1860s Bolero (Zouave) Jacket with Detachable Sleeves

Patterns: Truly Victorian #444 "1864 Spanish Jackets"
               Truly Victorian #441 "1861 Garibaldi Blouse"
Fabrics: 100% cotton, yarn dyed Hounds-tooth Flannel. Blouse is cotton with a raised mini-stripe and dot. 100% silk for lining and all piping accents.

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Measurements:
Chest - 43"
Waist - 35"
Hip - Free
Hem - 43"

This set is made from the same hounds-tooth flannel I used for my last project, the 1871 Polonaise. I love 60" fabrics because they go so much further than their 45" counterparts. =)

~Skirt~
I used no pattern for this, as it is a simple rectangular panel skirt with no shaping. My fabric is 60" wide, so I did 3 panels of 60" x 45", resulting in a skirt 180" wide at the hem. I don't care for cartridge pleats, so I did close knife pleats, alternating directions at the sides.

The back closure has a large skirt hook/eye, concealed by the meeting up of the pleats (above).

~Blouse~
Construction of this blouse is very simple, so I didn't bother taking photos of the construction process. I will warn you that the front placket is turned toward the outside, so you will have to choose a fabric that is the same on both sides. My fabric was not, so I had to do the front placket with a separate strip rather than just folding over the blouse front. The upside of this, though, is that I was able to have the print facing the other way for the placket, which I like. =)

(below) The sleeves are quite wide and gathered all around the armhole, not just at the top of the shoulder.

(below) The buttons on the cuffs and the front closure are vintage white glass, not plastic.

(above and below) Showing the French seams on the shoulder and side seams. The long seams of the sleeves are flat-felled (not shown).

~Jacket~
           The flannel fabric is substantial enough that I did not add interlining to the body of the jacket. The sleeves and body are fully lined in brown silk (Dupioni, but with a very smooth weave. hardly any slubbing at all).
          The detachable sleeves are my own addition, as the original pattern does not include that alteration. I made up the jacket with short sleeves, as shown in the pattern, then made the long sleeves separate and bound the top edges after doing the pleating to fit the finished armhole.

(below) Once the sleeves are made up, it's easy to get them turned around, so I added some reference tables for left and right.

(above and below) Four ribbons on the top of each sleeves correspond to ribbons inside the armhole of the jacket. A green marking on the ribbons of the front curving seams allow the wearer to match them up for tying

Trims The jacket is narrow-piped in dark brown silk on all edges, including cuffs and armholes. The more reddish brown trim was a tasseled upholstery braid, but I snipped off all the tassels (now I have a bag full of tiny brown tassels. Maybe they'll be handy some day)

~Finished~

*pictures taken with various camera setting and in different amounts of sunlight