Vintage Fabric Samples from the 1940s

When dating and learning about vintage clothing, one of the many things you will research is fabric identification for vintage clothes so I'm absolutely thrilled to be sharing these vintage 1940s "Fashion Frocks" fabric swatch samples so you (and I) can learn more about vintage fabrics used in garments from the 1940s era.

Fashion Frocks was a company that manufactured fabrics and clothing starting in the 1930s. These Fashion Frocks Sample Pages are from Miss Amy on Flickr and it really is such a wealth of information!

Here is a fabric swatch sample for GABARDINE from a 1946 sample. Gabardine is a tightly woven fabric of either cotton, wool, or rayon twill. A notable feature of Gabardine is the texture of the fabric as seen in the fabric squares above.

This fabric swatch is from 1947 and features cotton SWISS DOTS also know as Dotted Swiss and is usually cotton embellished with little dots that are either woven in flocked, or printed. What makes them Swiss Dots is the size of the dots. 

The vintage 1930s Fond Memories Dress in the shop features swiss dots.

I really, really want this vintage floral screen printed dress! This fabric sample features a Linen/Rayon blend and is a fabric Fashion Frocks dubbed "Monterey". I've never come across this as a fabric description before, usually I just write if something feels like linen/rayon blend, basically a natural fabric woven with a synthetic fabric. I'm so curious to know what "Monterey" feels like, if it would feel how I imagine it would feel.

This beautiful vintage fabric sample is of crinkled ORGANDY and is from a 1950 dress (I know, this is suppose to be a 1940s fabric post). I've seen this fabric in a few vintage dresses in my shop and depending on the feel, sometimes I've called it rayon or a rayon blend. That's the thing with identifying vintage fabric, you may not always get it 100% right. Anyhow, Organdy traditionally and historically has been made from cotton, but through the 1940s synthetic fibers were used. Organdy is usually kind of stiff so I can see why this fabric would be great for this dog toothed edged peplum. Would keep it all perk and pretty!

All righty...that's all for this week's installment for the Vintage Clothing Guide! Please keep checking back every week as I will be doing more and more posts so we can all learn together about vintage clothing.