Thursday, April 14, 2011

1940s Shirt Dress Mockup

I've been working on my 1940s shirt dress muslin designed from a Hollywood Pattern and here's what I have so far: 


I keep forgetting to clean my mirror before I take the pics. Oh well, I just wanted to post SOMETHING since I've been MIA from the sewing world for a month now.

The muslin is obviously not made of muslin. It's a green Rayon fabric that is so clingy it is currently circling around in my dryer with a buttload of dryer sheets. My main goal of making the muslin is to learn to decipher vintage pattern directions as well as see if this pattern even fits me. The package measurements as stated are only slightly off: Bust is 1.5 inches larger and Hip is one inch larger. Therefore I figured I'd just make the muslin without any alterations and see what's what. 

I ended up actually folding the facing on the bodice wrong and inadvertently shaved off about and inch from the width of it. It seems okay, though it may have made the collar opening too risque.  What do you think?

Also, I know I SHOULD make all those thousands of buttonholes as practice, but that would require me to go buy some interfacing, and I don't really feel like it right now.  Hey.... question... would you completely laugh at me if I didn't do bound buttonholes on this? The dress is for a play (where you as an audience member would be about 5-15 feet away from me at any given time)... and I don't want anyone laughing out loud at my buttonholes and saying "wait... this IS 1941, right?"  That would be embarrassing.

Also, I have no idea how much to hem off the skirt. Unhemmed, it hangs about 3 inches lower than my knee.

BTW, I'll be at a Regency Event this weekend so I'll finally have some Regency dress and Spencer photos to share! 

Here's a little preview with myself and Jennifer Rosbrugh from Historicalsewing.com whose name is actually pronounced Rosebrook.. go figure:




2 comments:

  1. It looks very nice and I don't think it is too risque. :) If it is for a stage, then do the easiest buttonholes! I'm sure no one will notice. Just below the knee should be a good length, I think. Shirt length in the forties were shorter than both the thirties and the fifties. :)

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  2. Haha! Thanks! I actually finished my mockup completely now.. but I don't have a memory card, so I can't take new photos. It looks a lot less bunchy now! :-)

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