McCall 3574 and McCall 741: A Scottish Christmas Dress and Hat

I hope you all had a lovely festive season!  I've been enjoying catching up on all my blog reading and seeing the fantastic round-up posts for the year.  I'll do my own round-up post tomorrow but wanted to sneak in a final me-made before the end of the year!  This is a double effort.  I made the dress (McCall 3574) and David made me the hat for Christmas from McCall 741 (how sweet!!)

This is truly the perfect 1940 Christmas outfit--and I'm so happy with the way it came together!  The dress is made out of the most beautiful lightweight wool fabric I got from the Cloth Shop, a local Edinburgh fabric store.  It's a wonderful weight to work with and it feels so soft.

McCall 3574 is your basic 1940 softly tailored shirtwaist dress.  It features a button down bodice attached with a lapped seam to a pleated skirt.  The pleats in the skirt also match up with three pleats in each side of the bodice front.  The back of the dress has two darts near the neckline. Other than that, the back is very plain and features a straight skirt which allows the tartan pattern to be mostly uninterrupted.

Matching the plaid pattern took a lot of forethought and planning during both the cutting and construction phases. I'm really happy with my plaid matching throughout the dress including at the bodice front placket, where the bodice and skirts match up and even at the hem!

The sleeves are my favourite kind--pleated at the sleeve cap!  David even made me the matching belt buckle and belt.  We made a soft belt with hair canvas as the main material.  The belt buckle is from a 1950s/60s buckle kit that I got from my most recent pattern swap partner.  I also had some perfect vintage buttons in my stash in the matching green.

I am over the moon about the Glengarry hat.  This Scottish style of hat was very popular in 1940!  Plus, no one here blinks an eye when they see it--they are still very commonly worn in Scotland, especially on festive occasions.  I just love it!!

The hat pattern comes in one very oddly shaped piece that you configure together.  David sewed the entire hat by hand!!  I am super impressed and it fits me perfectly.  It is attached onto hair canvas as well which gives it enough body to hold the shape but makes it soft and very comfortable to wear all day long.  I secure it with two bobby pins/kirby grips at the back.

The hat is trimmed with grosgrain ribbon and fastened into a bow in the back.  The pattern also comes with instructions on how to make other hat trimming such as a cockade.

It's a great pattern and I plan to make many more hats from it.  I'm already envisioning a new hat for each of my 1940 makes!

YAY!  A happy Scottish tartan dress.  I know I will get lots of wear out of this one.

Hope you all have a lovely New Year's Eve and I'm looking forward to sharing our sewing adventures in 2014!