Mid-1920s green lawn dress

I made and wore this a while ago (three weeks? four weeks?), but didn't get any full-length shots, so I wanted to wait until I'd washed it to get more photos to post here. And when I'd finally gotten round to washing it, we had rainy weather so I couldn't get the photos-in-the-park that I wanted. But we had beautiful weather today, so here you go!

This dress was mostly a one-day deal; I worked out the measurements and design, then procrastinated until two days before the event to even cut the fabric. But it's the 1920s, right? Easy-peasy. Step One: Cut rectangle. Step Two: Sew rectangle. Step Three: Wear rectangle.

Those two are from the Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governors Island in NYC on August 18th, but I was having too much fun to think about Proper Costume Photos! The rest of them are all from
today, taken in a local park by my little sister.

The dress is made of green cotton lawn from my stash, and I'm wearing a plain white cotton slip underneath it. The cloche is linen, from Amazon.com, which I decorated with fabric cream roses and leaves. And my shoes are at least three or four years old, from Payless!

The slip has no pattern; I literally just took my measurements and cut out muslin in two vaguely slip-shaped pieces and sewed them together!

The dress was a bit more complicated, but only a bit. I liked Past Patterns' #3055, but I also didn't want to actually have to buy a pattern - it's the 20s, right? Rectangles! Still, I wanted to be sure I wasn't doing anything stupid (look, 1920s is new to me!), so I studied a similar 1920s pattern Jen Thompson of Festive Attyre was kind enough to send me.

It had the skirt and top made in two pieces and the PP is one, I believe, so I didn't actually scale it up to use for myself, but it was terribly helpful to confirm the shapes my pattern pieces ought to be! (Rectangles, yes.) It's a big rectangle with arm and neck holes cut out - the only part I fit was the yoke, which buttons at the back with one lone vintage button.

I meant to have four tucks in the skirt (as the PP dress does), but apparently I can't math, so it was longer than I wanted with only four tucks - and I'd started the tucks from the bottom, as I've found they end up straighter that way. Okay, five tucks it is!

There are five matching tucks in the sleeve, which are actually below-elbow length with elastic; they get tucked up underneath the rest of the sleeve, with the elastic round the upper arm. That's just what I guessed would give me that effect of the sleeve on the first view of the PP dress page, so that's what I did!

I'm quite pleased with how this dress came out, it's quite comfy to wear, and it's nice to not be corseted for a change! Still don't especially love the 20s though; don't expect to be seeing this blog suddenly flooded with 1920s fashion! ;)