>Periwinkle Blue Late 30s Evening Gown

>I have a massive pile of mending to get through for this summer. Since I had finished the blue floral dress today as well (in an earlier post with the blouse) I descided to go ahead and work on something blue. This dress, thankfully, can use the same shade, so this is the first off of the list to get attention.
This dress was bought on eBay last month for my upcoming trip this summer. It’s a late 30’s evening gown, probably between late 1937 and 1939. It’s homemade of a very strange synthetic fiber… it almost feels like a nylon, and has an under slip of acetate with a slide fastener at the side. Unfortunately the seamstress who originally made it didn’t understand how to cut things on the bias, and since the front of the dress is on true bias it became so long that it wasn’t possible to walk in it. Likewise, the sides and back of the underslip had grown and peeked out the bottom at about 4″ in the widest spot. There is one tiny hole near the neckline (that I remedied with handy dandy Fray Check), and a few tiny mends here and there but nothing significant save the hem length. Here’s the original auction photos so you can see what I mean.

I knew for a fact I needed to fix the front so I could walk or dance, so I first chopped that length off and re-hemmed it. It’s not the prettiest hem, but it will do. With these two lengths left over I simply attached them to the hem of the sides and back and although the hem is now somewhat uneven it does have the otherworldly feeling that the dress possesses, so frankly I don’t care if it’s an even hem or not. I do really love this dress. Whenever I try it on I want to turn circles, and thankfully, now I can without falling flat.