All posts tagged: 1770s

The 18th century man’s jacket: construction & fittings

I didn’t take a lot of construction photos while I made the 18th century man’s jacket, but I’ll do my best to explain how I made it. I’m sure it is not a historically accurate technique, but it made a very sturdy garment, with no machine sewing showing on the outside. I started with the two front chest pieces of the jacket First, I sewed around the front edge, bottom edge, and the edge of the first pleat of the jacket, with the outer and lining fabric right sides together. This meant that when I turned the pieces right side out and pressed them, the front, hem, and pleat edge were all finished. Then I sewed placed the back pieces with their lining fabrics, right sides together, and sewed down from the centre back pleat, along their hems, and up the side pleat. Then I turned them right sides out, and pressed the now-finished hem. So basically, all the hemming on the jacket was done by bag-hemming. With the back pieces hemmed, but still separate, …

Grandeur & Frivolity – the 1770s suit

Published by The Dreamstress

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

Published by The Dreamstress

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 …