"Resign yourself, Catherine! Shops must be visited! Money must be spent! Do you think you could bear it?" - Northanger Abbey

Monday, February 25, 2013

Embellishment - (HSAL) Challenge 4

For the [historical sew-a-long] Embellishment challenge I decided to create a 1920s 'flapper' ensemble. Firstly I made up a basic plain black dress as per the instructions on the 'american duchess' blog. Modified it by using ribbon for the straps and just hemming the top same as the bottom. 

I straight dress with no waistline is never going to look great on me as I am an hourglass. So the embellishment for me is a way of trying to create some shape a 'fake' waistline. My first step was to add fringing to the hem. I ended up with 2 different lengths of fringing as the shop ran out of the longer type so the 2nd layer was shorter.
I had enough of the longer fringe to do a 'V' shape.
I found it made my shoulders and arms look hefty so looked at examples of sleeves on 20's eveningwear.

Source: imamuseum.org via Lady on Pinterest






And decided on some flutter sleeves. This was the first time I'd made any and had to draft from scratch. So a lot of googling was involved to find any tutorials.


I basically drew a large circle then measured over the strap to get the armhole size. Then drew a circle that size inside the larger circle but offset to one side. Cut out the large and small circle and where the circle was thinest snipped it open.
The sleeves had a hand rolled hem and staystitched where it attatched to the strap.


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The Challenge: #4 Embelishment

Fabric: crepe backed satin

Pattern: drafted from instructions

Year: 1926-ish

Notions: 3 metres of fringing, cotton thread, ribbon, half a meter of chiffon.

How historically accurate is it?: I hope its historically accurate. I've taken inspiration from various images although its not as ornate as the originals I think its in the spirit of the age.

Hours to complete: about 3.5 days

First worn: 10th february

Total cost: approx. £15



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