Challenge six; Fairytale

For this challenge I was quite stumped at first. Fairytales are generally not my cup of tea, also a frou-frou princess dress does not fit my lifestyle at all. Since my goal, unstated until now, was to make an historical and wearable vintage wardrobe this challenge was doubly confounding. Eventualy I decided to do a Cinderella/Rosie the Riveter/land girl ensemble. These are some of my inspiration images:





I chose the color scheme of Disney's Cinderella's work clothes- a tealy blue, a light brown and darker brown. I used a vintage pattern, Simplicity 4161 from 1942, for the blouse.



My fabric is a very cool quilting cotton printed with sewing implements. I had just enough left over to make another of the 'bodice' challenge blouses too! My trousers are a pattern I made myself based on historical photographs, for these I used a light brown wide wale corduroy. Both fabrics are from the excellent Sew to Speak shop in Columbus. I had never been there before but they are a wonderful resource for fabric and independent patterns. In short a big yay for them! Here you can see the color scheme, I wore my dark brown sweater with it to get in that additional Cinderella color.



I had to change the story a bit of course, in my version of the fairytale Cinderella is not a servant but perhaps a housewife, (I think we can all agree that 1940's housewives lives were rather servile at times). She would dress her up mice in overalls, then make them have a victory garden, and at the dance she would meet Uncle Sam and become a WOW. Her prince charming was finding herself. A much more satisfying happily ever after!



I wanted to print a WOW bandana but never got around to it, though my blouse and pants took less than a week to make. In fact they were both very easy to sew! My main difficulty arose in fitting the pants, the butt is still a little unflattering, but frankly looks pretty period to me. I think my issues arose because I shortened the crotch length as many people say needs to be done to vintage trouser patterns. I ended up adding it back in plus some to get the waist to fall at my waist! I also had to do significant sway back alterations. My side pockets were going to be back pockets but I cut them too small, so instead I stacked them on my right hip. I like the aesthetics of the stacked v's and the utility of two pockets.



As you can see I get really odd wrinkles after a few hours of walking around. Standing still it looks normal, not like a wrinkled mess!



And here is a shot on Sally Stitch, the buttons are just pinned on here, I was auditioning my button options, also a lovely shot taken in the bathroom mirror at the end of the day. See no wrinkles when I'm still! My photographer had a hard time getting good pictures in the wild, that is, at the Ohio Historical Society's Lustron exhibit (which is awesome and everyone should go and visit!). Please note, I also made the awesome children in these images!

The Challenge: Fairytale

Fabric: Printed quilting cotton and cotton wide wale corduroy

Pattern: Simplicity 4161 from 1942 and my own

Year: 1942

Notions: Five vintage black buttons, one bronze reproduction vintage button, two skirt hooks and bars

How historically accurate is it? 75% because of the quilting cotton blouse and modern hooks

Hours to complete: Not sure, I worked on them for four days total, but two days were just for finishing

First worn: Thursday to the Lustron exhibit

Total cost: $25 to $35, I still have extra fabric left