Edelweiss Patterns Donna Reed’s Charleston Dress – It’s a Wonderful Life Costume Reproduction
It is quite possibly the most beloved Christmas film of all times. It’s a Wonderful Life is as much an American holiday tradition as roast turkey or Christmas shopping. Between the timeless storyline, the 1940s costumes, old-fashioned “Bedford Falls”, and the superb acting, it’s no wonder the movie eventually became a quintessential classic.
As always, my favorite part of any movie is the costumes. And my favorite costume from It’s a Wonderful Life is without a doubt the floaty chiffon dress that Mary Hatch (Donna Reed) wore during the high school dancing scene! Mary’s blue dress was simply perfect for the 1928 Charleston dance scene, though it is perhaps a bit inaccurate to the time period (more on that later on).
Last week I showed you the sewing and research process for this costume, but this week I want to show you the actual finished outfit!
The basic elements of the costume are as follows: A strapless sweetheart neck bodice is overlaid with chiffon, and the neckline is finished with a narrow chiffon ruffle that ends in a “v” in front. The “v” neckline is trimmed with three small paper flowers (I attached these to a separate pin for easy removal when the garment needs to be washed.)
The delicate chiffon sleeves are double layered, and narrowly hemmed. The bodice ends in a “v” in both front and back, and at the top of the skirt begins multi-tiered ruffles that end just below the skirt hem.
You can see a comparison of the two bodices above and below:
~ Okay! Classic Christmas movie trivia! Did you know that the kid who plays Mary’s “date” on the right side of this picture is the grown up “Alfalfa” from Little Rascals? And did you further know that he also had a cameo appearance in White Christmas as the brother of the two Haynes sisters? (You remember, when Bing Crosby said, “He always was a good looking kid” after looking at the snapshot that Judy (Vera Ellen) hands him?) So “Alfalfa” ended up being in two of the most classic Christmas movies of all time, even though he did very little acting in either one. ~
Here’s a back shot from the film as well as one of the dress:
Historical Authenticity
As I mentioned earlier, the fit of this costume was not at all authentic to the year in which in was set (1928). Costume designer Edward Stevenson did a superb job designing Donna Reed’s costumes to look lovely on her, but apparently he wasn’t too concerned about making something period-correct. I have a great respect for his work because he also costumed most seasons of “I Love Lucy”! But back in the 1940s and 1950s, it was extremely common for costume designers to choose fashions that would have appealed to the then-modern audience, instead of what would have actually been worn in the time period. For instance, in The Glenn Miller Story, (1954) actress June Allyson was wearing a 1950s striped circle skirt during a scene set in pre-WWII America. LOL! Similarly, Donna Reed appeared in The Benny Goodman Story (1956), wore the most obviously 1950s dresses for scenes that took place in 1942 and before…
So what would Mary’s dancing dress have looked like if it had really been worn in the late 1920s? Well, this pattern (dated from the late 20s) shows many similar elements, but the main difference is the fit. The 1920s/flapper era was infamous for shapeless bodices that bore little resemblance to the hourglass figure of the earlier Edwardian era. Because women were trying to rebel against “traditional” women’s clothing, they sadly wore things which were not flattering, and often downright frumpy. So I’m actually glad that Edward Stevenson did not go with the silhouette from back then!
For much more research, including information I received from actress Karolyn Grimes who played “Zuzu Bailey” in the original film, be sure to read my post from last week! It also explains why blue might be the most likely color for the film costume, even though we don’t know for sure what the original dress looked like.
And one final comparison shot:
I wish you all the merriest Christmas season! And if you sew as well, don’t forget to join our Christmas Dress Blog Party in a couple of weeks. I’d love to see all the different holiday dresses that everyone comes up with.
Happy holidays!
Katrina
That is great! It is a movie we watch every year and your dress is a perfect replica!
Oh my. You did an absolutely stunning job on this dress!! It is beautiful in every way, and looks exactly like Donna Reed’s dress! Beautiful, amazing job!!! 🙂
It’s absolutely beautiful Katrina!!
I think this is my favorite Christmas movie.
Where is the video of you doing the charleston?
One of your best reproductions yet! It is a very pretty dress, Katrina. And it looks wonderful on you!
I enjoyed the video!
You’re a good dancer! 🙂
Dear Katrina, the dress is beautiful! (I have just come across your site whilst searching for fabric online, and I love your creations!) I do have a question, though. In the ruffles on the original dress, it looks to me like they are single layers with crisp cut edges (or finished edges possibly) but you have a doubled layer. Was that just so that you didn’t have yards and yards of finishing to do!? Also, do you think that if the original does have cut edges, the frill strips could have been cut on the bias? Hope you don’t mind me picking your brains, but you do sound as though you’ve done a lot of research on costumes!
God bless.
Hi Elizabeth!
So glad you enjoyed the site! From everything I could tell, the ruffles were definitely doubled over and gathered the way I sewed it. I spent hours and hours scrutinizing the images and clips from the film, and that’s the way the ruffles looked to me. Thankfully because Donna Reed moves around so much in the scene I was able to see the ruffles in from several different angles, and even though it took a lot more fabric to make the folded over ruffles the way I did, I knew I had to in order to be true to the original design. So it was certainly not to “cut corners” that I did it this way! 🙂 When I’m recreating a film costume I try to do it absolutely as close to the original as possible, no matter how much longer it will take. Of course if the original costume was still around I would have been able to look at that up close (at least in photographs), but in the absence of that I tried to go with what it looked like on screen. Thank you for the comment!
Happy sewing!
Katrina
Beautiful dress!! Are you going to sell the pattern at some point??
Hello, Coral,
Hmm! Well, I have it on my to-do list, but I’m just not quite sure when I will get a chance… Maybe by this Christmas?
Thanks for asking!
Katrina
[…] I also replicate a costume from a classic Christmas movie – last year I sewed Mary’s dancing dress from It’s a Wonderful Life, and the year before that I drafted and sewed the blue dress from […]