A great 1930s evening gown. The pattern is looks more complicated than it really is. (Good news!) You can find almost identical dresses in old copies of Voque Magazine. It looks much harder to make than it is. The gown is an ordinary narrow line but, hard to look elegant walking in if you don’t have the godet. I made the body of the gown in silk organza over polyester taffeta. For the sleeves: first you handkerchief hem both sides of a bunch of yards of ruffles. Then take the flat sleeve and stitch down the center of the ruffles in rows. Treat this puffy confection like any other sleeve: stitch the underarm seam and attach to the gown in the normal way. You are ready to rhumba!
If you’re using organza I would suggest using your over edge foot and a long-ish narrow zig zag. For my dress I had white opalescent polyester organza. I first over-edged in white thread and I didn’t like the look. I then did it in metallic thread, straight stitch, over again and it looked more finished. I’ve since done similar work using contrasting thread and it looks good. Another way to do it that looks very nice is to use a pretty, but simple, stitch on your machine. Vines, buttonhole, wavey lines, etc, all work very well in matching or contrasting thread. Mind that you use a new needle for metallic threads. You may also have to rethread the machine between ruffles as the thread sometimes “strips”.
Kathleen –
A great 1930s evening gown. The pattern is looks more complicated than it really is. (Good news!) You can find almost identical dresses in old copies of Voque Magazine. It looks much harder to make than it is. The gown is an ordinary narrow line but, hard to look elegant walking in if you don’t have the godet. I made the body of the gown in silk organza over polyester taffeta. For the sleeves: first you handkerchief hem both sides of a bunch of yards of ruffles. Then take the flat sleeve and stitch down the center of the ruffles in rows. Treat this puffy confection like any other sleeve: stitch the underarm seam and attach to the gown in the normal way. You are ready to rhumba!
If you’re using organza I would suggest using your over edge foot and a long-ish narrow zig zag. For my dress I had white opalescent polyester organza. I first over-edged in white thread and I didn’t like the look. I then did it in metallic thread, straight stitch, over again and it looked more finished. I’ve since done similar work using contrasting thread and it looks good. Another way to do it that looks very nice is to use a pretty, but simple, stitch on your machine. Vines, buttonhole, wavey lines, etc, all work very well in matching or contrasting thread. Mind that you use a new needle for metallic threads. You may also have to rethread the machine between ruffles as the thread sometimes “strips”.