Coral Caraco Jacket 2.0

Remember this Caraco jacket?


I made this last year for the Colonial Market fair at the Benjamin Banneker Museum. If memory serves me right I believe it was a hot and humid Summer weekend. I thought that wearing this beautiful coral fabric would help reflect the sun's heat. . . I got one thing right. Bright colors will reflect and make you less hot. However, making the jacket the way that I did was a horrible idea, which almost cost me my health and maybe my life if I didn't catch it early on.


Let me explain….

When I made the jacket, I did the sensible thing and bought 100% cotton fabric. However, that's not the crazy part. During that time, I was feeling my way through learning about different fabrics (especially when it comes to historical clothing). At that same time, I also did not get the memo of the "do's and don'ts of Fashion 101", such as lining a jacket with anything other than silk, muslin, or cotton, is a bad idea...Case in point, upholstery fabric! 

NEVER AGAIN!

Not only did I sweat twice as much as a normal human should during the summer (MD summer too), but I also fell victim to heat exhaustion. All I have to say is, thank God my husband is an Army Medic. I immediately recognized the tell tale signs, and left my exhibit table to get cooled off and rehydrated indoors.

Lesson Learned… 


So what became of this "death trap?" 

Of course for health reasons, I scrapped it! I removed the peplum and kept that, as well as the petticoat. The rest of the bodice has given up the ghost. 


Now being a year later, I am now VERY aware of what fabrics are appropriate. This time I used 100% cotton muslin to line the jacket, and used the petticoat to make the outer part of the jacket. I also used a few other fabric scraps I had in my stash to make a variety of stomachers. 

Caraco Jacket 2.0
Now complete with trim 
Decided to make a different stomacher just for this top



Comments

  1. AmandaApril 8, 2016 at 12:52 PM

    Eek, you poor thing! Glad you were alright after that incident! Such a pretty color, glad you were able to salvage and remake. :)

    ReplyDelete

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