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1920's Bra and Taps-Unmentionables Through The Decades Project 2

In my Pinterest board for 1920's, I have many examples of period sewing instructions. These are from popular Women's magazines of the time. They showcase new trimming ideas for a dinner dress, or perhaps an easy one-hour afternoon dress (VERY popular, judging from the number I found). These were meant to keep the home sewist well-informed as to the latest fashion. Many of these instructions seemed to emphasize the ease of their directions and ideas.


 This lingerie set was inspired by a dinner dress instruction page (detail of that page shown below). In particular, it had directions to bead a beautiful bow on a formal dress with tiny seed beads. The finished effect is rather like a necklace. I loved the shape of the bow, but of course I didn't want to weigh down my delicate fabric with lots of beads. And beads on undergarments is not exactly practical.


So instead, I made “ribbon” from my fabric by sewing a 3/8th inch seam, trimming the allowance, and then turning and pressing it well. I finished by tying it into a bow, and handstitching it down. I placed one bow on the bra, and one on each side of the tap pants.

This fabric is an incredibly lightweight pink-mauve polyester that I found in my stash. I don't know where I got it, but I had like 4 yards. So I decided it was time to use some of it.



It is a very similar shade to the fabric I used for my tap pants from the 1930's set, and I did use the same pattern for these taps. But it's just different enough that I am satisfied. I used Simplicity 8510, but view C (the version without the yoke) instead. Also, I didn't sew all the way down the side seams, but left it open an inch or two like a vent at the hem. I found several variations on this theme, one of which is shown below.


I loved this pattern from Mrs. Depew.



And the Met has this gorgeous set from 1930s, but still very similar.

For the bra, I didn't really have a pattern that worked in my stash, and I am trying to use what I already have as much as possible. But then I had my 1980's pattern out on my table, and I realized that the camisole would work. The overall shape was very similar to what I had seen for the 1920's; flat, with very little shaping and two small darts. So I traced out just the top portion of the camisole on another piece of paper. I just had to extend the back a bit to allow for overlap and the hooks and eyes. I hand sewed two rows of eyes, for flexibility of sizing.



I will continue this series next time with the final piece of this set and some final thoughts.

Thanks for reading!

Yours in hard work, creativity, and a dash of pixie dust,
Sarah
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