All posts tagged: Vionnet Dress

My ‘Hippo’ top (a Vionnet ‘Chiton’ dress variant)

Published by The Dreamstress

Remember how I told you that I had been sewing like mad, but had been too busy to take photos and show you? Yep, this is one of the many things I’ve been sewing. A few weeks ago I had two sewing projects to tackle.  Make something Vionnet inspired to wear to teach the Vionnet Dress class at Made Marion, and make something inspired by an old family photo (or two old family photos, to be precise) for the Sew Weekly family inspiration challenge. The Vionnet was fairly easy (pick a piece of kimono fabric I liked, go from there) and I had my favourite family photos picked out. You may remember this photo from this post: And if you have been reading this blog for a long, long, time,  this one: I love the picture of Grandma, but wasn’t sure how to interpret it as a garment. The wedding picture particularly appealed for the bride and the sophisticated loosely wrapped and draped cocoon shape of her early 20s dress with its hip bow. Using …

Vionnet’s 1920s chiton dress – a catch up post

Published by The Dreamstress

I ran out of time to post about the finished Vionnet chiton dress before Pompeii to Paris (though I did post about the initial construction), so I feel it is well time you got a proper catch up. The really fabulous thing about making the chiton dress was that the inspiration frock practically came with a pattern.  There was a picture of it laid out flat: And an image of Vionnet’s original design sketch, showing how she envisioned it looking on a model: And finally, an image of the surviving original dress on a mannequin: Between these three images it was very easy to calculate the approximate dimensions of the original dress, and cut out a reasonable replica from vintage kimono crepe: Two hours of picot edging and darning stitch to join the pieces later, I had a dress: It fits me very snugly (very modern, it shows off what a great bottom I have), Isabella the mannequin like a glove, and itsy-bitsy petite Anna in a perfectly period, slightly loose 1920s style. The dress …