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.
The jacket is made from blue green wool from Burnley and Trowbridge, interlined with cotton sateen (all I had in the stash), and lined in white china silk. The lapels and collar are padstitched to help shape them. The buttons are self-fabric covered blanks and because of time constraints I skipped buttonholes and simply pinned the jacket shut in front. In the end, I liked the look and will probably leave it this way.
To pattern the jacket I used my waistcoat pattern for the lapels and combined it with my fitted 18
th century base. I also looked at the diagrams in
Patterns of Fashion and
The Cut of Women’s Clothes to help guide me. The jacket skirts are cut in one with the bodice like a polonaise jacket and the pleats are left untacked and unpressed. To pattern the front cut-away, skirt pleats, and upper collar, I played with the muslin on the dress form until I got a look I was happy with. My draping process is completely unscientific and very hard to describe. I don’t have a brain for math so more often than not I simply play around with the fabric on the form, and then fit that on my body. As you can imagine, I go through a lot of muslin this way, as well as pull a lot of muscles.
I made the sleeves using the two piece pattern from Period Stage and Screen, and my husband was kind enough to help me set them. I put the finished sleeves on over a sweater then added the jacket. My husband then pinned the sleeves to the arm scythes all the way around, making sure the two back sleeve seams were even. It was a tedious process and next time I will definitely make more muslins and double check the fit before I cut my fashion fabric.
Posted:
4/16/2013 10:35:35 AM by
Aubry | with
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