Draping Project: Late 1920s Coat

Another speed draping exercise was this late 1920s coat. I think this one would be fun to make and wear. The original image had a different fabric color down the side as trim.

Draping Project: Late 20s Dress

One of our Draping Class projects this semester was a late 1920s dress. This would be a bias cut garment. The assigment was to drape the bodice of the dress within one class period - an exercise in speed draping. Here are the results...

Draping Project - Fashion Dress

Front

I know this doesn't look like a whole lot, but boy did it take a long time to drape! One of our most recent assignments in Draping class was to drape a dress based on a modern fashion image of a draped dress. The original was made of primitive pleated silk. We replicated it with primitive pleated taffeta. First we draped and constructed a darted shift for underneath the dress. Then the fashion fabric was draped on the form over the shift. To finish the dress, the drape would be hand tacked in place to the shift. The original had the look of fabric that had been wrapped around the body somewhat carelessly immediately before the model walked the catwalk. In actuality, the garment would have been draped and tacked to an understructure to carefully hold the drape in place.

When given this project, our initial reaction was, 'oh, this will be easy.' But it was much more difficult than that. Especially for me. It was very difficult to let go of my control of the fabric and let it drape in the way it wanted to while still remaining as true as possible to the original image. But by the end, it was much more enjoyable.

Side Front

Back - with extra fabric twirled and tucked at top - would be removed in actual garment.

Side Front

Moonlight

La la la. 1920s Moon Pictures.

1920s Images

A few more glorious 1920s images for you to drool over!

1920s Fashion Images

In researching rendering styles of the 1920s I came across these fabulous 1920s fashion images that I thought you would enjoy! Isn't the party costume above adorable?

I love the colors of this one!

20s Dress in Progress

Just thought I'd share a picture of the 20s dress in progress! This is the last one that I need to complete...and definitely the hardest to construct. Fortunately for me, my draping class will be covering bias in depth this semester. Something that would have helped me greatly on the project.

1929 White Dress

Today I'm working on a dress inspired by this 1929 original from the MET. The dress that I'm creating is for the leading lady in my Dance Light production. I'm so pleased with the results thus far! This is going to sound pathetic, but I spent a couple days just trying to figure out the pattern for the bodice - the girl that I'm draping it for has a perfect 50s figure...but that's much curvier than the perfect 20s figure. But now, it's all figured out and well on its way to completion - yay! I'll be sure to share pictures of the completed dresses. Fittings will be this week - as well as the first week of classes!

This semester I'm taking another Costume Design class and Costume Rendering - which I'm very excited about. We'll be learning to use all sorts of different media to render our costume designs. I also have a Fabric Painting class that should be fun...along with a lot of hard work. Another Draping class - my favorite class. Shop Management class and Photoshop and Website Design class. Whew. It should be another whirlwind but amazing semester in CMU's MFA Costume Production program.

1929 Orange Dress Costume

Mom and I have been busy at work sewing the 1929 evening dresses for my Dance Light production. This dress was made from a 1929 pattern from Europe reproduced by EvaDress patterns. The fabric is a stunning orange sheer fabric that I found at the PA Fabric Outlet in Lemoyne, PA.

I found this awesome rhinestone applique on a tank top at the thrift store.

I'm really happy with the way that it turned out!

Early 20th Century Parasols

I've been doing a little research about Oriental Parasols in the Early 20th Century for one of the characters in my Dance Light piece. Here are a few of the best images that I found in my search.

Early 20th Century Parasols

L.O.V.E.

I adore this picture!

Early 20th Century Parasols

A few lovely paintings illustrating early 20th century oriental parasols.

Isn't this a stunning image?

I LOVE this gigantic oriental parasol - can't find things like this anymore (at least not that I've seen!).