Before and After "Hit Parade" - 1950s Dress with Bonny Details

 The Seamstress: Jennifer Gough
The Pattern: Vintage 1959 McCall's 4951 Misses' Dress with Slim and Full Skirt

Jennifer picked this particularly adorable dress with its wonderful neckline and collar details.

The Result: A fabulous dress with charm to spare! Jennifer chose a beautiful yellow and black tartan to sew the full-skirted version. Jennifer states: "As far as construction; the measurements were pretty spot on, but I added some length to the bodice and I recall that I had to play around with the skirt pleats quite a bit because of the plaid fabric, but since the pattern pieces there were just big rectangles it wasn't a big deal."

Jennifer has since made this pattern up again in the teal with white collar like on the pattern envelope, too, though she doesn't have photos of it on the web. Be sure to check out more photos of this first version of the dress on Jennifer's Photo Bucket album. Wonderful results, Jennifer - the dress and you look so lovely! Winning style, all the way around. :)

By Any Name...

Recently I had listed and sold the following coat (McCall's 4685 from 1958), described as a trapeze coat.

And then I acquired the February 1962 edition of Seventeen magazine, which featured very similar coats.

The cover of the magazine features this beautiful blue coat described as having a "baby-doll look", with empire waist, flared skirt, double-breasted closing, and slender bracelet length sleeves. And that cute hat is a "checked baby cap." ;D

A few page into the magazine is an advertisement for these coats described as having the "new A-line silhouette". :)

So what is the difference? The trapeze silhouette is narrow at the top and wider at the hem, almost triangular in shape. The A-line silhouette is defined as being narrower at the top, flaring gently wider toward the bottom.  The babydoll dress is defined as having an empire waist and loose, A-line skirt.

By whatever name you call it, it's adorable, inspiring fashion!