Monthly Archives: November 2020

1890´s Skirted Jacket Part 1 – The Cut

Hi everyone!

In this tutorial I´ll show you how I made View B of my pattern #0520. The jacket is a pretty old project from the beginning of my historical sewing journey when I needed a coat or jacket for cold winter days. I browsed extant fashion plates, dresses and sewing patterns, decided to make View A of the jacket for my purposes. I developed the View B with the thought of a perfect winter jacket for history bounding.

First, some words about the pattern and how to cut all the pieces from the fabric. The maximum for my patterns are three sheets of the A0 format, sometimes difficult to realize for historical patterns. For this reason I can´t offer extra pattern pieces for all the pieces needed, sewing a historical dress or jacket, just trying to keep the pattern clear and easy to follow. Ever seen an extant pattern sheet from a fashion journal?

There´s just one pattern piece for the large leg-o-mutton sleeve of View A, with the smaller View B sleeves (or lining sleeves) integrated to the large one.

All my patterns come with a seam allowance of 5/8” (1,5cm), just where you can see the arrows (the back sleeve seam) you´ll have to add when cutting from the fabric.

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1890´s Skirted Jacket Part 2 – Sewing the bodice

Part 1 – The Cut

When sewing the jacket, I tried to document the sewing process as accurate as possible, paying special attention on all the tailoring techniques coming up throughout the instructions. I´m sorry for the coat fabric being absolutely not photogenic, and the threads merging with the background. I had to use all material from stash due to the Covid Pandemic. Some steps are deviating from the instructions of the pattern, because many things can be made in different ways with the same result. In the first post I showed you how to use the pattern and cutting the pieces from the fabric, now it´s time to sew!

A very important step is to mark essential lines on the bodice, like the center front, darts and waistline. Best serves a contrasting basting thread, visible on both sides and which can be removed without residues.  I recommend hand-basting the bodice for the first fitting, as well as basting the darts before stitching with the sewing machine.

Hand-basting allows more control over the fabric, without the risk of shifting the layers while machine stitching. This is important as well, when basting the lining to the backs and flatlining some selected pieces.

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1890´s Skirted Jacket Part 3 – The Bodice Lining and Peplum

Part 1 – The Cut

Part 2 – The Bodice

This is my padded lining, the fronts and back ready prepared. I had to be very careful pressing the seam allowances, as the polyester fibers where melting when pressing with an average heat.

This is the front lining with the dart just basted, to get some ease later. As you can see, I stopped basting about 2” (5cm) from the bottom edge as I´ll have to attach the skirt or peplum later.

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1980´s Skirted Jacket Part 4 – The sleeves and finishing details

Part 1 – The Cut

Part 2 – The Bodice

Part 3 – Lining and Peplum

It´s time to get finished! Just the sleeves and some details are missing. I decided to take the smaller lining sleeves, still enough pouf for my purposes. This is the canvas for the sleeve hem, cut on the bias and shaped into a slight curve with the iron.

After sewing the back sleeve seam, line up the canvas with the hemline and baste in place, and catch stitch to the seam allowances. Sew the front sleeve seam while folding the canvas to the side. Press open the seam allowances and smooth out the canvas over the seam, and catch stitch in place. Turn in the hem allowance and catch stitch to the canvas.

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