In the Days of Seamstresses

 When I posted about 'homemade dresses' in the past, several people commented that they too had mothers who made their dresses.  My mother was the 4-H sewing leader who taught many local girls how to sew.  One of those local girls stopped Mother on the street in Pratt years later to thank her for her training.  She thrilled Mother by describing the beautiful things she had made, remembering the lessons she had learned in those 4H classes.

This blog shares a particular gown mother made for me.  It began with a picture in Life Magazine, although I did not know that at the time.  The picture below, or one similar, was what inspired my mother.

Jackie Kennedy's Wedding dress

Look very closely at the details of the dress, particularly the circles on the skirt.  That is what Mother saw that inspired her. 

Jackie was young and glamorous, and John Kennedy's brother-in-law was a movie star.  Both Jack and Jackie fit in well with the glamorous movie stars of that era.  

A  Jackie Kennedy doll dressed in her wedding gown.

Jackie appeared on magazine covers, and when she traveled the photographers followed her.  Her fashion choices were admired and copied.  John Kennedy followed President Truman (1845-1953) and President Eisenhower (1953-1961), both older men with older wives during their Presidencies, and having a handsome, younger couple in the White House brought publicity unlike the press coverage of their predecessors.   

The author in her first prom dress.

All of which brings me to the explanation for this blog--how my first prom dress, designed and made by my mother, was inspired by the First Lady's wedding dress.  If you look very closely, you may see that my mother ruffled yards and yards of net, cut into narrow strips, stitched on one side to be ruffled, and then sewn round and round to imitate the circles on the skirt of Jackie's wedding dress. The dress was strapless, unlike Jackie's and there were no rows around the bottom of the dress, nor was the fabric of my dress expensive silk, but when I left for the prom I wore a Pauline Beck Original, inspired by the First Lady's wedding gown.  I think perhaps mother may have added her own designer's touch by putting a tiny silk flower in the center of each circle.  I don't recall that detail, but in the black & white photograph there seems to be some ornament in the center of the circles. 

Bravo! to all the seamstresses in the past.  Today the wonderful fabric shops and the abundant fabric choices in the big department stores have disappeared, (along with many of the old department stores themselves).  The very idea of making your own clothing has nearly disappeared.  But once, every creative seamstress could be a designer.