Age of this dress?

[Joji Furukawa]

I found this vintage dress but I'm not sure how old it is because it is homemade.. The fabric feels like cotton, it has gold printing on one side. Side metal zipper and button on the skirt. The skirt has an odd addition to make it fuller, on one side they added another semi circle fabric panel. Hem is hand sewn. No info on the selvedge of the fabric but I noticed that there aren't any little holes that usually are there. Is this vintage or more modern? Also, how would you tie the two long tails? Thank you!

 

[cozmicstar]

I'm going for late 50s early 60s on this - I have a very similar print in a more 60s styled dress but the zip and style of this feel a bit earlier. Take what I say with a pinch of salt because I'm not nearly as experienced as the others here so I look forward to hearing what they say. BTW it's a fab dress! Very Hawaiian.

 

[poppysvintageclothing]

That is lovely, I would say 50s on this one as it appears to have a bit of train at the back and I would think the ties should come around the front.

 

[Joji Furukawa]

Thank you cozmicstar and Mary Jane! In my search, I've found a ton of examples of this dress dating to the 1940s-1950s. This one is from Better Dresses Vintage (super beautiful) and the construction is almost identical down to the handsewn button hole! She also has another example but in different fabric. I'm guessing this was a fairly popular style/pattern? I think I've seen 5 examples in total!

 

[Pinkcoke]

Given you found another unlabelled example with different notions used, I'd suggest these dresses were home made from a pattern that was available. Some may well be from the original period the pattern was issued (it would help to find the pattern to get the earliest possible date) but to determine the age of your dress for sure you'd need to examine the sewing techniques used as if it was made today with vintage material and notions it could look very similar. If the seams were overlocked 1950's overlocking does look different to modern overlocking for example. The thread might be cotton or polyester (the latter would suggest a later manufacturing date). Please provide as many photos as possible of these points.

 

[Joji Furukawa]

Hi Melanie, these are the pictures I have currently, I'll grab some more this afternoon. There is quite a bit of hand stitching, the hem was hand done and the thread used is a thick brown cotton. The thread used on the machine looks like cotton, it has a really silk like sheen. I have a picture of a handsewn seam that goes all the way down the skirt and a picture of the machine thread. None of the seams are overlocked. I would definitely love to see the original pattern, the earliest image of this style of dress I could find is this one from 1949 by Couture Allure.

 

[Pinkcoke]

That's a great period reference photo.
I have to say I would not be convinced from the stitching alone this was a period piece. The red machine stitching is hastily done - going back and forth over the end of the line is a easy way to avoid tying off a line of stitching properly and in this instance they haven't even cut the excess thread off. The hand sewing over the top in a totally different colour (most bizarely) is also the quickest and most crude way to sew a hem - usually an invisible method would be used.
As someone who does make their own clothes - generally you spend the most time on your own pieces making sure they are the best they possibly could be - unless you're in a real push for a deadline or it's a costume (which is a possibility) where such details will not be seen from afar and time is more important than finish.
Lastly the cut edge of the fabric is not remotely frayed and still very fresh despite being unbound. As such I'd be inclined to believe this dress was made up recently.
You can cut the long threads of the machine stitching and do a burn test on them to determine their fibre content, as polyester thread also looks silky. The result can not be definitive on the date of the dress however, as a home sewer's sewing box will often contain a variety of threads from the last 50 years or so (these things usually being inherited or often picked up second hand) it must be taken into account on balance with the rest of the facts.

Do you have any photos of the selvedge? does it vary anywhere (unprinted areas, colour reference dots etc.)

 

[Joji Furukawa]

Melanie, the handsewn seam is invisible on the outside as is the hemming, which they put quite a bit of effort into. First they machined along the selvedge and they hand sewed to hide it on the inside. The intent was to make the seam more invisible, it makes no sense to handstitch an excessively long seam when they could have machine sewn it unless they wanted to use thicker thread to make it more secure. This was done where they added extra panels for a wider skirt. The selvedge has no holes or colour reference numbers, it's just plain. I added a picture of the hand sewn seam from the outside and honestly it looks almost the same as the machine stitched seam on the other side with just a bit more thickness. But they did put effort into it, at least to make it less visible. Also, I added a picture of the selvedge.