1920's Dress for Christmas Tea

Although the dress came out a little short, I absolutely love it.   This year, for the Christmas Tea, we went to Cairnwood Estate which is absolutely beautiful. Since it's 3 hours away from my house, I decided to take up Jess' suggestion of 1920's because, yes, driving in corsets is not easy. (Even when you now have a fabulous seat heater).

Materials:

• Cream/Light Gold Dupioni Silk
• Small amounts of dusty pink silk as backing
• A small square of burnout velvet 
• Pale Pink lace
• Two pale pink buttons

A few weeks ago at Stephanie's Pumpkin tea, there was a wonderful fabric destash. Carolyn added a very lovely piece of burn out velvet that looked wonderfully art deco to my eyes. It was about a square foot, maybe slightly bigger, but enough to make into a something. When I brought it home and was about to put it away, I realized it went perfectly with this pale pink lace I had out for another project and with some of the creamy light gold silk I got from the big Prism Silks/Golden Silks sale earlier this year (I think? Or was it last year?). I knew it had to be made into a 1920's dress.

Some of the inspiration:

1920's Dress on Etsy

I LOVED the diamonds down the front of this dress. I've seen this in a few others and wanted to replicate it. I only had enough for one diamond at the neckline with the burn out velvet accent, however.

1920s Day Dress

The orange dress had a keyhole accent at the neckline which made me feel comfortable of the idea of having only an accent at the neckline and not down the front of the dress.

The green dress on the pattern here has some trim at about the 3/4 sleeve level.  I saw variations on this in a lot of fashion plates.  I liked the idea of using the lace there and then also using the lace I had on hand at the hem.  


What I did:
I made my own pattern.  1920's is very easy - it's a t-tunic with a small nip at the waist.  I added material at the hip line and...pattern!   Yay!   I drafted my own sleeves as well.

The hard part was getting the diamond to sit properly.  I sewed it down but there was still a "pinch" at the upper neckline.  I covered this with a very thin bow that made the dress.  

It's all machine sewn.  The sides are pleated (think a t-tunic on top of a rectangle but no seam, that was the pattern) and I covered the pleat line with more of the burn out velvet to bring the dress together.

The shoes are a fabulous pair I got on Amazon for about $35.   They fit perfectly (I wear an 8) and they do come in different colors.  I just wanted the black and white for versatility.

The coat is one I made a couple of years ago out of velvet (no idea what the fabric content is on it but I think a bit of silk and rayon?) and marabou feathers.