There has been a box of magazines sitting, ignored, for a very long time in my garage. These magazines were *very stinky*, stored badly, and made my allergies go nuts, and yet I couldn’t throw them away or rehome them- at least until I had a chance to sort through them. Inside this box were some of my mom’s vintage magazines.
You see, I get my love of vintage from my mom. And while I tended to be drawn to the earlier things, like the Victorian and Edwardian era while I was finding my “vintage wings”, my mom was always into the 1940s. And so this box held her treasures. Well, some of them. I also inherited that collecting bug.
Another thing I inherited was the love of McCall’s patterns, in particular. My mom told me she would get the pattern books to cut up for paper dolls when she was a girl and the fabric stores were getting rid of them. She liked them best because the kids “had the sweetest faces”. And she grew up waiting for her mom to finish reading the McCall’s magazine because she couldn’t wait to get her hand on the Betsy McCall paper dolls! While this would have been the 50s to very early 60s, I admit my pattern collector heart yearns a bit for those outcast pattern catalogs! But I’m sure she had a load of fun cutting her own paper dolls from the pretty illustrations.
In any case, I digress. I will be showing some of the fashion illustrations my mom so lovingly bookmarked.

1948 was a particularly interesting year for fashion, in my opinion. Although fabric rationing stopped in 1945, we can make assumptions that production and restocking for the general masses played catch up- just like we have seen with supply chain issues following the Covid 19 pandemic. In February, 1947, we got the “New Look” collection by Christian Dior. Allowing time for this fashion to trickle down to the masses, and to American home sewers required a bit of time. But you can see in this image, that less than a year later, American pattern companies were touting the “full skirts” looks. Even the title, “Give these a WHIRL” would have felt like a luxury. After all, this particular spread is aimed at the teen and young adult, who grew up under the austere restrictions of wartime fashion. Imagine how luxurious a full skirt would have felt! No wonder we had a bit of romanticism for bygone fashion in the post-war years.
I love how the article mentions that not all fashions are full-skirted, and about half the fashions to be seen were still slim-skirted. But notice how the lengths are getting longer post-war, now that fabric is not being restricted. In fact, similar fashions could be seen just pre-war in the late 1930s. Its as if fashion hit a “pause” button, and then reset. And this is also why vintage sellers so often misidentify late 1940s as 1930s fashion- there were quite a lot of similarities in larger collars, lengths, and other detailing. (Here’s a hint when dating original garments- look for bust darts, that weren’t as common pre-war as they were post-war. And side snaps almost always indicate an earlier piece. Zippers were used both pre-war and post-war, but the zipper head often has more “art deco” styling in pre-war zips).
For more about these particular patterns, and pattern cover images from the collective efforts of others on the Vintage Pattern Wiki. Visit the links to find out more about the patterns.


McCall 7135– Dated 1947.


McCall 7130– Junior Dress Dated 1947.


McCall 7136– Misses Dress
Let it be known that these scans are for historic study purposes. I do not claim any ownership of these fashion plates or pattern cover images. They are provided in context of their time frame for the study of fashion history, sewing history, and added data that helps enhance the study of this fashion niche. Information given is of the original time period and may show attitudes of that era.
Kathy Fields
January 22, 2025 at 4:04 pm (2 weeks ago)Those waists are unbelievable
Nicole
February 1, 2025 at 4:09 pm (5 days ago)“In fact, similar fashions could be seen just pre-war in the late 1930s. Its as if fashion hit a “pause” button, and then reset.” Yes I have noticed this before in my fashion plate books too! The war and rationing really interrupted the way fashions were heading.