The first project of 2016

Last week, I spent some time putting together my end-of-year post and pinning my Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge pictures to the special competition Pinterest board. Both activities made me think more about the pledge than I had done in a few months. And looking forward to this year's (there will be a Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge this year, Marie has promised as much, but it has not been officially announced yet).

So, I have decided to hit the ground running and start this year with a vintage pattern project. You can see here that I've been tracing...
Yes, it is another make from one of my vintage sewing magazines. As I have mentioned before, the vast majority of vintage patterns I own are on tracing sheets in magazines or in miniature form, like Lutterloh. I think I only own five "regular" vintage patterns in envelopes. And four reproduction ones.

I am making a dress from Gracieuse magazine nr. 16 from 1929 (the magazine was published twice a month so this was second one for August). This dress to be precise:

I'm using the wedding gown pattern. Of course, I will shorten the back of the skirt to un-wedding gown it and I won't be adding lace or making it in white. Other than that, the design of 1920's (or 30's, 40's or 50's) wedding gowns was often not hugely different from that of formal afternoon dresses (it was usually different from evening dresses which tended to show more skin. A proper bridal dress, maybe up to as recent as 1980, was more covered-up). 
You could argue that, with a whole stack of 1920's and 30's Gracieuse magazines at my disposal, I am silly to go for a wedding dress pattern. I suppose I am but it just combines so many features that appeal to me. 

Just look at it. A lot of 1920's dresses have very plain bodices and necklines or rely heavily on separate scarves or surface decoration. This one has a lovely cowl-like neckline. A style which would become much more common in the following years. It has sleek, simple sleeves, asymmetry and an interesting skirt. The overall silhouette is a bit like a robe de style, but without the puffy-ness. 
I would very much like the dress to fit like it is suggested in the drawing: Free and easy but just clinging to the upper hip. Still a real 1920's look, but showing a feminine shape... We shall see.

The pattern pieces look like this. Like all of Gracieuse's cowl necklines, this one is not cut the way you would expect. Instead, it looks like a scoop neck with some extra room. This is also another example of a pattern on which the side seams seem to be set further to the back than we would expect (I noticed the same on the 1929 party dress I made back in 2014. It wasn't there in the 1922 top but that was a kimono sleeve design so it would have been technically tricky to move the side seams. Last year's 1933 gown also had the side seams in the normal place, which you can see here). Here, you can really see the effect in the sleeve pattern piece.  

I'm all set to cut the fabric now. I have some very cheap fabric which should have the right hand for this design so I am considering to just dive straight in.