1930's wedding dress recreated

At the end of last year an acquaintance asked if I'd be interested in recreating a dress her friend had bought from eBay to get married in as the original dress was not in as good a condition as she had hoped and the synthetic satin wasn't as lovely as she'd hoped for either. It came with sleeves but they'd been hacked off and she preferred it without but the armhole was a bit of a mess.
My kind of dream job really as I love making bias dresses and this would be a enjoyable challenge. I began before Christmas but it wasn't finished until a couple of weeks before the wedding.
After removing and washing the rouleaux leaf-motif collar it fortunately was good enough to re-use and I found a silk that colour matched really well. Working from a bias block pattern I'd made for something else I drafted a pattern following the lines  of the original dress and made a toile in a thin cheap crepe. After that was fitted and  adjusted I re-cut the dress in the new silk satin and refitted it. Of course it fitted a bit differently than the toile- it made up bigger and anyway we decided on a more Jean Harlow snug-fit than the original so took in the hips a lot.
The bodice is mounted on a silk georgette and the seams and hems were all finished with bias georgette bindings.There are only 2 side back seams in the skirt (I never took pictures of them) but they angled in towards the centre back at hip level and then flared out forming the 6 foot train. Because of the angles I had to use tiny snaps and hooks on a placket to close the dress down the left bodice side seam and over the hip…not the flattest way to do it but a zip was impossible. I made a little cape which she wore on the way to the wedding and a silk tulle veil finished the look.

The wedding was this May but  I've only just received the gorgeous photos from the day so thought I'd make a post about it here.
This is the original post on my blog with just another photo or two.

The original 1930's acetate satin wedding dress bought from eBay

My recreation of it in a heavy French silk satin

1930s Dinner Dress

Hello!

I just finished this gown based on Eva Dress 744, the 1930s Dinner Dress pattern available in multisize.

It was a great pattern to use and I especially love the cut of the skirt.  I did make a few changes just based on personal preference.  Most notably I added 6 inches of length to the cape, cut the back skirt gore twice as wide as the original to have more "swoop" at the back, and added about an inch to the length of the top bodice between the bound buttonhole type facing that the cape passes through and the top, but did not add it to the lining (so that the top piece had more fabric gather above where the cape inserted, then tacked down a "tuck" to just add to the drapey effect).  Also, in lieu of making the cape detachable I decided to just go ahead and attach it and stitch closed the slit through which the cape passes.  I also cut the cape on the cross grain of my 60" wide fabric so I could not have a seam up the back (which meant I had to piece the lining, but no biggie).

All in all this pattern was MUCH easier to make than I had anticipated.  The hardest part for me was inserting an invisible zipper at the side seam (hi, bias satin + zipper.  Ouch! What was I thinking?  It originally called for snap closures, but I wanted the smooth line), and the newest thing I had learned was zig zagging clear elastic at the back bodice to help it stay "put".  I am glad I had thought of putting thread basting down the center front of the skirt and the bodice, as it helped me with fitting to make sure the skirt was hanging correctly. I am totally in love with the skirt of this pattern and can see myself adding it to various bodices for different evening gowns.

I used a great heavy gold rayon satin I purchased in the LA garment district for the body of the gown and cape.  The bodice and cape are lined in nude silk charmeuse.  Let me tell you, I was iffy about using my nice fabric to line this in because I was hording it, but oh my gosh, the silk charmeuse on my shoulders and arms felt SO nice that I'm glad I used it!

More info and pictures are on my blog here.

From the Reel Screen to Real Life

A while ago, I wrote about the green silk dress from the movie Atonement and how it was created. Well, Gemma commented here and on my personal blog that her wedding dress was inspired by that movie costume and that she had pictures. So, of course I emailed her to send those pictures to me. After I saw them I knew I wanted to ask her some questions on why that dress and how. Here are some gorgeous pictures of her completed dress and please enjoy the rest of her answers on my blog.

I'm Gemma McCrory from Belfast, Northern Ireland but now living in London, England. Any spare time that I have I love to shop! Depending on my mood I either like trawling through vintage shops and warehouses or searching on the high street for vintage styled pieces. I am not very good with my hands so am a bit hopeless at actually making my own, but what I am good at is finding vintage patterns and emailing them to my sister-in-law in Belfast to make for me. It was Marie, my sister-in-law and 1940s fanatic, who actually alerted me to Lsaspacey's post about my wedding dress.

Were you influenced by the movie Atonement in choosing your dress or was it a coincidence?

I watched Atonement and hated the movie but instantly fell in love with the dress, when my husband proposed I knew that I had to get that dress made. Being 6 feet tall I knew that any 'off-the-peg' dresses just would not do. Also being a lover of 1920s/30s clothing, the dress ticked all the boxes!

How did you find your dressmaker or did a family member/friend make it for you?

My dress maker was the wonderful Lucia Silver based in London. Believe it or not I just googled "1920 wedding dress maker" and up she popped! She has an amazing studio in Notting Hill which is dripping with vintage gowns, clothing and jewellery, as soon as I walked in I knew that she was the one for me. There was a hand made flapper dress hanging in every panel in the bay windows- stunning! When I arrived Lucia was just as excited as me when she saw the pictures I had brought with me as she was just about to start designing a dress similar- so I guess I was the guinea pig. She now uses the dress (a.k.a the goddess dress) on the main page of her web site, The State of Grace.

Did they use that same Vogue pattern to make it or did they copy the dress from pictures? How many tries (muslins) were made before the final dress?

No, they made the dress from a block which they drew my measurements on. From this they were able to make one toile then finito! Experts!

What fabric is your dress made out of? It moved so beautifully in the wind.
It is made from pearl crepe-back silk satin bought from Morocco.

Did you buy or make the fascinator/headdress?

The hatlette was also made by the same team it is made from the same fabric as the dress with hand stitched silver seams. The feathers and veil were also hand attached. Lucia also made some vintage single drop rhinestone and pearl earrings which she gave me as a gift.

The happy couple!

Join me in wishing the McCrorys the best in their life together and thank you, Gemma for sharing your story!

Images: property of Gemma McCrory, Focus Features Films, State of Grace

The Atonement Dress

I just wrote about this on my blog, but thought that the Sew Retro readers might be interested in this too.

Jacqueline Durran's design

I'm sure everyone who has seen the movie Atonement has already oohed and ahhed about Cecilia Tallis' (Keira Knightly) green silk dress, designed by Jacqueline Durran. Well, I just saw the film for the first time.

However, over a year ago, I was reading through the archives of The Costumer's Guide (a fabulous site on film costuming) and read about the dress. The page on the dress includes detailed closeups of the dress after it was placed on display and anything else you might want to know about the choice of that particular shade of green to any details on Cee's other costumes is there or a link is provided to other sources. One of those links was to a great post on the creation and maintenance of the many dresses used in the film at Sunday Couture. It detailed how delicate the original dresses were because of their laser cut detail work.

The dress is fabulous and there have been many copies sold and some patterns made resembling it, the closest would be Vogue 7365, still being sold today. Eva Dress and the Vintage Pattern Lending Library also offer one with a similar feel but not as drop-dead sexy or exposed; Eva Dress 5941 or Z5941.

Vogue 7365

Eva Dress 5941

A New York Post interview about the dress.

Images: The Costumer's Guide, Vogue Patterns, Eva Dress