#mccalls patterns

To those that missed the $3 Simplicity sale last night, it looks like there is a sale continuing until 7/7.

McCall's and Butterick patterns are $4.99; Vogue Patterns are $6.99.

Beautifully Behaved Fabrics...

About that Bustline: McCalls 8338

This re-issued pattern from the 1930s explains why the Dress Doctors could sometimes tsk-tsk poor design in women’s clothing. We could debate all day about modesty versus prudishness, about sexual double standards, and other factors, historical and contemporary, in fashion’s display of women’s bodies. My critique of this pattern is the design is trying to hard.

As the pattern description states: “Gathers... create fullness in the bustline.” True, gathers have the obvious advantage of increasing bulk wherever they appear, whether at the bustline or the hipline. In various historical eras, when a particular kind of silhouette became the fashion, designers used gathers to allow women to create the illusion of more curves than they possessed.  But by outlining each breast with an obvious curve, the cut of this dress seems kind of desperate. As if the wearer is saying, Yes, I really do have breasts under here! Oh yes, I do! See? You can imagine more subtle cuts to the bodice that would create a similar silhouette. The other design details, Peter Pan collar, puffy shoulders and sleeves indicate this is a young woman’s dress, so why make her so self-conscious of her figure? I am seeing it from the point of view of the small-busted woman here, you may have noticed.

Of course, women’s evening wear has bared women’s flesh and form in obvious ways too, but this looks to be a day dress done up as it was in small patterns. And the suggestions for fabrics are crepes, linens and woolens with none of the fabrics usually recommended for evening. It looks to date to the late 1930s when the waistline was clearly defined and when hemlines were moving up to just below the knee where they would be frozen for the duration of World War II.

tasia.m.s  I saw this cute vintage dresses design and I had to redraw it with witches ☁️✨ 

Left: 1940s McCall pattern for white shorts and a crop top featuring a red scarf belt.

Lovely plus size ensemble: open front coat and matching dress in half sizes....