Making My Lavender Jacket - Part 1

Photo by Yuval BG, of Ido Peretz taking pics of me

I’m making my first 18th century outside garment- all my underpinnings are ready- Yay!

I was going to make a gown, but found out that I don’t have enough fabric for that, and I’m still on a stash-busting roll. So jacket it is.

I’m using a beautiful lavender dupioni (I know it wasn’t really used in the 18^th century, please don’t hit me! - though probably actually more feasible for a jacket than a gown) which is synthetic (again, don’t kill me please)

And white linen for the lining.

I’m going to use the lining as a mock-up, and hope that works well enough.

I’m using the instructions from the “American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking” book, the Italian Gown, with help from a bunch of internet tutorials to adapt it to be a jacket.

This is going to be my main inspiration:

https://signoftheredsquirrel.wordpress.com/2017/09/21/top-7-looks-4-annalises-raspberry-caraco-and-petticoat/

https://www.terrydresbach.com/details-the-latest-claire-blueberry-and-analiese-dressage/

Annalise’s Caraco from “Outlander” – yes, it’s from a TV show, and probably not Historically Accurate. But oh well, it’s made from dupioni, and it’s pretty, and it’s close to what I had in mind before I went looking for inspiration, and this jacket is primarily for an Outlander event (if I finish it in time) so, I’m gonna go with it.

Also these: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O88595/caraco-and-petticoat-unknown/

http://fairyfingers.blogspot.com/2016/03/finally-18th-century-caraco-jacket-done.html

https://www.deviantart.com/stylish-costumer/art/18th-Century-Linen-Caraco-Jacket-541520638

http://www.afracturedfairytale.com/Costume-Gallery/1780s/Printed-Caraco.aspx

I’m going to use this tutorial for help:

http://tailoredbymrspinalzo.com/18th-century-skirt-and-jacket-1/?i=1

https://tailoredbymrspinalzo.wordpress.com/2018/04/19/making-an-18th-century-skirt-and-jacket-part-2/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdCR7QSE6Sw&t=671s

It seems, as opposed to gowns, that jackets, generally speaking, did not have a back waist seam- the pieces were cut all in one from the neck to the hem line.

Like in this picture of JP Ryan’s jacket pattern.

I’m going to make the lining/mockup of just the bodice, and then when I cut the actual fabric, I’ll cut it all the way to the hem.

Okay, this is my pattern. I measured myself in all the directions I could think of (with all my underpinnings on of course) and I still had a lot of guess work to do, since I don’t have much experience with historical costume. (I have quite a lot of experience with modern pattern drafting, but historical stuff just looks so different) I’m gonna deal with the sleeves later. I might regret that later, but I just have no idea what I’m doing, so I want to deal with the bodice first, before I get involved with sleevils.

And now I’ll cut this out with as much seam allowance as can be managed, since there’s gonna be a lot of fitting and draping going on here, and I still have no idea what I’m doing. 

I got my sister to help me with the fitting. I basted the CF and CB together, and then we pinned those seams to the CF and CB of the stays while on me, and tried to figure out if it would fit me. 

Seemed alright. So I proceeded to draft sleeves, which were actually much more straightforward than I thought.

Then I cut the actual fabric

The sleeve pieces here seem to be a slightly different shade than the other pieces. That's probably because the sleeves are cut on the cross-grain, while everything else is cut on the bias, slightly off the straight of grain (except for the shoulder pieces, which are on the straight). 

I cut the back pieces with the skirts already attached, as seems to be the way with caracos.

I added fabric to the CB of the skirts, so as to have a pleat there (last minute decision, love those) because I saw such pleats in extant jackets (in pictures online):

metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/159501

manchesterartgallery.org/collections/search/collection/?id=2003.171

balat.kikirpa.be/photo.php?objnr=109811

Of course, these jackets also all have pleats to the side back, but oh well, I don’t think I have enough fabric for that. Then again, they do kind of seem to be pleated like an English Gown, not pieced like mine. So maybe they're completely different, and I shouldn’t have put in a CB pleat at all.

Then I sewed the center back through all four layers of fabric

Then the shoulder straps to the front pieces

I made the lining seam allowance wider than the fashion fabric seam allowance, because... reasons?

 Then I attached the front pieces as well as the shoulder straps to the back.

Then the shoulder straps to the back pieces (I had to piece the shoulder strap for it to get all the way there over my shoulder)

I cut out the front part of the skirts (fashion fabric only)

And attached them to the back part of the skirts

 And hemmed the bottom, turning 1cm over twice

(Yes, I hemmed by machine! I was running out of time...)

I cut out the sleeves (after patterning them) in both fashion fabric and lining and sewed them together with the lining slightly away from the edge of the fashion fabric, so that the lining will be ever so slightly smaller than the fashion fabric, since it needs to go inside it.

And then turned them inside out:

And then I tried to set them in. and immediately found out that they were too small- I couldn’t really get them all the way on, and also the armscye arch was way too deep, and there is no way I’d be able to lift my arms, even a little bit, with the sleeves like they are.

So I widened the sleeves, using the (admittedly small) seam allowance, and inserted gores at the underarm. Which took forever. Partly because I didn’t actually pattern them, and just kind of free-handed it, mostly because I was short on time. And it therefore took me forever. Never try to cut corners, kids. It’s not worth it.

I then proceeded to finish edges. I folded the fashion fabric over at the length that I needed, and then folded the lining over, just below that, so that there are a few mm where there’s only fashion fabric, and then hem stitched (on the inside of the garment).

I did this at the CF (adding a line of prick-stitching at the overlap line), the bottom of the front pieces, and the neckline.

 Then I ran out of time before the event, so I turned over the sleeve hem and tacked it into place.

And I was ready!

Here are some pictures from the event. It was a meetup of Outlander costumers. You can see the fit of the jacket is terrible. That’s what comes of trying to make an unfamiliar fitted garment within a week or two, without actually knowing what you’re doing, and no help with fitting. There are some things I can do to make the situation better, and I shall endeavor to do them, but I’ll have to take the whole jacket apart and re-do most of it. I need to bone the CB, add a waist tie to bring the back closer to the stays (or, just fit the back better), and change the side seams to make the front fit better. And of course actually hem the sleeves. 

But until then, enjoy the pictures of the finished product! Photos by Ido Peretz

Coming in part 2: me actually trying to make this thing fit me! so stay tuned...