My 1920s Egyptian Revival dress is finished, in time for the event at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum!
I used Decades of Style’s zig zag dress pattern. It’s a great pattern that I’ve used before, although in retrospect silk velvet is not the best fabric for it. Velvet slips and stretches so much during cutting and sewing that needing lots of triangles to match up perfectly can be difficult. (After cutting, I had to fuss around with mine a lot to make everything fit, so it doesn’t line up as well as I wanted). I also used very sheer silk chiffon for the sleeves and collar binding. It was so sheer that I had to double up on layers. I originally ordered 1 meter of the navy blue silk, but the shop sent me 4 meters by accident (and told me to keep the rest!) so I’m glad I had the extra since I had to use twice as much as I was planning to.
Here is the dress with an Egyptian collar I purchased on eBay.
I found these really neat appliques on eBay as well! The seller didn’t have any information about them other than they are “vintage,” so I don’t know where they are from. They are a rather stiff, so the folds of the skirt drape a little funny, but I still find them an interesting touch to the project.
The neckline is bound with 2 layers of silk chiffon, and the shoulders are gathered.
The chiffon didn’t work out for binding the zigzags, so I found some fine rayon twill tape to do the job.
I need to iron flat some small details but it’s finished!
Stay tuned for next week, when I will take pictures of myself wearing it at the Egyptian museum, along with some accessories I am excited about (like new shoes from Royal Vintage Shoes!)
Final costs (lots of lucky bargains!):
- 3 meters white silk velvet and 4 meters navy silk chiffon : $58 including shipping from Halo Silk Shop
- Appliques: $6 including shipping from eBay
- 10 yards twill tape: $4.50 plus tax (with extras left over)
- Pattern: $0 (I already own it and used it before)
- Collar: $10.80 including tax and shipping from eBay
Total: ~$79.30 (for a silk dress!)
Read Part 1 here.
Fresh Frippery 