I have been kind of quiet here lately, but I have been living my life behind the scenes, and one of the things I did was make a mid 1790’s outfit for a Birthday Tea for Jane Austen’s 249th Earthstrong.
It felt kind of serendipitous: I’d already bought some fabric and several period patterns and had just completed the first and arguably most intimidating piece, short stays, when I was invited to the tea.
It was just the motivation I needed for six weeks of paced sewing to create a look worthy of Jane Austen.
I used a combination of resources, which I link throughout, along with fitting and construction notes. And if you’re just here for the pictures, that’s fine, too.
Last fall, I made a quilted vest by hacking the former Kochi jacket pattern, now called the Luna Jacket, from Papercut Patterns. I made enough alterations that the collar was the only thing that looked like the original. I still wear it often, but for some reason, when I saw Geri In Stitches Fibre Mood Irma, it occurred to me that maybe I hadn’t achieved the holy grail of quilted vests yet.
The Sew House 7 Wildwood Wrap Dress has a LOT of pattern pieces. It took weeks of procrastination just to get my size traced onto pattern paper, and weeks again before I got around to marking and cutting the fabric. When I finally traced everything and got out my fabric, it took an entire day to cut out all the pieces interspersed with my other responsibilities.
Nearly everything is asymmetrical, meaning opposite sides have separate pieces. I marked everything with chalk to keep the pieces straight while I worked.
Recently I was on social media and saw a smiling woman modeling some clothing she’d made. The fabric was a fantastic print and she looked good.
Then I read her caption. It was a litany of all the ways the thing she’d made didn’t fit right, and that she’d recently taken it apart to make it into something else.
I got a couple of RTW pairs of culottes back when I wanted to wear skirts but we were in the baby gate phase of our lives. There are no baby gates in the house now, but I still like the combination of swish and practicality in a nice, wide-legged set of culottes.
When I mentioned my plan to make culottes, the first question from the fam was, What are culottes? “Skirts with legs,” I said. My kids were quick to point out the pairs I already had. But as I told them, I didn’t have a black pair.
