Monday, September 1, 2014

HSF '14 challenge #16: Calico and a Pocket-Handkerchief

Ticket to the Twenties is coming up at the end of the month. It's a 20's festival at the Workman Temple Homestead Museum with a live band, vendors, tours, and (you guessed it) picnicking in funny clothes. I don't dabble much in 1920's fashion, since it doesn't particularly flatter me, but then I found this lovely extant dress on ebay for a song:

It reminded me greatly of a 1-hour dress, and after reading about two successes by the fabulous Jen Thompson, I decided to attempt one of my own.

 The dress itself was easy  to pattern, and it went together surprisingly quickly. For this challenge, we had to choose a term from the Dreamstress's Historical Fashion and Textile Encyclopedia and I chose Calico. A raid on my fabric stash yielded a lovely green on yellow print that when paired with a solid collar and cuffs made the ideal end-of-summer frock. 



To accompany it, I chose another term and made a pocket-handkerchief. Cotton embroidery floss on linen, and whipped up in an afternoon



  • Historical Sew Fortnightly 2014 thedreamstress.com

The Challenge: Terminology
Fabric: Yellow and green cotton calico, green cotton and white linen
Pattern: Dress drafted from an original garment, pocket-handkerchief is a basic square.
Year: Dress 1920's, pocket-handkerchief any.
Notions: Thread, vintage applique, blue embroidery floss,
How historically accurate is it? The dress is machine-sewn, the handkerchief is hand  sewn andembroidered
Hours to complete: The dress took about a week, the handkerchief took 2 hours.
First worn: September 21st
Total cost: $4 for the green cotton, the rest is from my fabric stash

1 comment:

  1. Oh that's adorable! I love the contrasting collar and cuffs. I bet it's going to look great on you!

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