History of Fashion & Dress
1948 Wedding Dress, Construction Details
The separate pull-on sleeves have narrow elastic at the upper edge.  Incredibly, the elastic is still good after 55 years, and there is only one place, about 1/2 inch, where the elastic casing is pulling apart.  The sleeves were held closed at the wrist with a single snap.
In the picture on the right, the three elbow shaping darts and the French seam are clearly visible.
Right side out, sleeve ruffle
Inside sleeve hem/ruffle joining
Hem details
Hem detail from the right side.  I am always amazed at how neat and even my grandmother's hand stitching was, but then, she made beautiful quilts,
as did her mother.
Another view of the inside hem, showing the French side seam.  I do not know if the triangular piece was part of the original parachute or if it, too, was pieced together.  The stitching at the seam is very fine.  In either case, the workmanship is incredible.
This is the wide inside hem, showing where the fabric had to be pieced together.
        After World War II, it was hard to get nice wedding gown fabric, and on a rural farm in upstate Pennsylvania, there was not a lot of money for fancy fabric. My mother and grandmother were able to get a surplus parachute, and my grandmother was a talented seamstress.  I still have one of the quilts and a stuffed toy that she made for me when I was  small .

         On a shopping expedition to the city, my mom saw a dress in a window that she really liked. My grandmother was able to remember and copy it for my parent�s wedding.  In addition to the wedding dress, my grandmother made the bridesmaid�s dresses of the same material.

         My grandmother started work on this dress using her treadle machine.  I don�t know how old the treadle machine was, but it gave up the ghost in the middle of making my mom�s dress, and the bridesmaid�s dresses.  It was at this time that Grandma got her first and last electric sewing machine�a Singer Featherweight that was still going strong enough for me to take it to college almost 25 years later.  On the inside of the dress, I can see evidence of where Grandma worked some of the stitching by hand until she got the new Featherweight.

         My father had graduated from Brown University during the week before their wedding.  His landlady asked him, �What are you doing for the 4th of July weekend?�  �Getting married.�, he replied.  She didn�t believe him.   After returning from their Williamsburg area honeymoon, they took the train to Providence to work at Brown. They lived in Rhode Island 18 years. Their first apartment on Providence�s East Side had one room on each of three floors! (That didn�t last long.)  They returned to their home state of Pennsylvania on their 18th wedding anniversary, Mom's wedding dress still carefully packed in her trunk.

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