mala_14 | 1942 Robin Hood

The Challenge: Fairytale: I chose Robin Hood because I had this fantastic green linen sitting in my stash from last year. Conveniently fancyfrocks tells me that the Robin Hood movie from the late 30s spawned a trend for Robin Hood-style clothing. I suppose this could also potentially be a 1940s Peter Pan. There is a long history of Peter being played by a woman. (The hat is one I made for my boyfriend a couple Halloweens ago when he was fox Robin Hood from the Disney movie.)

Fabric: 100% linen (from Sewfisticated in Boston!)

Pattern: McCall 4859

Year: 1942

Notions: Thread (cotton and silk), zipper, buttons with a pretty flower/star on them

How historically accurate is it? The pattern is an original, the fabric is legit for the era, I even sewed the buttonholes by hand!, the only things modern are the zipper (which is plastic) and the length could probably be a couple inches longer, so I'm going with 99% accurate.

Hours to complete: No idea. I'm really bad at this category. I worked on it every couple of days for an hour or 2

First worn: Today for photos. I won't be able to actually wear in until the weather stops being below freezing and the snow maybe goes away. (So maybe in May? ;p)

Total cost: Fabric and pattern were both great deals, so altogether probably about $18.

Things to note: I did handsewn buttonholes for the first time as I continue to add skills to my sewing arsenal. They aren't all perfect, but overall pretty good. I couldn't find appropriate buttonhole twist and ended up using regular silk sewing thread, so we'll see how that holds up. Also, this linen wrinkles like mad. I ironed the dress before putting it on and it was wrinkled by the time I got it done up. Ridiculous! Oh well. Other than that, I'm super happy with the fit of this dress. Vintage patterns seem to fit me almost perfectly out of the envelope (when they are a size smaller than what I should get. These patterns still have ease). The only thing I need to adjust is to add about an inch to the waist and shorten the skirts.