Tuesday, February 7, 2012

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.






3 comments:

  1. Thanks Andrew, inspiring and informative for my immersion in Madame Bovary and nankeen trousers worn by the ghastly Rodolophe. Presumably the tough cloth, tightness, tailoring and colour all contributed to Mme Bovary's down fall.

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  2. Hi Andrew, this looks great. They look really well made. Do you have any advice for fitting the trousers properly?
    Thanks

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