19th century waistcoats

I feel as though I am bouncing around through the centuries this week.

I had been working on the Edwardian tailcoat and then I spent half the week somewhere Medieval and the rest of the week deep in the 19th century.

I had a couple of fittings for the 1837 period show which were just toiles but they went very well and gave me an idea of the designers eye and the way he likes to work towards realization of his sketches.

We were able to corset one of the men we brought in for the fitting, and I had given the corset pattern making and building task to Lela who is training with me right now.

I should get her to write a guest post on her process....

Fitting the actor in a toile then made even more sense as we were able to reduce his waist size by 2" and that of course mean more shaping in the garments.

I still need to make patterns for at least five other men, but we were able to get started in the real fabric for one of the waistcoats. It is just in the beginning stages, but really, look at the beautiful matching of the welt pockets that Susy has done. I peeked at them while she was on coffee break this afternoon, and couldn't resist a photo.

This waistcoat will get a sewn on shawl collar with a contrast facing and hopefully next week I'll get an idea whether the waistcoat back will be linen or silesia or something else, because I will need it by Tuesday for Susy to continue the process.

We have one other gentleman who we hope will agree to be corseted and I made a pattern and cut a toile for him today too. I thought youwould enjoy seeing the pieces here. The design calls for a DB waistcoat with a CF seam, and a wide open neckline with a full lapel and collar. I'll get that together and see what it looks like on the stand on Monday. I was deep into making his coat pattern when I realized it was already the end of the day. I hope I'll remember where I left off on Monday morning.