I am starting a new thread for this costume. It has been done on this forum plenty of times before but all of those discussions seem to be dead so I am starting a new post as I start to get serious about making this costume.
I have almost completed the first item which I am calling the "gilet" - the brown waistcoat that goes over the shirt.
I have made this out of linen with a light cotton lining and back. As there are so many layers to this costume I want to keep each piece as tight as possible without being restrictive so I have used a split centre seam at the back (which is period correct). I am figuring that I can lace this with elastic which will keep it pulled in firmly but will allow it to expand slightly when I am bending. I need to find buttons and do the button holes (I hate doing button holes), but essentially it is complete. Pretty happy with how this looks so far.
The next part of this costume is going to be the piece which immediately goes over the "gilet". I am calling this the "waistcoat".
This part of the costume has always annoyed me. What is it? It seems totally impractical from an historical context. It looks like it is being worn in a way that, if it were a real item of clothing, was not intended for it. When you try to reconstruct it for sewing it is a fairly bizarre looking pattern. Anyway, I have just drafted a pattern which will, hopefully, make it work in a way which will be comfortable and won't add too much bulk to the costume. I am going to make it out of cotton duck, which is like a light canvas. I am going to line it with calico and make my own lace out No. size piping cord and a similar coloured cotton. I haven't given too much consideration to the buttoned lining but it looks to me like it might be some type of flannel wool, but who knows? I think I am going to use some sort of cream brushed cotton. It looks like it is white in colour but I think white is going to be far too bright so I am going to go for a cream colour.
If anyone has any idea what this is supposed to be or a better way of making it I would appreciate you leaving a comment.
The pattern and the mock-up for the above waistcoat.
The pattern seems good but now that I have layered it over the gilet I can see that it has some issues around the collar when compared to reference picture at the top of the page.
I think my break point for the gilet was far too low and lifting it so that I can accomodate the break point of the waistcoat opens up the "V" between the lapel peak and the collar peak even more than it already was. I am only now realising just how high the break point is on the gilet. Generally you would have the lapel break around the sternum but Arno's gilet breaks more like a shirt with the top two buttons left open. So, unfortunately, I am going to have to pull the gilet apart and remake the the fronts and the facings at the very least. I have included a couple of screen grabs below so that you can see how different the peaked collars are. This is my first time trying to draft a peaked lapel and collar and clearly I haven't got it right. Good thing I hadn't done the button holes or the top stitching yet.
As for the fabric, yep, I am using kids block out curtain material. I picked up a 50mm bolt of this for $20 from a local charity shop. There used to be a time when I would use calico but that was still $3-$5 per metre. I pick up bolts of cheap fabric whenever I find them to use for mocking up patterns.
Before I fix my pattern for the gilet, I just wanted to point out where I had ****** this up so badly with a couple of comparative pictures. The first is my pattern and it shows the bust line and the break point for the lapel. The other does the same thing with the reference picture.
In my pattern my break point is below the bust line whereas in the reference picture the break point is clearly above the bust line. You need to get this right or else the rest of the parts of the costume including belts, the waistcoat, the scarf and the hood just aren't going to look or fit right.
I have made the adjustments to my pattern for the gilet (see above) in order to move the break point a little higher and I must say that it looks bizarre. I am posting some pics of the pattern in case anyone is following along with this build and will make a mock-up in the next few days to see if it works.
