I love the color palette of Demelza’s clothes on the first couple of seasons of Poldark. I appreciate the show as a rare one that shows a long term relationship more or less thriving through ups and downs.

This will likely be the first of a series of posts (with a long break between each one, because sewing historical costumes takes FOREVER.) where I share my progress making a Demelza-inspired costume. I’m taking inspiration from the color palette of Demelza’s costumes from the show to make a costume or some mix and match pieces that will be as historically accurate and similar to the show as my time and knowledge allow. I found a good-enough match for this pretty red fabric for the jacket, a lightweight striped khadi cotton. The fabric in the image looks like it could be linen, or at least, a more substantial cotton.

The next time I make a jacket, I’ll try a sturdier fabric. I used my trusty justacorps pattern again, but for the first time, added the sleeves.

It took three sleeve mock-ups. I made all three based on my arm in a thin t-shirt, only to realize my shift is bulkier than a t-shirt. I was able to get enough room by reducing the seam allowances on the sleeves. Ultimately, I took apart my shift’s sleeves and replacing the gussets with smaller ones, which vastly improved the fit of the under layer and made the outer layers go on easier.

I sewed one of the sleeves on backwards trying to follow the instructions from the pattern. Ultimately, after much seam ripping, I followed some of the tips from the American Duchess Guide about fitted sleeves (in the section about on the Italian gown), which went more smoothly and gave me a cleaner finish.

I had to do a lot of tweaking, which was a little demoralizing not because I didn’t expect it, but because the jacket was entirely handsewn, which meant every time I seam ripped, I was tearing out my own hand stitching.

Though I used my Mill Farm Patterns (MF-2) Juste-au-corps pattern for the jacket body and sleeves, I free-handed the skirt portion based on the jacket pattern in Costume Close-up, which has a swallowtail back, unlike Demelza’s costume. Somehow, although I had my daughter/photographer take two sets of photos, we didn’t manage to get photos of the back either time.

The jacket is lined with red batik fabric. It was my first jacket with fitted sleeves. I suspected it was going to be garbage and didn’t want to waste linen on it. I could see Future Me replacing the lining on the jacket’s skirt with something less flamboyant, or even just adding another layer of fabric to cover the batik on the skirt.

I followed most of the instructions for construction in Costume Close-up. I boned the front edges with zip ties, and sewed in metal D-rings for lacing. Even with the boning, the D-rings wanted to roll outward on the flimsy outer fabric. I prick stitched through all the layers along the inner edge of the channel to prevent this from happening.My D-rings are placed properly for spiral lacing, but I’m usually in a hurry when I’m getting dressed for a costume photo shoot, and I don’t think I’ve ever been sure I did the lacing right. Someday, maybe I won’t be hurried, but for now I accept that I can dress up and take photos, or I can lace myself in correctly, but probably not both.

While I was in the midst of trying to figure out my slopey posture and the sleeve construction and attachment, I went to the chiropractor after a long absence to fix my neck knot. As he has before, my chiro suggested that my hunched posture wasn’t a permanent part of me and gave me some exercises and areas to massage. He also told me to drink more water.

I had one sleeve on a jacket which was made for a hunched back and shoulders that slope forward. For the thousandth time in my life, I wondered, should I be making this for the posture I have, or the posture I (sometimes) want? Is my chiropractor overly optimistic? Trying to create job security? If I fix my tight muscles and slouchy back, will this jacket I’ve labored over not fit me anymore?

I finished putting the other sleeve on for the body I have now, and adjusted the shoulder straps to take in the neckline in front a little to further accommodate my forward shoulders and prevent gaping.

My Outlander skirt is close enough to the right color for the skirt from the show, so I’m using it. I think I have a leather belt floating around, but I forgot to grab it for these photos. It was so pretty outside, I just wanted to go while it was still snowing. I found the perfect dusty blue fabric for the apron on Etsy. I also have a close-enough blue linen in my stash, and while I waffle about that decision, I’m going without an apron or using the white one I already made.

I’m still searching for the right fabric for the hair wrap. I’ll probably find something in the right color family or just continue to go historically accurate with a cap. I know Demelza’s hair isn’t historically accurate the way it’s always blowing around, but it’s part of her charm.

The gusset alteration I mentioned above was one of many things I learned while making this jacket. Gussets are rectangles cut on the bias in the underarms of a shift, and mine were too big. When I wore my costume with a bedgown, this didn’t matter because the bedgown also had gussets and the sleeves weren’t fitted.

I made my shifts when I first started costuming just over a year ago. I didn’t understand that the gussets were a hinge, not a fitting mechanism. So I made mine 6 inches square, which made the shift bulky and baggy around my whole body.I removed the 6″ gussets on both shifts and cut them down to 3.5 inches square. It made a huge difference to the fit without sacrificing any mobility. And this all came about because I was having trouble getting my jacket on over my shift during fittings when the extra fabric bunched up around my arms.

I’ll probably keep adding to this look to either get it closer to the look of Demelza from the show, and/or more historically accurate with the right accessories, but I’m happy with where I am right now.

For a first effort it’s pretty decent, and the next jacket I make should be a little easier and a little better.

The neckerchief was purchased from Dyekween. The shop sells a number of different naturally hand-dyed items. The neckerchief came as a huge bandana/hemmed square, which I cut into two neckerchiefs and roll-hemmed the raw edges.