Maternity / day dress : Second World War economy pattern

Loose fitting day dress with self fabric belt, made from printed rayon floral pattern fabric in blue, yellow, purple and green. The collarless dress has five dark blue plastic buttons down the front corresponding to five press studs sewn behind the buttons. The elbow length sleeves are loosely gathered over a small shoulder pad and can be tightened at the cuff by a blue button through a button hole. The dress has navy blue piping extending up each side of the front opening and along the dropped line in front of the shoulders. The belt is edged and lined with the same navy blue fabric. It has a round black plastic slide one end. The loose end threads through the slide and is secured to the belt by two press studs. The body of the dress is cut in two panels, with small additional 'A' shaped panels set into each side at the hem. The front section is loosley gathered into the dropped shoulder seam.

This reproduction dress was made for the Australian War Memorial in 1987, from an original Australian Second World War paper economy dress pattern. The rayon fabric is also original to the war, but the plastic buttons and navy blue trim date from the 1980s, although their placement and use follows the suggestions made in the original pattern. Worn with the belt as normal day dress, the garment was designed so that it could double as a maternity dress if the belt was removed. This dress was worn by a mannequin in the Memorial's Women in War Gallery for the 'railway station' part of the gallery, used to represent a woman farewelling a soldier leaving for war, from 1987 until the redevelopment of the gallery in the late 1990s.