Regency jacket workshop - brain dump

[anotheranon]

Just got back from tonight's workshop. Far more impressive and fun than I'd expected!

I thought it would mostly be lecture + slides or extant examples; what I didn't anticipate was extant examples I could get my hot little (cotton gloved) hands on (squee!)!

It's wonderful to get up close and be able to turn things over and around and look at the insides and see how it was done. Everything was sewn by hand (obviously) and the time taken to assemble and trim these pieces is awe-inspiring when I consider how long it takes me to do a single piece with a machine.

The real find: a plum velvet spencer with military/hussar-type cord/button trim, so I could see how it was applied!! I think from looking at the garment inside and out, that the spencer was assembled and lined, and THEN trimmed - running stitches from the inside tacked the cording down.

The fronts overlapped (unusual - most meet exactly in the middle), and the buttons were for decoration, as the front hooked closed.

This is tremendously useful as I've been wondering for months just HOW all that trim on the hussar jacket is applied - though this isn't the same time period or garment, now I have some idea.

Mind is ticking now, on both the hussar project AND the potentiality of many different plush, tasseled spencers to go over delicate white Regency gowns...

Comments

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Sounds as if you DID have fun! :-) It is wonderful to get to see up close just HOW things are put together (you sound the way I felt during my college work placement in a rare/old books repair dept. ***grin***).

Have been pricing scanners with an eye to purchasing one in the next month or so ... high on the project list is scanning the historic clothing articles in my back issues of Australian Stitches and filling up your inbox with 'em (they describe and have piccies of internal construction and techniques).

[tommdroid.livejournal.com]

oh boy! there she goes on a regency jacket workshop rampage! obsession is such a beautiful thing :)) your energy is leaping right out of the screen and bouncing around my room :)))