All posts filed under: Sewing

Things I sew – historical and modern

Early 1920s Fringe & Poppies ensemble thedreamstress.com

The 1921 Fringe (yes, fringe!) and Poppies ensemble

It is a pretty well known fact to readers of this blog that I dislike fringe.  Dislike may be putting it mildly.  I believe the word I usually use is loath. My dislike of fringe stems primarily from all the terrible, awful, horrible ‘1920s’ ‘flapper’ dresses which owe everything to 2nd-half of the 20th century costume designers, and nothing to period originals.  To a lesser extent, I also dislike fringe because of the  fringing on some 1860s dresses, where the designers  seem to have gone “Woohoo!  Fabric is relatively cheap!  Fringe is relatively cheap!  Dresses are HUGE!  Let’s just throw acres of fringe at the hugeness!” Blech.  Ergh. But, for every rule, there are exceptions.  Vionnet’s famous 1938 scalloped fringed frock gets a pass for being fabulous and amazing.  Shawl fringe is generally attractive as long as it is sympathetic to the overall design of the shawl.  But I’ve never really been tempted to make a garment with fringed trim. And then, while prepping for the Hamilton Garden’s Katherine Mansfield Garden Party, I came across …

The 1910 Little Miss Muffet at the Village Fête frock

Remember when Felicity was extremely helpful with my sewing?  What she was mainly helping me with was this dress, which I am calling the ‘Little Miss Muffet at the Village Fete’ frock. First, the name of the dress.  I’m sure you’re wondering.  I have an elaborate and complicated mind, but this one isn’t too odd once I explain.  I first fell in love with the lace for this dress, because each little circle reminded me of a spiders web.  I like spiders!  The obvious person to wear a dress covered in sweet spider-web lace would be Little Miss Muffet, all grown up and over her fears.  I first sewed the lace as a straight line, but it was boring and lacked dimensionality, so I cut it in dags, which remind me of the bunting you see at summer fêtes.  So it’s a dress for Miss Muffet to wear to the fair! The dress was inspired by ca. 1910s ‘lingerie’ frocks and linen dresses such as this one from FIDM, and this one and this one …

A slightly weird attempt at a 1920s slip

This weekend seems to be the time to write not-super-exciting catch-up posts that no-one is going to comment on, but that might be useful to someone later. As you can see, not-super-exciting, and kinda weird: This is a silk slip to go under the Summer of 1921 yellow dress.  It’s the product of desperation and curiosity.  Desperation, because my attempts to find a suitable yellow silk (or cotton, or viscose) for a proper ’20s slip  in Wellington had proved fruitless, and curiosity, because I wondered if I could make one out of kimono silk. So this is made from lengths of 34cm wide vintage blonde silk habotai, originally intended for kimono linings, seamed together to be wide enough. In my first attempt I used one length just long enough to wrap around my bust and give it a bit of compression support, and four lengths sewn together to form a wide tube: I sewed big box pleats into the side seams, to shape the tube to my body, but give it enough volume to walk …