I found this pattern on Etsy for a decent price and since I loved it I bought it.
this is going to be my dress from the 1940’s. the pattern is from 1941. I opted to go with the early forties simply because I am in love with this pattern. I had bought this fabric on a whim because its so pretty and oh it has a such a nice weight and feel to it.
this pattern is so small though that I have had to resize up. I find it interesting the way pattern sizing has changed so drastically a size 12 in 1941 has a 30” bust while a pattern I have from the 1970 has a 32” bust. and a size 12 from a 2015 pattern 34” all of these patterns are simplicity. a size 12 has gone from being too small for me to being too big. sizing is so weird. especially how they add so much ease into patterns these days.
onto this pattern though. I’ve never worked on a unprinted pattern before so I was nervous about this one, but the second I read the directions I realized how easy it was too work on. the code for straight of grain , cut on fold and the matching points are so obvious. I have worked on enough patterns to know what pieces you need two of and which one’s you need one of. the darts are marked with dots and all the pieces are lettered. I do have to look at the directions on this one, but really I should be doing that anyway. I don’t know how many times I have tried wing it without directions and come to place where I was like What??? then read the directions and been like well duh! so yeah directions are a handy thing to have.
the resizing of the pattern was done with my all time favorite tissue paper that is cheap and I just tape together when the pattern piece is to big.
most of the pieces were easy enough to trace around just slightly bigger. except I am not really sure if I traced the yolk of the dress correctly . its one thing to add a bit around all the lower pieces there were several piece all about the same size, but I had to try to figure out where and how to add the additional size to the yolk which is only three pieces and the front has an overlap. one good thing though I have plenty of fabric left in case I messed that part up!
once I traced the pattern I had to cut it out. Laying out the pattern was interesting. I wanted my plaids to match as closely as possible even though with the bias being next to the straight it could be somewhat off and not be too noticeable I still wanted it to match. so each piece had to be cut out individually. with the piece that would be closest to it laid next to the first and matching up the bottom. once that was matched up I lay each piece on top of its matching piece to be cut matching the plaids all the way round. this was done on double pieces. I am hoping this will work out for me. I really want the plaids to match. it has worked for plaids in the past. so it should for this one as well.
do you see the piece laid on top so as to match the plaids?
oh! let me life a corner so you can see!
here's to hoping this dress is perfect!
