#1920s sewing

[leomakeshistory]

Evening dress pictures!! Made my own Robe de Style and last minute made a wrap as it was gonna be cold. This is the pattern for the wrap, it took me about an hour and a half to make from cutting to wearing.

[wellpresseddaisy]

2 finished projects and one nearly done

I finally got some pictures of my Christmas dress, along with a project that's been waiting for some finishing for... 2 years? And my current nearly-done dress.

They aren't the world's best pics (and rayon wrinkles like a jerk when your closet isn't quite long enough for dresses), but here we are.:)

The project that took two years to get to hemming:

And my nearly-finished dress (that I'm calling the Piecemeal Princess due to the amount of piecing that went into it):

This is what's left of the fabric:

I maybe have enough to bind the armscyes. It'll be sleeveless, but I have a red sweater I can wear over it. With that much flannel, I probably want sleeveless.

[leomakeshistory]

Better view of my Robe de style in motion!! i'm in the blue dress with grey sash at the beginning and then doing the dosidos with my friend. I’m still gonna try to get better full body pictures of it but I love seeing it move 😌

[wellpresseddaisy]

Summer sewing plans 2025

(which should have been started in about February, but I am not always good at forward planning and also I've been trying to decide if I even like some styles on my own body and who wants to sew with lightweight cotton and handkerchief linen when it's snowing out?)

If the past week's heat wave has taught me one thing, it's that I neglect my summer wardrobe scandalously. I'm in desperate need of a couple more slips and really, very much need to get on with those summer-weight dresses.

Slips:

The top two are from Jill Salen's Vintage Lingerie (which I personally think should be called Vintage Girdles Plus Maybe 5 Other Lingerie Patterns but I'm a little salty about that). The bottom is from my favorite source, the Haslam System of Dresscutting.

I'm not entirely sure about those side/hip level flares, so that one will at least be a muslin.

Dresses:

I'm mostly going for a dress-based wardrobe at this point. Being able to put one thing on in the morning and look put together is an amazing thing.

I really like the neckline and hipline on this one but I'm not sold on a cut-on sleeve. Love that neckline, though.

What I really want to do is use the dress on the right:

As a foundation pattern. I like the basic shape of it, and it's easy enough to keep the bodice one piece. I can change out the neckline and sleeves as wanted without too much trouble, too. I need to test the pattern I drafted...last year? Oof. Anyway, we'll see how the fit is looking and get working. :)

The wonderful thing about a foundation dress is that you can take inspiration from a lot of different sources:

And you can use separate sleeve and collar patterns to change the look:

A cape collar or flutter sleeves always look so summery to me.

I'm also taking some inspiration from a pattern released by Mrs. Depew a little while ago. I'd completely forgotten about it, but it's one of those fantasticly basic 1920s dresses. I really like the higher hip and the flared skirt. It's essentially another type of foundation dress:

I also want to make another one of these:

In the micro stripe I got from Itokri. The black version is super comfortable for the summer. I'd like to raise the neckline slightly and bring the straps in a touch, though. I also think raising the hipline a little might help. I like a dropped waist, but that's maybe a little too dropped.

Other than dresses, my current WIP is a navy micro twill shirt based on the One Hour Dress pattern. I apparently thought I was auditioning for the part of the boxcar in a Boxcar Children adaptation, so I had to do some serious taking in. It's very much a work in progress.

The rest of the twill will turn into a camisole top for a pajama set. I have an adorable green and blue small check to make a pair of shorts from that should go perfectly. I'm also altering the failed combinations into a camisole and shorts for pjs as well.

[wellpresseddaisy]

It needs the finishing touches but look at this...look.

This is from a slip pattern from the mid-1920s.

Technically it's a toile of a Haslam System of Dresscutting slip pattern in a fabric I bought online and wound up hating for the intended purpose. It may well be a summer dress once it's finished because it makes me feel amazing when I put it on. I have white handkerchief linen for the slip version.

It's just so cute.

As a side note, I can't recommend Fashion Fabrics Club for fabric any more. The last few orders from them have been terrible. There's been a definite downturn in the quality of the fabric in general but also their images and descriptions. I had to send my last order back because it was very much not as described. The weight was entirely wrong.

[wellpresseddaisy]

My summer sewing plans are now everyone else's problem. :)

These are from (left) Women's Clothing of the 1920s and (right) Women's Clothing of the 1930s, both by Elizabeth Weis Hopper and Ruth S. Countryman. I'm not at all convinced I could pull off the left side dress as I'm not 16 any more, but it's one of my favorites. :) The other two would make really comfy house dresses.

And, because I can't leave the Haslam System out of it:

I've actually drafted the pj pants before and they aren't bad (the Haslams had some weirdness left over in most of their trouser-y drafts from probably learning drafting in the early 1900s). They would definitely be better in a lighter fabric than I used, but I'm mostly in it for the pj top. And that slip looks super comfortable.

This is the base pattern that would let me draft a lot of different 20s style tops, especially the top one.

[wellpresseddaisy]

I'll finally have time to sew this coming long weekend and I'm paralyzed by indecision. I have 10 yards of white handkerchief linen, but that's going to be summer underwear (if I can ever decide on patterns).

I have 3 skirts that are close to done; they need the seams overlocked or zig-zagged (because linen), the plackets finished, waistbands attached, and hems done. So that's 1 project.

I also need shirts and really want to try some 1920s style ones, but that'a where the rest of the paralyzing indecision comes in. I may have too many options between the Haslam System, Mary Brooks Picken's drafting system, and Countryman and Hopper's Women's Wear of the 1920s (and their 1930s volume).

How can anyone choose?

Pattern images from the URI Commercial Pattern Database. (COPA is an excellent resource)

Any of these would be relatively easily draftable from a 1920s pattern block. There are even more options in some of my Women's Institute books.

And aprons! I need aprons. And some around the house clothes beyond 1 skirt. And probably some different style skirts because look at those style lines:

There are a few dress patterns I want to try, as well, to see if I like 1920s/early 1930s styles better. Or maybe something mid-1930s.

Going back to my roots, apparently, because my vintage love started with 1920s and 1930s styles, I was just too chicken to wear them in my 20s.

I'm sensing fabric shopping in my future. :)

[wellpresseddaisy]

Finished project, finally.

What: a 1920s nightgown in handkerchief weight linen. (Small section of the image covered for a family photo I forgot to move)

Pattern used: drafted from Haslam System of Dresscutting, Book 2, pg. 21

Fabric: 2 yds lightweight linen from fabrics-store.com (it's gorgeous stuff). 3 yds would have been a bit better. Had to get creative with the pattern cutting.

Changes after drafting: the sleeves and length. I didn't have enough fabric for the really neat sleeve treatment, but I'm not too sad about that. I'm not sure I'd like those sleeves while sleeping. I was also pretty sure that I wanted it shorter.

Changes I'd like to make: I'd like to shift the side back to the middle. The Haslam System usually uses a side seam that's back a bit from the normal seam placement, no matter the decade.

I had to work on this slowly since I can't really crawl around on the floor like I used to right now. I took...a while to finish. I'll have to go back and see when I posted the drafted pattern.

It'll get washed today since it's been rolling around my sewing space for a couple of months. And no one wants to wear something to bed that's been sitting out for a while. :)

All the seams are covered. I used felled seams for the shoulder and side seams. The neckline, which I'm particularly happy with, is basically a facing. I may wind up reinforcing the corners in the future.