Regency trousers

I will begin my blog about my Victorian tailoring efforts with...Regency trousers.


Even though these are from an earlier period than I want to focus on, I made these first for several reasons. The first was to work on my hand-sewing: except for the side seams, these are entirely sewn by hand. There are a lot of prick-stitched linings and buttonholes!

The second reason is because I wanted them for a steampunk outfit I'm working on, where the character will be wearing older clothes. I do like steampunk, even though almost all of my clothing is based on reality. I do want to make a Scarlet Pimpernel outfit as well, but that will have black breeches. A future project.

For these trousers I chose a fabric that's as close as I can tell to what nankeen was like: a hard-wearing cotton in a buff tone. I left the buttons brass for the steampunk feel, but I don't think it's entirely out of period. They could be self-covered, but I think this works as well. I made the suspenders from muslin, and I made them to fit, without adjustment buckles.