Challenge 15 - The Great Outdoors

At the start of this year's HSF, I had the goal of making two 1920's dresses for two days of Governor's Island Jazz Age Lawn Party. As I was putting together my Pinterest board of inspiration for the year, one dress in particular stood out as 'the ONE'  - a Lanvin dress from 1923.

I was going to make it for the Pink challenge at the beginning of the year - but as I started looking it turned out to be almost impossible to find this quality of ribbon. I bought vintage lengths from a few different vendors online, but the widths and the yardage weren't right or enough. It seems that ombre ribbon like this is no longer in production, so each time I found a style that could have worked it was in such limited quantity to make it unusable.

Finally, months later, I came across a vendor that was able to sell me 125 meters (I bought out the stock!) and I was able to get to work. 

(the ribbon on the left is the final choice!)

The shape is fairly simple so I made the pattern myself. Unfortunately, my sewing machine was not so interested in sewing the ribbon to the net so had no choice but to hand stitch everything together. 

I didn't take too many "in-progress" photos, to be honest it wasn't that interesting, but in these you can see the process of laying out the pattern: 

And finally, seasons and seasons of Murder, She Wrote later: the finished product! 

I did eventually run out of ribbon so I wasn't able to make the flowered waist band as the original garment. Instead, I made a half-belt with side falls from extra tulle at the hem. Also, not pictured is the slip to match, as it wouldn't fit on the dress form. 

Here is a bonus candid photo of me from the party:

 And now for the roundup:

What the item is: Lanvin-inspired Summer Dress

The Challenge: The Great Outdoors

Fabric: French (silk?) net, silk lining, ombre ribbons

Pattern: self-drafted

Year: 1923

Notions: thread, silk and cotton

How historically accurate is it? I would say 90% - all the insides are French seamed and the ribbon is hand-sewn, so although I'm not sure how the original is made, it technically could have been made this way. I'll take off points as I'm not sure what content of either the ribbon or the net are.

Hours to complete: 150+, it was a few weekends of sewing and most of the flowers were gathered on the subway during my commute to work. I started sewing in early June and finished on August 15th.

First Worn: The Governor's Island Jazz Age Lawn Party this Saturday!

Total Cost: A little over $100