Revisiting 1920s Fashion - Beading lace and Tailored Plackets

March Announcement - This month we're mixing it up a bit with some amazing new content!

• The pattern has just been published! If you haven't seen it, be sure to go check it out! It's super adorable! 
• There's also a beautifully sourced 1920s Girl's Combination Underwear Pixie Pack available! The kit includes enough supplies to make two variations from the pattern (one in pink, one in white). 
• There are two new tutorial videos posted below and in the 1920s Fashion Course collection.

Next Tuesday, March 14th, Shari, Donna, and I will kick of our Sewing With Corduroy topic with a recorded 3-way conversation (similar to the Fabric Sourcing video). Followed up with 4 videos posted over a 3-week period.

We'll also have several Corduroy & Knit kits ready to purchase soon! I'll pop back in and let you all know as soon as they are listed - So many beautiful fabrics and prints - yay!

OK, now let's jump in and revisit the 1920s Fashion with a look at sewing a staple garment - the 1920s Girl's Combination Underwear. Shari is with us to walk you through a few of the complex details.

For my 1920s Girl's Combination Underwear, I found this pretty 1/2” wide cotton cluny beading lace that came threaded with a rather nondescript white ribbon. Because the underwear design is rather plain, I wanted to dress the lace up a bit by adding a little color and a dainty ribbon bow at the center front of the neckline.

Beading lace (not to be confused with beaded lace which is embellished with or made from actual beads) is a type of lace that has spaces worked into the design for weaving in lace or other small trims. Most beading laces come without ribbon, but some, like the one I am working with, come with a ribbon already woven in. While this may be convenient, the color may not be what you are looking for. For some beading laces, it is simply a matter of weaving your ribbon in and out of the holes, but for most woven or crocheted laces, like the cluny one I am working with, there is a bit of a trick to weaving in the ribbon that I will show you in this video.

Are you ready? Follow along to see how it's done!

Beading lace is an easy way to dress up a simple design like my 1920s Girl's Combination Underwear and the ability to swap out the ribbon to match your outfit makes it a very versatile trim for a wide variety of applications. I hope this tutorial has inspired you to give this unique lace a try.

 

Now let's take a look at a construction element called the Tailored Placket.

Tailored plackets are a very nice way to finish a slit opening at the neckline of a shirt, the cuff of a sleeve, or the opening of a skirt. Usually, these plackets are made on a slit so there aren't any seam allowances to contend with. However, sometimes a placket is needed on a seamline and working around the seam allowances require a different approach to make a nice neat placket.

Before the 1960s, people paid special attention to the finish of their clothing. They took pride in the little details that made their clothing look its best. Tailored plackets were commonly used to finish slit openings, even on undergarments. In a sense, it was a visual representation of the moral character that was so important in previous generations where a persons character was truly defined by how they acted even when no one is looking. Making a tailored placket on a seam is a bit of a puzzle at first, but is actually pretty easy to do once you understand how it works. I am going to walk you through it step-by-step and to make it easier to see how all the folds work together, I will be using contrasting fabrics. Once you get it, I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how easy these plackets are to make and will want to start using them on all your seam openings! Let's get started.

I really love how these tailored plackets add such a nice clean finish to a slit opening. I hope this tutorial helped you better understand how they work so that you can feel confident applying them to your own projects.

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