The 8th challenge in HSF, By the Sea, needed some heavy thinking and decision making on my part. There where so much I wanted to make but at the same time I didn’t have a lot of time to make something (as this challenge was due right before the two big challenges “Flora/Fauna” and “Literature”). So something relatively simple was the plan.

I went through a lot of lovely inspiration pictures (which I will show you some next time), and finally decided on this beutiful dress from 1934:

So I went fabric hunting and straight away found this perfect green and white seersucker on sale for about 2 euro/yard (15 SEK/m). I also got some green bias tape and a grey beltbuckle. The white fabric for the collar is a striped cotton voile from my stash.

I didn’t have a pattern that would work for the dress so instead I constructed my own after studying some patterns from Waugn’s “Cut of womens clothes”. I cut out all the pieces and pressed interfacing on the collar, cuffs and belt.
The sewing went quick and esay, but when it was time for a try on I realised that I still hadn’t got used to my new smaller measurments, and of course managed to make the dress about two sizes too big.

So I made the dress smaller and then sewed on the collar, cuffs, marked and sewed the length of the skirt.

To really get the right 1930s look I decided to also make a matching hat. I bought a cheep straw hat and re-shaped it with some water and decorated it with a flower/bow.

Then I asked my sister to help me take some pictures down by the canal near my home. The weather was perfect, and we had a good time, got some lovely pictures and some really long looks by the tourists and joggers that went by.

When we were done and on the way home, we spotted a beautiful old car, and asked the owners if we could take some shots of it. The owners were really enthusiastic and even asked me to step into the car. I know nothing about cars but strongly suspect it wasn’t from the 1930s – but it doesn’t matter, it was fun anyway.

Photo by Elin Petersson

Just the facts:

Challenge nr 8: By the Sea
A 1930s dress worn with my soft entry – the straw hat

Fabric: 2m of white/green seersucker and 0,5 m white cotton voile

Pattern: I drafted my own

Notions: Thread, bias tape, beltbuckle and gromets.

How accurate: I really don’t now that much about 1930s sewing, but I guess they didn’t use sergers… but maybe 70 %

Hours: About 10 hours

Cost: 16 USD for the dress (the beltbuckle was about half the amount), and about 16 USD for the hat

First worn: On the photoshoot