Fashionable Without Fail

All this month on 30/30, I'll be diving into my sewing life. Yes, I sew. Men sew. And men who love historic fashion often learn to sew because it's the most practical way they can get into more outfits. For your humble servant, it means more outfits for more fancy historic balls. Fancy historic balls require fancier outfits than the ones I have made up to now. Thus the challenge before me:

This lump of satin jacquard on the left and lining on the right will be cut and stitched into a 1740's coat with matching knee breeches. The goal is to get it done in time for the next ball in Williamsburg coming up in March. I'm shooting for a fuller version of what I wore last year -- an outfit actually made more than five years ago.

You can see the beauty in this outfit.  What you can't see is how tight the breeches are in the front and how the weskit (vest) feels more like a girdle at certain times -- mostly after eating. Time is not good to the waistline of a gentleman who's been around for (2)43 years.

Why make another outfit when I have several others I could already wear to the ball? I think this clip from Tootsie explains it well:



This will be the toughest project I have taken on so far, mainly because I'm using better material -- and more expensive, too. The tab for the raw materials comes out to about $60 from SAS. My previous efforts have run in the $20 range, mostly because I didn't trust myself with more expensive fabric... yet.

After five sewing projects now, I'm finally ready to kick up a big notch. You're invited to watch this project come to fruition or disintegrate into frustration. Failure is not an option. Along the way, I'll be filling you in on how I went from pining over historic attire to making it.