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We were excited to re-release the 214 1927 Tea Frock pattern this month. It is a treasured Folkwear pattern to create the iconic, drop-waist, relaxed, informal dress from the 1920s. Our pattern offers 3 sleeve styles (long-sleeve, flutter sleeve, or sleeveless), collar option, smocking option, and embroidery and threadwork designs to add to multiple places on the dress.
In the June 15, 1927 issue of Vogue, the editor proclaimed, “We don’t like the normal waistline, and we don’t wear it. It isn’t so flattering to hips that are none too slim, and it isn’t so youthful.” The lowered waist, and relaxed form of this dress (as well as it would have been an informal dress) allowed the wearer to forgo corsets.
Since then, the fashionable waistline has returned to the place that nature put it, sometimes quite rigidly (1948-52), but usually with an easy, comfortable fit. Today of course, designers feel free to move one’s middle up or down or dispense with it altogether.
Our Tea Frock pattern is softly feminine, infinitely wearable. The original garments in our collection, from which this pattern came from, are made of fine pastel gauze or voile, hand smocked and embroidered in the Philippines. “Peasant look” embroidered dresses with similar cuts were also imported from Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and France in the late 1920s. Many of these dress featured local, traditional handwork techniques.
A variety of hemline lengths found on dresses of this exact construction suggest that they were popular over a number of years. The versatility offered by interchangeable sleeves and the optional collar makes the Tea Frock practical for summer or winter in soft fabrics. You can also adjust the smocking on the waist or sleeves to be wider, if you wish. And the smocking can easily be switched to shirring to make an easier (and quicker) to sew version (as we did in the long sleeved dress below).
We also really love that the bodice can be made into tops. To make a top from this pattern, all you need to do is leave off skirt (or waistband) and make a narrow hem at the bottom of the bodice. I made two tops, one with the sleeveless version -- no collar and no sleeves, and one with the flutter sleeves and collar.
We are happy to have this classic, vintage Folkwear pattern back in stock! And we hope you enjoy the 214 Tea Frock and all the variations you can make from it.
