My "Rilla Blythe" 1916 Evening Dress ~ Wearing it!

 After years of dreaming about this dress, I felt like a princess swishing around in it at the botanical gardens. 

Since I'd made this dress in such a tight time frame after building it up in my mind for so long, I was a bit afraid I'd be disappointed with the finished product. Wish I'd spent more time on the finishing work or the details. Done less zig-zag short cuts. Something.

Thankfully, there was no disappointment at all! Once I changed into the dress in the garden parking lot, I was just happy to have it finished and actually be wearing it!

I paired the dress with some bracelets and a beaded necklace I picked up in Uganda a few years back.

And a pair of shoes I got through a friend who works for a shoe company - I loved the pointy toed Mary Jane look, and appreciated the low heel since I would be wearing these shoes all day.

Once our group was inside the garden I was quick to suggest we take pictures of each others dresses, because I wanted to make sure I had photographic evidence of wearing this gown.

I have not been good at remembering to take pictures or ask for pictures at events - something I need to change!

So on this outing I made an effort to get photos against as many different back drops as possible!

Such as, with the sheep statues.

Who wouldn't want to get pictures with sheep statues, I ask?

Ok, it would have been better if they were goat statues, but sheep statues will do in a pinch.

Of course, the Chuhuly glass work that we came to the gardens to see made perfect back drops for fancy dresses!
 

Purple glass spiky things to photograph my green and purple dress against? 

Yes, Please!

When not taking pictures, wandering about the gardens, chatting with the other ladies, getting details about their dresses, and sharing details of mine, was absolutely delightful!

I couldn't resist showing off my pockets!

"Feel how deep they are!"

I'm a little obsessed with pockets.

By the end of the evening I was satisfied that my new gown had been decently well documented!

And lest you think this finally finished dress will now languish in my closet, let me prove otherwise.

The dress had a second outing for my cousin's birthday party earlier this month - and while there I couldn't resist throwing on my boots and running up to the sheep pen to visit my uncle's new baby lambs.

Not only has this dress been worn around sheep statues, it's now also been worn to visit real sheep!

I failed to get pictures of the new babies - but you'll have to take my word for it that they were adorable!

Almost adorable enough to make me want sheep along with my goats!

Almost, but not quite. 

What the item is: 1916 Evening Gown

The Challenge: HSM Look Book - This dress is inspired by the Dreamstress’s “Gather ye Rosebuds” 1916 evening gown. The 1910’s was never an era that particularly interested me until that dress! My dress looks very different, but it never would have happened if I hadn’t been inspired by hers to begin with and started looking into the era more.

Material: Silk shantung for the bodice, silk taffeta for the under skirt, a lightweight changeable silk for the overskirt, cotton sateen for the bodice lining, cotton twill for the belt lining, polished cotton for pockets.

Pattern: I altered the 1918 dinner dress pattern from Vintage Pattern Lending Library for the majority of the dress, and altered McCall’s 8181 for the fitted bodice lining.

Year: 1916

Notions: Cotton twill tape, thread, hooks and eyes, snaps, elastic, a scrap of bias tape.

How historically accurate is it? Material and pattern are good, the construction method not as much. I didn’t have time to really research dress construction for this era and kind of made it up as I went along. I did a lot of zigzagging, and the first home sewing machine with a zigzag stitch wasn’t on the market until the late 1940’s. Along with that my pockets are definitely questionable for the era I believe.  So let’s say 60-70% as the overall look (from the outside) is good.

Hours to complete: One solid 10 hour day at the sewing machine, (7am to 5pm, took one small break for lunch) and at least that many hours, plus some, for mocking up, patterning, cutting out, and hand sewing. So around 25 hours more or less, spread out over about a week.

First worn: 6/3/23 to an exhibition at the botanical gardens.

Total cost: This I really don’t know, I bought the bulk of the fabric in Cambodia in 2017 and can’t remember what I paid for it at all (or what the conversion rate was there). The rest of the fabric was stash, left over from previous projects or picked up second hand incredibly cheap. Same with the notions. I won the pattern as a prize several years ago so I paid nothing for that either. Definitely less than $50 usd, most likely considerably lower.