Monthly Archives: January 2020

1890´s Jacket with puff sleeves

Another illustrated tutorial for my newest sewing pattern #0120, showing some steps a bit different than I explained in the sewing instruction´s, just because you can make things different.

A bit about the jacket: It is a typical double breasted jacket from around 1890, with puffed sleeves and large lapels and cut narrow at the waist to emphasize the 1890´s hourglass shape. As this jacket is mentioned to be made from a lightweight fabric like silk taffeta (shame over me, I used polyester taffeta – but it served well for the event I made it for) I flatlined the entire jacket with a midweight cotton fabric. The fabric was quite hard to take good pictures from, especially with artificial light. I do not have a picture of every step described in the sewing instructions, but from all more complicated ones. Let´s start!

Here you can see the back, flatlined and sewn together, with the self-made piping from my fashion fabric lined up with the bottom edge until reaching the mark (5). I did not make pics from the piping making process, as there are so many great video tutorials on the internet. Just search for PIPING and choose your favorite one.

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1890´s Fan-Skirt Tutorial

The Fan-Skirt pattern (#0414) still is my best selling pattern, so I´ll show you how I made my new skirt with that sewing pattern.

But what happened to the old one, why do I need a new one, or what´s the difference? I made my old skirt a few years ago from a single layer of a midweight dark brown woolen fabric, the sewing pattern was one of the first I published under my pattern label. I have worn this skirt frequently for cycling and winter activities like walking and skating. After all this years, the skirt looks well-worn, with several marks of a bicycle chain and srubbed up at the hem.

Plannig my first visit at the Wave Gothic Festival 2019 in Leipzig, I decided to make a new skirt and jacket, inspired by the motion picture Crimson Peak. As the skirt was thought to be worn on a festival I choosed a polyester taffeta, lined with glazed cotton. (That was a wise decision, as my husband emptied a glass of prosecco all over my skirt).

You´ll see pictures of two different skirts, made from different fabrics in this blogpost, as I forgot to take all pictures needed for this tutorial while sewing the Fan-Skirt.

After cutting all pattern pieces from fashion and lining fabric, I prepared the hem interfacing, cutting about 8″ (20cm) wide hem-shaped strips from a stiff, but lightweight canvas. For a hemline of several meters , I needed to piece the strips of interfacing, joining them with a simple overlapping seam.

Placing the lining pieces on top of a table with the wrong side up, I marked the hem line and lined up the interfacing with this line.

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