Hi, I have a piece of fabric that is screaming to be a late 18th C. caracao or similar late 18th c. 'jacket'. I don't have enough for a sack gown or anything else that massive. A pet-en-lair might also work, though I have enough of the fabric that such a small garment would seem wasteful.
I'm looking at making do with Butterick 3640, view A. I do realize that this is one of the Big 4 companies' silly attempts at historical accuracy, and therefore, not period correct. Some of it I can live with, and some I can fix. I'm trying to decide what really needs fixing. I looked at Hunisett first, but did not see anything quite like what I'm picturing. There is a sketch on page 24 of Arnold - Patterns of Fashion 1, that actually is quite a bit like my mental image, and quite drastically different than the Butterick pattern; obviously much more realistically period. It is followed by several more pages of likely candidates for this piece of fabric, especially p. 26 and p. 30. So, the Butterick has the advantage of having the pattern already graded. I can draft out one of the Arnolds and grade it accurately, and I'll still have an awful lot of fitting/altering to do...no way around that and ditto for the Butterick. If the Butterick were worn over period skirt supports, how far would it still be from anything that actually existed in period? Would the changes to make it more period be reasonable or not worth the effort? I've been browsing through paintings of the period, but have not found anything that resembles the Butterick. Also, as pictured on the pattern envelope, is the high contrast of the yellow ground of the upper dress/caracao to the blue petticoat correct for period? My fabric has a deep red ground and I'm trying to decide if the skirt/petticoat should be something in the same shade of red, maybe solid, or if I should go for a contrast. Ok, I'm going to go do some more of my homework for this project, but any of your thoughts would be most welcome. Laurie T. _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
