All posts tagged: 1770s

Grandeur & Frivolity – the 1770s suit

I’m pretty happy with my 1770’s man’s suit, especially as it is my first real go at 18th century menswear, but I do still want to make some tweaks to it. Even so, I was quite pleased with how it looked at the Grandeur & Frivolity talk.  The model certainly helped: Daniil carried off  sky blue satin, wig, stockings and bows with all the poise and hauteur of a proper French courtier. The duchesse silk satin creased something awful from being sat on.  I’m not sure how I feel about that.  Would 18th century silks crease like that? Daniil and Chiara are good friends, so we got them to pose together after the talk.  The outfits may be over 100 years apart, but they sure look gorgeous together!

The 18th century man’s suit: fabric and trims

I planned and made my 18th century mans suit redux in just a few days, so I had to scrounge in my stash and use whatever I had on hand. For the jacket, I used a fabulous sky blue duchesse silk satin which I picked up at the same time as the beige satin which I dyed for Ninon’s dress: Unfortunately, I forgot that I had a specific project in mind for the sky blue fabric, and now I’m grumpy with myself for using it.  However, Daniil is probably very grateful that I didn’t use my other option, which was a lilac silk duchesse satin – very 18th century, but rather difficult for a 21st century man to pull off! I was pretty confident about my ability to make the jacket, and make it well, but I was much more nervous about my ability to make breeches.  So I chose a fabric that I wouldn’t be heartbroken about if I totally stuffed them up: a $4 a metre heavy cotton with a woven in irregular …

Making an 18th century man’s jacket: pattern and interfacing

Remember how I cut out and started an 18th century man’s jacket?  Well, I did, and it worked, and then I lost the sleeves, but I can’t for the life of me remember what I used as a pattern! So when I re-started a 1770s mans ensemble to go with the Lady Anne Darcy dress, I really had to re-start, and find a whole new pattern. This time I used the 1765-1790 man’s suit pattern from Colonial Williamsburg’s  Costume Close-Up: Clothing Construction and Pattern.  It’s based on this suit: The pattern is relatively simple: a front and back piece, two piece sleeves, cuffs, collar, pocket flaps, and some interfacing and padding. I found the interfacing and padding diagram particularly useful.  I used an old linen with a bit of staining for my interfacing, and a bit of flannel for the padding in the chest. I pinned my padding and the interfacing on and basted them down at the same time. A lot of padding wasn’t really necessary: Daniil has a great full chest, and the …