Sew for Victory - Polka Dot Blouse and Slacks

Hello all. I've finally finished my projects for the Sew For Victory sew along. My inspiration for this project came from a photo I found on My Vintage Vogue. If you love vintage fashions you need to visit this site!

Source - My Vintage Vogue

Finished blouse using mail order pattern #2588

The pattern I used was a 1940s mail order pattern for a blouse and jumper combo. I didn't make the jumper. That will probably be a project in the future.

Finished blouse using mail order pattern #2588

I used some blue and white cotton from the stash to make the blouse. And a suit wight gray wool for the slacks. The blouse went together easily and quickly. However, I discovered that I didn't have enough fabric to make the blouse the correct length so it doesn't tuck into the top of the slacks very well. At some point I will need to piece together my remaining fabric, which isn't very much, and see if I can make the blouse just a bit longer.

I used button from the stash

The slacks were a little more difficult to put together but not too bad. I used Simplicity 3322. With the exceptions of beach pajamas and lounge wear, women in the 1940s didn't really wear pants. It wasn't until WWII that more women started wearing them, and then it was mainly for work in the factories and shipyards. Women's pants in the early 1940s were modeled after men's. The waistband was at the natural waist which seems very high compared to today's fashion. They legs were cut wide with large cuffs. The cuffs disappeared when fabric rationing began.

I don't have any construction pictures of the slacks, sorry about that. The only real difficult I had with this pattern was inserting the side zipper. Not because of the directions or anything, I'm just terrible at putting in zippers. I like them less then sewing button holes. :( I also found I needed to make the slacks slightly smaller in the waist and hip area then then my listed size. To do this I adjusted the width of my side seams and made slightly larger darts at the waist.

The Facts
Blouse-
Fabric: Dark blue cotton with white polka dots from stash
Pattern: Vintage mail order pattern
Year: late 1930s or early 1940s
Notions: Buttons from stash
Wear again: yes
Time to complete: couple hours
Total cost: $2.99 for the pattern, everything came from my sewing stash

Slacks-
Fabric: Gray suit weight wool, about $2.50 a yard
Pattern: Simplicity 3322 Reproduction pattern from Vintage Fashion Library, $19.50 (Also available from Eva Dress)
Year: early 1940s
Notions: Zipper, from stash
Wear again: maybe
Time to complete: not sure, I didn't really keep track
Total cost: $25.75 A little more than I would like to have spent but now I have a good pattern I can use again.