All posts filed under: 20th Century

Rate the Dress: Gingham Ballgown

Last week most of you liked the 1880s girls party dress with its excellent pockets. Not all of you though: some thought the colours sickly sweet, or the silhouette too adult, so it came in a very good but not fabulous 7.9 out of 10. It’s midwinter here in NZ. It’s cold and wet and grey and icky. But in the northern hemisphere, it’s lovely and warm, and those of you in Canada are celebrating Canada Day (Happy Canada Day Canadians!) and those of you in the US are celebrating July 4th (Happy Independence Day Americans!). So, in the spirit of midsummer picnics and midsummer balls, with red and white for Canada and firework-pinwheel thingees for America, I present a gingham ballgown by Arnold Scaasi from the collection of the Met. Yes, it is from the 1980s. This is, by far, the most modern Rate the Dress I have ever shown you, and I am fascinated to find out what you think of it. What do you think? Fascinating and fabulous and fun: a great …

The fabulous, flirty 1950s

Published by The Dreamstress

My next class at Made on Marion is a full skirted, 1950s dress class. Why? Because full skirted dresses are awesome and gorgeous and fun to wear. However, they can also be a little tricky to make. How to gather all that fabric in, get the hem of a circle skirt to be perfectly even, fit the bodice? Does it need boning? What about a petticoat, and what kind? What about horsehair at the hem? Will it work for a border print? What about a directional print? A class is the perfect way to work through that, whether you have a vintage 1950s pattern you want to tackle (and maybe need to size up from a 32 bust to a 36 bust!) or a modern reprint of a vintage. To inspire prospective students, here are a few of my favourite 1950s patterns, some of which I own, some of which I don’t: I just got this one. Look at the gorgeous nautical detailing: The pattern envelope describes this as “A dress to be worn with …

Terminology: What is a tea gown?

Published by The Dreamstress

I just finished (well, soft finished – I still want to go back and do some unpicking and improving) a ca. 1900 tea gown. I’ll be telling you all about the process of making shortly, but first I want to start where I started when I began researching tea gowns: with the question, what exactly is a tea gown? How can you tell if a garment is a tea gown, rather than say, a wrapper or an afternoon dress? For a general idea, let’s start with Emily Post: Every one knows that a tea-gown is a hybrid between a wrapper and a ball dress. It has always a train and usually long flowing sleeves; is made of rather gorgeous materials and goes on easily, and its chief use is not for wear at the tea-table so much as for dinner alone with one’s family. It can, however, very properly be put on for tea, and if one is dining at home, kept on for dinner. Otherwise a lady is apt to take tea in whatever …