I’ve been trying to figure out why the women on this maternity dress pattern look so depressed. I’ve decided the Italian beauty on the left, Belladonna Frownovanni, is worried about what her boyfriend is going to think:
"I’m a gonna tella Frankie that I’ma knocked-upa but what if he adumps me? Ifa little Primo doesn’t have a papa I’m agonna die-a!"
Belladonna’s white bread friend in pigtails is sympathetic but she too is Knocked-Up In The 1940’s and has her own problems. Also, one of those freaking Lilliputian women is hanging around, probably pregnant with a teeny tiny Lilliputian spawn, but we have already enough to worry about without her.
Bear in mind, gentle readers, that the dresses shown here are maternity clothes. And to that all I can say is….ouch. No wonder everyone looks so damn sad.
You have one of the funniest blogs I have seen in a long time. Keep it up! I’ll never look at a pattern the same again
Well, yes, those tiny little maternity clothes are uncomfortable, but they do keep the fetus trim, svelte, and stylish.
Maybe the huge shoulder ruffles are there to visually balance out the preganant belly.
Except that these women have no bellies. Maybe they look so depressed because they are wearing maternity clothes in the hope that they will become pregnant.
It doesn’t say anywhere on there that it is maternity so why do we think they are?
It has “maternity” on the back of the pattern, that’s why we think that.
But really, you mean you can’t tell those chicks are pregnant just from looking at them?
what if the ruffles come off with snap tape or velcro to reveal a nursing panel? Oh, it would be perfect!
Wow! A 3-D pattern! This was years before the movie “Bwana Devil.”
Actually, I think “Bwana Devil” also describes this pattern and the movie might have been adapted from it.
It’s the 40s, so the expectant mother needs to be smoking a non-filtered Lucky.
It was ironic that a stuck up skank like Glynnis would choose to adorn herself in cherries when there she stood so obviously in a family way wondering which of the Eta Bitta Pi boys had stolen hers during yet another of her drunken stupors. Damn those beer bongs anyway!
I know I know!!! I actually have this pattern and I wondered the same thing, and the reason is, it’s a teen maternity pattern! Not supposed to be happy to be a knocked up teen.
It is curious. Maybe it’s all because of another man, and they’re all living with a pimp, but he was out so they went with another man. He somehow got them all pregnant.
Those are MATERNITY DRESSES??? No freakin’ way!! I’m sure there was some kind of 1940s taboo against showing pregnant women in their natural state of big-belliedness, but still, shouldn’t a pattern give some indictation that’s actually FOR pregnant women? Other than having the word “maternity” chastely hidden away on the back where a casual glance won’t reveal it, I mean?
What I noticed is the Size 12, Bust 30!!!!!!! Lets talk a little about the vanity sizing of today! A 30 bust these days would wear like a size 2. In the 40’s it was a size 12. Amazing how much sizing has changed in 60 years.
Maybe these dresses actually make you look like Barbie! Ever think of that? Huh? Huh?
Good, neither did I.
I know, I know — the ties in the back will loosen and loosen until the huge amount of fabric hiding behind their behinds is all used up and becomes the stick out part of the front of the dress. Or not. Or maybe it is only for the first trimester. I just discovered this blog and I love it dearly – my sisters and I sewed many of these dresses, I just know.
My mind suddenly goes back to that scene in Rosemary’s Baby when the Castovets bring over a bottle of wine and they all drink ‘to a healthy baby.’
That’s why everybody’s sad- they have odd clawing feelings from their wombs!
“Rosemary, you shouldn’t have lost weight! You’re pregnant!”
-Hutch