Seven years after I started it, my 1760s Frou Frou Française is finally done, in all its glory of punched silk taffeta ruffles and lace froth.

Some construction details on my Frou Frou Francaise sleeves and sleeve ruffles, for those who are interested.  And some photos of Felicity, for those who are interested 😉 I based my sleeve pattern on the from Janet Arnold’s Patterns of Fashion   The construction is a basic sew-three-layers-together-and-then-use-the-outer-fabric-to-hide-all-the-seam-allowances construction.  I don’t know if there is a less-wordy 18th c name for it! The fun part of sleeves, is, of course, sleeve ruffles! I based the punch pattern on my sleeve ruffles on this sacque in the V&A. There is a close-up image of the sleeve details in the 18th century Historical Fashion in Detail book (page 176 if you want to see it), but this image of the petticoat ruffle should give you a good idea of what the punch detailing looks like. To create my pattern I used the sleeve ruffle patterns from the American Duchess book (in retrospect I really wish I’d used the ruffle that corresponds with the Janet Arnold sleeve, but oh well) , and sketched out a punch design. I …