Miss Guinevere 1949

This is a project that was well over a year in the making. It started with picking up the fabric at a thrift store. It’s a nice thick wool. It didn’t have a tag on it to indicate where it came from, but in my opinion, it’s either a Pendleton wool or something very comparable to one. It seemed just right for a little girls winter dress/jumper, so I went looking for a pattern. I found this one from 1949, in a size 5. I’ve had the pattern since last year, but had to wait for Guinevere to grow into it.

Now it fits her just right. I did add a few inches to the bottom of the skirt for both warmth and to suit Guinevere’s preference for longer dresses. I gave up perfect stripe/plaid-matching in favor of having enough fabric to make up the cute little jacket to match the dress.

The back of the jacket has a lovely pleat which gives it a bit of a swing shape and plenty of ease of movement. The wool holds the pressed pleat really well.

The blouse fabric is a rayon challis out of my stash. The same piece of fabric I used for the contrast and lining for this dress. I think it fits the Sewcialists “Green December” theme quite nicely.

We took these pictures on the steps of the local library. This entrance goes to the original part of the building and isn’t used anymore, but it’s cute. You can see in the picture below the emergency exit sign on the door written in the three main local languages (English, Spanish, Russian). The library has books, newspapers, magazines, and movies in those three languages too.

It was hard to find just the right buttons for this project. I didn’t want them to get lost in all the plaid. I ended up using metallic ones out of my stash. The picture below has the jacket buttons on the left and the back jumper ones on the right. The jacket buttons were salvaged off this coat when Guinevere lost one last year. I couldn’t find just one to replace it, so had to buy four new ones to replace them all.

There was a lot of hand-sewing on this project. Not that I couldn’t have done some of it via machine, but I thought this vintage-pattern project deserved to have authentic-looking hems. I didn’t stick to vintage techniques only; most of the inside seams are finished with the serger. This shows the shoulder seam and the neck/armscye areas of the jumper. The pattern called for self-binding, but it would have been too bulky, even if I’d had enough fabric (which I didn’t).

Here’s the hem of the skirt. Hemlace attached to the bottom by machine then turned under and hand-stitched.

The blouse neckline and sleeves were also finished with bias tape and hand stitched. The jacket hem and sleeves I turned under and hand stitched down. I like how it turned out. So does Guinevere. She’s happy to have a warm winter dress.

Stashbusting stats: 23/25