In Progress: 1897 Morning Jacket

Out of the blue I decided to leaf through the pages of some of my old Mode Illustree magazines, and lo and behold, one called to me.

It said 

You do not have anything for the Historical Sew Monthly yet.  Pick me! Pick me!

 

And so I did.  I traced off all the pieces needed from the sheet. And then I realized I needed to draft two pieces.  And then  I realized that the sleeve pieces were missing.  My minimal ability to read French told me they were in a preceding issue.

Not to be deterred, I supplemented the pieces from another pattern in an issue from the same year and continued.

And now I find I’m missing a collar piece and probably don’t have enough to cut the ruffles.  But It’s fun!  It’s different!  And, really, how often do you have the excuse to sew an everyday object like a morning jacket from the 1890s?  Like, never.  Thanks, HSM.

Obviously, my favorite part is that the pleats say

Oh, look!  I’m 18th century but NOT 18th century!

How fun!

The construction is somewhat interesting.  Although it’s a casual garment, it’s mounted on a fitted base.  Well, the back is fitted,, but the front is loose.  These were meant to be worn sans corset.   You can see the two long stitch lines that hold the “watteau” back in place.

I sort of threw the whole thing together quickly so was a bad girl and didn’t even finish the inside seams  Perhaps I’ll go back and remedy that later.  Since these old patterns had no seam allowance, I added 1″ in case I needed to let out anything.  I have had this cotton in my stash for ages- like probably 10 years- so instead of making a mock up I just went for it.  And I think this is a rare case of it actually working out!

Still have a bit to go, including sleeves and to figure out the fasteners, and deciding if I’m adding trimmy bits, but it’s been a really fun little project!