The Liberty Bella Tea Dress

 This Tea Dress by Liberty London is made in a patriotic London print fabric in honour of Her Majesty's platinum Jubilee and is also my Birthday Dress 

Tea dresses are so flattering and fabulous for when you want to feel dressy but not uncomfortable 

This Liberty London design is very typical of the styles worn in the 1940's with shoulder pads and simple lines 

Shoulder pads were added to almost every garment in the 1940s,  it was a nod to the military and seen as a sign of support to our Armed Forces

I have owned this pattern for ages and had forgotten about it, but with Her Majesty's platinum Jubilee fast approaching it seemed appropriate. 

As did this fabulous fabric which I have  owned for several years but never found the occasion to use it. It is absolutely perfect!

The pattern is suitable for confident beginners 

1940's Vintage Blouse in 100% Premium Organic Cotton Fabric from Jaycotts

 I am so excited to be back blogging, and a little nervous too, but doesn't it feel great to be moving forwards at last

The Simplicity 8593 vintage blouse collection.

 A Jaycotts post 

The Fabric is an Organic Cotton fabric by Cloud9

Everything used in this post is from Jaycotts Jaycotts web site and I will give links as I write the post. For any queries or to place an order do not hesitate to contact them direct.

Dressing in 1940s style

 War time fashion, tutorials on inserting zips , a SewOverIt 1940's tea dress to sew and much much more!

It is as important today as it was in the 1940's to adopt a "Make do and mend" attitude, and I hope to show you that this will make you  re-think your sewing habits. I know it has done for me.

Enjoy! 

The second world war started in 1939 and didn't end until 1945. During this time rationing of almost everything was in place and continued even after the war had ended until supplies started to become available again.
It was in 1941 that the government introduced rationing which greatly influenced clothing and how it was worn. Strict guidelines governed how many buttons were allowable and how many seams were acceptable and so on.

Don't think for one minute that fashion was dull though, far from it. The designs were high quality and the famous CC41 utility label was also  a sign of  excellent value for money and  you knew it was made to last. The CC41 designs were devised by a panel of top designers including Hardy Amies and Norman Hartnell no less.

A combination of paying for your clothes with money and coupons meant that the class divide had no impact on what you wore - everyone was entitled to exactly the same.

These are the exact details of what a utility dress should consist of;-

"Examples of details of restriction orders when making Utility dress: it could have no more than two pockets, five buttons, six seams in the skirt, two inverted or box pleats or four knife pleats, and one hundred and sixty inches (four metres) of stitching. No superfluous decoration was allowed. It should be simple, practical, agreeable-looking, inexpensive and made of good material"

It should also be noted that one quarter of the population, women included ,was now in uniform of some sort and with women being ordered to maintain glamour at all times, these uniforms were also beautifully tailored. The most coveted being the Wren's uniform - worn with red lipstick and curled hair of course.
Coty produced lipstick and face powder which was not rationed, as well as producing such things as foot powder for use by the military.

It should be noted that selling these utility garments were a great source of income to the government.

This booklet was produced in the early 40s as supplies were becoming more and more scarce. The wool and cotton fabric, and dark coloured dyes  were needed by the military for uniforms and for blackout curtains .
 We were not receiving imports of cotton and silk because of the high cost of shipping  goods from abroad - China for one, and by that I mean the cost in lives as well as in monetary terms.

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Stitching back in time to the 1940s , dresses and trenchcoats

The middle to late 1940s fashion: Dresses and Trench Coats 

A Jaycotts blog post.

It wasn't until 10:30 AM on 12 February 1947 that a relatively unheard of Christian Dior unveiled his "New Look"

Taking inspiration from flower petals he celebrated femininity with defined narrow waists and full flowing skirts. It was a defiance towards the rationing which had restricted fashion for several years.

 Before this monumental event though , and even when WW2 had ended,  we were still gripped by austerity and it was getting worse. We were encouraged to take two very worn dresses and coats for example and somehow make the best bits of each into one wearable garment. Shoe leather had run out and women's shoes were made with wooden soles which were very much hated. Everything was becoming more and more difficult and it seemed never ending, so the advent of a new fashion house really brought excitement to life.

If you are after a 1940s look then many of today's styles are very similar. Go for a low heel, preferably a chunky heel, a brogue or a wedge sandal and they will be fine.

One item which did prove popular was the Siren Suit, Sir Winston Churchill loved his and had one made from pin-stripe suiting (of course)

But the rest of us loved them too, they were designed to wear over normal clothes, or night clothes when the air raid siren went off. Air raid shelters were dirty, cold and smelly and these garments were very much necessary.

Today we still wear a type of this garment in the form of jumpsuits. Take a look at the pattern range available from Jaycotts Jumpsuit pattern

I have a blog post too An easy Simplicity Jumpsuit so do take a look at the tutorial. Did you see the Sewing Bee 2019 As one of the challenges was to sew a jumpsuit and they all looked fabulous.

Factories were still being run by women - it took a long while before the men came home and women were forced out of work.  Supplies were still not reaching us so even after WW2 had ended we were still very much rationed - we were short of everything. Even those tiny ends of thread which we cut off and throw away were kept and treasured.

Keep on reading..........

how to make a 1940's style tea dress

Sewing a 1940s dress

This is a post I wrote some time ago, but I think it is worth re visiting.
Vintage fashion is very much "in" at the moment and when I was looking through my sewing room I found this Folkwear pattern for a 1940's dress. I also found some viscose floral print which hangs nicely.

For this dress I researched traditional methods and used them as for as possible. This is not a quick make and is for experienced sewers.

I have wanted to sew a dress in 1940's style for ages, I bought the vintage style fabric  and pattern ages ago but never got around to sewing it.
I am pleased to say that this pattern is now for sale in the UK and you can purchase it from MinervaCrafts. Glamour girl dress pattern
I'm suggesting that you use a heavy woven dress fabric which hangs well, this floral viscose Challis would be perfect Floral print viscose challis

When sewing vintage the first step is to take your measurements and choose the pattern size which  corresponds most closely. Do not just use your usual dress size as patterns do usually vary from these. This is true for any pattern, but more so for vintage as women were much smaller back in the 1940's.
Cut the pattern pieces out and lay them on the fabric on the correct grain, as shown on the pattern piece.
Cut out the material, leaving larger than normal seam allowances in true vintage style. Vintage garments were made to last a lifetime and so extra fabric was always left in the seam allowances to enable the garment to be let out if necessary and to be honest it is good practise to do it now.
The next step is to transfer all pattern markings to the fabric using your prefered method. Keeping with tradition for this garment I am using tailors tacks and thread markings.

Sewing The Mondrian style top from the GBSB 2016 (Sewing an all in one facing )

This is a top made to embrace the 1960's Mondrian style in honour of the iconic Mondrian dress by Yves Saint Laurent.

A Jaycotts.co.uk How do I do that post


Skills shown in this post are

1. All in one facings
2. Invisible zip 

I love the colour block dress from the Great British Sewing Bee book From Stitch to style, but before I invested in the fabrics I wanted to try out the top first in fabric left over from other projects. This top is based on the MONDRIAN dress created by Yves  Saint laurent in 1965. Made to be worn as a cocktail dress the Mondrian was made from heavy silk crepe so that it hung straight in the body.  It quickly became the most iconic dress of the 1960s

This top was made in Art Gallery Fabric , this particular fabric is a very high end cotton print. You can use any cotton fabric  so long as you get a good contrast with the black bands.  All the fabrics need to be the same weight.
If you do fancy indulging yourself and buying some Art Gallery fabric Minerva Fabrics sell it,  Art Gallery fabrics .these are print fabrics but are gorgeous.


There are other linen, cotton ,and linen blends available too Cotton and cotton blend dress fabrics

And if you want to go back to the traditional colours there are lots of plain cotton's too, these are. Cotton Lawn fabric
The quality and price of all of these is excellent


The original Mondrian was made from panels of blue, white and acid yellow interspaced with black. My modern interpretation is in a light coloured print fabric with black bands added to form the iconic design.

The top is amazing don't you think and can be made fairly quickly.

 This tutorial shows you how to do an all in one facing.

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How to Sew a Simplicity 1960s style dress

This is a pattern which was given in SEW magazine a couple of months ago. It is Simplicity K1609.

The pattern is a simple shift style which became popular in the 1960s. 
After the austerity of earlier years fashion for the young suddenly became fun and young designers, boutiques and fun fashion, heralded the start of the swinging 60s. 
The key look of the period was mini skirts and short A-line dresses and coats. Graphic  prints were used to create a strong look. It was during this period that tights came into being, so now that young women were free of stockings skirts could become shorter and shorter. 
Boutiques were a new way of shopping for clothes, they were dark and mysterious with loud music playing, sales staff wore the clothes they were selling and chatted about fashion passionately. 
Mary Quant was a pioneer in fashion and she desIgned dresses which were very short, with zips down the front with a circular pull-ring. She used a new fabric called courtelle, one of the first synthetic materials used in fashion.
Of course we cannot mention the 60s without paying homage to Twiggy probably the most famous fashion model of all time.Her waif like figure epitomises the era and the total change in how women looked and dressed. This was the age when fashion was
young and fun, and girls dressed for themselves not as copies of their mothers.