For example, S-4250 is shown as an evening dress.

Showing a hint of back, and the dark colour obscures the cut of the front

And then on the facing page, with the addition of a train and more buttons up the back, as a wedding dress.

The bridal version

S-4205 gets even more extensive treatment, running to three pages. First of all, it's shown as an evening dress - albeit with a bridal line drawing.

As an evening gown

Several pages later, it too gets the full bridal treatment. Complete with suggestions for maid of honour, bridesmaid, and flower girl dresses.

With short puffy sleeves and long gloves

With long slim sleeves and a train

Judging from the pink outfit in the first picture, dressing your bridesmaid like a 1930s crinoline lady was a thing in 1940!

Bridesmaid inspiration from the Good Needlework Gift Book

As with the Couturier patterns, I suspect that rationing was soon to make wedding dresses with long trains a thing of the past for most people. But I'll finish as I started, with a dress with what look like cut outs on the shoulders - even if the back view shows that they are not.

S-4164, actually a V back and a tie neck

Style 2911 completed

Something made in under two weeks, that doesn't happen often now. It's amazing the effect that an incentive can have - on Thursday I went to the preview of Photie Man: 50 Years of Tom Wood, and had decided that an exhibition which included photos from the 1970s and 1980s really needed a 1979 dress. I even managed to finish it the day before the event!

From cut out to completed in a week - no wonder I look pleased!

The method of making the ruched sleeves - sewing front and back together, gathering up some of the stitching, and then sewing the gathers onto a length of seam binding or tape - seemed a bit bulky to me, although it may just have been down to the thickness of the fabric.

The inside of the sleeve, showing the tape

The outside

The back pieces were joined, leaving a split at the bottom, and then the side seams, complete with pockets were sewn. The next job was to sew in the sleeves.

Sleeves pinned in

The front extensions were joined at the centre back, and then sewn across the top of the sleeves and the back to form the collar.

The double notches show where the collar is attached

Finally, the fronts were joined, and a facing added. I chose to apply interfacing to the facing to add structure, even though the pattern didn't call for it. None of the construction was difficult, but it was quite different from most dresses I've made. Like some Vintage Vogue reissues, there seemed to be a lot of sewing without much happening, and then suddenly there was an almost-complete dress.

I absolutely love the end result. It's very early 1980s (the pattern is actually late 1979, but was still on sale in at least October 1980) but then, that is one of my sartorial happy places*. It's got pockets, and it's comfortable to sit in.

Pocketses!

#sewnshownseated

Obviously, the buttons are considerably bigger than the ball buttons recommended, but I think that they work. They are certainly ideal, colour-wise. I might make a couple of tiny tweaks if I make it again, but it's definitely a candidate for a second version. And it's a stash-reduction project to boot.

Another 2.7m out

* - It may be an eighties dress, but that doesn't mean it needs eighties styling. Much as I enjoyed the exhibition, I did look at the hair and make-up in the 1980s photographs with a certain amount of horrified recognition, and was more glad than ever that almost all pictures of me from that era were lost in a house move! I stuck firmly to my everyday look for these shots.

This and that

It's been busy week, with not much free time, so I don't have much to show for it sewing-wise. I have started a couple of projects, though.

First up, a new dress. I'm using another of my 1979-with-a-whiff-of-the-1940s Style patterns.

Style 2911 - I'm making view 1

Like so many patterns of that era, it has no waist seam.

The main pattern pieces, and the all-important pocket

The ruched sleeves have an interesting construction. Modern patterns, such as my well-used New Look 6093, achieve the effect with a strip of elastic sewn onto the sleeve - which pulls the sleeve hem up a little. This one is made from two separate, curved pieces, sewn together and then gathered up the seam.

Sleeve pieces

The fabric is a mystery item unearthed from my stash a few weeks ago. Try as I might to remember, I have no recollection of buying it. It's a strange combination of very fine, black, warp threads, and a thicker dark purple weft, with occasional weft threads of the same fine black.

Showing the fabric construction

I suspect that it will fray - a lot. The difference between right and wrong sides is hard to spot (and even harder to photograph), but great enough to make any mistakes obvious, so I will have to clearly mark the wrong sides with chalk.

The right side is more textured

Judging from the pre-wash, the finished dress will have to be laundered separately.

That's a lot of dye run!

The pattern calls for two ball buttons, but when I spotted these at the Festival of Vintage, I thought that they would be perfect with the fabric.

Purple and black - perfect

Meanwhile, my other project. The other week, I went over to Liverpool, to see all the build-up for Eurovision before the city got completely manic. I loved the Soloveiko Songbird Trail - 12 nightingales (the national bird of Ukraine) decorated with designs from 12 different regions of the country.

Songbirds and Liver Birds

Somehow, while I was out and about being cultural, I also managed to acquire yarn for a second Wondrella cardigan! It's another DK, and a mix of wool and lyocell, in a pale green. Judging from the swatch, the end result should be a more lightweight and summery cardigan. I had better get on with it for the summer, then.

All swatched up and ready to go

York again

Last weekend I went back to York, for the Festival of Vintage. Although most of my wardrobe is now vintage styles, I wear very little true vintage. It's rare to find items which fit my short-waisted self, and I simply can't bring myself to cut up something which has survived for over 60 years, just so that it will fit me. As a result, most of my purchases at vintage events are jewellery and accessories, and the main reason for going is to catch up with friends and browse.

Of course, there's always the hope that I'll find some patterns or, even better, fabric. The dress length I found last year which became my Bertie Bassett dress was a joy to work with, but such acquisitions are rare - usually. This time, however, the home dressmaking gods decided to smile on me, and I came home with all sorts of goodies.

First of all, buttons and buckles. These are some of my favourite things to buy vintage. They are not size-dependent, mostly inexpensive, and can really add a vintage look to a project. The blue buttons on the playing card and the black ones top right were bought from an antique centre in York, while all the rest were bought at the Festival. I have specific plans for all of them apart from the blue 'Deco' set centre left.

Mostly bought with projects in mind

I also have plans for these two fabulous clasps, which are from the wonderful Fantouche Vintage.

With ruler for scale

Next up, fabric. I am trying really hard not to buy any new fabric - unless it's needed to complete a project mainly being made from stash, for example lining or a contrast collar. I have allowed myself an exception for vintage fabric, and bought several lengths. The first of which is this brown cotton, with a print which somehow manages to look upside-down from both ends!

Which way up?

The drape and hand of the next piece, combined with the diagonal twill weave, make me think that it is most likely Viyella. My pink Viyella dress is a cold weather favourite, it's toasty without being bulky, so the prospect of another dress in the same cloth made me snap this up.

I'm always on the lookout for Viyella

Far less toasty is this 1940s rayon. It will probably be a blouse, as I doubt if there's enough to make a dress, but my habit of working with remnants has honed my skills at eking out fabric - so we'll see.

I couldn't pass this up

There's more of this dark red spotty fabric with an interesting, ridged weft. It doesn't have a lot of drape, which will influence my pattern choices.

I'm thinking crisp 1940s here

The final fabric is this jaunty cotton. It had been sewn up into a bag shape, so may have once been a feed sack. It does seem rather long for that, though - it would have been a very heavy sack.

Feedsack? It certainly feels old

From fabrics on to patterns, and I was delighted to add to my collection of early Style patterns. I bought these two from different traders, and it was only later that I realised that Style had thriftily used the same bodice for two different patterns: camiknickers (4769) and a slip (4770).

Reuse on adjacent patterns

The envelope of this pattern is so damaged that I don't know what size it is. It does still have its original transfer, though, as well as separate instructions for the embroidery.

Style 4860

I can safely say that I never look remotely this glamorous at bedtime!

#goals

I quite fancy making a duffel coat. I don’t think that it would work over this dress with its wild collar, though.

Quite a mixture

Of course, following on from the triumph of my Wondrella cardigan, I'm now taking an interest in knitting patterns as well. It will be a while before I'm up to colour work, but hope springs eternal and all that, and I bought these two at the Festival.

Those hairstyles!

I had some time in York on the Monday, and struck gold in a charity shop - a big basket of old knitting patterns.

My first knitting pattern haul!

Most old patterns are in too small a size for me, so I was interested that both the Bestway and Penelope lacy jumper patterns suggested that they could be made larger by knitting them on the next needle size. The Bestway cardigan pattern, meanwhile, has three sets of instructions for making the same size cardigan in three different thicknesses of wool. Maths nerd that I am, I’m looking forward to comparing them and working out how they differ.

Finally, it is almost impossible for me to go away anywhere and not come back with a secondhand book. Initially I thought that I would be leaving York empty handed, but then I found this.

Still trying to get the sticky label off

The 'Battle of Versailles' was a fashion show featuring five French and five American designers, held in 1973, to raise money for the restoration of the then crumbling Palace of Versailles. I had heard of it, but knew nothing of the details. Flicking through the book, I discovered that one of the American models involved was Karen Bjornson, who featured very heavily on Vogue patterns in the 1970s and 1980s.

Add to all this a great time at the Festival, catching up with old friends and making new ones, and it was a very successful weekend.