Vintage Wedding Gowns: Sew One For Your Own

These are a few of the most popular wedding gown styles to walk through a church or movie setting. Dating from the 1950's, they have style and grace. Designing and sewing a wedding gown is fun, yet daunting! Starting with a classic like these can help to focus on a look that has drama with a classic twist.

From Top to Bottom:

Audrey Hepburn: "Funny Face", 1957, gown by Givenchy

Grace Kelly: marriage to Prince Rainier III, of Monaco, April 1956, gown by Helen Rose

Liz Taylor: marriage to Conrad Hilton, 1950 and "Father of the Bride", 1950, gown by Helen Rose

Jacqueline Kennedy: marriage to John F. Kennedy, 1953, gown by Ann Lowe, New York

Make it Yours:

The 1950's home sewing patterns shown here are collectable and often difficult to locate. But take a close look. You may recognize the style lines in other more available gown patterns from the 1980's forward. More recently, the popular gown worn by Princess Grace has inspired variations, and several are now available from the pattern companies as listed in the lower slides.



1950's sewing patterns seen in the top slide, from left to right: McCall's 6605, Simplicity 4511, McCall's 9677.

Royal Wedding Gown: Vintage Inspirations

1950's Wedding Gowns are a source of inspiration for current trends in wedding styles. The royal wedding gown showed this with its lovely lace jacket worn over a classic sweet heart neckline, strapless gown. Most reviews point out the connection between the Grace Kelly gown with its own lace bodice, but a review of current vintage gowns for sale on Etsy.com shows many versions of this style.

Sewing patterns are perfect if you want to create your own version of a lace bodice. You'll notice that many have higher necklines, prim and proper for the bride in 1950! The handmade gown could use a modern sewing pattern for the strapless dress, but a vintage pattern for the lace over-bodice. By using both, a well fit style is possible for a modern figure who may not fit the tiny 1950 waistline.

If the bride wants to re-capture a true vintage look, there's nothing like a gown from that era. Shown here are some of the many lace bodice gowns available on Etsy. Necklines can vary from high to a wide cut with lace edging, as most have here. These are so flattering because they widen the shoulder line, making the waistline appear more narrow. This creates the perfect hour glass silhouette.

Not getting married this summer? Well, wouldn't it be fun to use this inspiration to sew up a summer cocktail dress with matching lace jacket? Another more easy option would be to make a black lace jacket to wear over an existing little black dress that you already own. Those long black lace sleeves would be gorgeous!

(See better details: Click on slides to see them in full size)