Rejoicing with the Truth

Sunday afternoon I finished re-hemming some curtains I bought from JCPenney.  They're great curtains, blue-on-white and looking VERY much like toile, although the design is a more naturalistic leaf and vine than stylized scenes and flowers.  They're also not perfectly square, which put my Dad and Mom and I through the wringer when he was trying to put up the curtain rods. ("The level says the rod is level, but the curtains are too high!" "Now that we've lowered the rod, the curtains are just right at one end and dragging on the other! What is going on?!")

So that was finished and they're all more or less even lengths. And I had time on my hands, up in the sewing room, and thought - Aha, WWII reenactment next weekend!  At the Museum of the American G.I. in College Station.  And what do I wear?! Hmm, the weather's getting a lot warmer... low 68°, high 78°, chance of thunderstorms... yeah, that'll be fine.


To cut out a lot of tedious words, I got started on a dress I've been planning for at least a year.



The picture is really small and rather grainy.  But the construction is so neat!  There are long suspender-like insets on either side of the bodice, both front and back. In the front they extend into clever pocket openings.  The variations include long or short sleeves, high neck or square neck (with front zipper), and long housecoat length.



Simplicity 3365 dates from exactly 1940. I love this year!  It's not so foofy and little-girly as some of the late 1930s, but the skirts are still nice and full before the mid-1941 skirt collapse.  This dress in particular is somewhat of a fabric-eater, since there is no waist seam.

That was an unexpected benefit for this pattern, actually.  I usually have to add flare or width to skirts to fit my not-size-16 hips, but this one should fit just right. At least it should! Thank goodness for Simplicity's 3/4" underarm seam allowances - that'll give me room if I need it after all.

Anyway, when musing over the lack of navy in my vintage wardrobe, I realized the medium/dark blue linen I'd bought for trousers would look amazing in this pattern.  With white linen insets!  I love how vintage styles play with fabric: stripes on the bias and the cross in the late 1930s, and color-blocking in the 1940s.  Probably a self-fabric (blue) belt.  And white pick stitching outlining the insets! Yum!  (I'm actually surprised the pattern didn't show a color-blocked version. It seems so obvious to me.)


Cutting went very smoothly. Another benefit of using linen is the wide width. Fabric-eater the pattern might be, but the back is in three pieces instead of two, and the extra width really helped me overlap a lot. Plus linen not being directional. And I actually cut the sleeves sideways! Gasp!  I also used up on the insets the tiny remnants of white cotton-linen I've had hanging around, instead of cutting into my good white heavy linen reserved for 18th-century linings and such.

I started construction last night, and it is So Much Fun.  I really like the construction part of sewing! Especially when it's something neat involving weird shapes that somehow still fit together perfectly, and careful pressing that makes it look awesome.  I started on the back insets, because they were easier to fit together, and didn't have the complication of a pocket.

The linen has been interesting to work with. It's probably a bottomweight, but very drapey. It ought to look great in this rather full A-line skirt. And be a little more resistant to flying up in the wind!


So it remains to be seen if this will be finished in time, but I'm reasonably confident.  Tonight is a little busy, and so is Wednesday, but I have Thursday night off (choir is on spring break), and Friday is off work.  My primary concern is getting the hem marked.  I can't do it myself, and the dress has to be finished on Friday!  I have to leave my house by 5:30 AM at the latest on Saturday morning. Eek!