Sewing the 1952 Strapless Cocktail Dress

Readers, one can only maintain a sewing blog and not sew for so long.

OK, that's not a pretty sentence (would a second comma help?) but I think you know what I'm talking about.  At a certain point one must make an executive decision and get back to work.  Plus I was getting tired of writing about old magazines and library books.

Some of you are no doubt wondering what happened to the sparkly jumpsuit and/or bathing suit project.  Wasn't that supposed to happen next?  And how about that ironing board cover? 

Friends, if you've been following me a while you know that I simply can't strong-arm myself.  I either feel it or I don't and if I don't, then it just won't work.  Rest assured, I will use that sparkly fabric someday soon; I promise it won't sink to the bottom of my stash like the vinyl python print.  As far as the ironing board cover, I took the easy way out: I simply folded the wool blanket in half, laid it on top of the ironing board, and strapped the old cover on top, with excellent results.  Anyway, I'm now thinking I need a larger ironing board.  Can those be purchased online anywhere?

But back to sewing. As you can see up top, I have made my bodice muslin and I think this is going to work, though I may add an inch to the bodice length.  Wait -- do you even remember what pattern I'm sewing?

Here it is!  Isn't it simply too "Once Upon a Dream"?



The pattern, which dates from 1952, was uncut and still had its factory folds!



Sadly, the outer envelope was missing, but thanks to the Internet, I could dig one up to share with you.

I bought it from a woman in Manitoba, Canada and it took over a month to arrive.  Canadian readers, what is up with the Canadian mail headed for the USA?  Is this some sort of payback for our stealing Deanna Durbin and Michael J. Fox?  Let it go already!

Fortunately, I'd had a similar experience with an earlier pattern I'd purchased from Canada (via Etsy), so I didn't panic. But as you can imagine, after waiting a month for a pattern to arrive, one loses one's momentum.

Long story short, yesterday I decided that this would indeed be my next sewing project, no turning back.

A strapless bodice is actually pretty simple -- it's just two pattern pieces (lined).  Today I'm going to the Garment District in search of spiral steel boning, which I'll attach to the bodice lining.  That's a new technique for me but there's a lot of excellent instruction about it in Susan Khalje's Bridal Couture book.  I also found a good article she wrote about boning a few years ago for Threads, here.

Here are the bodice pattern pieces (as you can see, the places the boning should go are marked), back and front:





And here's the inside of the bodice muslin front:



Not having Cathy nearby, I tried it on -- with a little judicious padding of course, but no shaving -- and for a first stab it's not bad at all.



Now you may be wondering what fabric I'm going to use for this 1952 dress.  Remember this?



I have scads of this polished cotton floral fabric, almost a dirdnl skirt in a former life, and it's been sitting around too long.  As far as the matching bolero, I'll probably make that in some sort of solid sateen -- perhaps with a lace overlay -- and line it with the floral print.  

Friends, that's it!  For the first time in a month I can say that I must get to my sewing project!

I hope wherever you are, you're staying cool -- or warm as the weather demands -- and sewing away.  Or thinking of sewing away; it's all good.  Hey, it took me a month.

Have a great day everybody.  Send me good boning karma please!