A Fractured Fairytale

When I was preping for Costume College, I came to the realization that there was no way my riding habit hat would fit in my suitcase. I certainly didn't want to crush it and wearing it on the plane really isnt something I'm willing to do (for many reasons), so I stole was inspired by Jen Thompson's idea of making one of those fluffy cap/turban things you see so often in the late 18th century to wear with my habit. I went for a simple, undecorated look like these two portraits:

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When it came time to construct something to wear underneath my riding habit jacket, I admit I was a bit stumped. There just isn’t that much information out there to the casual researcher about what exactly was going on beneath those habit jackets. Finally, I settled on the idea of a separate shirt to wear over my corset and shift but under the waistcoat like a man’s shirt.


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As promised, here is a little more construction detail about my riding habit jacket. Unfortunately, since I was in a rush I took almost no construction pictures, so I hope my rambling description makes sense. Read more...

Here is the first in a long serious of Williamsburg outfit posts. I'm sure you will be sick to death of seeing me by the end - sorry in advance! To start we have the finished 1790 riding habit:
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With less than a week until I leave for Williamsburg, I'm happy to say the bulk of my sewing is finished! The habit shirt and jacket are both wearable (though lacking buttonholes), and while the jacket is far from perfect, I'm not disappointed with my first attempts at tailoring. As you can tell, my final designed morphed from early to mid 1780s to very definitely late 1780s early 1790s. When I'm pressed for time, I dont fight the fabric, I just let it do the talking. I plan some more detailed construction posts later, but for now I have a few photos to share.

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