All posts filed under: 20th Century

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Hope you are all having a delightful holiday with lots of inventive costume fun-ness, apples to bob for, caramel corn, doughnuts on strings and other delicious old-fashioned treats. Do you need some last minute costume inspiration? Let’s look at some suggestions from a 1930s Bestway Fancy Dress and Carnival Costumes catalogue. Would you go as a ‘Flower’, a ‘Clown’, or ‘May Day’? Or perhaps you want to lord it over ‘May Day’ as the ‘May Queen’, go as a different variant of the clown look in ‘Hoop-La’, or throw political correctness to the wind as a ‘Red Indian’? A more acceptable form of national dress might be ‘Tyrolean’, or you can avoid cultural issues altogether as a generic ‘Peasant’ (I’d love to see the kid who dreams of being a peasant for Halloween). Slipping even lower on the social scale is the ‘Charwoman’ costume, and slipping between the sheets is the adorable ‘Lavender Bag’ (sorry, that sounds wrong). How about an adorable ‘Kitten’ (or Black Cat, if that’s how you play it), ‘Drummer …

Rate the Dress: ’50s stripes & draping

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week’s late 18th century robe a la anglaise sparked lots of discussion on how original or altered the dress was. Was it 18th century at all? 18th century with extensive later alterations? 18th century but just really badly displayed? I suspect the last is mainly to blame. Most of you liked the general aesthetic of the dress, whether it was really accurately 18th century or not, and it came in at a 7.7 out of 10. When I had trouble picking a dress last week Claire put in a request for something from the mid-20th century. I think this 1950s dress is rather striking. You’d certainly make a sensation wearing it, but sometimes people are sensations for all the WRONG reasons. What do you think? Would the wearer of this dress be the last word in chic sophistication, or just a bit too gauche and showy? Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10

The ’30s Garden Party frock

Published by The Dreamstress

Reminder! One day left to enter the Giveaway! One of the upcoming classes I’m teaching is a ’30s garden party dress class. I love ’30s garden party dresses – you know the ones; chiffon, ruffles, floral prints, with that incredible ’30s ability to be ridiculously cutesy feminine and very glamorous and sophisticated at the same time. For the class, I’m debuting an idea I’ve been working on. A lot of 1930s dresses are made from very similar patterns: a basic bodice, married to a full-ish skirt attached with an interestingly seamed dropped waistline, with a choice of sleeve treatments. I’ve taken this formula, and am turning it into a pattern that allows lots of choices, while still being a good introduction to vintage ’30s sewing techniques. To start with, my pattern has a basic bodice. I’ve taken the bodice from patterns like Excella E3006 – this type of bodice has the advantage of back princess seams, great for adding a little more shape and fitting a wider range of bodies. For necklines, my pattern has …