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Styles for girls of all ages, 1911

This is another title that just tickles me pink.  I do wonder if The Girl’s Own Paper was using it in the modern sense (as in ‘the child in all of us’ etc.) or that they meant ‘girls from 8-18’ or (worst of all) ‘anyone unmarried’.  Whatever the case, I’d certainly wear some of these styles!

Styles for girls of all ages, Girl's Own Paper, Dec 1911

First some blouses for older girls:

I love that the one on the right is described as a 'severe style'!

The blouse patterns are all (according to the magazine) based on the same basic shirt pattern, and can be made in any fabric, though hand-embroidery is most effective on linen.

What is she looking at?

Then some littler girl’s clothes:

Fashionable indeed! That's quite a hat!

And a sailor frock for school girls (aren't those details scrumptious?)

And finally, a well fitted coat for someone of indeterminate girlishness:

The seaming over the belt = totally fabulous!

 

Sensible frocks for daily wear, 1911

The title of this section of the Girl’s Own Paper charms me so much.

Why don’t fashion magazines today show you sensible garments for daily wear?!?  I wonder if women who looked at these actually thought they were sensible?  Or did they look almost as ridiculous as fashion photoshoots ideas of sensible work wear look today?

A selection of sensible, and oh-so-charming, frocks

A lovely tailored suit with clever trim

I love how specific this is 'indoor morning wear' indeed!

Is this next one a chesterfield?  Could be!

A long coat for winter wear

And a close-up of her rather fantastic hat

A dress of dark serge relieved by bands of lighter material

I do love that they show clothes for the new career girl:

A serviceable cloth dress for the business girl

And the backs of the two dresses and the long coat. Apparently the square collar was new.

Elise’s gift: The blue velvet leaf dress

Of the textiles Elise gave me, I’ve shown you a very exotic assuit tunic, and a very sweet but commercial wrap.  This week, let’s look at something a bit between the two – a homemade evening gown of gorgeous devore velvet in cobalt blue.

The dress

The dress is a beautiful, but absolutely typical, example of a middle-class semi-formal dress.

The dress back

This wasn’t a society woman’s frock by any means: it’s the kind of dress made by a home dressmaker from a pattern that almost certainly included a ‘day’ and ‘evening’ version with the only notable difference being the length of the skirt.

I just love the leaf pattern, and the colour, and everything!

So, not unusual or exciting in that sense, but actually more exciting because it is such a typical example: it really gives such a perfect picture of what most women were wearing to simple evening events in the second half of the 30s.  And it’s beautiful.  The devore velvet (probably rayon) is just swoon-worthy, and the cut is simple but effective.

The dress consists of a bodice joined to a basic bias-cut four-gore skirt at a high inverted ‘V’ waist.  It would have been worn with a matching slip, perhaps in a slightly contrasting colour to highlight the devore velvet.

The bias helps the skirt to cling around the hips

The dress fastens with a side-zip (these became more and more common throughout the 1930s, especially on cheaper garments)

The metal side-zip

Even though there isn’t a seam at the traditional waist, there is a self-fabric belt to highlight the waist and help hide the zip.

The weird, bulky belt

At some point the belt of this dress has been crudely tacked on to the dress partway around, making the dress hang funny (the belts too heavy) and warp.  I’ll probably remove the tacking stitches and store the belt separately.

How much to restore/alter/conserve vintage garments is one of those things that I (and pretty much every costume and textile historian and conservator) wrestle with constantly.  You don’t want to damage the garment further, or obliterate the telltale signs of the textile’s life-story.  In this case I’m pretty comfortable with undoing the work – the stitching and weight of the belt are damaging the dress.  And the belt buckle has been stitched off-centre

The V-neck, cunning collar, and gathered bust. And off-centre buckle

While the belt alterations aren’t flattering or well done, the bodice itself is beautifully cut, and very flattering.  The bust is softly gathered to the high inverted ‘V’, and tucks around the neckline create additional fullness and a clever semi-collar.

The back of the clever collar

The dress has mid-length puffed sleeves that accentuate the broad-sholdered silhouette fashionable at the end of the 30s.  The sleeves also have a slight bit of shaping and gathering at the bottom to further give them shape and interest.

The sleeves - gathered at top and at bottom

There are also additional tucks at the top of the sleeves with create more width and shaping.  Very clever!

Gathers and little tucks at the top of the sleeves

White the cut of the dress is quite clever and sophisticated (which indicates to me that a pattern was used – someday I’ll have a really good search on the Vintage Pattern Wiki and see if I can find it), the construction is quite basic, and almost clunky in places.

The inside seams are quite wide and have been left unfinished.

Unfinished inside skirt seams

The wide seams tell me that the seamstress was worried about fitting, and left extra width just in case she needed to let the skirt out.  She was also worried about fabric usage though: you can see how the skirt fabric is used right up to the selvedges.

Frugal fabric usage: the devore ends along the selvedge

The hem of the skirt is a hand-stitched rolled hem.  It’s nicely done, but not by an expert hand-sewer by any means.

Hand stitched roll hem

The dress has a little damage beyond that caused by the odd fix job on the belt.  The fabric is beginning to disintegrate in places, so the dress is too fragile to wear for anything more than a very careful photoshoot.

Little tiny holes in the velvet

It’s a pity that the dress is so fragile.  It’s exactly my size, and I do love it so.  It’s just such a lovely garment, and tells such a lovely story.

So beautiful