A Most Beguiling Accomplishment

Stukeley costume in the play Beverley, created by P. N. Sarrazin in 1777 for the theater in Nantes. (1779) Frock coat with fixed bavaroises , trimmed with zig-zag buttonholes, bordered with a cordon of fur or of braid.  Saxon collar, sleeves with a large parement of a color that contrasts with the Frock coat; the middle of the parement is cut by a band of fur or braid. Vest with little basques; the edges and the pockets indicated with braid.  Kerchief knotted en cr avate .  Large English Hat, the e dges held up with piano gances , coming to the outside. Ribbed s ilk stocking s; d'Artois shoes.  The two watches , indicated by a gold cord and a steel chain, with plates or bezels of puce.  

For once I have an actual sewing update!  More pictures and explanation on the official page, here , but I'm proud of it, so here is me in it: Also, I look decent in the picture, which is more than enough reason to post it. On L'art de la Lingere : I've decided that I'm going to be publishing it on Amazon rather than posting it here in installments.  Sorry!  But I will of course have a few promotional days so you can get it for free.  Right now I've finished the initial translation, and I'm revising it to make sentences make sense and to fix areas where I didn't quite understand words/phrases until they were made clear later on.  I'm hoping that one of my brilliant, wonderful French friends would volunteer to help me out with the areas (I promise, there are not that many) where I'm really stumped?  I will of course credit you.

I'm pretty impressed with myself for how quickly this one came together, by my standards. I took this pattern from a chemise at the Chapman Historical Museum.  The original was made of a very fine linen, so worn it was kind of shiny; mine is a cheap muslin.  I did sew it by hand, however, using a fairly logical sequence of steps: I first set the underarm gussets into the sleeves, sewing the seams with running stitches (as in the original) and felling them with underhand-hem-stitch, because I really like that one.  It's very neat. Then I mounted the sleeves on the body, doing the seams in the same way.  I lined up the body with the gussets - which was actually wrong.  When I look back at my crappy pictures of the original, I see that I should have set the gussets further down the side of the body to make the armscye larger.  It's not unwearable, it's just tight.  If you zoom in on the picture below, you can see that there's about a half inch of...

Costume adopted for the Court balls and the parties given by Their Royal Highnesses the Princes, the Brothers of the King, for the Archduke of Austria.  This suit is in imitation of those from the time of Henri IV.  The slashed doublet is trimmed with réseaux around the slashes.  Pantaloon s knotted under the knee with aglets.  Coming below the high-breeches, a cape and a ruff. (1779) Swiss doublet, slashed on the chest, buttoned and ending with loops instead of basques.  Sleeves in three sections: the first as a wing, cut in bands; the second as a slashed mancheron ; the third en amadis , ending under a lace parement . Swiss Guard breeches, cut in bands, trimmed with réseaux or gold lace and separated from the pantaloons by loops like the doublet. Three-quarter circle cape, edged with réseaux , draped over the right shoulder and held with two tassels that serve to hold the scarf at the same time. This Suit was adopted by the Théatre Français whe...

 Costume of Count Almaviva, in the 5th act of the Barber of Seville. (1779) Ball and Theatrical dress, imitating the Spanish costume.  Three-quarter circle cape, furred with ermine, the inner border and parement of plain gold tissue, embroidered in a mosaic of silver sequins; in the center of each lozenge, gems or groups of spangles in varied colors. Basqued doublet with slashed sleeves, allowed to come out from the matching revers from under the cape.  The belt, the edges, the slashes, and the bands are trimmed with gold point d'Espagne .*  The trims are curving brandenburgs, trimmed at the ends with tassels.  The whole is cut by a white scarf. Sleeve parement of gold tissue, embroidered the same way as the cape revers, and eclipsed by a lace manchette which is pulled up and cut in tabs. The trews or high-breeches are cut in bands matching the cape, trimmed with gold point d'Espagne , and the slashes or second bands are furred with ermine. Whi...

Ball Dress with sleeves à la Gabriele and a petticoat pulled up in basques; second petticoat with a trimmed volant placed en guirlande , of a different color than the first petticoat and matching the inside of the sleeves and the ribbons. (1779) Ball Dress, destined to make the pendant * of the preceding print.   The bodice is very low-cut, trimmed with embroidery or lace indicating the cuts and ribs.  The mancherons are slashed and end wi th sabot cuffs of lace or Court sleeves, coming just to the elbow. The skirt of t he Gow n is en fourreau , bordered with a trim matching that of the bodice, and pulled up in drapery with écuyers , bows, and tassels. The Petticoat of a color different than the bodice is trimmed with Italian gauze, painted and making a garland.  The bodice, open in the front, allow s an undercoat or doublet that matches the petticoat to be seen, and which can be seen through the slashes of the mancherons . * An art object intended to ...

Costume of the son of the Marquise de Lenoncourt in the Drama titled, "The Battle of Ivry", made for the theater of Lyon by Sr. P. N. Sarrazin, Costumer to Their Royal Highnesses the Princes, the Brothers of the King. (1779) Men, despite their efforts, have a difficult time procuring for their Dress the elegance that characterizes those of Women, unless they adopt the long Suit; but that garment is so uncomfortable that one must presume that Frenchmen will not become used to it for a long time.  Meanwhile, court Dress dominates, and that which was fashionable around the end of the sixteenth century seems to have obtained the preference over those which subsist at present; it is for that reason that, in these latter times, one has sought to recall that ancient costume, at least for balls and pleasures. The one that is presented in the Print is a doublet with breeches pulled up in bands, and over the doublet, a bombé or type of Overcoat, cut only at the sleeves, and...