Every year the Art Deco Society of California celebrates it's members with a cocktail party in January.  This year, the party was held at Flora in downtown Oakland.  It was a lovely event in a wonderful Art Deco building, gloriously restored to it's original beauty.  There was a grand crowd all dressed up in cocktail attire from the era.  Some are serious vintage collectors and some, like me, enjoy making their own creations from vintage inspiration.

 I was originally planning on wearing a vintage embroidered Chinese jacket, with some wide leg trousers, but then reconsidered, when I remembered that I made a black and grey silk chiffon dress about 15 years ago.  The dress was worn a few times to the Gatsby Summer Afternoon, and then sold to a long-time customer.  She recently sent it back to me, after purging her closet.  So, the dress was unearthed and needed something to go over it to give it a cocktail attire look.

Whata great excuse for me to try out a new (to me) pattern from The Vintage Pattern Lending Library.  A couple of months ago, I purchased the 1920's Straight Line Coat pattern and have been yearning to try it out.  I originally thought it might be a good base for a "Miss Fisher" coat.  The pattern did not disappoint!  I did add 4" to the hip (1" to each side seam all around) blending to 0" at the underarm and continuing the fullness straight to the hem.  The coat is sized for a 36" bust, but knowing I have a fuller hip, I added to make sure there was enough.  This proved the only correction to the pattern.  The rest wasa breeze and it sewed together nicely.

The fabric used was a slightly textured rayon jacquard. Because of it's light weight, it needed underlining.  I used one layer of muslin and another layer of silk organza on the body pieces and then just muslin in the sleeves, front band, collar, cuffs & pockets.  All pieces were basted together by hand before assembling together.

There was no lining included in the pattern, so I added one in a polka dot poly jacquard. I just used the pattern pieces but added a pleat of fabric through the back lining so it didn't pull.

Very exciting to have this coat as part of my wardrobe.  Yay!  Here are some additional photos from the member party.  So fun!

And the Winner of our Giveaway from last week is Laurel P. 

Congratulations on winning the Vintage Lingerie Book by Jill Salen.   I'll be contacting you via Email to arrange delivery!