Black And White 1930s Evening Gown with Peplum

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For today’s black and white gown, I decided on a 1930s evening gown. For one thing, a simple dress sounded appealing at 9 PM when I started; for another thing, we love our 1930s fashion around these parts, if the response to the white and pink gown is any indication.

Next week, I am going to tackle drawing the winners of my music contest; hopefully I can finish them off in one week. I’ll be skipping Mermaid Monday, but it’ll be back the week after that. (Maybe the Supremes will get a mermaid dress? We’ll see.)


White and Pink 1930s Style Evening Gown with Rhododendrons

Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

Got started a little late today, so this dress isn’t my favorite, but it’s reasonably cute, I think. It’s supposed to be in the style of 1930s evening gowns, although it’s not based on any one dress. (So as always with the historical costumes that I pretty much make up, take the style, color, etc. with a grain of salt.) The rhododendrons come from some pictures my dad posted on Facebook of wild rhododendrons blooming around my family’s property on Hood Canal. Whenever I go to visit I always seem to miss seeing them bloom, so it’s nice to have pictures at least!

Every day that goes by makes me feel crueler and crueler. Someone, guess the answer soon! A couple people have come really close, but the exact number is still a mystery. But at least you know it’s under 1000 and — OK, above 200. I know, that’s not really much help…

Question: How many Prismacolor pencils do I own as of May 18th?
This includes the ones that I use, all the stubby little pencils that are too short for my current sharpener but I just can’t toss, all the ones I have in reserve and my set of Verithin pencils I hardly ever use.

Just to restate the rules:
1) It’s a new year, so even if you’ve already won one, feel free to guess again.
2) One guess per person per post.
3) If no one gets the exact number by noon EST, May 25th, I’ll pick the closest guess.


Marilyn Monroe’s Black Fringed Dress from Some Like It Hot

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So it turns out that Hulu has Some Like It Hot available for free, and I just had to watch it yesterday. Marilyn’s really good dresses have see-through parts, ruling them out for my paperdolls, but I liked this one that she wears near the beginning, even if I’m not quite sure I got the details right.


Blue and White Convertible-Sleeved Evening Dress From “In the Year 2000: Clothing of the Future”

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Erin at A Dress A Day linked to this video from the 1930s, “In The Year 2000: Clothing Of The Future” and, well, convertible sleeves FTW. Or, to quote the video, “One idea is a dress that can be adapted for morning, afternoon or evening. It’s the sleeves what does it!” So the white part is actually the inside of the sleeve, secured by the little silver hangy thing at the top and threaded underneath the belt. You’ll see if you watch the video a couple of times. We didn’t really get a good look at the skirt, and I think the original is a little fuller, but what the heck, I lived through the year 2000, I can take some liberties.

The rest of the video, which promises to show us “what Eve will look like in AD 2000,” is well worth a watch, too. I wish we got a better look at the aluminum dress…

Oh, and Go Fug Yourself is holding the Fug Madness tournament soon, so if you have a high tolerance for fugly, don’t forget to vote. I predict at least one paperdoll will come from the contest. (I’m not so sure they’ve got room to talk with those horrendous American Apparel dress ads on their site, but I guess money is money. Ooh, I hope that doesn’t show up in my ads now…)