On May 18 I showed you half of my early 1930s Excella patterns. Here are the rest (and one non-Excella pattern just to mix things up).
I adore this one. That wrapping scarf. So swish! I’m waiting on the right time to make the whole dress, but I have made the skirt part as a business skirt, which I loved and wore to death.
Excella E3348
Isn’t this one so adorable? It just sings of sweetness. I’m not sure the top and skirt go together though. Maybe if the ruffle and contrast pieces were in the same fabric?
Excella E3362
This dress is possibly the simplest, but may very well be my favourite. Such lovely simplicity of line.
Excella E3371
From simple to sophistication. Va-va voom!
E3386
And this one may be my least favourite. It feels like Excella needed to make a pattern, and so they just married some bog-standard dress elements to make a new design. Couple of skirt panels, some simple sleeve variants, cowl neck, tie it together with a sash. Eh. Good enough.
Excella E3415
Doesn’t this one just say 1930s? I see Joan Crawford in Grand Hotel, Myrna Loy in the Thin Man, Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night. Happiness.
Excella E3428
OK. Can’t decide on favourites. Love this one too. Imagine it in deep dusky violet with golden yellow bobbles on the neck and belt. Swoon.
Excella E3485
And finally, one you may recognise. It’s my wedding dress! Only with a different bodice.
Excella E3575
I don’t know what company my final pattern is by, but I adore it. I like that they showed it in a print. I also love that it has an age with the size. And that you see it with a hat and a pocketbook.
1986
Hi. I missed your earlier post so I may be asking a redundant question, but where did you get these beauties!
Here is the earlier post: https://thedreamstress.com/2012/05/early-1930s-patterns-part-i-of-ii-the-excella-patterns/
I thought that pattern looked familiar!
Which one?
E3575.
Ohhh, I like 71 and 86. I love 30s clothes and imagine myself wearing them–then I remember that it was the depression and so I imagine that I’m rich, but that just makes me imagine all the charities I would found instead of buying dresses. Le sigh.
Beautiful!
Just imagine you are a talented home seamstress with a lot of family clothes to remake 😉 Moral problem solved!
Hahahaha–good one! But I can’t imagine that I’m the only one who has read too much and knows how things ‘really were’
But really–good save!
Really–does anyone else ever feel guilty for fantasizing about a time period’s clothes?
Yes, but then my logical brain reminds me that I can’t change the past, and guilt is an unhelpful feeling. And then I go back to drooling in comfort 😉
These patterns remind me why I love 30s styles. Those lines (even in the more humdrum ones!) are just so beautiful and interesting, even though it makes me quake inside to think of all the bias and corners. Thanks for sharing these!
Agree, like E3371 best – view 1, but what’s it like without the big girly bow in the back?
Interesting reading the guide, how much dressmaking knowledge you were already expected to have to tackle one of these patterns.
Well, I suppose you could turn the bow into a back-fastening buckle, as on this floral organza dress.
Right! No EZ sewing here!
These patterns really aren’t as difficult as they look – there is very little bias cutting, and the instructions are very straightforward and rely on only a few techniques. They aren’t the same techniques we use today, but the patterns are much simpler.