1920s dress

I would love to do a 2014 year in review post, but alas I did not start the blog until part way through the year.  So I did not blog about all my creations, in addition, I did not have a dress dummy and often don't have someone who can help with pictures.  Due to this, I have been woefully bad about blogging my sewing.  My lovely husband bought me a dress dummy as a belated Christmas present on Jan 5th so I am going to try to blog some of the missing items. 

This dress has been at least a little seen, as it is the dress I am wearing in my profile picture.  In March 2014, I was invited to attend a Great Gatsby tea party at the local St. James Tearoom.  I own nothing and know very little about the 1920s but thought it sounded like fun.  I quickly decided on a peacock theme as I had left over peacock lace from my teen's dress.  I also had some silver trim and some pretty black embroidered and sequined net that would work for the rest.  This meant the whole dress would be sheer and a needed a colored slip for underneath it all.  Lauren at American Duchess has a nice tutorial and pattern for a 1920's slip that worked wonderfully.   I used some emerald green silk Crepe de Chine I had laying around.  I did not follow her tutorial exactly but used her pattern, as you can see I have 3 pleats in the front instead of 4 and I did not bind the top edge the same way.  I like her binding method better than my simple hem and will likely bind the top edge if I make a slip like this again.  To get the pleats right, I put the slip on and figured out the pleats while wearing the slip.  This made the fit perfect and I love my new slip.

After the slip, I needed a dress.  I am fairly curvy and the standard straight dresses look terrible on me.  After browsing surviving dresses, I figured out that some (probably the less fashionable ones) have a slight A line to them.  I also hate totally sleeveless dress and found that some, again likely the less fashionable dresses, have short sleeves.  So I made my dress a slight A line with short sleeves.  I used the peacock lace to make a tail in the back that hung from the shoulders.  The tail was inspired by a dress I found on pinterest with curved layered pieces and several fancy dress costumes that had longer backs that fronts (for example). None of this is likely all that common, but I wanted a dress I would love so I went for it. 

 I then used some left over trim and lace, plus a button and some peacock feathers to make a quick headpiece.  Amazingly, this whole dress was made from my stash!

Here are some pictures from the event.  I actually loved this dress and had so much fun!