can you help put a date on this cute dress?

littlebluecottage

littlebluecottage

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Hi guys, I'm getting better at this now so I haven't been on here for a week or so!!!

I have a gorgeous candy stripe dress, I think it might be 1930s or 40s because it fastens with press studs, but I am not sure - the print is very funky - reminds me of the cool prints they had in the 1930s...

Maybe some of you guys can help?
There is no label - it looks handmade.



 
Cute print! The silouette, pleated skirt, and minimal design details don't go with 30s or 40s for me. I think it's late 50s or early 60s, and home sewn using snaps instead of the more typical zipper or buttons.
 
BTW, if you could substitute the photos for something a little smaller, that would be lovely. Try for maximum width of 500 pixels - that last photo is 859 wide and is stretching the board
 
Thank you, I have taken the last picture off, it is such a cute little dress! Any ideas on dating the fabric / print?

Also, does anyone know when bias tape is used, i know it is not used very much in home sewing anymore (although my mum does use it still!) Thanks
 
I agree with home sewn and if that's the original hem length, will go with early '60s. I think the fabric dates from then too: sweet dress and print.

Re: bias, It's been used since the Victorian era but I'll assume you mean cotton or cotton poly bias binding tape. It's seen more often from the '60s but I often use it when restoring earlier garments, especially when taking the sleeves off a dress, so if it's used here for the armholes, it may be a replacement for damaged sleeves. If it's original, that again suggests to me that the dress is '60s (if you're not sure, check the stitching and see if it's the same colour as the rest of the dress.

Nicole
 
It's a cute dress, and I would think late 50s or early 60s. Pink and blue were popular in the 50s, and I have had two candy-stripe dresses, one of which is in my personal collection, one of which has been sold. My own is, I'm sure, 50s, but the other may have been 60s. I think you would be safe with a late 50s/early 60s date. If it's handmade, the original, or not, length may not be as big a clue as it would be if the dress were commercially made. Short people, like me, would have made their skirts shorter in the 50s than would have been the style, although proportionally they would be the same. But we can't really "know" what the proportions were without seeing it on the body for whom it was made!
 
I think it's very early '60's. Dress lengths were shorter in the early '60s' than the late '50's although as Anne said since it is homemade the original owner could have been short!
 
i agree it's early 60s. those box pleated skirts were popular then. likely home sewn by someone's grandmother, who was more comfortable with older closure techniques, so used snaps instead of a zipper.
 
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