Plus Size Vintage

[Rosie]

I went to Fashion Bug Plus which I've never been in before and they had a line of vintage-esque clothes called Studio 1940. The styles were very nice though, many of the clothes were made of polyester. I picked up a great navy blue and white polka dot dress that was really cool.

 

[Lady Day]

Yeah, Ive seen that line before, but Im not a Polly fan so I tend to forgo.

LD

 

[Miss Dottie]

Hmmm... I'll have to check it out. I've never heard of the line/store so I'll certainly give it a look.

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Snookie]

http://fashionbug.charmingshoppes.com/homefb.aspx

Cute stuff, I've never seen it before. There's some smaller sizes on this site, too, and some good sale prices.

 

[RetroMom]

I never heard of this store, but I checked on line and they do have some really cute things! Thanks for the suggestion It's never easy to find anything in a plus size. I usually buy at Romans or Lane Bryant (catalog).

 

[DancingSweetie]

Thanks Rosie, we have those stores out here and since it is so hard to find larger vintage this is great news!

 

[ortega76]

My wife has picked up two beautiful sundresses in a very classic 40's style from Dress Barn. Their stuff is nice quality and they are having a huge sale on summer stuff right now.

 

[Rosie]

Thanks Ortega!

 

[imoldfashioned]

This is a bit of a tangent but...

speaking of larger sized vintage style clothing, did you ladies see the lovely 50" bust dress that recently sold on ebay? It's so rare to find the larger sizes, I hope whoever won it enjoys it.

 

[DancingSweetie]

I missed that. You never see a 50 inch bust dress. I have a 44 inch bust, and when I find a dress on a rare occasion, it always has a really small waist, which I do not have.

 

[Rosie]

Actually, that seller had those in her shop for a while at ridiculous prices. I watched it every so often hoping the prices would go down. She put them on auction and now most of them were gone.

Dancing Sweetie, you are so right. I have a small waist for someone my size but sometimes I have to re-read those measurements. It's like, "who's going to fit into THAT!" lol

There are dresses in that size, they usually are very expensive, you just have to look, look, look, oh and look. lol

 

[DancingSweetie]

You're right, when I do find one that would fit me it is way out of my budget.

 

[Lady Day]

Actually, that seller had those in her shop for a while at ridiculous prices. I watched it every so often hoping the prices would go down. She put them on auction and now most of them were gone.

Dancing Sweetie, you are so right. I have a small waist for someone my size but sometimes I have to re-read those measurements. It's like, "who's going to fit into THAT!" lol

There are dresses in that size, they usually are very expensive, you just have to look, look, look, oh and look. lol

Sooo. . . . what you are suggesting is to look, right?

LD

 

[Miss Dottie]

Actually, that seller had those in her shop for a while at ridiculous prices. I watched it every so often hoping the prices would go down. She put them on auction and now most of them were gone.

Dancing Sweetie, you are so right. I have a small waist for someone my size but sometimes I have to re-read those measurements. It's like, "who's going to fit into THAT!" lol

There are dresses in that size, they usually are very expensive, you just have to look, look, look, oh and look. lol

Ha! I know what you mean. There was the most gorgeous vintage green silk dress from the forties on eBay that had the measurements of:

B-48
W-28
H-40

What the? I don't know how the original wearer could even walk down the street with those measurementst! But when she did she probably turned quite a few heads!

 

[Amapola]

Ha! I know what you mean. There was the most gorgeous vintage green silk dress from the forties on eBay that had the measurements of:

B-48
W-28
H-40

What the? I don't know how the original wearer could even walk down the street with those measurementst! But when she did she probably turned quite a few heads!

I saw one similar, but not quite as severe: Bust 40 (okay, doing good...) Waist 22 (oh, count me out...) Hips 38.
Is it for Jessica Rabbit, perhaps?

 

[absynth]

Hi, there. I am new to this community. I like many others that I have been reading in here, stumbled across this site in search of make up and hair tips for the 40's. I am so ecstatic to finally find a bunch of people who like the same things that I do.
Here is my problem, I am in love with the dress styles and the suits but am not able to find anything that is plus sized so that I can finally dress the way that I am wanting to. I am a size 20 and I am desperate for any hints and tips that you wonderful gals' can give me. I am an okay sewer but will keep on working on my skills, so that is not a problem if someone has a fairly simple dress pattern or something. I saw a McCall's pattern for a suit jacket and the pattern number is M5059 and I was wondering if anyone can tell me if it would be a good choice or not with a simple a line knee length skirt. Thank you in advance for any help that you can give me. I would post a picture but I am not sure how to yet.

 

[Miss Dottie]

Sigh! I know how it goes!

However, I have seen quite a few snappy vintage inspired things at torrid.com.

You may want to look there. And with the right make up, hair and accessories, I'm sure you could come out with something quite divine and vintage inspired!

 

[absynth]

Miss Dottie

Thank you for the suggestion. The only problem is that I live in Canada and the Torrid stores are located in the USA. They have online ordering, but I am very leery of spending all of that money when I have never tried on any of their items. I find particularly when you are a plus size that you can range up to 3 sizes depending on where you buy something from. I can wear from 18-22 depending on the item of clothing. I do like to sew, so I made a duct tape dress form for myself and want to start making some things for myself. Did you have a chance to look at the McCalls jacket? I thought that it had a little bit of a vintage vibe to it. Again thank you for the suggestion. Have a great night.

Absynth

 

[Lady Day]

Howdy

Welcome.

Im a 16/18, so i feel your pain in finding vintage wear

The truth is, most of the stuff that is a round survived cause no one wore it. So to compensate for my lack of true vintage garb, I make a lot of my stuff.

Another good got by are the 'old lady' clothing stores, like Macys. Old clothing lines like Ralph Loren, often keep their cuts the same on their older styles. Their ubber conservative modern attire is a good alternative as well.

We are all here to offer tips and whatever else you need to know. Good luck!

LD

 

[MoxieGrl]

Hi,
That jacket is very cute! I'm a big jacket-fan though, so I would say that about most any jacket. It looks more 60s-style to me though.
I'm not sure what pattern size a clothing size 20 would be, but Vogue, Simplicity and Butterick all have re-issues of some of their vintage patterns out. If you go to the vogue website, there is a tab for "vintage vogue". They have alot of patterns.

http://store.sewingtoday.com/cgi-bin/voguepatterns/shop.cgi?s.list.20006.x=1

Simplicity has about 4 or so patterns reissued (reaaaallly cute jacket too!), and Butterick has a sprinkling, but theirs I think are all from the 50s or later.
I'm pretty sure that Simplicity at least carries their patterns up to larger sizes in everything...

http://www.simplicity.com/index.cfm?crit=1065&id=1121&StartRow=1

I've also had good luck with ebay and larger patterns, if you keep your eye out. Let me know if the links don't work, I am probably not doing this right....