Sewing my own ballgown

When I was a child, my mother made most of my clothes. She had learned to sew from her mother. Soon I was helping, stitching the seams on a new piece of clothing my mother was making. That’s how I learned to sew, and did so in earnest in my teens. This was the early 1950’s, and sewing my own clothes was more a necessity than a hobby, a very time consuming task. – First pattern books were scanned in the fabric store, and a pattern chosen, for me a difficult choice, since I had learned that not everything looked as good on me as on the models in the pattern books. Choosing the fabric was much easier since the store had a large selection of good fabrics, but I had to stay within my budget. – Now at home the job could begin.

1. The dining room table pulled out to it’s full length, the material spread out, the pattern pinned to it, and the layout carefully checked before the fabric was cut.
2. Next the pieces were pinned, then stitched together with basting thread.
3. At the first try-on adjustments were made, especially the sleeves needed to be well fitted before the sewing machine was put into action.

The end of season ball was approaching and I needed a long dress. My girlfriend and I had enrolled as 16-year olds at the local dance school to learn ballroom dancing in a class just for teenagers. The dressmaking was started three months in advance, after all, I was not a professional of this craft.

In this photo, dated March 1954, I am wearing the finished product, posing in the garden at home. I have no photo from the ball, so I am glad about this photo of me as a 17 year old in my ballgown.

Soon after the ball I shortened the dress and wore it to the Sunday afternoon “tea dances”, which were held in the grand ballroom downtown, a live band playing on stage. It was a very popular place for us young adults to practice our new steps.

My girlfriend didn’t make her own ball gown. Her mother regularly hired a dressmaker who came to people’s homes to do her job. Myself, I stopped sewing my own clothes once I could afford to pay for a dressmaker. It was only much later, in the late 1950’s, that I would buy a ready made dress. – Times were changing.