All posts tagged: 1931

The Frumpy Dress gets a proper outing

I made the Frumpy Dress well over two years now, and I wear it all the time, and I’ve never really gotten proper pictures of me wearing it. But Yay for Art Deco Weekend! The perfect excuse for an early 30s dress. My only regret is that I didn’t wear it with bright red lipstick. It’s so pretty with bright red lipstick. Instead, I wore it with my Neo oxford pumps, my marcasite and cameo necklace, and a vintage tan leather handbag which I found in an op-shop three days before the Art Deco festival, and was ridiculously delighted with because I think matching shoes and bag is so important for the vintage look. I started out the day in a little blue hat that I bought from Claire (and which she immediately borrowed back to wear with her dress!), and finished it with a big grey blue and cream sunhat (perfect for the dress, very late 20s/early 30s, but dreadful for photographs and seeing where you are going!).

A Little Bit of Red dress

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week I blogged about all the stuff I wanted to get finished for Art Deco Weekend. I didn’t get everything I wanted done, and that wasn’t all a bad thing – it turns out that evening gowns aren’t really a great idea for street dancing in sweaty heat (actually, street dancing and sweaty heat aren’t a good idea either, alone or together). One thing I did finish was my floral chiffon 1930s dress. It’s made from Excella E3137, one of my vintage patterns. I made it up without the hip ruffles, because really, hip ruffles? I’ll do a proper review of the pattern in a bit, once I finish the dress properly. I mean, it’s finished properly (rolled hems, French seams & double sewn seams), but I’m not happy with it. Somehow it just looks uninteresting. Somehow I failed to notice that except for those hip ruffles it’s just a sack with quirky seaming. And the quirky seaming doesn’t even show with the print! Maybe it needs those hip ruffles after all! So I’m …

Finished project: The Summertime Southerly 1931 dress

Published by The Dreamstress

I’ve finished another dress this week: a wool crepe dress from a 1931 pattern. I killed two birds with one stone with this dress: this week’s theme on the Sew Weekly was ‘Down Under’ (sew something from the opposite season to the one you are experiencing), and next week’s theme is ‘UFO’. This dress does both. Well, sort of. It’s definitely a UFO: I started it at the beginning of spring, with the idea that if I sewed a wool dress Murphy’s law would the weather would definitely be too warm to wear it! The weather may have cooperated, but the dress got set aside when other stuff became more pressing. The ‘Down Under’ challenge was a bit murkier. The whole idea of ‘seasonal’ weather in Wellington is just ridiculous though. We are the land of four seasons in one day (yes, I know you have that stuck in your head now. You’re welcome). On various days this week I’ve been in jeans, wool tops and wool socks, and shorts and a singlet. What on …