HSM 15 Challenge 9: Brown - The pierrot

I'm finally done with this project. It was supposed to be a quick project, but it's taken me most of the month. The main reason for that is that I decided to do it all by hand, I stalled when I couldn't decide on certain design choices, and I find it too cumbersome to get in and out of the stays when I wanted to test something.

For those who haven't seen the previous posts of the project here is part 1: Start; and part 2: bodice and sleeves. By then it was mostly finishing touches left, but those are always the things that take more time than planned. First I had to decide on how to close the jacket. In the end I decided to close it with pins, hoping that will make it more flexible in adjusting after my body compared to hooks and eyes. Then I had to decide on trimming. I love the look of ruffles and all other 18th century trimmings, but looking at original pieces I felt that those kinds of trims were a bit earlier than my late 1780's aim. Most jackets seemed to have been pretty plain, that made me also decide on not making any cuffs for the sleeves. I'm also thinking that it's easier to add trim and cuffs at a later stage, if I feel that the jacket is too boring.

Now on to the pictures, and as usual I'm sorry for the blur.

Me in the jacket, from the front.

And from the side, showing the peplum.

I then took off the jacket to get some better pictures, but my dressform is too big and curvy compared to me in my stays, so instead I got a lot more wrinkles. So disregard the wrinkles, the fit is a lot better on me than on the dressform.

There are a couple of things that I'm extra satisfied with and those are the sleeves and the fit of the bodice. The sleeves aren't optimal yet, but they fit well in the armscye and there is no poofiness. I think in order to refine the fit of the sleeves it's more about rotating them in the armscye, rather than changing them, they do pull a bit towards the back now. The fit is really nice, I haven't added any boning to it, and it still sits really snug and doesn't move around the boy. I'm hoping that pinning it together will help with that as well.

This is the first tightfitting garmet that I've sewn totally by hand, my Edwardian blouse didn't have nearly the same strain on the seams. I'm hoping this will prove that my handsewing is good enough to stand up to the wear. Still if I do a jacket like this again I'm not sure that I would totally handsew it. I want the visible seams to be handmade, but there are a lot of seams that aren't visible and there is also the lining.

So just the HSM facts:

What the item is: A pierrot jacket

The Challenge: Brown

Fabric: 1,75 m of brown quilting cotton, 1,75 m of unbleached linen

Pattern: My own, from the basic bodice pattern I made in challenge 6

Year: 1780s

Notions: Sewing thread in brown and white, white cotton bias tape to cover the raw edges on the inside

How historically accurate is it? It's my most accurate 18th century thing so far. I did cover the raw edges with modern bias tape, since I hate raw edgest. The fabric is an 18th century reproduction quilting cotton, so it doesn't have quite the same drape as cotton in the 18th century, still I would say 90%

Hours to complete: Hard to say but around 30-40

First worn: Not yet, all my 18th century stuff has been packed away for the winter so I have nothing to wear it with.

Total cost: $50, the cotton was $30 and the linen $20