1920s Wedding Accessories and Underwear!

Good Sunday everyone!  I hope that your week was a fabulous one!  Mine was busy, but it's over and I'm looking forward to next week when hopefully I start a half mourning, 1860s elliptical dress!

Today, I'm sharing the accessories and underwear that was made for the 1920s Robe de Style Wedding Dress.  And also my Mama's puppy, Chloe!

The Bridal Bouquet

I was so busy and really under the gun to get things (namely dresses) ready for the September "Dressing The Historical Bride" fashion show, that I just didn't have time to do the flowers that I wanted for three of the dresses.  Having done floral things in the past, and being so beyond excellent at making my visions come to life, I asked Mom if she would do the 1850s, 1914 and 1920s wedding bouquets.  I'm so happy she said yes, because as you will see, they were magnificent!!!

Isn't Chloe the cutest thing?  She is so fun and silly and happy and loving!  I want to steal her and bring her home, but Mom would be crushed and Greg would not be pleased.

And my Mom...she is just the cutest thing ever!  She made the bouquet out of new maiden hair fern bushes from Hobby Lobby, Boston fern bushes from the dollar store, beautiful bridal blush roses from Michael's, and antique lily of the valley that I pulled off of an antique hat...there were over 45 of them on the hat!!!  The style of bouquet in the 1920s had become ENORMOUS and for some fun reason, knotted ribbons, sometimes with flowers tied to them, sometimes not, were added to the bouquet.  As you can see in the following inspiration photos, Mom hit the nail on the head perfectly!!

Bridal Bouquet Inspiration

I just love the shape and size of these bouquets.  Many of them had asparagus and maiden hair fern and just a few flowers, usually roses.  The look was something very whispy and airy

The Veil and Gloves

Keeping with the look of the cloche in the 1920s, wedding veils became caps that resembled skull caps.  They were many times made of a lovely silk veiling and decorated with tucks, silk ribbon, silk ribbon flowers, waxed orange blossoms or fresh flowers.  Elastic was sewn into the edge to hold the veil snugly to the head!

The hem of the veil is embroidered with a serpentine, chain stitch.

To go with the dress, I chose antique, ivory colored, kid leather opera gloves!

Veil Inspiration

Many of the veils from the 1920s were exceeding long, probably to make up for the short skirts that were now in fashion, but on occasion, brides wore short veils.  Happiness for me, as my veil was on the shorter side!

The Underwear

For the underwear for the dress, I wanted to make a set of  "step-in" combinations and tap pants.  I should have made them out of satin, but I was out of money to purchase some and had pretty cotton on hand, so that's what I used!  I will, in the future, be making a satin set.

The underwear was edged in antique lace.

I patterned the lace decoration on the front of the step-ins after an image that I can't find right now!!  ACK!  I hate that.  It came from an antique catalog, so when I find it, I'll sneak it in!

The pattern used for the step-in combinations and tap pants was Past Patterns 501

Robe de Style Panniers

I must admit that I was most excited about this project because I could finally make these panniers!!  I think they are ridiculous and marvelous and jolly and fun!!  Plus, I can now make other Robe de Style dresses!  Huzzah!

I really wanted mine to be sheer with a pretty ribbon boning channel, with lace at the bottom flounce!

Pannier Inspiration

I really liked how this pannier was attached to a bodice.  Sort of like an extra element of modesty for the satin bodice of the dress.  Source:  The MET.

The lace at the hem came from this example from The MET.

I just loved the over all look of this one.  Also from The MET.

The pattern I used for the the panniers was the fabulous Laughing Moon 128

To finish out this post, one more look at the lovely Miss Adalea wearing the 1920s dress!  I could not get over what an incredible 1920s bride she made!  Almost made me cry!!

I hope you all have a wonderful next week!

Be Blessed!

g

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

The "Dressing The Historical Bride Program"!!!

Warning: Picture heavy post!

Hello everyone!!!  I hope that this post finds you all more than well!!

Oh my goodness!  I can't believe that it has been over 2 months since I have written a blog post!  EEEEEK!!!  So much has happened in these past two months, so I think I'll forgive myself this sore neglect of blog posting...

I'll write more on that maybe in the future, but for now, I'd like to share with you the "Dressing The Historical Bride" program that We Wear History and The House of Whyte put on two Saturdays ago!  We Wear History and Something Special Antique Store in Meridian, Idaho, do a High Tea/Fashion Show yearly in September and this year's theme was Dressing the Historical Bride.  Not only was it an underwear education program, but also a fun historical walk through bridal wear from 5 fashion eras.  Those eras that were showcased were the 1830s, the 1850s, the 1890s, 1914 and the 1920s!  I had such a fun time researching all the dresses, veils and accessories for this program, but need to schedule my sewing time a lot more carefully!  There were days that I was sewing more that 12 hours a day.  Lately my creative mind has been writing checks that my body and the whole space time continuum thing simply cannot cash!  So, there will be lots of work going on in that arena in the future!

  We had so much fun this year as the ladies are so delightful, elegant, fun, funny and just a true blessing to work with!  We added two new ladies to our "family" this year, Michaela Coy from My Soul is Fed With Needle and Thread and Connie Smith all the way from Texas!!! (Connie is my bestie from Texas, Josie Smith of Josephine Gypsy)

Photos were taken by the talented Colton White (my boy!) and the floral arrangements from 1850s, 1914 and 1920s, were made by my sweet Mama who couldn't be there as she had scheduled knee replacement surgery two days before...(due to some horrid unforseen events, she doesn't have a new knee but does have in and on her tibia 2 plates, 19 screws, 4 wires and 148 staples...yaaaaaaa...more on that later!)

Sooooooo...without further ado, here are the historical brides in their finery!

1836

Miss Molly Palm

1856

Miss Brianna Walker

1898

Miss Mikayla Walker

1914

Miss Aubrielle Holly

1926

Miss Adalea Sparks

My Lovely Brides and Their Dressers!

What is an underwear/bridal fashion show without those lovely ladies who dress the brides?  Here are the fabulous dressers with the brides they were tasked with making ready for the walk down the aisle!

Miss Molly Palm and her real life Mama Mrs. Laura Palm!

Miss Brianna Walker with Mrs. Sarah Mace (who is also Miss Molly's real life aunt and Laura's sister!)

Miss Mikayla Walker (who is Miss Brianna's identical twin sister!) and Mrs. Connie Smith!

Miss Aubrielle Holly with her real life Mama, Mrs. Marilyn Holly!

Miss Adalea Sparks with Miss Michaela Coy!

I may be a bit partial and prejudiced, but I think that these lovely ladies were just stunning!  (They are stunning out of costume as well!)  It was such a thrill seeing them all dressed up!!!

 Every Bride needs an escort to walk them down the aisle!

I have the most fabulous men in my life!  My husband, Greg and my sons, Cody and Colton were so accommodating and agreed to act as tea pot fillers and escorts for the brides during the show!  I was so proud of them!  They also helped to deliver ALL the everything to the venue and take everything home.  I am so blessed!!

(these next 5 pictures were taken by my long time bestie Kay Dyer!)

Miss Molly with Mr. Greg White

Miss Brianna with Mr. Colton White

Miss Mikayla with Mr. Dakota White

Miss Aubrielle with Mr. Greg White

 Miss Adalea with Mr. Colton White

To end with, here are some behind the scenes images of the day.  

I hope that you have enjoyed these photos as much as I do!  They make me so happy!!!  I'll be writing three posts on the newest bridal dresses I made along with posts on the underwear that was made for them in the future...hopefully NOT two months not away!  hahahahah!!!

Be blessed my friends!

g