1917 Brown Party Dress

I know what you're probably thinking.  Brown?  Really?  You couldn't have gone with a prettier, party color?  Well, no.  Why?  Because of the EPIC antique, silk chiffon embroidered lace that I have had in my stash for years!  Then about three years ago when I fell head over heals in love with Phryne Fisher, I purchased all manner of fabrics thinking I would make a huge Phryne wardrobe.  I purchased some coppery/brown poly chiffon and crape from the Casa line at JoAnn's that mysteriously matched perfectly the antique lace!  They sat together in my "someday project" pile in the costume and fabric room in the garage until one day last year I was looking through Pinterest and found the perfect inspiration! It's a wedding dress, but I thought it would be awesome as a party dress.  I had also seen other "party dresses" in the same fashion so thought, hey!  That is what the brown dress will become!

It has been a while since I have sat at the sewing machine because of a thrown out back, sickness, anxiety/depression and a general "I just want to lay in bed and binge watch Netflix while eating carbs" feeling.  January and its lack of sun and abundance of snow usually causes this in me, so I decided yesterday to just make myself start on the project.

Because I am me and I adore antique and vintage underwear and their reproductions, I'm taking this opportunity to do some really correct 1916-1919 underwear.  I have made a 1916 black and ivory striped petticoat that I made to go under my wool Wearing History jacket pattern jacket and stripe skirt, and then I just recently finished the yellow long line corset, but wanted a more true to era chemise, corset cover and another petticoat in ivory and lace to match the chemise and corset cover.  Yesterday I started on the envelope chemise using Wearing History's pattern (picture below), and I just have the top hem and straps to finish and that is complete!  I would have finished it yesterday but I wanted to copy an element on an extant envelope chemise from my collection and that made the front too short, so the front panel had to be re-done. After the chemise is complete, the corset cover will be tackled!

The fabulous silk chiffon embroidered lace that is at the center of the party dress idea!

 It is crazy how closely the colors match!

The hat for the party dress will be made of wire, covered in chiffon and the lace and King George will decorate it!  He was gifted to me by my lovely friend, Tracy Gomez!

The wedding dress from the above magazine page is the inspiration for the dress.  Isn't it gorgeous!?

Source:  Archive.org

I'll be using Folkwear 220 for the base of the bodice and a vintage 1916 pattern for the skirt base.

 The underwear patterns:

You can find paper patterns here: 

Wearing History

Old Petticoat Shop

and

E-patterns here: 

Wearing History

The start and almost finish of the chemise.  I found this chemise (first image on the page, second chemise from the left) that had really sweet tucks at the top and lace edging at the bottom.  I altered the Wearing History pattern to account for the tucks and just need to finish the top with a hem and lace and make button holes and attach buttons at the bottom and it will be complete!

I hope you are all having a wonderful 3rd week of January and are busy working on your next project!

Blessings!

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