New Commission: Breeches

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I don't think I've posted about this before.  A local re-enactor and photographer who's also a family friend has asked me to make him a pair of woolen breeches for his impression of a slave at the Schuyler Mansion in Albany.  He gave me three hand-woven (they have real selvages) black-and-white striped wool blankets to use, and said he'd like it all machine-sewn.  I was kind of afraid to start because who would want to screw up cutting into hand-woven wool blankets?  But I have.  Started, I mean.

I decided to use the breeches pattern from Everyday Dress of Rural America, as the shape of the pieces seemed the most similar to the Jas. Townsend breeches Cliff lent me to take measurements from, and looked simpler than the patterns in Costume Close-up.  I worked out the measurements of the scaled-up version of the pattern a few days ago - fortunately, the pattern is very, very close to the measurements of the Townsend breeches - and last night I finally made pattern pieces out of newspaper.  This morning, I cut out the pieces from the wool (er, except for the inner flap extension pieces and the flap facing - I'm thinking about only putting the flap extensions on the outside and making the facing a bit wider).

So far, it's all coming together much better than I thought it would!  I was afraid of attempting breeches because I've never done any kind of pants, but just taking it slow on the machine, with frequent breaks and Arrested Development on the tv, seems to be working.

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