All posts tagged: waistcoat

18th century menswear: the waistcoat

Published by The Dreamstress

I’ve told you all about the 18th century jacket I made.  Here are the construction details of the waistcoat that goes with it. The fabric is a white cotton with a slightly irregular diagonal rib woven in.  The breeches are made out of the same fabric.  There is more info on the fabric and trims here. Like the jacket, the pattern basically comes from Costume Close-Up, though I made so many changes that CCU ended up being just a basic guide to 18th century waistcoat construction. I patterned up the waistcoat without having anyone to try it on, and I was really worried that it would be too small, so I used a clever feature that I saw on an extent waistcoat (unfortunately I can’t remember where from!) and left the back seam open, with ties to make it adjustable.  I’ve also seen images of waistcoats with closed back seams and ties, and waistcoats that laced up the back.  The LACMA has a pattern for one. As with the jacket, I managed to do a …

A 1760s/70s man’s ensemble – again

Published by The Dreamstress

I’ve been planning on making an 18th century man’s ensemble to go with the Lady Anne Darcy dress for ages. I started one almost two years ago, but it got set aside in favour of other projects. The Grandeur & Frivolity talk was the perfect excuse to pull it out again and finish it, but things didn’t go that easily. First of all, the jacket didn’t look that grand when I fished it out of the bag that it was crumpled in and ironed it: Clearly some taking it apart and re-shaping and interfacing is in order. That was do-able. Making sleeves out of thin air wasn’t though.  And I mean ‘thin air’ literally.  I can’t find the extra fabric from this jacket anywhere. And then the waistcoat didn’t fit Daniil, the model for the talk.  And I hated the squidgy synthetic fabric it was made out of. So basically, all of the stuff that I started with got stuffed back in the bag it came from, and I restarted. I’m using this suit from …

Rate the Dress: 1830’s menswear

Published by The Dreamstress

Despite my concerns about your interest in last week’s Victorian Batgirl dress (black and white and a fashion sketch), it attracted lots of attention.  So much discussion about bats and aesthetics, and links to modern versions of the dress!  It rated an 8.3, because while some of you thought it was fabulous, a few of you don’t care for Victorian fancy dress. This week I felt it was time for a change – we leave the details of the Renaissance, the splendor of Worth, the puffs of James, the wacky sexiness of Victorian fancy dress, indeed, all the frills and furbelows of womenswear, behind. Instead, we look at menswear.  What will you think of this restrained man’s ensemble from the early years of the Romantic era? The fitted blue silk jacket dates to 1833, and is worn with a palest yellow waistcoat, pleat-front buff trouser-breaches with stirrup bottoms, and a black silk cravat.  Simple with a touch of interest, or boring and mismatched? Rate the outfit on a scale of 1 to 10