1930s Ball Gowns Put the Accent on the Shoulders

These formal gowns from December 1936 feature extra-wide skirts, narrow waists and eye-catching sleeves. Such a thrilling and elegant movie-star quality! Enjoy this eye candy as a way to de-stress from any holiday madness you may be experiencing.

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s - A Smart Parisian Frock with Cascading Drape

I was watching Downton Abbey last night (oh my gosh - don't you just love the costumes for Edith and Mary?!) It makes me want to sew up a whole wardrobe of 1920s frocks. It is hard to believe there is only one episode left. :( At least we still have Miss Fisher of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries to get our Flapper Era fix.

To help you with your Downton Abbey or Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries frock envy, just turn to Ruth Wyeth Spears and her wonderful tips from the 1920s. In this tip for the home sewist, she covers the latest frock style from Paris with her usual simplicity. This frock, with a  unique neckline with offset jabot collar, and artful cascading drape below the waist, is designed for print fabric. Inspired?

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s: A Ribbon Rosette for Your Evening Frock

With the holidays approaching and all the festivities that this season entails, another tip from Ruth Wyeth Spears for her 1920s sewists on the subject of evening frocks seems appropriate! This tip is for creating a large ribbon rosette with streamers to accent your 1920s party frock. Key to her tip is two-toned or double-sided ribbon (a different color on each side, not two colors on each side). You create knotted loops and sew them in tiers to a circle of buckram - easy-peasy!

I love Ruth's tips. Enjoy!

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s - Trimming a Satin Frock

Reverse pin tucks! AND hand-embroidered panels! This is a win-win tip from Ruth Wyeth Spears for her 1920s audience. Can you visualize it - a black satin frock with panels embroidered in peacock blue and gold? I simply love Ruth's ideas.

Do you think it's better to embroider the panels and then stitch them to the dress, or complete the sewing of the dress and then embroider it? My guess is the former, but I could be wrong. :)

Sewists Use Tip to Sew Lovely 1920s Dresses!

About a year ago, I posted this tip from Ruth Wyeth Spears and the 1920s:

This tip has inspired more than one sewist. I was thrilled to hear from Gabriela of the Pour La Victoire blog, who had recently created a 1920s frock and added a cascading drape using Ruth's tip. I think her results are absolutely wonderful and a fabulous testament to the 1920s. In the following images, borrowed from her blog, you can see how much the cascading drape adds to her evening frock. 

I   absolutely love the color of her frock, the beading is simply exquisite, and the total effect is simply elegant. I can't imagine the careful effort and amount of time it took to add the beautiful beading to the frock.

To read all the details of how Gabriela constructed this dress, check out her blog, Pour La Victoire. In her blog, Gabriela also mentions Lorna, who had also used this tip to accent her 1920s dress (along with a friend). Lorna kept in touch me when she was sewing her dress, so be sure to follow the links to her blog, Loran's World. Loran has sewn other wonderful 1920s dresses, and loves to knit too! So be sure to browse her blog and be inspired.

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s - Adding a Crystal Beaded Accent to Your Chiffon Dinner Frock

Imagine this dinner frock in "crayon blue chiffon" and then add this beaded bow knot, bead by bead! Ruth Wyeth Spears tells you how in this very fine tip from the 1920s. The instructions look like a snap (well, a relative snap) and I love that "simple one-piece dress" with shirred fullness at the sides. Delightful!

Enjoy!

1940s Originator Sketch - Cocktail Dresses

Ooooo la la! These stunning cocktail dresses feature cascading drapes topped with bows. Did you notice that both dresses dip lower in the back? Fabulous eye candy!

Look at the details carefully - intriguing!

1937 Glamorous Couture Fashion from Paris and Vogue

Shirred to a high waistline, this exquisite lamé-topped dress has the allure you need for cocktails and dinner! The black crepe croisette fabric is molded to you - seductive and slim. Note that the inspired turban matches the frock. Such sophistication - it's a movie star pose and movie star glamour. :)

Cigarette not required. ;)

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s - A Lovely Frock with Draping

In this tip, Ruth describes a marvelous technique of artfully adding graceful panels and an elegant draped band ("girdle") at the hips to add beauty to a plain slip-over frock. As always, yardage and detailed, illustrated instructions are provided and make this look simple. Love it!

1939 Summer Frocks - Eye Candy!

Let's take a summer break and enjoy these cool cotton frocks from 1939!

Upper frock has a basque bodice and a swing skirt. Lower frock has waistline shirrings, a twirly skirt, and a "school girl collar". :)

 Upper frock has short flutter sleeves, yoke interest, and a skirt with top-stitched pleats that release into swing fullness. Lower evening dress is sewn with beautiful sheer fabric. It has an embroidery-trimmed sweetheart neckline, a shirred midriff, and long graceful skirt.

 

 Inspiring fashion for your late 1930s wardrobe!

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s - Hemline Advice

In this tip, Ruth discusses "a hemline for every figure" - a brief but honest discussion that we all don't have slender figures nor trim legs and ankles. :) The use of pleats, overskirts, and underskirts are all successful approaches "for the woman who does not wear short dresses well" ("short" being a relative term, here).

A very useful tip when sewing your 1920s costumes!