· Deepest Coral 1930s Dress ·

I'm pretty excited about today's post! :-)

This dress has turned into one of my favorite creations- although I'm not sure how much of my admiration comes from the amazingly complementary Art Deco background we found for these photos. ;-D

But in all honesty, this dress did end up being all I ever hoped it would be, and more!

I purchased this novelty-weave, suiting-weight wool last year and pondered what to make for a while.  This color is rather uncommon and was hard to predict while purchasing online- it's not a true red, isn't rust, and isn't orange.  I finally decided that it looks like the deepest shade of coral.  And after all, Deepest Coral is so much more interesting to say than plain old Red. ;-)  It's also a much more flattering shade for my coloring than most reds, so it turned out to be a very fortuitous online purchase!

I've made several 1930s dress so far, but I had several quintessentially 30s elements on my list of "must do"s.  I still have a few, but this dress was able to cross some off the list. ;-)

- I wanted to finally do a really long skirt- I've talked in the past about how my skirts always end up shorter than I want, and so many 30s illustrations show skirts reaching almost to the ankle!  It seems like such an elegant, unique length, and I LOVE it.

- I wanted to do some fun angled seaming- the 30s are iconic in that way, and a plain fabric is the perfect way to showcase that.

For all the decorative seaming on this, I used the period method of lapped seams.  Let me tell you- it's brilliant!  Makes all those intricately seamed 30s designs seem magically possible and even easy!

- I've never made a raglan-sleeved 30s dress!  Shocking, since raglan sleeves tend to be rather flattering for me and I really love them. :-)

- Those fun "fitted at the cap, full below the elbow" sleeves (thanks to Tegan for the info- these are officially called Bishop sleeves ;-) - they're another iconic 30s style and I love them!

- A "blousy" fit- I tend to over-fit everything, but I managed to achieve the blousy look while still being fitted enough to feel comfortable. :-D

These sleeve buttons were fun!  I used vintage buttons from our stash and it worked out perfectly to have them slightly graduate up in size as they extend up the sleeve.

I love this corde clutch!  It is perfect for taking to church, weddings, and other special occasions.

Wool suitings are one of those fabrics that I desperately want to love, but they make it so hard!!  Those annoying easing marks drive me bonkers! and I can't figure out how to get rid of them (or prevent them)!  I also reaaaaally love ironing with high temperatures and with tons of steam.  Which.... gives me little shiny patches all over my wools.  Sigh.  Thankfully, I (almost) completely avoided that on this dress.

Another thing though- anyone have great tips for hemming fabrics like this?  I serge the edge, turn it up once, and then hand-hem it.  I try so hard not to pull the thread tight, but the hem always shadows through!  Do I need to use hem tape?  It seems like I'd still have the same problem, though...?  Anyway, let me know if you have any tips! :-)

I recently realized that I never show my side zippers!  This one might not be the best candidate since the bodice is supposed to be blousy, but you get the idea. :-)  I prefer regular zippers and setting them by hand and that's my default for all my garments.

I used McCalls 6993 for the skirt.  It is such an amazingly cool pattern!  McCalls' new "Archive Collection" is a bit hit-and-miss (and the dates on some of those patterns seem so odd!), but this one is definitely a win!

A fun bonus is that I recently came across this vintage pattern- Simplicity 1384.  It's the same skirt! :-)

For the bodice, I used this Mrs. Depew pattern, adding long lower sleeves.  I love the concept behind those patterns, however I had some issues with mine.  I think I might have picked the wrong size, but it was nothing that couldn't be solved with a few mock-ups. ;-)

This velvet hat is a favorite, and falls into the category of "hats that work ever so much better with my hair short".  I've been enjoying short(er) hair ever so much!!! :-)

· Photos by Kathryn ·