Sometime back, I had the notion of making myself a “one-hour” dress for a tea, which I nerve ended up attending for reasons I will never discuss, but I still made the dress with the crazy notion that I’d wear it to Costume College. But then everything got put on hold due to “the virus,” and the dress has sat in my closet for a year and a half, and I never answered the question as to if it was genuinely possible to make the “One-Hour” dress in an hour.
I believe that it may be possible given idea circumstances such as choice of patterns (there are several versions of the “one-hour” dress), fabric, trim (or lack thereof), and what size dress you are making. However, in specific, the case of my dress, no. If memory serves, it took me about three and a half hours, primarily due partly to the very narrow satin bias binding I used on the neckline. It adds lovely detail to the dress that I wouldn’t change, but it was time-consuming. This three-hour-plus construction time seems to be what most fellow costumers find it’s taking to make the dress.
I have plans to make the dress again in medium-weight linen in a period-appropriate pastel, but not immediately, as I have the 1940s calling, and I need to embrace my inner Peggy Carter and Claire Fraser.