Wearing History 1930s “Moderne” Dress – Done, Finally!

Wearing History “Moderne” dress with alterations, paired with a me-made cloche, and “Sylvia” two-tone 1930s shoes in red/white

I finally finished it! YAY! It only took me – oh my goodness – two years. This is my ultimate UFO, but I bucked my usual trend of total abandonment and suffered through the fiddly finishing bits to complete the thing.

And I’m so happy I did. I *love* this dress.

I chose rayon for the fabric and found it finicky. Next time I will be sure to baste everything, because the rayon is quite slippery and wants to be naughty. It’s worth the extra effort, though, as the drape and feel of rayon is so appealing.

The “Moderne” pattern says it’s for advanced sewers, but with the version I made, I would call it pretty easy. That being said, I omitted the sleeves altogether, went with the easier neck style, and cut off the button placket detail at the hip. That left only the ruffly neck pieces to wrestle with, and they really weren’t that big a deal. If you went with, for instance, View 1 unaltered, it would present more of a challenge.

Now that it’s done, and I’m fully addicted to Wearing History patterns, I might be so bold as to say this is my favorite thing of their that I’ve yet made. It’s just so quintessentially 1930s, but you can wear this as a modern outfit with no weird looks, too (not that weird looks bother us, right?). I’m also happy that I can make the pattern again, use the buttoned-up View 1, and have a totally different dress. Money well spent!

If you’d like to give “Modern” a go, it’s available as a printed paper pattern or an ePattern on Wearing History’s new site.