17th c. Jacket – Progress on the Final

With my client’s 17th c. jacket toile back, unpicked, and the pattern altered, I cut into the lovely burgundy wool, and began putting the final piece together, starting with the gussets.

My what lovely gussets.  I machine stitched the lining and outer gussets fabrics together, then turned under and pressed the edges of the bodice pieces, where the gussets would be placed.  The gussets are hand sewn in (top-stitched), using backstitch, on the outside, and I will turn, press, and hand sew the lining into place on the inside using a whip-stitch.

Next step, I’m going to make the sleeves in their entirety (outer+lining), and sew them to the bodice, before doing the bodice lining, which will be flat-lined.  Then on to the front placket, alllll those buttonholes and self-covered buttons (15 of them), and the last little bit of goodness is to turn up the hem with a bit of bias cut out of the red wool.  Sounds easy, huh?