• 1940s in the Forest •

A couple of weeks ago my mom and I had the honor of attending Remembering WWII down in Linden, TN.  It was an absolutely amazing event that I will never, ever forget.  This was the second time we have attended, but the first time that we were actually able to participate.  What an amazing time!  I hope to have some more pictures to share with you of that soon, but for now, here is one of my outfits that I made for the Sunday after RWWII.

We rented a house out in the boondocks, and nearly became permanent residents there due to the a nearly impassable road that led to the house.  A lot of prayers, a lot of mud and a slightly scraped up undercarriage later, we made it!  Aside from the interesting surroundings, it was a nice house, and the land around it was gorgeous.  It was situated right on a river, so there was a nice little stairway leading down to the riverside that made for a nice backdrop.

A few months back, we found a cute little '40s dress pattern on Ebay for just a few dollars, and it has turned out to be one of our top favorite patterns ever.  It's a fairly simple style, but with those quintessential 1940s details that make it *so* fun.

As an aside, I'm pretty sure I'm putting ties in every single dress I make from now on.  I love the freedom from wearing a belt, while still getting the nice fit!  :)

The dress features a slit-and-gather detail on the front bodice, making it almost appear like it has a yoke.  The collar and facing is cut in one, and the skirt features about 8 or so slim, flared panels that give it a very swingy effect in the front.

The back skirt is a simple 3-panel style.  I used some vintage '40s yardage that we had in the stash ($9 or so at an antique shop - for a little over 4 yards!!), and squeezed the dress out of that.  It would not have been a "squeeze" if it were not for the fact that I am 6' tall - that does make a difference when cutting out skirts!  In any case, the dress fit in that amount of fabric perfectly, and I got a nice little hem as well, finished with my favorite vintage Hug Snug.

I paired the dress with my favorite shoes of all time - Royal Vintage Ritas (if some benevolent stranger ever wants to buy me something, just get me about 7 more pairs of these so that I will have them 'til my dying day.)  Hahaha!!!  They are seriously that good though, I wear them while standing on my feet all day long at work, and my feet aren't even tired at the end of the day.  Love them!!

I'd been hoarding these cute little green buttons for years, and they finally found their perfect home.  They were a little grungy looking at first, but after a quick wash, they looked like new again!

Hope you enjoyed this post!  Thanks for reading!