Very pretty linen novelty print day dress! Little windmills and daisies!

[AllaboutEve]

Hi ladies, I have a few pieces to clean out this spring including this very pretty day dress. I think that it is an early 1940's number as the neckline has a bit of a 1930's feel to me but you may be able to correct me on that one. What I do know is it is absoloutely lovely! There are scattered windmills and little bunches of daisies all on a milkshake pink ground the other colours are raspberry and off white. Please see the pics ( with my helpful stepdaughter as model!!! ) Please note that the colours are all together more muted and softer than in the photos, they were taken on a very sunny day!!!
There are little pin tuck pleats at the shoulders and at the front of the hips.

The fabric is clean and crisp and looks unworn, I bought this dress last spring and to be totally honest with you all I think that it's a little bit young for me and doesn't fit me that well either so I have never worn it! What a waste!!! There are no rips, stains, odours or tears.

The fabric looks and feels like linen or a linen blend to me, the belt is not the original but I made it out of some cotton band that I dyed to match the off white of the dress and put a cute little mother of pearl buckle on to match the dress. There is plenty of length in the belt so you could make it to fit you. I embroidered two lines of mulberry coloured silk on the edges to tie it in with the colours of the print on the dress. The only very minor issue that I can see with the dress is that there are a few stitches that have pulled a little on the pleats but the fabric is sound. The stitches at the opening on the side of the waistband are also a bit pulled nothing major at all though. If you need pics I will post them up.

The measurements are as follows:

Width across the front of the bodice (this is much fuller at the front than at the back) 22 inches.
Width across the back of the bodice 17 1/2 inches
Waistband 29 inches across
Waistband just over an inch deep
Waistband to hem 25 3/4 inches
Shoulder to waistband 15 1/2 inches.


All of these measurements were taken flat with a tape measure.

I would say that you would need to be pretty small framed to get in and out of this dress as the side opening is very small and this doesn't give you much room once it's going over your head. You could always make this opening bigger but you do need to be aware that it is tricky!!!

It is a lovely dress and I don't want to list it on Ebay as I would rather see it go to a good home here amongst friends.
Please contact me with offers.

 

[Brooksie]

I have been wanting some nice summer vintage dresses because I do not own any, what size of clothes does your stepdaughter wear? This way I can get a visual if it would maybe fit me.

Brooksie

 

[AllaboutEve]

She is about a UK size 8 - 10 (not sure how this translates into US sizes) and is a little bit shorter than me about 5 feet 4 and a half inches tall.
You would need to be fairly petite to get into this one but their is plenty of the room in the bust and hip for the more hour glass figure.

The main thing to bear in mind is that the dress is small in the portion that you need to 'get through' in order to get it over your head. You could make the side opening a little bigger though.

Hope this helps!!

 

[starla]

Oh! Oh! Cute!!

...but too small, I think. I'm a size 10

 

[BegintheBeguine]

I think it is size 4 or 6

I have looked at my international size chart and the US ready-made size for UK 8-10 is 4-6. Do you sew? What size pattern do you take? The equivalent is 10, which of course has nothing to do with size labels in garments.

 

[Brooksie]

I think that it would possibly fit me, I am between a 4 & 6 in vintage sizing in current day sizing (vanity sizing I am about a size 2).

Brooksie

 

[BegintheBeguine]

the body measurements for UK modern dress size 8-10 are bust 31-33 inches 80-84 cm, waist 24-26 inches 62-66 cm, hip (9 inches or so below the waist) 34-36 inches 86-90 cm or so. Does this sound about right, AllaboutEve?

 

[AllaboutEve]

the body measurements for UK modern dress size 8-10 are bust 31-33 inches 80-84 cm, waist 24-26 inches 62-66 cm, hip (9 inches or so below the waist) 34-36 inches 86-90 cm or so. Does this sound about right, AllaboutEve?

Yes that's not far off, I'd say that modern 8-10 is more like bust 34-36 waist 26 -28 and hips about 34-36 something like that.

It's really hard to tell if something is going to fit someone though! This dress as with a lot of vintage pieces has a higher waist than most modern dresses and the front is much fuller in the bust than the back so I would say that you would need to take all of these measurements into mind.

I have measured the dress as best I can and know that I can get into it I'm about 36-26-38 and my stepdaughter is about an inch smaller all over!.
We are both fairly small framed so got into it with a bit of patience. I think that you wouldn't want to be more that about a 32" on your bra measurement ie 32B, or 32C etc. The difficult part is getting the waistband part past your head and shoulders as it is very narrow.

Tricky trying to determine if something will fit as we are all very different in shape and size. Hope that helps and I haven't confused you even more.