Making Vintage 1920s Clothes for Women E-Book

Suzanne Rowland

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

The 'roaring twenties' were exciting years for women's fashion. The iconic image is of the young 'flapper' dancing the night away in a sparkling dress with fringes and tassels moving to the beat of the Jazz age. But, for all women in the post-war years of the 1920s, there was a new freedom in fashion as hemlines lifted and waistlines dropped. The simplified silhouette caused a boom in home dressmaking as women with basic sewing skills used tissue paper patterns to run up a new frock in the latest style. This practical book explains the background to these years and the trends in women's fashion, before introducing a range of garments that women would typically have worn. Suzanne Rowland gives a unique and detailed account of how to make vintage 1920s clothes for women based on the dress collections at the Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove, and Worthing Museum and Art Gallery. Fifteen detailed projects for garments and accessories include a pair of fashionably daring beach pyjamas, the wedding dress of a bride from East Sussex, and a simple striped frock suitable for wearing at a British seaside resort. Each project includes a detailed description of the original garment with an accompanying illustration alongside photographs of the original pieces. Scaled patterns are included with a list of materials and equipment required. Step-by-step instructions and close-up photographs are given for each stage of the making process with information about the original techniques used. Superbly illustrated with 314 close-up colour photographs.

Leseprobe

SUZANNE ROWLAND

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2017 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2017

© Suzanne Rowland 2017

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 340 0

Frontispiece: Detail of glass beaded circular flower motifs in shades of pink decorating a black georgette evening gown. (Worthing Museum and Art Gallery)

DEDICATION

To my family and friends

Contents

Introduction

1Techniques and Measurements

2Tools, Fabrics and Trimmings

3Smart Day Dress

4Two Summer Frocks

5Cocktail Gown

6Damask Opera Coat and Velvet Bag

7Wedding Dress with Dutch Bonnet, Cami-knickers and Garters

8Velvet Suit and Silk Blouse

9Houndstooth Wool Coat

10Beach Pyjama Suit

Suppliers

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Index

Introduction

This book is aimed at readers who are interested in accurately recreating original 1920s garments from museum collections; this might be for film, theatre or television, or for re-enactment or fancy dress. The fifteen projects could all originally have been made by home dressmakers in the 1920s. I have not included elaborate beaded dresses, tailoring or corsetry because these projects were outside the dressmakers’ realm of experience. Due to the simplicity of the twenties silhouette most of the projects in this book are suited both to those with costume-making experience and to amateur makers with limited experience. The scaled-down patterns included with each project are a UK size 10 and can be graded up or down to fit other sizes. Methods for enlarging patterns are explained in Chapter One: Techniques and Measurements.

Detail of a corsage of satin and pearl beaded flowers decorating the waist of the cocktail dress in Chapter Five. (Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove)

All patterns are reproduced without a seam allowance and so a generous seam allowance should be added once the pattern has been scaled up or when cutting. A toile, which is a sample garment made from calico or cheap fabric, should be made for every project to test the fit before cutting out in fabric. It is recommended that complete beginners take a basic dressmaking course or consult a good sewing manual before attempting any of the projects. The instructions for making have been written using my experience of teaching dressmaking classes to adult learners from beginners to improvers. I have also drawn on my experience of designing and making step-by-step projects for contemporary craft magazines. The techniques are all based on my experiences of working in professional costume workrooms for many years, making costumes for film, television, and theatre. I have been lucky to work alongside many skilled cutters and costume makers and have picked up tips along the way which are included in this book. I am also a dress historian and like to use surviving clothes in museum collections as the basis for material culture research. This is a research method that starts with the object and then spreads outwards to take in contemporary materials from the period such as photographs, journals and amateur films. Interpretation is then applied using secondary sources, and so it is hoped that this book may also be of interest to fellow historians of fashion.