Yellow 18th Century Jacket

Making this 18th Century Jacket with all hand stitched seams was a lot of fun! I started by doing tons of research. The more I looked, the more varied, individual and fabulous these garments became to me. My Pinterest board with loads of the portraits, etchings and extant garments I studied to prepare is linked on the side menu.

Wearing the jacket for the first time. I love the smooth fit of pinning the front closed.

Construction

I cut the pieces and did my only bit of machine sewing on the inside- a few seams are serged. The rest was all hand stitched, even the ruffle. The jacket came together really quite quickly. The back was cut as one larger piece and pleated toward the center back from neckline to waist. At the waist the pleats released and formed a little peplum in the back. Adorable!

Materials

The main print fabric is hand-printed cotton from India. This is new fabric made with traditional techniques that date back to the 18th Century or earlier. I found mine on Ebay. Etsy has great fabrics like this, too.
The lining is medium weight linen.
The pattern is one I drafted from my set of stays, with a good bit of trial and error.

Back of ththe jacket- these were the first seams sewn.

Once I got this far in the project I knew I would love it. The cotton and linen as lining was just a dream to sew. I never needed the iron, and built the project on my lap, sewing in the evenings after work.

Here we have the ruffles of the 18th Century Jacket in progress. After hemming both edges, I put in two rows of gathering. Two rows let me have a row of gathers fully stitched down, and a row extended past the edge in a ruffle.

Back of 18th Century Jacket photo showing the folds of pleats in the back. — Back of 18th Century Jacket photo showing the folds of pleats in the back, and the ruffle.

Finished 18th Century Jacket. — Here you can see the front edge of the jacket as I added the ruffle.

Wearing the Jacket

These garments are worn with straight pins holding them closed in the front. These are worn over stays, bodice-like corset of the time. Wearing the stays underneath means the straight pins are next to them and not your skin. Pinning everything together means you can get a great fit, at a variety of sizes.