🔎👒 Download June's Journey for free here: pixly.go2cloud.org/SH1qr Let me know if you all have any additional questions about these dresses! I'll be happy to do my best to answer them! ❤️
The white net dress appeals to my constant repurposing of existing designs, however that would ruin the history right? Even with the wonky appliques the white dress was my favorite.
Could you show both dresses, but especially the red dress as a whole please. I might 'need' to recreate that :-) and would love to see how the beading is done below the waist. Thanks!
Abby Cox Did most 1920s dresses not have lining but instead underdresses or slips that did the survive? How did those with lining work? Were the linings usually just basically underdresses connected at the shoulder and maybe neckline or were some linings sewn together with the outer dress as one? I'm trying to recreate a garden party type 1925/26 one hour type dress with a lining and sheer overdress but I've had trouble finding the answers! Thank you for any guidance you might be able to give and this video actually showing antique dress construction. Very helpful!
I have to suppose there was some type of underdress/shift that was worn under that net dress. Am I right? Is this the kind of thing where you could wear a different color shift underneath for a different look with the same overlay?
My mother was one of 10 children in a poor family. She started school in a flour sack dress. Her mother made their clothes and taught her children to sew. So, when Mom, an 8th grade graduate, started making her own living by waitressing at the fancy hotel and pressing clothes at a dry cleaners, she was close enough to really fashionable clothes to see the details. She also saw how they were constructed. Being ambitious and clever, she and her sister made their own clothes to look as good or better than the finest in town. It delighted them, and their mother. I love her fearless approach to getting what she wanted.
@@TiredRi 1929. Her father was a sharecropper in the South. He worked hard to take care of them, but it was a very hardscrabble life. She died just 2 years ago. She said that what she remembered most from her childhood was the singing. They sang around the house, and in the fields. She and her siblings hoed cotton as soon as they were able, age 6 or so, and tried to stay close enough to one another to sing as they worked.
EVERY SINGLE one of my Great Grandmas dresses from the 20s closes like that. ALL OF THEM. We are talking like 13 of them . I asked her why and she said that snaps were easy to replace and that the snaps didn’t make holes. SO in their mind, it would make the dress last longer. She also said that it made it so if you gained a few inches it wasn’t as big of a deal. you had some wiggle room. Her wedding dress had the same type of closure. She also said that it made it so that you could pass the dress around and not worry about having to change too much.
You know what I would love to see? What gals in small towns were wearing, as they tried to emulate high fashion flappers. They had a lot more humble options than we do, but that doesn't mean that they didn't yearn for what they saw at the flicks, and in magazines. And, since most of America was tiny town back then, I'm fairly sure they weren't wearing sleeveless dresses.
My gramma Ruthie was from A very small town in southeastern Minnesota. Plenty of those folks made their own clothes, though Gramma didn’t. I have several photos of her, the earliest in the 20’s and latest in the 50’s. colorjoy.com/weblog/archives/6365
@@ColorJoyLynnH You are so very lucky to have those lovely photo's. I think you described me here. We are who we are. I’m glad to be at a point where I can just notice and observe who I am, for the most part. I’m so scattered at times that it’s a hassle. However, that ability to notice and be distracted also helps me draw creative connections I might not see otherwise.
@@ColorJoyLynnH Thank you for sharing such wonderful photographs of your Grandma Ruthie! The whole page - including the comments - was infused with such a loving, and lovely, warmth!❤
My Granny was born in 1924. None of her family were flappers, but I love learning about what was worn at that time. She did tell me that her mother would wear a net overlay to dress up her normal dresses on Sunday.
Could you do wider shots to get more of the dress to show next time? It's a bit difficult trying to match your descriptions with a vision in my mind of what I think the dress looks like. It would have been nice to see the half below the hips. You're doing a great job explaining your findings, and I love your close-up shots that show exactly what you're describing. I just had a hard time placing some of the features, like where is that hook/eye closure thats badly worn?
Because of the weird way you get into the pretty white net dress it reminds me of a dress for a performance rather than something you would wear for a fancy occasion. Also the seams and the weird hem just scream “I had 5 minutes to finish this it doesn’t matter if the hem backwards no one will see it it’s going on stage! Screw French seams!” Of course this is just a wild guess, I’m not a dress historian. Weird shoulder closures might be normal in the 20’s. It’s just a fun thing to imagine. Also I’ve had to do crazy shit like this for costumes and other various garments for performances. Like “oops I completely forgot about the zipper let’s just open it at the shoulder” is literally something something I’ve seen done
I was thinking one girl wore it for a performance, and then gave it to a (less handy) girl for future performances. Maybe a choral dress or something like Pageant of the Masters with "tableaux".
You can’t put a zipper in a net dress, it’ll strain and tear it. They didn’t have invisible/nylon zippers, just the big ones in jeans. Every tea dance or reception WAS a performance. Every cocktail dress I ever made had some trash construction detail to get it done and get me to wherever. That’s what this looks like to me. This is not a costume. It’s somebodies clothes.
@@elizabethclaiborne6461 I’m sorry if it wasn’t clear. I was speaking in an over the top manner because it’s something that I’ve experienced in my own life doing costumes for a community theater. It’s all the stress of professional theater except we do it for free! I wasn’t trying to imply that they had zippers when this dress was made. I’m sorry if it came out that way
it's so funny to read these comments. when i was watching this video, 2 ideas kept popping into my head: stage costumes, or costumes for events, "1 grecian urn", or another: in the 1920's, people still sewed at home. maybe grandma made the dress for grandaughter's school dance?
I love love love seeing the weird construction methods and hand-sewing flubs that someone didn’t bother to cover up cuz nobody was gonna notice. Makes me feel so much less pressured to make my sewing look picture perfect! 😂❤️ #SewingIsHard
Is the beading all hand done? If so, I would definitly choose a simple design because the beading is a trip to hell due to the detailing and amount. I MEAN LOOK AT HOW EVENLY SPACED IT ALL IS.
I agree-- it's too perfect to look hand-beaded. Every circle and spiral looks perfectly round, and the actual stitches of the beading are too regular. Possibly the pattern pieces were cut out, the machine beading was done, and then the garment was sewn together with hand stitching. The way the edges around the armhole have four lines of beading leads me to this idea. I super love this dress. Very "modern" and beautiful. Hand-beading would have made the dress astronomically expensive, as well.
Don’t know if the beading is hand done,but even with just a few hours of self taught tambour, I can get my stitches pretty even, so if someone is practiced at it, it might be possible it is handdone, especially if you consider the rest is handsome as well.
I'd love to have seen a complete view of the dresses instead of just panning up and down, since you already had them on a mannequin. I bet they are stunning to look at!
I enjoyed the way you panned over the dresses, but I would have loved to see the whole dress at once to get an idea of the full completed dresses as well. On the dress form, we only see the top half of the pink dress. Overall I love these types of videos. It reminds me that my sewing doesn't have to be perfect. :)
The hand sewn pink velvet dress with beading is hand sewing goals. You can feel the lady that made the dress put a lot effort into it. Ps. Love the Kaftan dress. Do you have a collection of vintage jewelry/accessories?
Thank you! Yes, I have an ever growing collection of antique and vintage clothing, some I wear and some I just keep as a personal collection. The caftan I'm wearing in this video is one I made using the Decades of Style TLC Caftan pattern! www.decadesofstyle.com/collections/decades-everyday/products/no-107-tlc-caftan 😊
I'm so glad someone else asked the question about the dress Abbys wearing in the video! Love the flapper era of style. My mother worked in antiques and I saw a lot of antique clothing in my youth. The 20's and the Flappers were always my favorite. Loved the video too! And would love to see you recreate one of these dresses :)
@@AbbyCox the caftan your wearing must be the third one? Did you make the long or short version. Seems to need a couple of snaps in front lol. The net made dress was very pretty. Possibly repaired by someone later, not the maker as their isn't the care but into it. Love the colour and perfect circles on the pink number 😍 tfs
My Grandmother was 15 in 1920, she remembers her mother taking old newspaper and drawing drop waist dress pattern for her, then she cut and sewed the pattern. Her mother mentioned how much she liked the new style, because you didn't need a purchased pattern. Of course, they lived way out west in a small town and getting patterns wasn't easy.
I love the pink velvet dress! It would be great to see still shots of it, or maybe a slow shot of the whole dress on a dress form. Seeing more of it in its entirety would be fabulous.
Honestly, I'm not surprised the velvet dress is all hand sewn. In my experience, that's the way to deal with sewing velvet and still keep your sanity! And I love that it's so simple in its construction, because such gorgeous and eye-catching fabric and beading doesn't need lots of fancy design elements to make a great dress. Whoever made it just let the fabric do the talking, and it came out STUNNING. Thank you for sharing these treasures with us!
I love the pink dress! If only I had my figure of my 20's! I think the beading looks like Champagne bubbles, I would feel quite sparkling wearing it!! Thanks for the close inspections.
It's kind of heartwarming and even a little inspiring that back in the day there were also women who started these projects and spent many days holding their head in their hands asking 'WHY did I think THIS was a good idea?!' Makes me feel not so alone.
Ooo...'favorite' is a hard call. The white dress had a lot going on and a lot of love and time put into it, but the berry velvet has....gravitas? It immediately draws your eyes and hold them. I love them equally for what they each are: different and gorgeous.
Thank you so much Abby! The 20's is my favourite decade. I have a lot of original home sewists patterns from the 20's and seeing these garments is a real treat! Thank you, thank you!
Both dresses were gorgeous! I’d love to see a recreation of either...or both! While I am not a pink girl by any stretch of the imagination, the velvet dress just makes me swoon. Okay, not literally, but it is so great!! I love the beadwork and the simple construction, and the gathers at the hips. It could easily be worn, today...open those armseyes and show a little side-boob! Ooh-la-la! I could totally see the white dress with a slinky silk slip (say that five times fast) underneath in a twenties themed wedding. I’ve always loved twenties fashion, but was never tall or slender enough to pull it off, so I lean towards eras with more voluptuous silhouettes. Thanks so much for sharing more of your collection with us. Much love, and see you next Sunday!
I really enjoy these "garment archaeology" episodes! It's fascinating to think of how people once constructed a garment, and lived in it, altered it, mended it etc. as needed. It's so cool to see where their needlework was just stunningly perfect vs. where it got slapped together "good enough".
Thank you for sharing pieces from your collection. I love looking at the garment construction. It's truly a breath of air for me to see gorgeous gowns with less-than-perfect sewing. It reminds me that real people with real lives needed to dress themselves and sometimes good enough was the mantra. I think I can do good-enough sewing and it gives me courage!
The net dress is beautifull, but the beading on the velvet dress makes it a delight. I'm not shaped for 1920s but the combination of velvet and beading definetly is inspiring a project...
Love the pink one! The white flowers one with the weird flower appliquéd in poorly, first impression was that someone wanted to mend the holes by putting flowers over top, realized it wasn’t working, and gave up. LOL i’ve done that plenty of times.
Thank you for this! I think the shoulder closures are so clever! I am studying up to make my own dresses/wardrobe, and have been looking at alternative methods of creating structure, support, and coverage for the upper body, and how to incorporate support into the waist and lower seams. Excited to see what I could do with this! Much appreciation!
My grandmother and her sister were 'Gin Hall Girls' in the 1920s and I have heaps of photos of them in their flapper dresses, including the headband with feather!
That pink dress is something revolutionary. It started as a concept and may be a copy of one of the new designers. Fashion starts as some persons idea and then spreads.
I love the pink dress. I'm all about beading, and the color is gorgeous! I can't do drop waist clothing, but if I could, I would wear it in a heartbeat.
I think both of these dresses are great examples of 1920s fashion for women - beautiful, delicate, and interesting with a reliance on cut and details to tell a story. Even the simple dresses I've seen are still very much in keeping with the two I've shared here. 😊
Think of the classic Chanel suit, and I think you're getting close. I once got a job at a vintage shop based solely on my fascination with a black wool 1920's swimsuit on the wall.
I'd love to see a pattern of the pink one. While the construction of the seams may have been a day project that beading took a long time. That's at least 40 hours of work with how nice an neat those stitches are and how much of the back is covered.
I am so sorry! I had an awful time with one section of my mic during this, and had to beg a friend to help in post. I’m going to go and pay for better CC for this video to help (I’m also in the market for a lav mic so I can bend over and my sound is better) ❤️
@@AbbyCox thank you! I don't really understand speech in lots of videos in general so captions overall are extremely helpful. I will watch it again with the captions when they're added!
@Claire - All those shots of Ms Cox looking at the dress wasn't very informative. It would have helped to see what it was she was talking about in the moment. Live and learn!
Whaaa 😍 this just came in the right time. I recently have had my hair cut to a short bob and I thought: "Hey, this would look cool with a 20s flapper outfit" and I decided to make a 20s flapper dress soon. So seeing the insides of the pink dress and recognising that the construction isn't to hard really gave me confidence and motivation to start this 😊 thank you for showing 🌸
The beading on that pink dress is wonderful! It's amazing that the silver beads hadn't all tarnished yet. My grandma's wedding gown from 1945 had a lot of silver bead detail on the bodice, and all that beading has tarnished *sad face*
I love the pink velvet. It shows how a bit of embellishment and a great fabric can elevate basic construction to the next level. And I really love that it appears to have been entirely hand sewn since hand sewing is my jam. So glad you have it in your collection where it will get the love and care it deserves. Keep sharing your collection please! I love the detective work you do in these videos 🔍🤔🔎
That pink dress was a real inspiration. I know it's not very well constructed but I was inspired by the slash and gather to make a modern piece. I love historic costume and love what you do, thanks Abby.
I’m loving these dress dissection videos! My teen daughter is very interested in pursuing fashion history professionally, do you have any recommendations for her of where to start? Books to read, programs to considering applying to, etc?
Kent State University has a great fashion museum that is mostly online last I checked... I don't think they have a fashion history major though (just one class). I'm not personally familiar with study programs but this museum is awesome.
Hello Ms. Abby. Your Decades Everyday caftan looks amazing on you. I'm just trying to find material to make one. I love how you sympathize with the wearer of the net dress about the fragility of the fabric and her constantly getting holes in it. I must say that I much prefer the pink velvet dress. It looks like something one would go out dancing in. Thanks for giving us a peek inside of these two ladies. So interesting to see the differences in construction. Take care of you.
The flowers on the white dress are so pretty and delicate and I need to cuff all my garments like that. And the beading on the velvet dress is amazing! The level of precision and detail is just insane. I'm just learning to bead and man that is GOALS. Thank you for showing these beauties to us and explaining their construction and the mending of them so well! Also thank you for your videos in general. They never fail to relax me and make me smile. Thank you!!
As someone learning go sew and with fast fashion clothing deteriorating faster than our vintage counterparts, i wonder what clothing will be left to examine in 100 years And this makes me feel better about some of my finishing techniques ive aquired
I love love love 1920s clothing.... the second dress was my favorite. I'd really like to see 20s fashion come back it had an edgy class to it. Thank you for sharing.
Be careful of the beads on the velvet dress, I see they are chain-stitched on. If you catch a thread they will unravel very easy. I am currently re-beading a handmade 1930's dress that was in a terrible state because of the beading being done in the same way.
Great video! Your breezy, chatty presentation feels like a real life visit with a close chum. So nice and welcoming. I think I prefer the velvet dress but I can't imagine wearing it. If the weather is cool enough to warrant wearing velvet, I'm guessing my arms would get cold in a sleeveless design. Maybe there was a matching silk duster coat to go over it. I'm curious to know if you think the lady who made it also did all of the beading too. That would have taken forever! The 'carved out hip defining' strategy is pretty neat - there couldn't have been much of a seam allowance on the band. I would have been concerned about fraying. One last thing: about the white dress...it's so sheer, if it was my dress I would have sewn a couple of different under-dresses using colour to give more options. Say, a white one, pale pink and maybe a mint or periwinkle too. I'd love to see each dress again in the round with a full shot. The close-ups are excellent but maybe a bit more 'big picture' footage could help too. Your videos are smile-makers!
Beautiful dresses. That pink one is to die for! I have an antique black heavily beaded tabard dress with gel sequins all over it. I actually wore it to a 1920s ball with all antique accessories and I felt so beautiful in it. I always wonder about the people who originally wore these gorgeous dresses!
The pink velvet! 🥰 It is my personality both in look and construction! 😆 Loud, kind of garish, and hastily put together, but still able to hide the flaws! Thank you Aunty Abby for your knowledge punctuated by your beautifully chaotic energy!
that second dress was so beautiful!!! Even if the overall construction was simple, those beeded circles are so damn gorgeous (and the stitches looked really neat, at least for me xD). The design of it is stunning, the combination of colours too!!! sometimes simple is great Thank you for making these videos!!
I loved both dresses, but I really loved the beadwork on the second dress. It looked like the beadwork may be tambour beadwork, as you can see the chain stitches on the wrong side.
My Grandmother made all her dresses and ones for my Mom and Aunt. They were so beautiful I love playing dress up as a child. My Grandma's were from the 20's and 30 's
I enjoy your channel for the information you share. But, I have to say the 'personality clips' you share at the end are the best. You always bring a smile.
I love both these garments but the second dress, you have to give the one who hand sewn it a lot of praise I mean all of those circle and ring shaped beaded details must of taken forever to do, it's really a beautiful work of art.
@@lilybloome I went to a public high school, but juniors were expected to write a thesis in the thrid quarter at school, however you could do other things at times depending on the teacher, I asked the teacher and he approved.
The fuchsia dress: Yes, that's exactly how they were made--by cutting the skirt wider and then gathering it into the waist. This is how those One-Hour Dresses are made, and it's a *really* common construction method that you see in 1920s dress patterns.
Thank you for sharing your dresses with us. Actually, your berry coloured velvet dress helped me solve a problem with my aesthetic/reformation dress challenge piece. The gathered hip 'plaques'. My pattern has the same for the hips.
This is really cool to see I’m thinking about making a 1920s dress soon as my first proper historical reproduction apart from one shift and I’ve not got access to actual 1920s dresses so it was really nice to get a good look at some originals
Hi Abby--would love it going forward if you could include a full length view so we can see how the entire dresses appear. Great gowns this week, though. I suspect that the white one was a wedding gown. Netting was a big thing for wedding dresses at that time, the likelihood of a wedding dress being sewn at home would explain the uneven construction (possibly the appliquéd flower was "something old" from another wedding dress) and the rationale for it being saved so long.
Seriously Abbey, that pink gown ( cause, it really is), is B-E-A-UTIFUL!!!💜. And the colour is seriously Elsa Schaperelli. Just wonderful ❣️ thanks for this ❤️
Ooh, that second dress is great! Definitely my favorite of the two. That first one definitely had some sleevil issues going on... how many times can I say definitely? I definitely have a larger vocabulary than this. Definitely. P.S. I kept waiting for you to break out flapping and yelling, "I'm a BAT! CaCaw!"