1920's Outfit!

I've done some 1920's before and I really love the decade.  It might not look the best on everyone, but gosh darn it, it's simple to make!  For a Downton Abbey party, I made an early (I was going for 1923) dress, evening gown, and coat.  Even though it's still pretty decently warm during the day here on the east coast, the temps drop about 10 degrees F the second that sun goes down.  I'm SO very glad I did make the coat.
I got a flat and had to wait, at night, for AAA to arrive.  Since the dress I wore itself was sleeveless, the coat was very, very welcome.

 The coat was inspired by this extant one.  I wanted a cocoon coat but I couldn't figure out exactly how it was made until I saw the extant one.  They are so ridiculously simple.  It's a big rectangle.  You fold over the fabric, sew up the sides to about 4" from the top, cut a line in the dead center of the top layer (ie, don't cut both the front and back), and cut both layers about 4" from the folded edge in that dead center.  That's it. I had some stretch white velvet (that is of a much higher quality than I remembered) in my stash.  I bought the brown feather trim on sale for $1.60 a yard.  The lining only happens to be brown as well (seriously, it was leftover from my brother's cape lining) and is a brown flannel backed stain.  The entire coat, minus the trim, takes 10 minutes.  The trim was hand sewn on and still only took an hour.

 The overgown is a pink orgnaza dupatta that happened to be wide enough for the style I wanted.  Normally, dupattas are only a yard or so wide - this one was a good 45".  I used the borders as the neckline and hem trim.

 The belt is just some silver panne velvet.  I couldn't find anything else that went well with the color scheme.   I'm not happy with the belt but it will do until I find some silver silk I like.  The brooch is vintage, but probably only from the 1950's.  Still, I liked it with the rest of the outfit.

You can't see it well in photos but the underdress is a blue/pink iridescent dupioni silk I've had in the stash for years.  When I saw the dupatta and the silk together, I literally ran into the other room and draped them together to see how they looked.  It was too cool looking!  

I know some ladies at the mansion got a few photos of me wearing the dress.  I'll post them as soon as I find them.