Women's Day 5024 - Two-Piece Apron-Dress

January 1952

There is a lot of common sense in this ensemble designed for housework.  Both the skirt and the tunic wrap to the back - the skirt ties and the tunic is closed with snaps, so no need to work button holes.  Wrap garments are handy because they open flat for easy ironing.  Having a separate tunic and skirt allows the maker to make up enough multiples so that she can more easily put together two clean pieces when either the tunic or the skirt becomes soiled.  Both the skirt and the tunic have good, deep pockets.

In some cases Woman's Day patterns were co-branded with Advance, and the layout sheet for this one looks like Advance's work to me.

I didn't realize until I saw this pattern that Woman's Day was the house magazine for A&P stores.  A&P  apparently sold the magazine in 1958.  I have fond memories of A&P; I recall that they smelled of laundry detergent and freshly ground coffee from the coffee grinders at the ends of the check-out lanes (When I was a very small child I found the grinders a little frightening - there was no telling when they might unmoor themselves, run amok, and attempt to eat small children.)

This unprinted pattern has been used.

Simplicity 1459 - Women's One-Piece Dress

Mid to late 1940's.  Because this one doesn't explicitly call itself a housedress, the illustrator felt the need to show us the activities for which this casual, summery dress was suitable, such as mopping the floor.  The version on the right, made up in chambray and trimmed with eyelet ruffling, will see you nicely dressed for a quick trip to the corner market.

This being the 1940's, shoulder pads are called for.  Note that the back illustration and the fabric requirements list an option 3 for a version with contrasting yoke and sleeves. This type of color blocking is popular at this time.

Simplicity 376 - Utility Robe

About 1930.

I've seen the word "utility" used to describe clothing as early as 1898, but the term gets its last big hurrah during World War II, particularly in Britain, where utility clothing was endorsed by the government.  I suspect the whole idea of utility clothing carried such emotionally difficult connotations by the time the war was over that nobody ever wanted to hear the term again, and I don't think anybody has.

Thus, a utility robe is serviceable and economical to make and maintain.  Simplicity's three-in-one strategy serves them well with this pattern.  Here is the chirpy description from the instruction sheet:

Three distinctly different utility garments for 'round the house wear may be made from this one SIMPLICITY hand cut pattern.

Style #1 With its feminine frill is a dainty, useful morning apron or house-frock.

Style #2 A careful choice of fabrics creates a mannish, tailored, lounging robe.

Style #3 The Hooverette is the ideal garment for the practical side of housekeeping.

This fairly brief passage gives us a lot of information.  First, these garments were for household wear only, although I suspect it was acceptable to go out in the back yard to hang some laundry or to nip on down to the end of the driveway to leave a letter in the mailbox.  Also, even for garments worn only at home, a desire for femininity is recognized (or perhaps just marketed to.)  Lastly, a morning apron and a Hooverette were either perceived to have different functions, or met differing ideas of acceptable or desirable dress.  (For example, my grandmother wore house coats, I wear robes, they look pretty much identical to me, but I would probably shop for a robe pattern rather than one for a house coat.)

Butterick 1629 - Ladies' One-Piece House Dress

About 1920.

The design of the crossed collar which buttons into the waist belt is odd, particularly in a hue darker than the dress itself, but the sailor's collar is very common at this period, and is a first cousin to the collars found on middy blouses, commonly worn at this period for casual, sporting, or athletic use.

Outside of the peculiar collar, this is a nice design. The button front means that the dress can be opened out for ironing.  The tucks on either side of the front and on the back add some practical fulness as well as provide an attractive vertical line.

At this time, Butterick's instruction sheet, hasn't yet been titled "The Deltor," though Butterick has applied for a patent for it.

By 1921, Butterick was advertising the advantages of The Deltor with a full page advertisement in the February 1921 issue of Everybody's Magazine:

Simplicity 2667 - Misses' and Women's Dress and Apron

Late 1930s.

The pattern is described:

Collar joins in tiny revers. Princess fitting with slight flare at lower edge of skirt. Apron with patch pockets and straps over the shoulder, ties at the back.

The ruffled trim on the sleeves and collar is purchased. It's a bit unusual to see this on a house dress, a garment designed primarily for ease of laundering.

The prints in the illustration are pretty, and the matching dress and apron make for a nicely "finished" look. You'll need about 7 years of bias binding for the apron.

Recommended fabrics include percale, lawn, seersucker, gingham, poplin, pique, cotton crepe. For the dress only, one can use silk or rayon crepe.

The instructions detail two closing options; with the new-fangled slide fastener, and with snaps and a hook at the waistline.

This is an unprinted pattern. The instruction sheet is of poor quality paper.

McCall 2523 - Ladies' One-Piece Slip-On House Dress

First half of the 1920s.

Made up in a cotton shirting that was on sale for a few dollars a yard, with white pique trimming.

Finished measurements:

Center back length: 51 1/2"

Actual bust measurement: 53"

Actual hip measurement: 55"

Belt finished measurement: 40"

House dresses don't get much simpler than this. You really don't need to spend 30 cents for a pattern. The Lesson II book of Isabel Conover DeNyse's A Complete Course in Dressmaking, Aprons and House Dresses, shows a very similar dress on its cover, and then guides you through making a simple house dress pattern from a blouse pattern.

The only construction instructions on this McCall pattern are on the back of the envelope.

As usual with garments that don't have shoulder seams, a directional print will be upside down on the back unless you add a shoulder seam. You're assumed to know how to make a slashed opening (either bound or faced) and how to attach a collar with a bias facing.

The sides are finished with french seams and the 3" hem is sewn by hand. After I'd finished buttonhole stitching the loop for the button I remembered reading somewhere the tip to make tatted rings to whip on in place; as far as I know this is the only really practical use for tatting.

McCall 5345 Ladies' and Misses' Coverall

1943.  The illustrator wants to make sure you understand the function of this garment; one wears this coverall with sensible (but very cute) little flat shoes in the kitchen, where the carpet sweeper awaits you once you doff your bright red rubber gloves.

This war-time dress, cut from about four yards of 36" wide fabric is wrap-fronted but not reversible fronted like the earlier Hoover aprons.

The instruction sheet still gives directions for making hand-worked button holes, and also expects that you'll baste the sleeves in by hand before sewing them on the machine.

Cosmopolitan 667 - Lady's House Dress

About 1899.

At this time "house dress" has a slightly different sense than it will later.  A dress with a Watteau back and the option for a train isn't designed for scrubbing floors.  Rather, this is a dress worn at home.  This distinguishes it from the various types of dress worn outside the home such as tailor-mades, reception dresses, evening dresses, etc.

I think the house dress could be worn when informally entertaining close friends; lemonade and gingersnaps on the porch, for example.  In this regard, it's not unlike the tea gowns just coming into fashion.

Simplicity 7001 - Women's Housedress

Early 1930's.   By this time Simplicity has adjusted their marketing approach slightly.  While still implying economy (3 patterns for the price of 1) they seem to be focusing on ease of use by adding an instruction sheet called the Simplicity Primer.  Note also that they emphasize that the pattern is Hand-Cut; the practice of producing pattern sheets as laid out on the fabric (see Smock pattern 160) has been abandoned.

Here's the description of the pattern from the envelope back:

Every woman needs a frock such as this -

while she is doing house-hold tasks, for it --

is practical enough and smart-enough looking for a --

dash to the grocery.

If you must leave the house while wearing your house dress, you won't feel ashamed of doing so, knowing you're nicely dressed in your smart Simplicity frock.  The sleeveless version would be appreciated by women living in warm climates in this era before air conditioning.

The Primer provides both the layout and detailed instructions (albeit, a little on the small side.)

I made up version 2 in a 1930's reproduction cotton I'd gotten on sale.  I left off the sleeve cuffs and I've no idea where the tie belt is. I wear this dress a lot, even though I find the v-neck a tad low. The neckline on view 3 would probably suit me better. The actual bust measurement is 46".  (Note that the pattern was offered in sizes up to a 50" bust.  Utilitarian patterns like house dresses were more likely to be offered in larger sizes.)   This dress is very easy to iron.

McCall 3347 - Ladies' House Dress

1923.  The 1921 patent date may be for the layout or the instructions. This is a nice house dress pattern. The waist line has dropped but the lines aren't as severe as they'll become in another year or so.

The artist seems to be a bit vague on how to draw a chicken - at least, I think that's what is supposed to be on the platter.  If so, that invests the illustration with some additional meaning.  "A chicken in every pot" would become part of a campaign slogan for Herbert Hoover in 1928.  So in this case we can read the chicken as a mark of prosperity.  A prosperous housewife dresses nicely in a housedress she's made from a McCall pattern, and she is able to serve her family a chicken.

McCall patterns at this period offer wonderful details. This is before separate instruction sheets, so they take advantage of the pattern pieces themselves.