Vintage Pix | Dressing up for the Roaring Twenties

Want to make a 1920s dress?
updated 18 January 2001
Also see my dinky article on dressing up for a 1920s costume party.

What I did:
The costume shown here was made for me by a friend using a pattern for a 1926 evening dress sold by Past Patterns. (Other pattern sources are linked below. Finding someone who can sew is the difficult part.) The photo was taken at the 1998 Gatsby Day event held at Chinqua-Penn Plantation.

The pattern instructions suggested appropriate fabrics and colors for historical accuracy. I couldn't afford silk, and couldn't find a plain rayon, cotton voile or handkerchief linen, so I had to opt for high quality polyesters. And the colors have more to do with my taste than anything else.

The purple fabric is georgette, and the blue scarf is the polyester equivalent of shot silk with blue and purple threads. (Lest I sound knowledgeable, I only know this because another friend, who helped me find the fabrics, told me what they were called.)

Accessories include a bandeau (headband) that I made with black satin, ribbons, and various beads (all purchased at the craft store). I found the pearl earrings on sale and added the dangly bits (again with craft store supplies). The shoes are Naturalizer pumps. I actually had a much longer pearl necklace that I forgot to bring and borrowed this strand of costume jewelry from a friend.

Finding Patterns
For a huge selection of historic pattern sites available on-line check out The Costumer's Manifesto - Pattern Links. The major patternmakers (Simplicity, Butterick, etc.) often have a flapper-ish dress among their Halloween costumes, but they aren't particularly historically accurate. (Simplicity used to carry some 1920s-style dresses, but these have since been discontinued according to a visitor to this website - alas!)

For the more experienced dressmaker, the Amazon Drygoods pattern catalog includes a number of authentic 1920s patterns. (I actually ordered the Past Patterns design through them.) The catalog features both modern patterns made from 1920s dresses and "Attic Copies," which are reproductions of actual patterns from the period.

Folkwear Patterns carries several 1920s-style dresses in their "Vintage/Romantic" and "Retro/Glamour" collections. (Click on "Our Collection" in the navigation bar at the top of their page.)

Historical Research in SE Wisconsin

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