1940s Cocktail Dress: Pattern Review Part I

While waiting for the fabric to arrive to start the eighteenth-century blue ensemble, I started another project. Either I'm feeling very industrious or very scattered lately. Regardless--it's a 1940s cocktail dress, and will be made of a lovely eggplant-ish colored crepe. For now, I've just cut out the pattern, which I found at the Vintage Pattern Lending Library.


And so far, I am super impressed. Ok, so I haven't actually sewn anything yet, but this is based on the quality of the pattern alone. First off, the pattern and instructions (reprinted and transcribed from an original 1940s pattern) came in a heavy-duty ziploc. This is huge. Do you know how many tattered, ripped, shredding paper envelopes I have in my pattern file? So it's a huge boon to have a built-in storage bag. Score.

And the pattern itself--I can tell already--very clear markings and easy to read. Plus, it's a high-quality paper, rather than the onion skin you usually get patterns printed on. As I tend to use patterns over and over, a heavier paper is also a huge score.

Given that I paid the same for this pattern as I would have for, say, a Vintage Vogue pattern bought at the local JoAnn's, the quality is astounding.

I'll update once I make the dress to let you know how the sewing part went--but rest assured, cutting out the pattern went awesome.

I'm still on the fence about which version of the dress I'll be making--I'll be doing the short sleeves, for sure, but can't decide if I'll do the little bow (small black dress in picture) or the front-cascading ruffles (blue dress in picture). Thoughts?

I'm pretty excited about this project--I've been wanting to make some 40s clothes since I started my 1940s-set manuscript last winter. As I'm starting another 1940s-set manuscript, it was high time--I like dressing like my characters! (Sorry, should have preceded this paragraph with a large, flashing "Nerd Alert.")