Accurate clothing for the mid-fifties Please help!!

I did talk to my mother earlier and she said she only had 3 dresses and you're right, she did not wear pants to school. She had to walk a mile to school everyday and wore pants under her dresses and had to take them off when she got to school. She said she had a poodle dress and saddle shoes. She wore a plain white blouse with a brown straight skirt and she wore a dress similar to one of dollies dressmakers creations. I plan to get her that and a poodle dress. I'm having so much fun learning about my mom's childhood!

Simplicity has a pattern drafted from actual doll clothes designed in 1959. The number is Simplicity 4347.

What a terrific idea! AGOT 21's eyes seem like a dark greenish brown to me. I will post a pic in a second.

Try using Google's image search, and typing in the year.You should find lots of help like that.

Are there any photos of her from that time?

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ March 04, 2006 12:05 PM: Message edited by: American_Mommy ]</font>

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...4/25b5a72d.jpg

By dark green, I mean not bright green, like Felicity's. They are lighter than Samantha's brown eyes. I once saw a Ebay seller describe them as having "wheat colored" flecks in them. I think that is pretty accurate.

EDIT: Looking up old sewing patterns from he 1950's is a good idea too. http://www.angelfire.com/pq/petal/party.html

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ March 04, 2006 12:23 PM: Message edited by: American_Mommy ]</font>

AGT 21 eyes are more like mine. I think Mom's are more green, blue, silver. I requested pics of her when she was a child so I'll know for sure. Thank you, American_Mommy.

ETA: dolliesdressmaker has some dresses like the patterns you sent me that she made for Molly. Yippee! Thanks again!

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ March 04, 2006 12:30 PM: Message edited by: Ashley's Mommy ]</font>

GREAT! I PM'ed you too.

minidolls.com has a book listed as "Clothing from the Sear's Catalog" for each decade. Look under books (duh) when you get there. Don't know if you are interested or not. I will also try to look up a retro pattern site I found which has some original patterns for sale.

I had a heather gray poodle skirt with a pink poodle on it. The shirts had to have a small silk scarf tied around to neck too. don't forget that detail!

I made a doll for my mom for Christmas. The dress was copied from a picture of my mom at Christmas-time in 1961 (when she was 9 years, 2 months old).

There are pictures of the doll and the original photo in this album. They start at #21, go through 35 and also include pictures of my mom's other three AGs. I plan to make her an outfit for lots of occassions, like Easter (white with straw bonnet, little purse and gloves), Fourth of July (a red cordouroy short jumper with a plaid collar), Halloween, back to school, etc. All will be based from the zillions of photos at my grandma's.

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...5230967&idx=21

She was really shocked when she saw it. She said the dress is exact; so did my grandma. Turns out the dress has a cute story to go along with it too. I didn't know it ahead of time. About a month after Chrismtas, the family went to a movie, and my uncle George (the cute little guy in the photo-- he looks the same now, only taller) spilled an orange pop all over my mom. It ruined that dress. I thought it was neat that I had selected a dress, without even knowing, that has memories other than just Christmas attached to it.

I picked up the pattern that was mentioned above, and it has some really adorable dresses. Joann's is having a $1.99 Simplicity sale right now.

Can't wait to see how your project turns out!

Quote:

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Originally posted by JeanieD:
Jeannette, you and I were posting at the exact time about the sugar-water for crinolines!

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You know what they say about great minds!!!

Quote:

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Originally posted by Geneobug:
I had a heather gray poodle skirt with a pink poodle on it. The shirts had to have a small silk scarf tied around to neck too. don't forget that detail!

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">My poodle skirt was the exact same color as yours! I wore it (over the sugar starched crinoline) with either a white blouse with short puffed sleeves and a peter pan collar, or a pink short sleeved sweater. And if the scarf was not around my neck, it was tied around my pony tail! [img]wink.gif[/img]