My Plan of Action -Sew For Victory A Peak Into 1942 Fashion

I'm going to a sewing retreat and so excited to meet some wonderful ladies who love vintage patterns like I do.  So, this will be my last entry before I return.  I had all these grand plans of multiple muslins and things to do but life got in the way.  I'm hoping I can just get through one muslin and wing the rest while I am there.

I decided that I would also like to try and make something for Sew For Victory.  I'm not going to formally put my name in the bin until after the retreat, in case it ends up not being the direction I take but I thought I'd share my plan of action.


Sew For Victory is such a fun event and the historical nature of this event very much appeals to me.  I like the idea of seeing all of you lovely stitchers embellishing the moments and thinking about the 1940s.   I thought I would also take on a historical perspective to this event too.

Here is my plan, I'm not sure how it will unfold but my thoughts are to create a blouse from 1942 and to try and be within the perimeters of fabric usage of the period for one of the attempts on the blouse.     My main goal is to be within the "feel" of the Advance Pattern Book I'm going to showcase below and you will see why when you see the pages of this gem.

So how perfect could this reference magazine (pamphlet) be for Sew For Victory?


Of course upon receiving this book, I attempted to see if I could find the exact patterns to some of the illustrations in the book.   It is so interesting to see all the different textures and since this book is closed from daylight, these swatches are just as you imagine the fabric to have been like in 1942.

If some of you ladies haven't yet selected your fabric, maybe this might also help.

"Patterned For Victory"

I love the print on this one:

How interesting is this?  Actual stocking samples from 1942.  They actually feel better than a lot of the stockings today.

Here is an example of the blouse I would like to make (center).  I'd also like to use similar fabric.  I'm going to go with the blue polka dot as in the illustration.

I very much wanted to do the same blouse above but it isn't available.  So, I found a similar Advance blouse pattern, which I will work with.  Funny thing is after I bought it on ebay, which wasn't much, I found that I already had this blouse pattern in my stash that I'd forgotten about.

After finding the blouse pattern for Advance, I stumbled upon the Vogue Special Design in an auction.  I don't know if it is possible to make this pattern for myself since it is two sizes too small but I figured it was worth looking into.  The directions were quite frail in nature so I copied them.  But, my goodness, "Holy Day of Seamstresses", does it make it look complicated.  

Doesn't the blouse and swing pants look grand?  Hey guess what, it's 1942 as well.  Coincidence?

So, yes, I decided to see if the fabric for the blouse above might be floating around.  And, I stumbled upon an auction ending in a couple of hours for 1940s cotton fabric kind of similar in pattern.  Coincidence?  I'm thinking this blouse is just calling my name to be made.  I won 3 yards of this lovely vintage cotton fabric for only $18 (including shipping).  Great deal.  I'm taking the pattern with me to my sewing retreat and hopefully I can get some of it deciphered and see if it is at all possible to make because I do certainly have use for a pair of swing pants.

Here are some other pages that were loose within the Advance Pattern Book.  As you can see most of the pages of the Advance Pattern Book were larger than my scanner, but it does give you a good feel for the period and such a great item to reference too.