A 1922 Evening Dress, Based on a Dress from Harper's Bazar

I've wanted this dress ever since I first saw it over two years ago. I'm surprised it took me as long as it did to make it! The inspiration is pictured at the bottom of this post. For my accessories, I'm wearing earrings and bracelets by Taylor of Dames a la Mode, a fan--with a kitty!--from Dengra Designs, shoes from Amazon, and a necklace I made from vintage stones from Etsy, settings from Fire Mountain Gems, and beads and chain from a local bead shop. My tiara is from Seperwar on eBay. I had to

The skirt is hemstitched with the help of Laurie of Cuddle Tyme Hemstitching who was wonderful and actually let me use her antique machine! More can be read about it on my post here.

I took detailed pictures of the construction process, and will post those later!


The dress is made over a foundation bodice of a cotton twill from Farmhouse Fabrics, boned with plastic whalebone from Farthingales, with boning channels made of Italian cotton ribbon from Angela Liguori, silk velvet from NY Fashion Center Fabrics which is lined with cotton organdy from Pure Silks, with edges finished with vintage rayon seam binding, and metallic silk from Pure Silks. I wrote about the flowers and silk thread covered beads here.

The pattern for the foundation is the Lady Maud Warrender 1911 pattern from Patterns of Fashion that I also used for my harem pants bodice.


Now, underneath the dress! I'm wearing stockings from American Duchess, which, while a little later than 20s do a good job of imitating the shiny look seen in many photographs. The smallest size is slightly too big for me, which I think makes them look more twenties! They're held up with garters which are made of crepe de chine and lace over elastic. I've since bought an antique garter which was made differently, which I've yet to copy. I'm wearing it over my silk envelope chemise, fully described here, and hoop, described here.


The dress is a wrap dress. A very elaborate wrap dress. I made up construction based on 1910s ideas, and it ended up working to not close the skirt. So, here it is, held up, and then I'm putting it on. Everything is open!


The skirt is the first thing that gets fastened. It closes with snaps. Next comes the twill underbodice, which closes edge to edge with alternating hooks and eyes. The chemise straps are then fastened into the lingerie guards I wrote about here, so they don't slip out of the narrow shoulder straps.


The flap that you can see hanging open in the pictures above these is essentially a stomacher. It's crinkled metallic silk lined with black silk taffeta. It's sewn to the right side, and then snaps closed on the left side. The velvet bodice then snaps shut over that.


Last, the belt--a tube of the crinkled metallic silk--is snapped on the left side. It's sewn around most of the skirt so it doesn't move. It's only loose from the center front to the side.


And here's the dress laid flat. You can see some of the construction. First, a twill foundation. Over that, a stomacher and back panel of crinkled silk. Then the velvet bodice, joined at the waist and center back, then the skirt sewn to that. Whew!


And my inspiration dress. You can see I've made a few changes. But that's why it's inspriration, right? :)