18th century Coral Caraco Jacket

Went in another direction of my sewing projects. I was working on the 18th c. jacket earlier this month, but somehow got bored with and put it aside for my sewing exhibition this weekend at the Benjamin Banneker museum. Instead, I worked on something else to which I'm really proud of the results. I started on this project on Tuesday night when my friend Kaycee invited me over to her house for a sewing party. Lucky for me, I had a spare fabric pattern cut from an old Robe L'anglaise project I was working on before I moved, and had forgotten about it. So seeing it again was a great convenience. As far as making the Caraco jacket for the first time, at first, I wasn't 100% sure if I'd like the Caraco style, but after some planning and reference pictures, I went for it.

Now was the best time to start sewing since she was taking her  cat nap


Believe it or not, the fabric came from a flat bed sheet I got from Wal-Mart (if you think about it, it's still fabric). The sleeves were incredibly easy to create and sew into the bodice. Normally I'd have an issue or two, but I guess because these sleeves come from another pattern, it gelled very well. After adding the sleeves, I decided to be daring and try to make box pleats to trim around the sleeves. While I'm very happy with how they turned out, I did have to start over on my left sleeve as the trim was too bulky and not looking uniform enough.



Once I got the sleeves situated, I added the mini skirt to the rest of the bodice and pinned it very carefully so it won't cause any hiccups when I put it through the machine.


After that, I created some more box pleats so I could trim the rest of the gown around the neck and the stomach area. This is what it looks like before I added all of the trim around the neck line and the stomach. It looks nice as is, but at the same time it still feels rather naked. By Thursday, I finally finished the trim and added small black bows to the gown and by the end of the day, it was ready to be worn for this upcoming weekend.



Voila!

In retrospect the only thing I would like to change about this dress are the shoulders. I'm not exactly sure why, but Mill Farm Patterns make their shoulders very wide to the point where it falls off the shoulders of the dummy or my own shoulders; I end up having to take it in or making the trim tight around the neck. I think next gown I make will be with J.P.Ryan since I really like how they cut their patterns out. 

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