What do you do when friends ask you to attend their 1920's themed wedding? First of all I was very touched that we were welcome. Second came excitement for a wonderfull reason to dress up in a nice historical outfit. Third came with doing research and a bit of aprehension. When hearing the 1920's my mind went to Great gatsby style flapper evening wear but the happy couple was looking for a Downton Abbey style garden party. I never watched Downton Abbey, hangs head in shame. Please understand that I live in a male dominated household both of them bored out of their skulls when I only mention costume drama tv series. So I had to start from scratch, luckily for me the bride had made a mood board on pinterest, so that was an easy start.
Mmmh, I must admit it looks really nice on those ladies but I am not that young anymore nor that thin...
When my first inspiration is from a television or movie I always try to translate it to authentic dresses and costumes or fashion plates from the era.
The dress on the far right in the second image is my favorite.
Being short on time, these two complete outfits where added to my already full costume for-2018-list. I thought it would be wise to buy myself a pattern to save time. Butterick B6399 looked a lot like the look I am going for so I decided to order it.
While I was waiting for my pattern to come in, I made the slip dress in off-white dupoin silk, the top of the dress is decorated with a broad band of antique lace. I used the instructions for a 1920's slip dress on the Fresh Frippery blog.
When it came in I immediately looked at the pattern pieces and the description and decided that both were really to complicated for a dress that was basically a t-tunic. So I used the instructions I found on the Closet Historian blog for the one hour 1920's dress instead.
I had found some lovely aqua blue batist fabric for the overdress, the color is a little brighter than I would have liked but I am not in the mood for pink or peach this time. So it will have to do!
I am not a big fan of the gathering of fabric on my hip so I decided to make a separate bodice and skirt version with a v-neckline to make my torso look a little longer.
To add some visual interest to the dress I added some vintage lace insertions.
Without it I am afraid the dress will look suspiciously much like a blue bin liner (just sayin').
Than we had a sort of poll on instagram, (synthetic) lace overlay or no overlay.
The votes weren't unanimous, so I made a compromis, the overlay will be (semi) detachable.
More lace!
It's al fun and games, that is until your modern sewing machine breaks down and has to be taken to the repair shop. Luckily for me my old Singer 99k came to the rescue!
Voilà, the finished dress!Still think this is a dress style for younger and thinner women! Not really certain how I feel about wearing it.
