Kit's blue dresses

[JuliaAM]

Kit has a blue dress with short sleeves with white cuffs and white collar in Meet Kit (Book 1), page 55. Note the blue fabric. In Kit's Surprise (Book 3) page 61, Kit is shown wearing a blue dress with long sleeves with white cuffs and white collar. Note the blue fabric.

Are the blue fabrics the same? They really look the same to me. The white cuffs and white collars make the dresses look even more similar. The only difference is the length of the sleeve and the front of the dress (the long sleeve dress is buttoned down the front.) I have some blue fabric that is very similar to Kit's but I'm not sure I'd want to make two dresses for her from the same fabric, even if they do appear in the books. I have enough fabric to make about 4 extra dresses to sell on ebay. But I can't decide which blue dresses to make.

What do you all think? Would you be inclined to get two dresses for a doll made from the same fabric but differing only slightly in style, just because they appear in the books? I don't think I would. So I'm torn between making the long sleeve dress or the short sleeve dress. I'd appreciate any input.

Julia

[moderator]

Julia...I noticed this a while back when making my page of "extra" dresses found in the books:

"Kit also has a blue dress with wide blue checking and a decorative bow, as seen on p. 55 of Meet Kit. If you purchase a yard of this material you can also make Kit's dress from Kit's Surprise on p. 61. It has a simpler construction and long sleeves instead of short, but appears to be made of the same or similar material."
http://www.angelfire.com/mi/FAST/dresses.html

I wonder if it was a mistake? There's a similar strange coincidence in Kirsten's books where she has two dresses that are exactly the same except for the cuffs. In one they are "self" cuffs of the same material as the dress, and in the other book they are white.

Maybe you could make two of each and see which one sells better (?).

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ May 06, 2003 09:55 PM: Message edited by: Melissa ]</font>

[Katie148]

Julia, I noticed this, too. Last summer I made Kit several of the extra outfits from her books and debated over which version of the blue dress to make as well. I ended up making the short-sleeved one from Meet Kit because I thought the bodice of it was much more interesting. However, most of the outfits I've made for her have short sleeves, so the long sleeved one would add some variety. Overall, though, I prefer the Meet Kit version. The v-shape trim on the bodice and the little belt at the waist look so cute!

[BETSYSLITTLESTAR]

Would it have been possible to remove the sleeves, to be able to attach long sleeves for winter and short ones for summer?
I thought maybe they did something like that back in the 30's when a girl would have to make her dresses last a long time.

[Pat B]

Perhaps Kits family was able to buy a large amount of this blue fabric at a good price. Thus they made a lot of things out of it.

[Pat B]

Kirsten's cuffs could have been ornamental and made to be detatched so that they could have been washed separately.

[QNPoohBear]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Pat B:
Kirsten's cuffs could have been ornamental and made to be detatched so that they could have been washed separately.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

yes the white collar and cuffs were removeable to make wash day easier. (See Pasttimes newsletter in my image station album)

[JuliaAM]

Thanks for the responses! That makes sense, that the collars and cuffs were removable. Flour sack fabric was used for clothing so perhaps the family had plenty of the same design. I found an ebay sale once that had real flour sack fabric of an identical design to Kit's yellow dress with little roses. Alas I lost the bid. It would be nice to think Pleasant Company pictured Kit's blue dress fabric in a genuine flour sack design.
After considering all the options, I'm going to do the short sleeve dress. Since the fabric is cotton, I think plain long sleeves might be more of a challenge to dress the doll. I think the doll arms would have to bend too far back to get into the sleeves since the top is sewn shut where it attaches to the skirt.
Making a removable collar and cuffs sounds like a great idea! I had completely forgotten about that. I have a Dover book about fashions in the 30's and there is mention of removable collars and cuffs too. I'll have to see if children wore removable collars.
Julia

[moderator]

I always thought that Kit's dresses were ones she had had before her family became poor (before the Depression affected them). Only the one her Aunt Millie makes her is said to be from sacks (chicken feed--after she gets them chickens), and at first Kit is incredibly embarassed about her aunt making her bloomers and a dress from feed sacks. Since these dresses appear in books before Aunt Millie's arrival, they aren't feed sack dresses.

Also, the dresses' constructions are too different to think that one was made from the other by modifying the sleeves. They're definitely two different dresses! I think the long sleeve one would be easier to make, so that's probably the one I would sew if I end up making one of these (I'm having a hard time finding the fabric I want for her two outfits that I like best (p. 10 of Happy Birthday, Kit! and p. 41 of Meet Kit)).

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ May 08, 2003 10:02 AM: Message edited by: Melissa ]</font>

[JuliaAM]

Melissa, that dress on page 41 in Meet Kit is one of my favorites too! That's the yellow with little pinkish/red roses fabric that I saw on ebay but lost the bid. The yellow no doubt is much lighter than pictured because the girls are under the porch so shadow makes the yellow look much darker. The artist did a good job at that. I did find a small roll of scrap fabric (yellow with roses) at JoAnn's over a year ago that is quite close to the fabric pictured. I haven't drafted the pattern for the yellow dress yet because I'm working on the blue dress first.

I made the pattern for Kit's orange dress (page 26 Meet Kit) and sewed a sample from scrap fabric. It turned out pretty close to the one in the book. I'll finish that dress after I make the blue dress. Then do the yellow dress.
Julia