*click photo to go directly to gallery*

Finished in plenty of time for the upcoming Dickens Christmas Fair season . which starts tomorrow & runs every weekend until Dec. 20th

This jacket is styled after the military zouave jackets that became a popular bolero jacket style in mid to late Victorian era for women. We are doing it in a very fashionable red, but instead of wool it is a fine silk.

All and all, a very clean & subtle jacket that looks lovely over the black silk velvet waistcoat. It has just enough tie in with the skirt to look like they go together.
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Here are a few shots of it completed. You can’t even see the piping! In person it all sorta meshes together into one lovely soft shell. Now to start the zouave jacket to go over it.

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Closes with custom self-fabric buttons with hand sewn buttonholes.

Waiting for buttonholes:

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The velvet waistcoat is close to done. I’m contemplating adding a touch of bias piping…

Here are some inprogress shots –

Wool half moons:

These were lightly basted together to create the bust pads that fill out the area between the shoulder and the bust.

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The seam allowances were clipped and then the boning channels applied by machine:

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Drawing on the pattern:

This was repeated for a white linen lining and the two were flat-lined together. The mock-up was then fit and will become the final lining for the waistcoat.
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Here is just mocking up the fabrics for the waistcoat and zuave jacket:

The edges of the zouave jacket will actually be cording covered in bias cut plaid matching the skirt but I just threw on a scrap of straight grain here.
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I’ve jumped right back into sewing but will come back to updating about the trip to Florence soon.

Pleating of the linen/cotton blend lining:

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Here is a quick shot of the three-tiers with the small green shot-with-black taffeta edging pinned into place. Once I attach the skirt to the waistband I can set the bottom length and adjust the middle tier to the correct length between the two: