1931 Evening Dress

The Challenge facts:

The Challenge: #3 Pink
Fabric: 3 metres poly satin, 2 metres chiffon
Pattern: 35A from Janet Arnolds "Patterns of Fashion 2"
Year: 1931-2
Notions: polyester threat, zipper
How historically accurate is it? The pattern is, the fabric somewhat, the zipper is not. Lets say 65%
Hours to complete: maybe about 30 hours
First worn: Not worn yet.
Total cost: proud to announce: 100% stash!

Pictures!!!!!

 

 

 

Done!

My new dress is finished!!! Finally the pink fabric is gone from my stash and I am happy!!!!

Working on this new dress I remembered where the chiffon in my stash came from (Sorry, no memories on the pink satin...). It happened to be a stola scarf (so basically a square piece of fabric) for a combination of a black skirt and a (yes, really:-)) PINK corset I made in 2004.

10 years ago!

I am afraid this garment didn't survive to be shown to you the way I originally made it. First there was no digital photography in my family at that time and second I altered it slightly.

This is what is left.
The joining seam in the middle of the skirt originally hold a pink piping to match the corset, but nowadays I am using the skirt for concerts where black is required from head to toe...
And my very first corset ever! Containing plastic boning, no busk-opening and probably every mistake one can make on their first corset. It was intended to be the 1880s corset from Norah Waughs "Corsets and Crinolines". The fabrics used were heavy black satin for the skirt and pink silk brocade. I can't remember to have bought a more expensive piece of fabric ever since...

 

Now, back to the PINK challenge of the Historical Sew Fortnightly.
I have been very busy to finish the 1931 evening dress from Janet Arnolds "Patterns of Fashion 2".

This is what I did:

Frill making. 
I used every scrap of leftover fabric I could find. Then I joined all circles together and hemmed them. Both colours separately, of course.

Starting in the middle of the triangle front panel I placed the frills into place and stitched it.

Any ideas on what to do with the leftover inner circles???

The first chiffon frill.....














...and the finished frill-front-piece of the dress.

The next step was to hem the skirt. For this I used the "rolled hem" foot on my sewing machine.  As I didn't want to buy anything new for the dress I took the only (tiny) roll of pink threat I had. This is the amount of threat left on the roll after hemming the skirt. Phew...

Inside look of the dress, front and back view.

 

Dress Mess on the floor

Detail view of the inside of the frill piece

Now I said, that the dress is finished and that is true. But unfortunately every picture I took 10 minutes ago appeared to be rather red than pink. Therefore I will take more pictures in daylight tomorrow and then make the final post on this challenge.

Dress without finished armholes...                                  ...and with self-fabric bias binding. I also adjusted
                                                                                        the pointy edges of the chiffon over-skirt.

 

 

 Detail of the self-fabric bias binding

Stay tuned for tomorrow!

Chiffon & Satin

Today I made some good progress on my pink and black dress.
Since I am not keen on writing right now, I let some pictures talk...


I am using my serger for most of the sewing and since I don't have enough pink thread I am using black.

 Some test pieces...                                                           ...and the finished hem on the chiffon skirt. I am
                                                                                         really proud of these corners!

 

Top and skirt, not sewn together yet...

 

                                                  Joining top and skirt using my serger.

 

Pinning the shoulder seam

 Inserting the zipper. The original dress used press studs, but I still had that zipper and no press studs...

 

 

 Picture using flash light...                                                            ...and no flash

 Left to do:
1. insert front triangle
2. lots of frills
3. finally joining the shoulder seams...
4. edge the armholes with pink bias strips
5. ad a hook above the zipper
6. hemming

Sewing pink...

My pink challenge project is under construction!

I started with a muslin mock-up of the 1931 evening dress from Janet Arnolds "Patterns of Fashion". To enlarge the pattern I used the desired waist circumfence as guideline. Unfortunately the pattern turned out to be too long and had to be adjusted a lot.

The skirt seems to be a good fit, but the rest is not. The pictures show back, side and front view of the first mock-up.
I am glad, I have posted my plans for the pink challenge, because otherwise I might have cancelled the dress at this step and put everything on the UFO pile. BUT, now I have a deadline and want to succeed very much!

 

 So my next step was shortening the front and back piece to fit my proportions. First I used pins and when I finally was satisfied I basted the mock-up to its new form. Now I can use the muslin as pattern pieces to cut out my pink and black fabric.

Adjusted back piece...                                                      .....and front piece

 

My pattern plan was supposed to help me place the pattern on my fashion fabric, but it turned out to be not so much help after all. Since I adjusted some pieces and my waist is a bit wider the pattern would not fit the way I planned. I have enough fabric for the dress, but the frills might end up black... or striped....

 After cutting out the pink satin I continued on the black chiffon. The sash will be from chiffon as well.

For the back neckline and the armholes I cut out pink bias strips to have a neat finish.

 

Since the top will be a double layer I flat-lined the chiffon to the satin. The skirt will be two colours as well, but not flat-lined.
For a sewing start I made the bias trimmed neckline on the back piece. That angle was my first sewing challenge on this project...

 

To be continued...