When I saw the pattern above, I thought "Oh! That's my eighth grade dress!!" I no longer have the dress, but it is the one I am wearing in my school photo from that year. (I looked ALL OVER for that picture and still haven't found it - GRRR!)
I also found two different sewn versions pictured in one of my Seventeen magazines! Pink polka-dotted fabric from Sears, here:
And a pretty yellow floral version, worn here by Susan Blakely (that's Lucy Angle next to her). They're shown made out of fabrics from Penneys in this advertisement:
We couldn't afford to shop for very many new clothes, but what we COULD do is buy patterns, and pick out our own fabric, either from a catalog or at our wonderful fabric shop downtown in Placerville, The Quality Shop. Oh, how we loved perusing those pattern catalogs! As you see below, you could "Make it for $3.37". I'm not sure what a store-bought dress cost back then - but I know it was more than that!
I'm pretty sure that Lori probably made my dress for me. With money I earned from baby-sitting, I used to pay her to sew for me since I was not very good at it. My version was closest to the one on the right that you see pictured on the cover of the pattern at the top of this post. Mine had long sleeves, made out of cotton or a cotton/poly blend with brightly colored flowers on a black background.
I loved that dress, and I guess that's why it was the one I chose to wear on picture day!
(If I ever find that darned picture, I will post it - even though you can barely see the dress!)
Great dress! My sister made a new dress for me for every dance in junior high. She was my fashion consultant and I worried so when it was time for her to go away to college. Who would tell me what to wear when she was gone? I loved those huge bins of patterns and all the fun fabric. Thanks for the memories Heidi.
ReplyDeleteI have that same pattern somewhere. In my size of course! So cute. I remember your dress. I love McCall's! Great post. Hope you find the picture. Love T
ReplyDeleteI love them. I think I would wear that dress today... but maybe with leggings under it. ;0)
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