A 1950s Dress at the Beach – Vogue 9114 Pattern Review

1950s Dress at the Beach

I made this 1950s dress last fall in anticipation of my England costume tour, and you might remember seeing it (albeit topped with a lavender lace bolero) in this blog post about my visit to The Ritz for tea and to the Victoria & Albert Museum.  It was a marvelous dress to wear around London, but I thought that without the bolero it would look just as at home on the beach!

Thinking back to when I wore it at the V&A, I remember that people commented that I looked like I was part of the costume exhibit.  You can’t quite tell in the two above photos, but with the huge crinoline petticoat underneath the skirt was ginormous!

Vogue 9114

Vogue Pattern #9114 caught my eye right away because of the beautiful floral print on the dress and the oversized sunhat!  What distinguishes this design from your average 1950s dress pattern are the very unusual diagonal tucks under the bust, the square neckline, and the buttons down the front.  It also has the loveliest ribbon bow hanging down the front that looks so elegant and feminine.

When choosing my materials, I picked a fabric whose print was as close to the pattern cover as possible, only in lavender instead of rosy pink.  And pearl buttons were exactly what I had in mind with this print!

Pattern Review

On a scale of 1-5, I would probably give this pattern a 4.5.  It is slightly trickier to sew than a standard 1950s dress, but the finished results are well worth the effort.  The only thing I wasn’t particularly fond of was how huge the waist was.  I had to take the waist in about 3 inches I believe, and even then it wasn’t quite fitted enough.  Of course, I do like my bodices to fit snugly so that it makes the contrast greater between the skirt and the bodice.  The tucks/darts were a tiny bit challenging, but they certainly were fun once I got them to lay properly!

I chose to omit the short sleeve just because it would not have worked to wear the lace bolero over it otherwise, but if it wasn’t for that reason I think the short sleeve would be just adorable!

So without further ado, here are some of my favorite photos taken on a very windy day at the beach!

 For all the beach pictures, you can’t quite see the effects of the crinoline petticoat underneath because the wind was blowing so hard.  So you’ll just have to take my word for it that this skirt really *is* much fuller when it’s not all windy.  Also, because this fabric is a twill, the heavier weight pulls the skirt down instead of fluffing out as much as something thinner would.

So there you have it!  Vogue 9114 worked really well with this fabric, I think, and I may have to make one of the longer sleeve versions for fall…

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Till next time!

Katrina