HSM #6, Out of Your Comfort Zone (Take Three): 1922 One Hour Dress

My third and final entry for this month's Historical Sew Monthly challenge: Out of Your Comfort Zone.  For this entry, I decided to try the One-Hour Dress from 1922.  Working without a pattern terrifies me, and the mid-to-late 1920s silhouette does not do my figure any favors.  Still, I had a dress length of printed cotton that I didn't have a specific project in mind, and decided I wanted to have a little low-risk fabric experiment.  I really loved this image, and wanted something similar:

Via Witness2Fashion

The One-Hour Dress from the early 1920s is a masterpiece of simplicity and economy of fabric.  It is a great beginner project because there is almost no fitting involved, no sleeves to attach, few seams, and basic finishing.  According to the advertisements (there were many in the newspapers at the time), it was supposed to be completed in one hour, but I really can't see how that is possible, even if you are cutting corners like sewing without pins or ignoring seam finishes.  

It is cut without a pattern, and often cut all in one piece with just the side seams to sew up.  I ended up cutting mine in two pieces because I was concerned about getting the neckline right (given my narrrow shoulders, I couldn't afford to mess around) and also because Ruth Wyeth Spears notes in her fitting directions that a shoulder seam is helpful if you have hard to fit shoulders.

Via Midvale Cottage

I followed a cutting diagram to get the shapes right, and used my bodice sloper to ensure that my neckline didn't come out too wide and that my sleeves came out wide enough.  I decided to pleat the extra fabric instead of gather it, to keep the lines smooth and bulk minimal.  I worried briefly about the width of the fabric for the skirt, since all the pleating was going to happen at my hip line in a space about 4" wide on the front and back, but thought it would be okay.  

Fabric lengths in the 1920s were usually 36" wide, not the more standard 44" we have today.  My fabric was about 44" wide, and I was right to be concerned.  My first iteration looked terrible--way too much fabric, too much everything.  I looked like an '80s reject drowning in floral fabric.  I unpicked most of the side seams and the pleating, and trimmed 10" from the sides to get the fabric down to 34" at the skirt level, to mimic the look of 1920s fabric.  I kept the pleats bigger on the second go, and made fewer of them, so that the fabric lay closer to my body at the hips instead of belling out to the sides like a Robe De Style dress.

Trust me when I say this is a big improvement.

I made a soft sash to cinch things in a bit.  I don't love this dress as it is supposed to be styled, as I think it isn't very flattering on my figure, but when I tied the belt higher up, I liked that just fine.  It doesn't look very period with the belt up higher, but at least I'll wear it like this (although, it must be said, the low belt and looser silhouette is very comfortable.  This fabric is super soft as well)

In retrospect, I probably could have done several things differently to keep the silhouette in the early 20s and do the one-hour dress layout, as there are several iterations of it.  I could have cut it as a columnar style dress, without the pleating at the hips--I think with a soft belt, it would have been fine, and would have given me a more period way to do the pockets.  I thought about adding patch pockets kind of late in the process, and there really wasn't anywhere to attach them that looked right.  So when I unpicked the side seams, I just put inseam pockets in there instead (and figured out how to do them with detached fabric, finally!!)

The truth is that a 1920s dress like this just isn't that flattering on me, but I'm glad of the experience and the challenge, and I still get a decent dress out of it--just not a 1922 styled one.

The Challenge: Out of Your Comfort Zone

What is it? 1922 One Hour Dress

Why is it out of your comfort zone? The silhouette is very different from my usual silhouette, and my visual norm is much more fit and flare styles for dresses, so this dress challenged my visual norm quite a bit.  I also am very afraid of working without patterns, as I'm not one of those creative DIY types who can take a man's shirt and make up a skirt out of it.  I thought this was a good way to dip my toes in the waters of pattern-free sewing.  Going forward, I'll stick with my patterns!

Fabric: Juliana Horner Edelweiss 100% cotton fabric from Joann.com

Pattern: One Hour Dress pattern (using various cutting diagrams)

Year: 1922-1924

Notions: all cotton vintage bias tape (from the 1950s--JC Penney brand)

How historically accurate is it? 9/10  I'm not sure about the inseam pockets, but the rest is pretty accurate.  I did sew the main seams on machine with polyester thread, but used all cotton bias tape to finish the edges and sewed the bias down by hand.  I also narrowed the fabric width to mimic the width of the fabric that these patterns were actually written for.  Later iterations of the One-Hour Dress have much lower pleats and longer torsos, plus the overall length is shorter.  Some are much more columnar rather than having a bit of flare around the hips.  But I did follow the cutting directions closely, and I think the result would be a recognizable house dress to a person from 1923.

Hours to complete: a lot.  Because I had to unpick, repleat, and resew both side seams, it took much longer than it should have.  Without the fixes, I probably completed it in 4 hours.  With the fixes, probably closer to 6.

First worn: June 12, 2015 (a stupidly steamy hot day)

Total cost: ~$15