1790’s Jacket Progress

I finally had some time to start on my 1795ish spencer. I spent about two hours pinning and unpinning the pattern to my dress form. I used the JP Ryan Robe l’Anglais bodice pattern as a base. I cut it out of muslin, as is, and pinned it to my dress form. I adjusted the fit, marked the lines so I could make it a high waist spencer, and redrafted the pattern. The hardest part, which wasn’t too bad, was creating the peplum and centering the pleats on each piece of the pattern. Now I need to decide if I want long sleeves or three quartered sleeves. I think I will play with both and see which will look better. Here are the pictures of the progress thus far.

Research, inspiration, and my sketch of the final product.

The fabric and lace. I’m planning on using the gold for the skirt and the blue for the bodice/ spencer.

The original pattern cut out of muslin.

The original pattern on my form (back side). You can see my short stays through the fabric. I used them as a guide to know how and were to alter the original.

The front as it is originally designed.

My alterations to the back, before I added the peplum. I decided to take the back neckline down a bit to fit the later style.

The front with my alterations. I added a dart to one side so I could transfer the markings to my tracing paper pattern.

I added the peplum to one side of the jacket, to keep things symmetrical when I draft the pattern onto paper.

The side view with the peplum added. I’m thinking I might need a small pad underneath the peplum to give it shape. I’ll wait until the skirt is finished before I decide.

The final pattern with the peplum. I’m quite happy with the results thus far. We’ll see how the finished product turns out.

Have a great weekend, everyone. God Bless!

Love Lauren