This stunning dress from Lanvin (Spring/Summer 1923) was the inspiration for my latest Gatsby picnic outfit. Our original plan was to do an ode to Prince (“We’re going to party like its 1929…”) but at the last minute plans changed. We still had an entirely purple themed picnic, and this dress was a last minute triumph, but wow, finishing it almost didn’t happen!

To break this down – the original dress is silk and getting silk netting for the lattice part was WAY out of my budget. Due to various life issues last year I had about $100 to spend. I found a poly netting at Joann’s (I know, I know, but it was soft and drapey and within budget so there we are) that worked well. A couple months later I looked at a receipt that happened to have this netting on it and it said “mosquito netting”. HA! If I ASKED for mosquito netting no one would know what I was talking about so I think its HILARIOUS that I managed to find a random bolt that happened to be *just that* and it worked.

THE RIBBON

Let’s talk about the RIBBON. The ENTIRE reason for the dress! If you follow me on Instagram you’ll know that the RIBBON was an adventure. Let’s break this down:

You’ll need around 300-350 yards of the stuff.

Unless you have an unlimited pocketbook you need to find a less expensive source of ribbon that your lovely silk ribbon dealer, who will also need to have at least 300 yards of vintage silk ribbon for you.

Google is your friend, so is Etsy. In my case I found a dealer on Etsy that is in China and had the purple/green version of THIS ribbon for 28 cents a yard. Yes, 10 yards for less than three bucks. Catch is it ships from China. So I tried it. Ordered 50 yards, was delivered in 2 weeks.

COOL. Ordered another 200 yards, just to see if I could get it in the same time frame, delivered in 3 weeks. We’re still good.

SO! I started making roses. Lots and lots and lots of roses. My first 80 (yes, I counted) were big a floofy and kinda wild. That’s ok, that hip band can take floofy. I then trimmed down the size of the roses for the rest of the dress, didn’t need anything floofy and fancy for the ones that are sewn onto the ribbon lattice and those ended up being 6 inches of ribbon and handsewn. ALL the roses were handsewn.

The actual sewing of the lattice was so unevntful I didn’t take any pictures. I had decided the squares were 2″, so I laid my fabric on the cutting mat with the one inch squares (like you see above) and pinned first the vertical strips on, stitched each one of ONE SIDE ONLY, then pinned on the horizontal strips, sewed them on ONE SIDE and finally did the cross strips. I think the first half of the skirt took less than 2 hours with lots of ironing in between. Keep in mind my lovely mosquito netting is STRETCHY on top of its other qualities (which will be important soon so don’t miss it!) and is 72″ wide.

I was itching to get my little flowers sewn on and with “Big Dreams Small Spaces” playing in the background (OMG LOVE Monty Don) I sewed and sewed and sewed and it made me SO HAPPY.

BUT THEN, because there’s always a ‘BUT’ isn’t there….then I figured out I was going to be about 50 yards short. Don’t panic. It’s ok. There’s still 5 weeks until the picnic so I hopped online and ordered RIGHT AWAY. Even if we’re at 3 weeks of shipping we should be good, no?

NO.

Yes, they use tracking but somehow this time the package got stuck in Shanghai for 3+ weeks. It didn’t move. Or at least the tracking showed it stuck. I emailed. Nothing.

In the meantime I was working on our tent set up. Because, again, nothing is easy or straightforward with these events. Our initial guest list was going to be around 18 so we needed 2 tents to cover our tables and food. One by one guests either declined or just didn’t respond so we were down to 8 when I said “I’m only going to do one tent” and no one said yes, no or wait. To be clear – we had decided to not only build the outer cover of the tent but cover the INSIDE as well.

I stated to panic a little, just a little, about the ribbon. Clearly stamping bees onto the fabric that became the inner liner could only occupy me until I finished. Then I started to panic a little more, and then a little more, and then I was in FULL BLOWN PANIC as I had one half of the skirt done and enough ribbon to do 30% of the rest. I actually put everything in a bag and in the basement and had a good cry, figuring that was it. My friends sent me lovely messages of “you can do it!” and “we know you’ll find a way!” as I sat in the heat, under my half finished tent, wondering exactly how I was going to conjure up even a few more yards of ribbon.

Then I looked at those floofy flowers, that took three to fours times the amount of ribbon as the rest, and started to undo them. Yep, hours and hours of work pulled apart. Is there an equivalent term to frogging, like we do in knitting, to ribbonwork? Sigh. I kept pulling apart flowers and piecing the lattice and had enough to do 3/4 of the other side. I cut off the rest and figured no one would be the wiser.

The lavender slip is NOT silk and not because I couldn’t afford it, but because I couldn’t FIND any. I did find a beautiful bamboo rayon at Stone Mountain in Berkeley, it was soft and lightweight and NOT an insulating fabric so if the weather gods day of the picnic did another “oh, hey guys, we know its Oakland but let’s mix things up a bit and take it to 95 today!!” like it did a couple of years ago…I wanted to be comfy. It was COMFY.

I was sewing sewing sewing up to the day before the picnic. But I was doing well. The tent was finished and we figured out how to pack it so we could get it set up without a small army. My dress needed a few more roses but once I took apart most of the floofy ones I had JUST ENOUGH for the dress and a one for each SHOE. HAHAHA!!

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Picture this – its the day before the event, I’ve been working for 4 months on this thing. I get the dress ironed and am ready to hang it up….

AND HENRY PEES ON IT. It’s on the ironing board and he walks up to the part that’s hanging down and lifts his tail….

THANK GOODNESS FOR POLYESTER.

I raced to the sink, rinsed everything off and gave it the sniff test. I threw it on the line and let it air dry so nothing would shrink. Nothing shrank. Henry huffed off because he wasn’t getting my undivided attention and did that cat thing – lounged under the tent as I was packing up, refused to move and gave me that ‘look’.

It took all day to pack the car, fuss over the dress and make sure I didn’t forget to pack the BF’s pants. Thank goodness Tanya and Leslie were doing the food, I was a sweaty mess by the time I fell into bed.

All our hard prep paid off. The picnic was STUNNING.

I stopped counting the number of hours I was putting into any of this, including the dress, when I started ripping apart the flowers. Well over 100. What I’d do differently if I were to make this dress again (and helpful hints if YOU want to try it) –

Order 350 yards of ribbon. Maybe round that up to 400 just in case.

Start more than 2 months in advance, just for giggles 🙂

Seriously, though, when I look at the pics of the dress on me I’d make the squares smaller, I’d give 1 1/2″ a shot. That would add 2 more rows of pattern like in the original. I know I’m not tall but I the pattern on the top looks a little big. I *might* redo the top at some point. Or not.

The really nice thing about the poly mosquito netting I used was I didn’t have to do a single hem. The neckline, armholes, skirt hems are all just cut edges. Nothing frayed or pulled. Yay! I did face the top of the bodice and lined the straps with silk organza for strength. Totally necessary. I did NOT do the trim around the neck and armhole edges that you see in the original. You just get to a point where things are good, nobody has peed on anything in an hour and you don’t want to wreck anything. I had no idea what to use at that point so I left it alone. To invoke my favorite expression “Done is Beautiful”.

DO IT. If you even have a hint of love for this dress just MAKE IT. I was RIDICULOUSLY happy and I not only felt elegant but comfy as well. That’s a win in my book.