Because its the 20's - why not a 20's Dress

 The Historical Picnic Society Event for March is bring a friend.  I made it so, it is my fault but I do tend to call the first event of the year bring a friend every year.  As such I asked who wanted to be my friend.  My niece, Tayla, very quickly volunteered.

I asked her what she wanted, suggested I could do a quasi medieval dress, Regency or 1950's all of which I could pretty easily throw together in the time I had.  She countered that she could do 1940's or 1920's.  Having been binge watching Closet Historian I immediately thought ahhhh the 1 hour dress and plans for a 1920's began.  Should be simple but for those who have read my previous posts nothing is ever easy when I get involved.

The one hour dress is an easy draft, for full explanation here is where I got my instructions.  Basically take bust measurement plus ease make rectangle half this wide and as long as you want the dress, add some arms and expand at hips to make an I shape.  I however thought ohh the hanky hem that would be great.  Yeah ballsed that one up when my side triangles were like tiny little spikes instead of long billowing hanky hems.  After two days of attempts to fix and trying to reimagine how to add panels to create not only what I wanted but something that was even wearable I decided it was just not pretty.  I wanted my niece to have a nice dress not some frankensteined messed up rag.

yes the first attempt was indeed this bad

I bit the bullet hit up spotlight (again visit 50 this month I am sure) and discovered to my delight a 40% of apparel fabric sale.  This meant that I didn't have to buy the cheap winston or plain satin and suddenly could afford the beautiful Satin Rayon - so pretty, so slinky, so arsie to sew I will never again taint my sanity with its luster.  To accent I found an almost perfect colour match lace.  Armed with these purchases I returned home to complete my 1hr dress.

Personal side note I did this dress in its entirety, including all planning, patterning, draping and adornments in one afternoon from about 10am to 4pm with an hour or so of breaks to pick up my son and the repeated interruption of a baby and a 5 year old (post school).  Do I think it is possible to make a 1hr dress in an actual hour... yes I do.  But it would need to be made out of cotton/easy to sew fabric, have no extra trims or finishes.  I may one day challenge myself to do so.  This one however with lace inserts and neckline belt and bow in slippery fabric was not going to behave in such a manner as to make a 1hr finish possible.

I am actually really happy with the finished result.  I don't think some of the inserts or collar are professionally finished but I also don't think Tayla will care - she isn't going to be wearing this to her wedding.