Stash Busting! 18th century Caraco Jacket & Petticoat

Pattern: Robe a l'Anglaise pattern from Norah Waugh, used as the base for drafting the jacket.
Fabrics: Stash busting and, unfortunately, not historically accurate in fiber content. The jacket is a linen blend and the petticoat is polyester/rayon taffeta with heavily machine embroidery throughout.

Available on ebay HERE

Available on etsy HERE

Finished Measurements:
Chest: 42"
Waist: 35"
Hip: Free
Hem: 39"
Bicep: 15"

As far as 18th century patterns go, I don't have a very extensive collection of ready patterns. I'm working almost entirely from two books: The Cut of Women's Clothes, by Norah Waugh; and The Evolution of Fashion, by Margot Hill. As neither of these have a pattern for just the sort of jacket I was thinking of, I took the 1780 l'Anglaise pattern from the Waugh book and simply used the bodice pieces as my base for drawing out the jacket. I mostly just eyeballed it and then made my alterations to the lining, which I used as my mockup for this.

(Above) The red lined indicate my new cutting pattern at the bottom of the pieces, turning them into jacket pieces that jut out. The drawing is crude and not directly reflective of what I really did, but you get the idea. I left the sleeves as if and added a stomacher to fill in the lost front from my new cutting path.

As for color and pattern scheme, I was going for something more garden fantasy, like the 18th century French fashion plates. We sometimes forget that a lot of the color and pattern combinations they used back then would be considered gaudy to our now so sophisticated aesthetic of monochrome hues and palette matching naturals, LOL.