1940s Pink Polka-Dot Dress

Just last week finished a 40's dress project that has been in the back of my mind since last fall. When Mom and I were in Hancocks fabric store, I saw this lovely mauve pink and brown polka-dotted rayon fabric, deliciously sheer and floaty in the clearance fabric. I immediately envisioned it as a swingy, feminine 1940s dress. But - what to use as lining? Well, we happened upon a remnant of very lightweight silk satin - there was *just* enough fabric to use for dress lining. Not a scrap more, but it was the perfect color to match the rayon and provide the right color of lining.

I got....a little busy and distracted last winter (Jordan...:) and somewhat forgot about the project. And it wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I had a definite idea of how I wanted the dress to look:

My inspiration picture (found on Pinterest, where else?):

So, to copy the dress seen at left, I pulled out my stash of vintage patterns and began piecing together the different elements, ended up having to use 4 different 1940s patterns!

Here are the main ones:

Dress bodice was cut from this 1941 McCall's Pattern

 

Dress skirt was cut from this 1942 pattern, over skirt had added width for gathers.

Sleeves were cut from this 1942 mail-order pattern from

 'Fort Worth Morning Star-Telegram, Pattern Dept., Marian Martin Patterns'

They all went together quite well!

Thankfully all the patterns were the same size, so it was easy to mix-and-match.

I altered the bodice pattern to have a V-neck, and added a collar. The collar would *not* stay ironed correctly when I first made it (squirmy rayon and silk just don't always obey....) So I "fixed" it by adding dark brown cotton homemade bias tape all around. Stay! lol. Then after doing that, I had to add a matching dark brown cotton voile tie belt. Hey! all this was meant to happen. The brown plastic buttons are the only ones I could find that matched from my random tin of button chaos.

Unlined sleeves are hemmed and then gathered in with elastic for a little 'ruffle' effect.

Newly-aquired vintage 40s scalloped brown straw hat makes a nice addition.

Really adore the swingy-ness of the skirt - the sheer rayon fabric floats on air.

Can't wait to wear it to our next swing dance!

I do have a couple of faults to confess with this dress - the buttons are slightly off center. Don't really know how this happened - but it's not major enough that I'm going to worry about it. :)

Also, the skirt ended up just a tiny tad longer in front than in back. Grr. That is fixable, but I am *not* going to take the hem out - I would be afraid of disaster striking. I love the feel and flow of both the silk satin and the rayon sheer, but they were SO hard to work with. They both squiggled and squirmed around so much while i was sewing and didn"t hold an ironed crease it"s a wonder any of the pattern pieces turned out the right shape!

I hemmed the silk underskirt a few inches shorter than the sheer overlayer to get a more ethereal effect.

Shoes are from 40's style swing dance shoes from Aris Allen , in brown suede and white mesh.

 I really like the medium-height of the heel.

So, there you have it! My latest 40's project.

Do you have any retro projects going on right now? I'd love to see them!