The Graduation Dress

This is another dress for which I can't find a pattern at the vintage sewing sites. It was made by my mother for high school graduation in a polished cotton with a moss green and yellow rose print.

It was closely fitted with a straight skirt and a band of self fabric under under the bust, and open straight neck, and a short bolero jacket. The first photo shows me and my sisters at my graduation party in my sister's trailer, which was in my parents' back yard.


In the fall, Carol would be returning to Goshen College in Indiana where she was studying nursing, and I'd be starting Manchester College in North Manchester, Indiana. To make this trip in a time of no super highways, Dad bought us a 1949 Packard that looked and drove like a tank, but could contain all the belongings of two college women.

The next photo was taken in Fresno, California where I spent the summer of 1957 in Brethren Volunteer Service. I traveled there and back on a Greyhound bus. Met some really nice people. This photo shows the short jacket. I also have a photo of it in May 1959, but nothing after that. I'd gained a lot of weight at Illinois.

I think this was one of the prettiest dresses my mother made for me.