I just noticed this pattern is now available at the Simplicity website. YAY!!!! Click the Pattern Envelope to go the the pattern page.
I don't get to do a period garment very often. I think, because of a certain TV show, this is garment is something many people will want and I've tried to give some basic shapes that I hope you creative types will improvise on.
As we know, the ladies on that TV show rarely wear the same dress twice. So, you can have a lot of fun creating unique gowns for yourself or others. In another blog I will give some suggestions to vary these dresses.
Today I'm going to show you some of the references I used while making this pattern. But first I want to show you the photos I took before sending these dresses to New York.
As we know, the ladies on that TV show rarely wear the same dress twice. So, you can have a lot of fun creating unique gowns for yourself or others. In another blog I will give some suggestions to vary these dresses.
Today I'm going to show you some of the references I used while making this pattern. But first I want to show you the photos I took before sending these dresses to New York.
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Yep ... my design has been edited again. The beige one didn't make it!! But, not to worry, I will tell you in a future blog how to modify the front bodice pattern and make the sash. It's a little different and has a nice back feature.
So first, the inside of gowns from the mid 1910's were very structured. It was only a decade away from the very stiff boned bodices of the Gay 90's and pigeon breasted silhouettes of the first decade of the 20th century. And even though the waist had moved up, these dresses were still boned and the ladies were still corseted. This page from Costumes in Detail by Nancy Bradfield shows what one of these dresses looked like turned inside out. You can see the boned foundation bodice and the waist stay ribbon.
And this pattern from Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 2 has an actual pattern for this kind of bodice from a dress from 1909-10. On the foundation bodice pattern pieces you can see the dotted lines where the waist of the dress is mounted.
And in my attempt to give a versatile pattern, I found a dress design from 1920 in Cut of Women's Clothing by Norah Waugh that was similar in shape, I could give a pattern good to make dresses from a wider time range.
First, I transferred the patterns I found into full size patterns and made them up in muslin. And while these books are wonderful, the patterns so often don't work out first or second time for that matter.
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The skirt with the train was fun. I experimented with that one, using different fabrics and trying out pleats and tucks.
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Next blog about these dresses, I will show you some photos I took while sewing these gowns.
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