Past 18th century projects revisited

Last weekend I finally had time and energy to take a look at the 18th c. garments I have made so far. I decided to take some proper photos of them all to see how they look and fit. Here are the results.

Pockets, embroidery pattern from Eggiman's Yllebroderier

Yellow stays

Will. Not. Laugh... The silliest piece of clothing I've ever made, the pocket hoops. After the pattern in Waugh's Corsets and Crinolines.

Not much of a bum roll, I think I need to fill this up a bit or make a new one.

A smug expression is essential.

Eeek! Legs! I knitted the stockings; a very plain toe-up model, the yarn is silk-merino blend.

Green taffeta petticoat. Very lightweight, very nice to wear.

The petticoat with a caraco, fichu and ha hat made out of paper yarn. I like this ensemble the best.

Embroidered buttons with a different flower on each of them.

Working that politely disdainful expression. "Out of my way, peasant." I threw on the paniers under the petticoat even though it wasn't cut and measured for them. Still, it kind of works.

Hope my bum looks big enough.

These aren't that wide.

An anglaise-type gown. The taffeta is maybe a wee bit too shiny.

Robe retroussée dans les poches.

The sleeves were inspired by that blue caraco in KCI collection.

Happiness is a finished costume

Now, then. The caraco ensemble is suddenly finished. I even trimmed the hat to go with the costume and of course there are pictures. I have to say that this is by far my favourite costume; today when I put it on it suddenly... worked. And with the cap and the hat I just got the right feeling :)







If you're a dame you must have a hat. I can't stop praising the paper yarn which I used for this hat, it just worked so nicely.

Quick photos of the nearly ready caraco ensemble

Phew. The trimming is now in place and the sleeves sewn on. I threw on the whole costume to see how it looks and to determine the placement of buttons:





Please ignore the daring flounce of petticoats. I really need to shorten them but just haven't got around doing it yet...



Shock! Horror! Actual legs showing! I knitted these stockings just because I can :) They're a very plain toe-up model, and I used my favourite merino wool-silk blend yarn. The garters are just a lenght of red cotton ribbon.

Caraco in the making

For the past months I've been making a caraco jacket. Well, a kind of a caraco. It seems that there are many variations of this garment and mine is sort of a midway solution. I chose to make my caraco a little bit shorter because I'm short myself and a longer version looked a bit heavy.
Here everything is just pinned on as I was testing what the whole get-up would look together. Since then I've shortened the jacket a good 10cm and added ruched trimming made of the petticoat fabric (nice lightweight taffeta). I still have to set in sleeves, make the buttonholes to the false comperes front and sew on the buttons, with which I'm really pleased. The first time I tried embroidery on fabric-covered buttons and they turned out very nice :)