1898 Scalloped Jacket - Finished!

Well, I suppose the weather decided to be "co-operative" for a wintery photo shoot once I finished my 1898 scalloped jacket, the final, major, piece of my late 1890's winter ensemble.

Everything was coated in ice from freezing rain the night before, and snow was gently falling, just dusting the ground like powdered sugar.

The wind, however, was less than gentle, blowing every which way and trying to turn myself and my sibling photographers into icicles.

It quickly became obvious that I must add gloves, all the gloves, to my historical wardrobe. My hands were freezing!! And, besides that, people wore gloves pretty much whenever they left the house back then (yes, I'm generalizing), so it's rather historically inaccurate of me to go without gloves when wearing this ensemble!

My hands (and face!) may have been cold, but my wool jacket and skirt kept the rest of me nice and toasty - just as I'd intended when I decided to make this ensemble a year ago!

The wind made getting decent pictures rather challenging, but there were some fun surprises because of it when I went through the pictures later!

I'm very impressed with the way the wind blew the front of my jacket open here so you can see a hint of the crazy paisley lining on both sides!

I'm less impressed with the way the wind kept blowing the lapels out of place, but hey, here you get to see how the front is shaped when the lapels aren't turned back.

Lapels blowing out of place again. . .

Despite the cold and wind troubles when it came to photographing this thing, I love it!

I'm thrilled with how the whole jacket turned out.

The partial collar, extending just past the shoulder seam but no farther, blends nicely with the front edge scallops.

 And it stands up perfectly!

Please excuse the stray thread, this jacket came straight out of the sewing and into the snowy outdoors!

The back pleats fan out nicely, but I do think I ought to make a small bum pad to wear under my skirt next time to really show them to their full advantage!

The back in general fits nicely, even through the shoulders! I'm very happy with the effect the curved seams give!

And the sleeves, oh the sleeves, they are probably the part of this jacket I am most pleased with! (And the part I had the most trouble with when it came to patterning.)

They have just the right amount of "poof" for the very end of the 1890's.

The sleeve flounces turned out great as well, even though I wasn't able to pipe them the way I wanted due to a fabric shortage! They make the sleeves the perfect length.

When I began planning this jacket and thinking through each element of it I was rather overwhelmed by all that it would require - the materials, the pattern, techniques I'd never used before. In some ways this was a more intimidating project than the ball gown I made back in November! I'm confident in my dressmaking skills, but a tailored jacket - that's something else!

So yes, I'm thrilled with how my 1898 Scalloped wool jacket turned out! The color is perfect, the scallops are beautiful, the fit is great, and it matches my inspiration fashion plate even better than I'd hoped!

This is the first time I've ever re-created a garment from a fashion plate, so it's pretty exciting that my first try went so well!

It was finished about a week late, but, other than being a project I've planned for over a year, this is also my entry for the first Historical Sew Monthly challenge of 2019 - Dressed to the Nines! I'd say silk edged scallops fulfil that prompt pretty well!

What the item is: 1898 Scalloped Wool Jacket

Challenge: Dressed to the Nines. I feel like the scallops make this jacket fancy enough to count for this challenge. Also, there are 9 scallops down either side of the front opening. And, this jacket is based off an 1898 fashion plate, so it would have been perfect acceptable to wear in 1899 as well. 

Material: a mid-weight wool for the main fabric, cotton for facings, silk (harvested from a tie) for the piping, and some sort of synthetic fabric for lining (found in a box of fabric someone gifted me. It was labeled as silk, but a burn test proved otherwise. I still used it because I didn't feel like tracking down another lining material. I may change it out later)

Pattern: Butterick B6400, heavily altered.

Year: 1898

Notions: Thread, cotton crinoline for interfacing (in place of hair canvas which I could not find locally), cotton yarn for piping

How historically accurate is it?The shape and overall look are good. Construction is plausible. Materials are good with the exception of the synthetic lining and thread. I'll say 70%

Hours to complete: I don't even know. A lot. I binge watched multiple seasons of Gilmore Girls while sewing this.

First worn: 2/7/19 to try it on as soon as I finished hand sewing in the lining and get pictures! No real outing yet.

Total cost:about $20 for the wool and $4 for the cotton crinoline. The rest of the materials were in my stash. The tie I used for piping and the lining material were both gifted to me. So, adding in the materials from my stash that I did buy once upon a time, approximately $30

Incase you missed any of them:

Here's the blog post on finding the right materials and pattern for the jacket

Here's the blog post on making the jacket.

Here's the blog post on the plaid wool skirt.

Here's the blog post on the shirtwaist.

And Here's the blog post on the black velvet belt.