1950s-Style Shorts, vintage 1940s Belts

1. 1950s-style shorts I made using vintage fabric, pattern.

2. Close-up of vintage buttons on the back of the shorts.

3. Assortment of vintage belts, two of which I made. Guess which ones are really from the 1940s?

1. I'm back with my sort-of-Memorial Day edition. The shorts I made from a tattered 1950s bermuda shorts pattern. I had this fantastic 1940s-era fabric that I bought from a now-defunct vintage clothing shop in Oak Park, ll. There wasn't quite enough for anything else but a pair of shorts. So I cut and sewed this, I think on my old Singer sewing machine, the one that's now sitting in my storage locker. I don't know where the vintage buttons came from, but they work on here. I must have used the button-hole attachment on my machine. The only thing I'd do differently today would be to make corded buttonholes, making cording by twisting three threads on my Viking Husqvarna using the bobbin winder (this only works on Vikings - the winder has to be external and front-facing). Then I slip the cording onto the little loop behind the buttonhole foot, making sure the cording gets caught underneath the stitching. The cording makes the buttonhole more three-dimensional and professional looking instead of lifeless and sunken as it appears here.

2. I'd also probably sew the buttons on using my machine. They appear to be hand-sewn here, and the stitching's not very strong. I think I could do a better job on the sewing machine. I'd hand-crank the machine for the first few stitches to makes sure I don't break the buttons, then off I'd go!

3. Here's a fraction of my vintage belt collection. A fraction. I have a lot more, most of them I've sewn using vintage buckles and fabric. I don't wear them as much as I should, but mostly because I'm not wearing skirts and pants suitable for them these days. Now guess which two I sewed? I'll give you a clue. The faux suede version is not one I could make on my machine, and I believe it's from a long-gone 1940s suit. It looks so much like the belts I see in my vintage Sears, Roebuck catalog. The boxy buckle with a circle cut-out was a popular shape during that time. Okay, so that leaves with the other three, two of which I made. The other is a bonafide 1940s belt, probably from a dress. That's all I'm going to say for now. Have a good weekend, I plan to sew and knit some of the time in no particular order.