The VE Day Frock

No doubt you'll be seeing a lot of this dress in the next few weeks. Honestly,  I'm absolutely in love with it!

If you're curious, more information can be found here

Back in July, an ad for my local theatre group caught my eye. What were they advertising for, but auditions for a VE Day performance later in the year! Oh it sounded wonderful. With a fully decorated hall, a gourmet banquet, and a 13 piece big band to sing with, how could I NOT go? Everyone was so lovely at the auditions. I was admittedly a little lost, but then again, when am I not? It didn't really help that I still can't read sheet music for the life of me, but I mustn't have gone too badly, as they didn't make me leave early to shut me up.

Well of course with such an event, I just had to make myself a new frock for it. Oh, how will I ever cope? Having to get together an entirely new outfit? What a shame!

You know, what I really love about the 1940's were the shoulder pads. I just can't get enough of them. Now I'd had Butterick's B6485 on my list for quite a while, and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to make it. After a bit of searching, I even managed to find the original pattern cover, and discovered a charming little note that had me completely sold.

The original cover of 1944's "current fashion". Kindly supplied by The Vintage Pattern Shop

As for the colour-scheme, I wanted to make Captain America proud. I seem to have an endless supply of scraps at the moment, and among all of it was enough red and white fabric and binding to make myself a new 40's bra. It really is a welcome change only having to spend about £7.50 on underwear! I treated myself to some luxurious royal blue triple crepe for the dress, and found myself an adorable white hair flower from a stall at the 1940's weekend at Milton Keynes Museum.

The fabric arrived wrapped up in
pattern paper and ribbon. Too cute!

I do adore crepe. The way it gathers and flows just makes me sigh with happiness. The only thing I struggle with its stretch and slipperiness, which
did cause a little hassle when it came to sewing the zip at the back. I might have mentioned that I'm really not good with zips. It took me a couple of goes, and a hell of a lot of basting to finally get it to lie flat. Being the klutz I am, I managed to nick the fabric with my scissors when I was sorting out the insides, but it was small enough to stitch up and hide with the very convenient bow at the back. I need to remember to make more dresses with back ties, it makes dealing with my proportions so much easier to deal with! I still had to take out what felt like half a foot from around the neck.

Being the self-conscious mess that I am, I found myself an original, seemingly unworn girdle for myself. It needed replacement garter clips, but that was easy enough to do. I'm yet to get some boning for the empty channels, but that's not really a priority anyway. The only problem is that I didn't take into account quite how squishy I am. I was a little worried that the lacing gap would be too large at the hips, but to my surprise I could have done with something about four inches smaller! Oh well, it just means I'll have a bit more movement for the performance. When I get the time, I'd like to make myself a nice corselette for the majority of events anyway. You've just got to love that full-torso shapewear!



Look out on my social media for all the photos of the event. Maybe I'll see you there!