Wednesday 15 April 2015

1880 Riding Habit with Matching Hat - Harper's Bazar

From Harper's Bazar - March 27th, 1880.
Reproduced in 1/8th scale in Fashions of the Gilded Age, Vol.II (ed. Frances Grimble)

I neglected to take as many in-progress photos with this one as I usually do. But, the design and construction is very straightforward and not really outside the norm, so constructions photos weren't all that necessary. 
Pattern Quality: Excellent! I highly recommend this one. 
Fabrics: I used some red upholstery velvet with a wave pattern, as well as a heather gray blend suiting that I purchased as a "mystery" fabric for $2 a yard! =D

Size: 35" chest, 25.5" Waist, 44"max hip. This is the size "out of the box" with no alterations.
Undergarments: On the dress form, this is pictured over a rump pad and a petticoat with rear ruffles.

Sale: Yes, this one is too small for me to keep or wear. It's on eBay right now.

This picture has been resized for posting. The scale indicated is no longer accurate.


The Vest pieces pinned to interfacing. As you can see, there is a pleat at the sides that will add width to the hip when finished. This is a riding habit, after all, so it is meant to be loose on the hips. 

Showing the open jacket pieces laid over the vest pieces. They are stitched at the shoulders and sides and then treated as a single piece after that. The vest does not go all the way to the edges of the shoulder seams on the overlay, giving a seam allowance for the collar which will not be attached to the vest portions. 

Showing the cuffs and the placket with buttons. I got these silver metal buttons for an amazing deal. 100 of them for $4.00! =) 

















The sash on the bat is merely threaded through the loops, not attached, so the wearer can choose to just take it out whenever. However, the sash is covering the raw bottom of the feather bundle, which is whip stitched to the hat. 






With the jacket open you can see the bones I stitched to the inside of the collar to help it stand up. They were an afterthought, which is why you can see them. When I was making the collar, I didn't use a stiff enough interfacing, so it was a bit too floppy. 




For the placket at the back, I used a type of two piece overlapping closure sometimes referred to as a gauntlet. You typically see it on the cuffs of men's dress shirts. I don't know if they used this back then, but I saw a tutorial on it and I really like it =) 


1 comment:

  1. Oh I love this! I marked this page to make for myself, it's really awesome to see it made up and looking so nice!

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