1930's silk dress re-made into 1940's?

[Pinkcoke]

Bit of guesswork going on here with this one, I was told it was 1940's which I can certainly see with the small moon like shoulder pads but the detail at the bottom looks to me like it has been done later to shorten the dress and change it's overall design - see the stitch line above the zig zags? it doesn't make sense that this wouldn't match the fold line. It also has an interesting wadding/padding material in the 'quilted' design I guess you could say.
I'm wondering if this could have been a longer 30's dress first, the diamante buttons as well seem a bit glitzy for the 40's design.
It has very very puffed sleeves with a wide turnup but these need work - what is the best method for de-creasing these?

 

[Jonathan]

I think you are absolutely right and this started off as a mid-late 1930s evening dress, maybe 1937ish. However, I wonder if it wasn't buggered with in the 1970s. That length and being redyed - there is just something about it that looks thrifty hippy to me - the remake doesn't look polished enough to me for it to have been done in the 40s.

 

[Pinkcoke]

No agree the alterations are pretty horrible (though I assume irreversible with that amount of stitching), interesting that you say it was dyed, what colour do you think it was before?

 

[Jonathan]

I bet it was white, or off white.