I recently purchased the most lovely dress and coat pattern.  It is a 1940 DuBarry 5015 original pattern.  Can’t you just see yourself wearing this outfit?  So pretty.

What caught my eye were the unusual sleeves and yoke treatment on the dress.  Also, the coat pattern is an absolute treat!  I will be making the coat at a later date.

My inspiration for my dress came from this picture:

I absolutely love everything about this outfit.  The sleeve is unique in its shape and the contrasting piping brings out the color of the stems perfectly.

This is the fabric for my project:

This 100% cotton reproduction cotton has a black background with white, gray, apple green and red flowers.

Just like in the original, I wanted to include piping in the seams, which I hand made and applied to the yoke piece.

When I pinned the fronts to the back though, the bodice looked a little too “country”.  I ended up getting rid of the piping and proceeded without.

Outside and inside of front piece:

Cut out sleeve:

Inside and outside of sleeve:

Front and back with yoke (the yoke is part of the back piece):

After joining bodice to the skirt, it was time to install the zipper.

A zipper on a 1940’s dress:

• join the skirt to the bodice, but do a loose machine stich in the waist area (the future zipper opening) and press the seams open.
• on the inside, put the closed zipper on top of the seam and baste it into place.
• sew using a zipper foot close to the “teeth”.
• undue the loose stitching and voila! You have a beautiful, invisible zipper.

Here are some pictures of this process:

The pins mark the length of the loose stitches.  Left side of the dress picture is the top, the right is the skirt.

Zipper basted in place. (if you trust your abilities, you can use pins instead of basting, but my zipper foot and I are not on the best of terms, and things always shift out of place when just held with pins.)

I sewed the zipper with a zipper foot, close to the “teeth”, all the way around the top and bottom.

After successfully sewing the zipper into place, I turned the dress right side out and carefully cut the loose stitches of the bodice side.

Here is the zipper:

1940’s style belt.

The belt is one piece of fabric folded in half (about 36″ x 3″).  I sandwiched interfacing between to stiffen the belt.  I love to use original accessories in my garments, so I added a vintage Bakelite slide buckle.

The final touch – thread loops to hold the belt in place.  I took a picture of an original dress from my collection:

 My handmade belt loops

On each side of the dress waist, I used button hole thread and made two loops about an inch apart.

With the same thread, I began to work buttonhole stiches along these two loops.

I worked them along the entire length of looped threads from one side to the other.

My finished belt loop:

Finished dress: