1940's yellow plaid dress

well a full weekend and two audio books later I'm finished!

my 1940’s dress. represented in a yellow plaid made of cotton, and made from a vintage simplicity pattern # 3429 from 1941.


I have always read that vintage patterns are more true to size then our modern ones, so I took that to heart when I cut this out only to find out this one ran large. I don’t know if its from the bias which gives it a bit of stretch, or my fabric choice which is a cotton suiting. But the pattern ended up needing to be cut exactly as is and still I had to slightly deeper then the 1/2” seam allowance they called for.



after my first attempt at sewing this dress with the added few inches,(since I am not as small as this pattern says) I discovered the dress was just too big for me. the seams are such that simply sewing deeper didn’t work, so I ended up tearing the entire thing apart, and re- cutting all the pieces. I put all the lower part together before cutting the yolk so I could lay it with the fabric to match the plaids the way I wanted. I was able to use the front yolk pieces I had cut, by only cuting them down. I had cut two for the back yolk before and was able to make one of those work as well. which meant no wasted fabric. yea!

one of the big things I changed in this pattern was the button holes on the front yolk. I really wanted to do the bound button holes the pattern called for, but after realizing how badly this fabric frays I was a bit scared to try them. I didn’t want to have to re-cut and remake another part of the dress. so I did the logical thing of putting decorative buttons on the dress with snaps hidden behind to close the top.
I did a zipper on the side, which was one of two ways the pattern suggested, the other being hooks and snaps. I find zippers not only a lot easier to put in then the snaps, but a lot easier to use.



shoulder pads where another thing the pattern called for, and I opted out of. actually I put them in, and it looked real nice hanging on the hanger.
then I put the dress on and I thought I was going to suffocate. I never wear shoulder pads, and I did not realize how hot they are! with in minutes I was sweating like crazy and it was only 64 degrees. I couldn’t handle it and took them out. I know most people wore shoulder pads in the 1940’s but I also know that there had to be people like me who just couldn’t stand them and cut them out.

for the most part I am happy with my dress, though there are a few tiny things I would like to tweak on it. I may just live with the way it is. it did turn out cute.
would I make this pattern again?
not in that fabric! plaids are hard enough to match without there being no obvious right and wrong side to the fabric. but maybe in another fabric I might.