McCall 3556: The 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' Dress

This magical dress has all my favourite things: nice colours, neat border print, 1940s ruching and flowy design.

I made this dress earlier this year (catching up on my blogging) using McCall 3556: 

I bought this fabric on a recent trip to Malaysia. The fabric stores had the BEST border print dress fabrics and I was immediately drawn to this colourway:

I decided to use some of the border print on the bodice and just love the effect of the colours!

Overall, I really love the design of the pattern. Though I think the bodice ruching would only work well with a somewhat lightweight drapy fabric--which is what I ended up using. The only think I might change in future iterations is to bring the waist up just a bit on the dress. Though I might make a belt to match.

We took these photos in the glasshouse at the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens and I love how it looks like a tropical hideaway: 

And of course, I'm wearing matching What Katie Did purple seamed stockings and grey Bait Footwear shoes. I also found a fantastic matching flower for my hair!

I can't wait to travel to tropical destinations again! It's been so weird not to travel at all this year. But the silver lining was being able to discover more of my backyard and see things locally.

What about you? Where's the first place you want to travel to when you can?

McCall 3823: The Perfect Staple Dress

I'm absolutely in love with the design of this dress. And the plain navy fabric means this will be a staple in my 1940s wardrobe.

This dress was made using McCall 3823, a pattern from the year 1940. I made an exact copy of view B on the pattern envelope in navy blue.

The dress features a lovely shaped neckline (almost a heart shape but a small one) and a button down bodice. Both the bodice and the skirt are pleated to match each other. This dress has 3/4 length sleeves --or bracelet sleeves as the pattern calls them.

I made this dress from a very lightweight wool that I picked up on holiday in Florence many moons ago. It's so lightweight that it's silky and buttery smooth and a dream to work with. 

The fabric held the pleats beautifully. I first pinned down the bodice pleats and sewed them.

The back has pleats as well and I just love having a plain yoke and then having the pleats. The skirt matches this design as the top part of the skirt is smooth and then it goes into an inset skirt piece with the pleats.

Here is the bodice top coming together:

Sewing the yoke to the pleated section using a lapped seam takes some slow sewing but the fabric helped immensely as it was easy to iron in place prior to sewing:

Yay!!! I paired the dress with some light pink details -- a small light pink belt, vintage navy gloves with little light pink flowers on them and some light pink/nude1940s style shoes from Bait Footwear.

We took these photos in Falkland,-- a small village in the Kingdom of Fife area of Scotland. Some of you may recall that when I first moved to Scotland, I lived for a short time in this picturesque village.

It was so lovely being back. This village is such a gem. It has some incredibly nature walks, a historic palace, cobblestone streets and a proper village square and lots of little nooks and crannies that are so beautiful. And it's small--only about 1,200 residents.

The amazing Darja Bilyk and a lovely friend of mine took these photos and I'm so in love with them. She captured the beauty and mystery of Falkland.

I also had my dear friend Ariana from Vanity Thrills style my hair before this shoot--I just love her 1940s styles: 

This is right on the corner where Vintage Quine is--a lovely vintage store in Falkland. 

This is Falkland Palace in the background...where Mary Queen of Scots and her parents would come for their summer holidays:

Yay! I can't wait to try different ways of styling this dress. 

I might also make another version in a lighter colour so that the details really stand out. What colour do you think I should make?

The 1943 'Purple Star Gazing Dress'

This gorgeous fabric deserved to be made into a fabulous 1940s dress....

I made this dress using McCall 5384, a pattern from the year 1943.  It features an overlapped shoulder section onto gathers on the front bodice and a fairly straight silhouette with amazing pocket details:

I've made this dress twice before as I simply love the design.  The first time I made it in this synthetic linen (see the blog post here)--which is a great fabric for the dress.

I loved the pattern so much I made it a second time, again with a synthetic linen fabric. This time in my other favourite colour, teal (see the blog post here)!

Well, I've decided to make the dress pattern again, this time in a super luscious embroidered silk fabric that I got from Myanmar. This fabric is so divine and is one of many border prints--all in delicious bright and gorgeous colours that I got from Myanmar. I can't remember what state this is from but it's their traditional fabric.

The reason I chose McCall 5384 for this fabric was that I knew it would be perfect for a border print fabric such as this one--because the design of the dress is fairly simple. That way it allows the fabric to shine!

I really like the dress in a silk fabric.  One change I did do was to make the dress slightly longer in this version --not a lot but about 1.5 inches. I made the sleeves slightly longer too.

I knew I wanted the small star print on the bodice and the border print at the bottom of the dress. I didn't even think about the star placement but phew...it's ok. 1/4 inch lower and it might have been a bit pointed so to speak! lol.

We took these gorgeous photos (with my amazing friend and photographer Darja Balyik) in the small town of Culross in Scotland. There were these gorgeous orange and orange/yellow houses that were so perfect as a backdrop for the dress (and for also walking around and snooping around! lol)

The dress has a side zipper and a back placket with buttons. In previous versions, I was a bit lazy with the back placket and putting only one button or no button as in the pink version (gasp! hahaha). This time, because the silk is a bit less structured then the linen, I put three small buttons. Very proud of myself! haha.

Overall, super happy with the dress! I'm so glad the fabric really shines through! 

So I've now made this pattern for a spring dress (pink), summer dress (teal) and now this more autumnal dress (purple)...I'll have to think of a winter version in one of my other favourite colours (green? burgundy?) and finally do the 3/4 sleeve version and maybe in a lightweight wool? hmmm....what do you think?

The 1941 Orange and Black Colour-Blocked Dress

Making a full colour-blocked dress has been on my list of dream 1940s makes for quite some time.  So glad I made it a reality!

The whole concept came about when I bought these two-coloured black and orange frog closures on a recent trip to Myanmar (I also bought some grey and light pink ones).  And when I was planning this dress, there was still several months to Halloween and this just seemed like the perfect holiday dress!

I used McCall 4092, a pattern from 1941 as it was the best pattern in my stash that had some clear lines that I thought might work for colour-blocking.

The skirt has eight gores and I ended up doing these in blocks of two so that they create a bit of a peak at the top.

I decided that it would probably be more slimming to put the darker colour on the outside of the skirt and also on the bodice and then do the details and sleeves in the contrast orange:

I'm a bit torn about whether to leave the bodice pockets on or take them off OR just take one of them off. As you can see, they are a bit uneven to the centre, this was the result of using the frogs instead of standard buttons (and probably also of not measuring correctly!) Hmmm...what do you think? I think it could look quite sleek without them?  OR I could take the frogs off and put on orange or even black buttons.

I found an online vintage hat reproduction seller, the Little Shop of Gorgeousness and Fripperies, who makes two-tone turbans and I asked if she could make an orange and black one and she said yes!  So I actually had the hat made first and then once it arrived, I went fabric shopping so that I could match the orange in the hat. It's close but not perfect as the dress fabric is a little bit lighter but I think it works well!

I also recently got these 1940s reproduction shoes from Aris Allen.  I decided to buy some orange ribbon and replace the standard black shoelaces with the matching ribbon. Ooooohhhh...it makes me so happy! :). I want to do this for all my dresses! lol.

Overall, I am quite pleased with the outcome. One thing with the frog closures is that they aren't as secure as buttons. So I had to also use a snap at the top and what I didn't realise is that I should have put one at the bottom of the waist front too.  So if I slouch, the bottom bit gapes open. Which is why I have such perfect posture in these photos! hahaha. I've since fixed it so that I can actually wear this dress!

Yay!!! I'm definitely in love with colour-blocking and many thanks to the amazingly talented Darja Biliyk for these photos that we took in the wee town of Culross in Scotland that just so happened to have lots of fabulous orange buildings!

Here's a short video of me doing a lot of happy dancing! lol

I definitely want to make more colour-blocked dresses--perhaps in pink and grey next? What colour combos do you think would look good?

Also, what do you think I should do about the pockets and the closures?

The 1940s Yellow Bow Blouse and Pattern Pyramid Giveaway

I'm in love with this blouse – cute little yellow bows on a subtle blue background and a classic 1940s style.

Meet Economy Design 157. I originally won this pattern in a pattern giveaway which I tracked around the world. Read the story of how the power of perseverance brought this pattern into my life!

It is still so graceful, beautiful and fragile as it was when it came into my life 7 years ago.

 There are so many options with this pattern including adding lace trim to the collar and sleeve details. I did that for this blouse with a very subtle yellow lace to make the fabric pattern really pop.  The sleeve has an awesome pleat (which is actually very hard to iron...lol...as you can see in this photo).

The pattern can be made with just one yard of 36 inch fabric--which makes it perfect for feedsack or small amounts of precious fabric.This is because it does not have any side openings and the front placket is fake.  This pattern slips over the head with an extended front neck slit that closes with a small button at the neck:

I've made this blouse pattern before including in an awesome feedsack fabric (read the blog post here):

And in from this awesome midcentury pillowcase fabric (read the blog post here):

Overall, I am quite pleased with this lace trimmed version...a nice addition to many of the separates in my closet including this 1950s navy skirt:

Oh and the yellow petticoat:

The other thing that is really neat is that the collar is scalloped -- something I don't see a lot of in vintage patterns (blouses at least)...and I love how the lace looks on the collar:

The adorable fabric is from Gertie's previous fabric line. I actually have a Montgomery Ward fabric swatch sample book from 1943 and they have some very similar prints in that book--cute and subtle bow shapes in pastel colours on blues and other colourways. 

I, of course, had to show off this blouse in the beautiful Edinburgh landscape.  Many thanks to Vanity Thrills for creating a period perfect hairdo and to Darja for taking these fab photos (all except the yellow blouse photo which was taken in Myanmar by Shoot My Travel).

So given that I got this pattern in a massive giveaway, I think it's time to do another giveaway of my own.  So over the next couple of days, I'll be giving this pattern away over at my Instagram account @ms1940mccall.  You can also enter the giveaway here. I will be giving a bundle of patterns and the winner can take one pattern from the bundle and then promise to host their own giveaway with the remainders (you can also add patterns to the mix) in the spirit of the original pattern pyramid giveaways.  Leave a comment here or on the Instragram post by September 3rd to win.

The patterns in the giveaway include a 1920's girls coat, a 1939 gown pattern (bust size 38), the original Economy Design blouse (bust size 34), a 1940 McCall dress (bust size 32), a 1940s Mccall blouse (bust size 30), a 1950s Advance dress pattern (bust size 35), a 1960s coat, suit and blouse pattern (bust size 36) and a Tilly and the Buttons coco pattern (bust sizes 30-44).

YAY! Good luck and long live the Pattern Pyramid!!!

If you want to enter: 1. Follow this blog, 2.  leave a comment below or on my @ms1940mccall instagram account and tag two of your sewing friends and 3. let me know which pattern you want and what fabric/colours you would make it in! YAY! Good luck! I'll choose a random winner on the 3rd of September.