Last night I watched Brotherhood of the Wolf, and now I find myself wishing that I had a masquerade to go to, so that I had an excuse to make a couple of really exciting 18th century costumes.
Simplicity 3637 would be an ideal starting point – although it might be rather an expensive one. The dress takes almost nineteen metres of fabric! In a pretty brocade or embroidered silk… actually, I don’t even want to work out how much that would cost.
And then of course there’s Simplicity 3635, to go underneath. Ten metres of steel boning for the panniers… and twenty-eight metres for the stays! Wow.
I don’t know though, whether I’d want to wear such an enormous dress, or whether I’d choose to go for a fancy gentleman’s coat instead.
Simplicity 4923 looks rather drab in these pictures because it’s intended as a pirate costume, but again in an embroidered silk it could look absolutely stunning.
I think I’d probably make the shirt, trousers and waistcoat from the men’s pattern, but use Simplicity 3677 for the coat.
I’ve made both the men’s and the women’s versions of the coat before, and the women’s version has a princess seam at the front which makes for a better fit.
Obviously none of these patterns are terribly accurate, historically speaking, but for a masquerade or a costume party, they’d be an excellent starting point.
Then I’d just need to find somebody who was willing to go with me, of course. Paul really doesn’t do dressing up.