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A Red Velvet Baltimore Dress

Hows tricks, dames?

I’m super excited to share this dress as I’ve been keeping it a secret for a while!  This is Decades of Style’s latest 1920’s dress pattern (actually one of three in their recently released collection!) — the Baltimore Dress.  It has Art Deco styling with a beautifully draped center panel and is the perfect pattern for a Jazz Age evening gown, summer dress, or add sleeves and it’s a fun day dress.

Source: Decades of Style Patterns

I tested this pattern and it’s actually a muslin for an upcoming dream gown.  However, I will definitely be wearing this dress and I have an occasion next month to wear it to, so I’m all set!

One of the suggested fabrics for this pattern is silk velvet.  I’m planning to make my special Baltimore out of silk velvet, but I didn’t want to use it for this version as I was checking the fit to see if I needed to make any changes.  I used a red poly velvet from Cali Fabrics, which doesn’t have the same drape or weight of a silk velvet, but it worked for this dress, although the center panel does not quite hang the same as it was designed to.

If you clicked through the link to Cali Fabrics you may notice that my velvet and the photo on the website does not look the same.  Well… I made a huge rookie mistake and I am not a rookie, especially when it comes to sewing velvet.  I’ve sewn with cotton velveteen, silk velvet, rayon velvet, poly velvet, and most recently with stretch velvet and I have never crushed the nap on velvet before.  Well…. for some reason my brain left my head and I fused fusible stay tape to the bias sections of this dress and although I pressed it over velvet, it crushed it.  Like majorly crushed it.  I was so angry and upset with myself after that and tried to fix it to no avail.  I thought about it overnight and decided just to crush more of the velvet all over the dress.  Making it work and turning lemons into lemonade.

As far as fit goes, I’m very happy with the fit. I graded up to size 48 at the bust, going up 1 1/2 sizes at the hip.  Those are the only mods.  Next time I may add an inch to the length and widen the back piece at the hip a tad bit.  I used hand-stitched rayon seam binding for the neckline and armscyes.  I’m not sharing the inside as it’s a mess (to me) with serging and beading thread and fusible stay tape showing.  My next version is going to be lined.

What really makes this pattern are the design lines.  The two center pieces are cut on the bias so they drape wonderfully. They’d drape even more in a a drapier fabric and if you used a contrast fabric — wow! That would look spectacular!  After I made this one I decided that it needed something more.  So I went into my bead stash (yes, I have a large bead stash as I used to bead prolifically) and picked out these silver lined black Czech glass seed beads.  I did  really fast and lazy beadwork on this dress (8 strands, 4 intervals), so it’s not as clean as it should be. My next version of this dress is going to have a lot of beadwork on it, so I won’t be lazily beading that.

I didn’t have any black 1920’s jewelry, so I wore some contrasting emerald green with this.  My friend Jen made the Art Nouveau earring and necklace set. The cuff bracelet was a gift from my mom.  The next time I wear this dress I’ll be pairing it with a black/jet long strand of beads (and a coat!!).

Note:  I received this pattern in exchange for testing this pattern.  These are my honest thoughts and opinions.

Happy Sewing!

  • Dress:  Decades of Style Baltimore Dress in poly velvet, made by me
  • Shoes:  Aerosoles
  • Earrings & Necklace:  Made by my friend Jen
  • Bracelet:  Gift
  • Feather comb:  Made by me

Comments

  2. You need a martini with this dress! Way to go with the happy accident. The crushed effect gives the velvet a lot of depth it might not otherwise have, and the beading really do justice to the design lines of this pattern. My senior recital dress in college was a flapper-inspired bit with silver/blue lace overlay over a light blue. I loved that dress and it was amazing to wear while playing because it made this lovely swishing motion when I moved. I’ve always wanted to go back and recreate that one in a more historical style with better materials–and beading!

  4. Oh my word, you look utterly gorgeous in that colour. The fabric is great and if you hadn’t of mentioned it I would never of known that the crushes weren’t supposed to be there. They catch the light really beautifully. The beads are such a nice design detail. Love the jewellery too. Your and your friend are very talented. Xx

  5. I love all your sewing projects and the way you aren’t limited by sizing of the patterns. How did you gain the upgrading skills? I have no idea where to start! Beautiful dress on you! Can’t wait to see your special project Baltimore!

    • Thank you, Lori! Most of my grading skills are self taught. Then I started reading more to figure out different ways to do it. Up on the menu there’s a tab for tutorials with the techniques I use to grade patterns up.

  6. It looks just gorgeous on you! And you definitely made sure the crushed velvet looks intentional and didn’t…. crush….your spirits. Hhahaha. /punnerd

    I can’t wait to see the next version in the silk velvet. <3 <3

  7. The beauty in following your blog beside seeing killer projects is the sheer inspiration when you use patterns that the rest of us don’t have the courage or insight to use. You also manage to make “oops” moments into something wonderful…Brava!

    • Thank you! I’m hoping to have less “oops” moments, but I’m happy that I’ve thus far figured out a way around them. I’m planning to make a wearable “everyday” 20’s dress this year, too. It seems like they shouldn’t be relegated to costume garb. 🙂

  8. Lovely! I never would have guessed the crushed velvet wasn’t intentional- it looks great! If this is your muslin, I can’t wait to see the real deal!! This is pretty spectacular!

  9. Tanya the red color really suits you! That dress is really neat. I had not seen one with the different stitch lines like that.

    Say when I get your posts any more in my inbox in gmail your own pictures are all broken, but the picture of someone’s sewing pattern shows. Probably you would not be able to do anything about this. Anyway, I can see your photos on your blog so that’s good.
    Kathy

    • Thanks, Kathy! I’ve always been told that red suits me and I avoided it for a long time, but now I embrace it!

      I’m not sure why the photos are broken, but I’ll see if I can figure it out. The pattern photo is a URL pic and not one uploaded to my site, so that’s probably why it shows.

      • Tanya, You are welcome. It is probably something like that. Your sewing skills are amazing and an inspiration! Kathy

      • Based on looking at the source code of your website and of Feedly’s representation of your post, it looks like your webpage editor adds -label to the end of all your personal pictures. For example, Feedly or the email is looking for red-baltimore-1.jpg, but the image on your site is actually called red-baltimore-1-label.jpg.

        Hope that helps. I’m a web developer that loves your site, hope you can make it better. I hope it’s not creepy that I peeked under the hood of your site.

    • Thanks, Abbey! 🙂 I’ve got until the end of April to finish my “fancy” version, so it will be a while! I’m really looking forward to starting it.

  11. It’s so stunning! You always look great in fit and flare, so i think of that as your “look”… but this is killer too! Can’t wait to see the fancy version! And crushing the velvet all over? Brilliant!

    • Thanks, Gillian! Fit and flare is definitely my style, but I just love the 20’s so much as it seems disappointing that I only wear the styles for costume events. So this year I’m planning to make at least one everyday casual version. 🙂

  13. What if you raised the cut in area to more of waist level that way it would give the illusion of a hourglass figure.
    I am totally new to this so I may be wrong it’s a beautiful fabric &the dress looks great on you. Blessings, Baa

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Mrs. Hughes: A retro inspired, vintage garment sewing and plus-size dressmaking blog by Tanya Maile Hughes.