30s ensamble: I did it! Sort of...

So, I had this grand plan to make a dress and jacket in 7 weeks, during which I'd be travelling at least 3. I got inspired by some pretty fabric, and I desperetly wanted to make a 30s outfit to wear to a friends wedding. I made it! Sort of... I didn't have time to line the jacket but as long as we don't tell anyone it doesn't matter, right? (So why did I go around and show this to my sewing-friends at the weddding?! Or admitting this to the world on the blog?! Hmm... not so smart, perhaps ; ) ) In the last minute, I just basted the facing hem and sewed on the buttons, it worked for the day, but I will of course make it properly now after the wedding.

Dress and jacket.

Just the dress, with the cute little 30s handbag I bought at Tradera.

The wedding was in an old chapel at Gammlia outdoors museum. In between the guided tour and waiting for the newlyweds to get back from the photoshoot, me and Linda, who generously helped me out with taking pictures (Thank you!) found a 40s boat in one of the few museum buildings at Gammlia. We had fun... =)

It was a wonderful day; a beautiful wedding, a delicious dinner and a fun party.

Congratulations, Johan and Amanda!

I'm glad I made the outfit, but was again reminded that me and deadlines don't go together very well. Esp when I set them up way too tight!

I you want to see details shots and read some construction notes, just click on the blogtitle...

Otherwise, thank you for reading this far =)
Love, Erika


So, time to get geeky, right? =) First, details shots of the dress:

 

Lapped zipper

 

Self-covered buttons in the back

Skewed sideseam =( I cut the skirt on the bias, and I love the flowy effect it has on the drape. With a bit of extra length (72 cm skirt instead of my usual 65cm) to me the dress gives of more of a 30s vibe than it would have done with a straight grain skirt. However, the skirt would have benefited from cf and cb seams, and a layout like they explain in this article. As it is now, the fibers have different strength on the two sides if the seam, causing it to twist. It is less noticeble on me though, as the dressmakers dummy and I have different porpotions (see how the waistline is pulled up in the back? Even with the dummy on the smallest setting, the back is too wide and too long!).

Now, onto the The Jacket!

Back of jacket, notice the lack of shoulder darts. Instead I eased the back shoulder piece to the fronts, workes great as the dart only would have been maybe 1 cm. Also, there's no cb-seam, which the pattern really needed, as even with two waistdarts it was a smidge too tight around the hips. I stubbornly refused to add a center seam, and the mr came with the cleaver idea, how about godets?
Brilliant! Added one to the inner darts, perfect fit around both waist and hips. (The dummy's hips are 10cm smaller than mine, look at the pics in the beginning for a better idea of hip-fit).

Front, also with two waistdarts. No need for godets here, as the front side is so much wider than the back. The buttonholes are bound, and the buttons covered with the polkadot fabric.

Top of the front pieces, with a bustdart from the shoulder, and a dart to support the fold of the collar (that little dart, it's just 1 cm at the top, is the secret to making shawl collars lie smoothly). Also note the gathered sleeve caps.

Inside the front/undercollar during construction. The fabric was very unstable, so I blockfused the entire jacket with fusible knit interfacing (even the sleeves) before cutting out. Initially, I planned to leave it there, for that soft, blousy 30s summerwear feel. But even with the knit interfacing, the fabric was way too soft to support the wide collar. So I made a more "proper" interfacing with meduimweight toille fabric. The front shoulders were stabilized, a staytape added to support the roll line, and the whole thing was padstitched to the undercollar, like I did for the coat last year. But this time I let the canvas interfacing extend into the seamallowances, and left out tailorbasting it to the front. There was just no way to make invisible stitches on this fabric, even if I just caught one strand of the knit interfacing there was still a tell-tale ripple on the right side of the fabric. 

On the finished jacket. You can see how the canvas interfacing ends a bit up from the side seam, and then gently curves to the front, not interfereing with the ease created for the bust. Also visible are the sleeveheads. Note the lack of shoulderpads, giving the finished garment a softer feel, I think.

The back, with a backstay that extends into all seamallowances.

Inside the lower back, with the godets clearly visible. As you can see, I placed them inside the dart, and let them end at the waistline. The back of the sleeves are also visible, where two pleats agaist the polkadot-cuffs creates ease of movement for the elbows.

This was a fun project, and I can see myself get lot's of wear from it in the future, both as an ensamble and as individual pieces. It was interesting to tailor something a bit less ambitious, to cut some corners and see what worked and what didn't work. I have a strong feeling that with some wear the toille-canvas won't be strong eunough to support the wide collar, it might have been better to use a light-weight horse hair canvas, or maybe a linen interfacing canvas. However, this is not meant for everyday wear, and I feel perfectly happy with it! Now I just need to sew up the last of the lining and insert it... =)

Thank you for tagging along for this little ride into sewing geek-land! If you have any thoughts, questions, suggestions, please let me know in the comments!

Love, Erika