1920s Gown

 

I kept looking at my 1924 one hour dress and thinking that it looked a little large on me.  Since my next project was going to be made of out silk velvet and I was running late on making it (no time for a mock up), I decided that I had better go with a printed pattern this time.  I lucked out on finding a very Art Deco design at Fabric.com, so I wanted to keep the dress design as basic as possible to show off the fabric better.

What I came up with was a vintage pattern for a basic day dress with short sleeves, a Peter Pan collar, and some applique detailing.  I expect I will be getting some mileage out of that, since the pattern lends itself well to modification.  For this gown, I left off the sleeves, and finished them with bias tape made from the material I had bought to make the slip from. I modified the neckline slightly so that it was large enough to pull over my head without an extra opening, and bound that with the bias tape as well.  I added a detachable belt with discrete belt loops, and voila!

In the short amount of time I had, I wasn't having any luck finding either a vintage slip pattern or information that gave me a clear idea on the construction.  So, I just winged it.  It ended up being basically a tube of habotai silk with no fitting, held on by 1/2 inch straps.  With my boyish figure, that worked fine.

The end result looked great.  My only issue was the belt buckle.  I wanted something sparkly, large, and square or rectangular to fit with the design of the fabric.  I found a rhinestone buckle that looked great in theory.  However, when I wore it, it was so heavy that it dragged the whole belt down.  Still, overall, I am very happy with the dress.

1930s Hooverette Dress

I fell in love with this pattern (Vintage Pattern Lending Library T1889) the first time I laid eyes on it. It looked easy to make and I liked that there were both ultra feminine and businesslike versions.  It looked easy to make and I liked that there were both ultra feminine and businesslike versions.  I tried really hard to find a cotton print that felt 1930s for it.

I got delayed on actually sewing it up until several months after I had bought the fabric. Big mistake. It turned out that the yardage listed on the pattern back for view 2 was way short of what was actually needed.  I could easily have used another 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 yards (4 to 4 1/2 yards total).  Of course by then, the fabric I was using was no longer available, so I couldn't buy more.  I was able to work around that by leaving off the bottom ruffle and making the ties narrower and a little shorter.  The end result turned out cute, but what a waste to have spent so much time looking for a period print when the end result wasn't the period length.

It worked up quickly and the rest of the directions were correct. Please note that you will need bias tape for it. I like that most of the seams are French seams.

One thing I noticed with the shorter length is that this looks very much like a dress my mother had in the 1960s.  The only real difference is that hers did not have the shoulder ruffles.

I will probably make this again, hopefully in the proper length.