I just finished my History degree so I thought that I would talk about how I first started getting interested in history. I have been interested in history since I was really young, thanks to a dad who loved reading about WW2 and a mom who listened to CBC talk radio. Although there were a bunch of eras that I was interested in, I always went back to books and movies about WW2 as well. I was particularly interested in learning about the Blitz, the Kindertransport, and while I was in middle school I learnt about Camp X, a spy camp in Ontario. This was thanks to the CBC tv show, X Company, which followed a team of Canadian spies in Nazi occupied France that ran for three years. I absolutely loved this show (and still do! I highly recommend it), and it lead me down a path of learning about spies and resistance during the Second World War.
As you can see in this photo, the sleeves and the hem are lined with beautiful blue cotton swiss dot.
One of the main reasons that I found this area of history so interesting was because of how many women had been involved in spying and resistance, and how they were able to gain access to certain things specifically because they were women. Women were not viewed as intelligent or rebellious by many soldiers and other men involved in the war, and it allowed them to smuggle messages and items, as well as work undercover and do a wide variety of other underground activities. There were about 60 women SOE agents, and although not all were sent to the field they were able to access sides of society that men were not (Les Parisiennes, 167). It was also felt that women were less likely to be subject to major searches, allowing them to hide messages and items in their underwear (Les Parisuennes, 168). Many members of various resistance groups were also women, and they were able to help out in unique areas, such as by accompanying lost Allied soldiers to help them escape (Les Parisiennes, 165).
While there are many books that speak about the incredible things that women did in the resistance and as spies during the war (such as Caroline Moorehead's A Train in Winter and Judy Batalion's The Light of Days, or Elizabeth Wein's fictional book, Code Name Verity), there is one thing that I want to talk about that inspired this dress.
X Company had a fantastic website that shared facts about Canadian spies during WW2 while they were airing, and they spoke about how secret maps were printed on handkerchiefs for soldiers who were captured behind enemy lines so they could find their way around. The maps could help POWs find their way out and were called Escape and Evasion Maps (You can see a real one here). They were created by the British Military Intelligence 9 (MI9) and they created maps of all of the countries behind enemy lines that soldiers or agents might be fighting in. This was also used for SOE spies and resistance groups to find important locations.
Escape and Evation Maps, usually printed on "silk" square scarves (which were actually made in rayon, but just felt silky), were invented by MI9 member, Christopher Clayton Hutton and were used by troops to help soldiers who were trapped behind enemy lines to escape. These maps also found their way into POW (Prisoner of War) camps to helps internees escape. They were smuggled in through a variety of creative ways, and the cloth material allowed them to get wet without the ink bleeding or the map falling apart. Additionally, the cloth made it easier for the maps to be smuggled behind enemy lines in sewing kits, sewn into linings, or even worn by the users. Members of resistance groups or brave citizens of occupied territories often took these escaped soldiers and helped them travel to neutral territory, such as women like Renata Faccincani della Torre who accompanied soldiers from Northern Italy over the mountains to Switzerland (her and other women who helped POWs escape are discussed in this article by Helen Fry)
Here are two fascinating articles about these Escape and Evasion Maps:
I found this map fabric almost a year ago and it immediately made me think about these stories. While a map dress would not have been particularly sneaky to use while spying on dangerous forces, I thought it would be neat to make a bit of an homage to that resistance.
This dress has prints of maps of the US, France, and Britain on it, and I decided to adjust a pattern that I have used many times that was originally printed in Vogue in 1947. I made the skirt a few inches shorter to make it look more like dresses of the earlier 1940s when fabric rations were in place, and I added in a flutter sleeve from a different pattern. The sleeves and hem are faced with a light blue swiss dot cotton, and there are side seam pockets big enough for my phone. When I first cut out the dress I was worried that I had cut the skirt out too short, so I left it in the back of the closet for a few months. However, I don't have tons of 1940s styled dresses in my wardrobe and it is my favourite style of dress to wear, so I thought that I would finish it and I could always add length later on. The length ended up being pretty perfect, so I am glad that I finished the project so I can wear a little reminder of history whenever I want.
I loved working on this dress, and although it took me many months before I finally finished it, I am so happy with it and can see myself getting a lot of wear out of it in the future.
Thanks for reading!
~Katherine
Nonfiction Books to Read about Espionage during WW2 and Silk Escape Scarves:
Evasion and escape devices : produced by MI9, MIS-X and SOE in World War II by Phil Froom
Shadow Warriors: Daring Missions of World War II by Women of the OSS and SOE by Greg Lewis and Gordon Thomas
SOE in Czechoslovakia: The Special Operations Executive's Czech Section in WW2
Les Parisiennes by Anne Sebba
A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead
Violins in Winter by Amy McCauley (fictional)
Code Name Verity by Elizabethe Wein (fictional - I highly recommend all of Wein's books)