1920s Robe de Style Wedding Dress

Hello everyone!  I hope that the start of your week has been splendid!  Mine has been ok!  This week's post concerns the 1920s Robe de Style wedding I dress I made for the "Dressing the Historical Bride" program.  I think it is one of my favorite dresses.  It is so ridiculous, with the panniered hips, but so elegant and lovely at the same time.

The Dress

I used a hem stitch to hem the satin edges.  That was so not fun.  But in the end it was worth it!

My court pearls worked perfectly with the dress!

Inspiraton for the Dress

Photo of a Robe de Style wedding dress I found on Pinterest with no source stated.  I LOVED the lace flounces on her skirt!  It is so sweet and very feminine.  I didn't much like the idea of making a collar like is on her dress, so left it off.

The bodice part of this dress, that was once on eBay, really made me happy.  I liked how plain it was leaving the skirt to do the showing off.  This dress has sheer sleeves, but I didn't like those either.  The flounces were gathered on a cord and that is what I did for my lace and satin flounces.  I also really liked the piping around the neckline, armscye and where the bodice meets the skirt. 

There was also on this dress a decoration at the left hip.  This is a popular place for decoration on a lot of the dresses I saw while doing research.

Skirt Decoration

I discovered two dresses online that had floral decorations that I fell in absolute love with and determined that my dress should have the same decoration.

For mine, I made small tubes of satin that were knotted at the end, wire and very thin crochet thread and antique lily of the valley sprigs.

This decoration turned out so lovely and I was happy that I took the time to complete it.

Inspiration for Decoration

This first inspiration dress is from antiquedress.com (the next 4 photographs).  Deborah graciously gave me permission to use several photographs here on the blog.  Thank you Deborah!

The first decoration I discovered was on this dress from Antique Dress.  I instantly fell in love with how the leaves were placed on wire then covered with thread and the addition of  the lily of the valley.

 Everything about this dress makes me happy.  The color, the satin, the lace and the floral decoration!!

Look at all those lovely lily of the valley!  I think there were also waxed orange blossoms used!

Full dress photograph. What's not to love!!!???

The second inspiration for the floral decoration comes from Wild Rose Vintage (next 3 photographs). Thank you so much Faye for letting me share your dress here!!  I am so in love with it!

I really can't believe how similar the decoration on these two dresses are.  Like almost exactly the same!!  And look a that lovely piping between bodice and skirt!

The close up of this one really helped with placement of the leaves and the lily of the valley.

Full view of Faye's fabulous dress!!

I used a tutorial that I found through Pinterest to make the satin flower.  You can find that tutorial Here.  The leaves I made using instructions from a fabulous book..."The Art and Craft of Ribbon Work".  It is a reproduction of a 1920s flower and bow making book that is fabulous!

And speaking of piping....look at what I did while making piping for my dress!  I have NEVER sewn through my finger while using my sewing machine.  Well, my fingers got a little too close to the needle this time.  The dangers of using a zipper foot I guess! Thankfully, it wasn't that bad of an accident!

The Pattern

For the pattern I used for the dress was the Laughing Moon pattern 128 Robe de Style, View C and it went together like a dream!!

Right then!  I hope you all have a most excellent rest of your weeek!  I'm trying to work up the desire to start on my 1860s elliptical skirt half mourning dress.  We shall see how tomorrow goes!

Blessings!

g