3 Ways to a Girl's Party Dress

Three dresses, similar looks! Any popular fashion look can be achieved by any number of sewing techniques. The following three patterns (dating from the late 1940s to early 1950s) each feature a similarly-looking dress, but yet each uses a different method to achieve the look, in this case a scalloped yoke and scalloped lantern sleeves.

Hollywood 1616 (view 2, specifically) simply applies trim along the bodice and along the middle of the puff sleeves to produce a faux scalloped yoke and faux scalloped lantern sleeves effect. Cute and easy-peasy to sew!

Mail Order 3856 from The American Weekly magazine actually has a scallop-edged yoke and two-piece lantern sleeves that are joined with a scalloped seam! Seams are joined with a French, or lapped, seam, in case you were wondering! Lace trims the seams of the yoke and sleeves. Very cute! While not difficult to sew, the scalloped seams take a bit more effort.

McCall's 1654 is heirloom-quality and features a button-on guimpe (chemisette) to achieve the effect. The upper bodice and upper sleeves button to the scallop-edged bodice and scallop-edged lower sleeves. Dainty hand-embroidered roses accent the lower bodice and lower sleeves. Exquisite and takes careful sewing!

Now, which dress would you sew?

Scraps from the Past: 1950s Girl's Shirtwaist Dress in Brown Taffeta

The Pattern: McCall's 4016 from 1957 provides this cute and classic summer shirtwaist dress for a growing girl.

The Scrap: Scraps of shiny taffeta in a warm brown were tucked inside the envelope of this pattern. Can you visualize this dress in this fabric? It would be a party dress for sure!

Use a Guimpe to Create a Girl's Heirloom Gown

A guimpe? What's a guimpe? This beautiful girl's dress that I listed in my shop recently is an excellent illustration of a guimpe, also called a chemisette.  Typically of lace or embroidery or contrasting fabric, it is a fill-in at the top of a low-cut dress. 

McCall's 1654

As you can see, comparing the pattern with the following illustration (courtesy of Wikimedia), the term "guimpe" really is appropriate.

Courtesy of Wikimedia

While the McCall's pattern has the guimpe buttoned to the dress, more typically it seems to simply have been tucked into the dress. 

A guimpe can also be a short blouse or a dickey worn under a dress or jumper. And from this image, there seems to be no difference between the guimpe and a "modern" dickey or short blouse:

The advantage of the guimpe is the advantage of any detachable insert, that is, flexiblity! Like the detachable collar, you could switch out one insert for another and create a different look. 

And this is my little excursion into fashion history. :)

Pattern of the Week: Beautiful Mid-1930s Formal Gown for Girls

I list new patterns almost every day in my Etsy shop, Midvale Cottage. While I enjoy just about each and every pattern for one reason or another, there are usually a few stand-outs, really wonderful patterns with details that make them special. So I decided it would be fun call out one of these each week. 

My featured pattern of the week (week being loosely defined here as within the last 7 days :)) is this beauty, a formal gown for girls from 1936.

McCall 8949

Designed for organdy, silk, and taffeta, this is truly a demure and elegant formal gown for a grown-up girl. The eye-catching aspect? The curved shaped yokes that extend over shoulders to form cap sleeves, with front button closing extension. You can opt to trim with ruffles at neckline and yoke edges or add a peter pan collar. You can choose to leave the gown with cap sleeves or add modified raglan short puff sleeves. The bias flared skirt with straight princess seams in 2 lengths is lovely and is set off with a wide sash tie belt. Altogether it is a very special gown indeed.