I began by Blocking out my trouser pattern using the measurements that I took from Lily. I then altered the block to make them breeches and traced it onto pattern paper so that I could make my pattern. Once I had done this I did my historical alterations.
Once I was happy with my pattern I made a lay plan on my calico making sure I was being ethical with my fabric and making sure that the grain was correct for all my pattern pieces. Once I had done this Lay plan I cut out my fabric and sewed my toil together.
I then did my toile fitting on Lily and decided if there were alterations that I felt needed making. I decided to make the legs wider as they were quite tight looking on Lily and I felt that was very different to how I wanted the breeches to look in my design. I also wanted to add some more space in the bum as they are riding trousers and the bum also seemed quite tight during the fitting. After doing my fitting I then made these adjustments on my new patterns so that they would include the extra room to fir on Lily how I wanted them to.
I then dyed my drill fabric using Dylon dye to make it green, I originally anticipated a darker green but decided to make in lighter so that it looks like it has been lightened by the sun over the years and is a bit washed out.
Once I had cut out all my altered pattern prices and was happy with how they looked I then went onto cutting out my real fabric. This is my lay plan, as I did with the toil I checked to make sure the grain was right and that I was being as ethical with the fabric as possible. I did this with my lining pieces as well
Once my fabric was cut out I over-locked the lining and drill to make sure that it was neat and none of my edges would frey making sure to over-lock to leave the same seam allowance throughout my garment.
For my extra detailing on the front of the garment I sewed together some samples of how I was going to add these to my fall-front. I collected an old velvet jacket that I had and cut the fabric from it. I gathered the material rouche the fabric up and wanted to place this behind the front of the garment. I then measured out where I wanted this to be on breeches and I cut slits in them. I then fused the fabric to make it stronger and double hemmed the edged back creating a very narrow elliptic shape using a slip stitch. Once I had done this I added my eyelets for where the ribbon would go through. I then placed the gathered material behind it and hand stitched it onto the back.
I then sewed on my facing and hand sewed it flat so that it looked seamless and it would be ready to add the eyelets
I made my welt pocket after doing the sample. I put it in the front of the waistband to add some extra detail and finished off my waistband.
Once I had finished constructing my breeches I did a fitting to make sure it fit lily before putting in the eyelets and the buttons so that I had a clear idea of where I was going to put them and how many I needed. The fitting was successful however I needed to take some out of the bum of the trousers to fit properly. I then made my adjustments so I could put on the buttons and the eyelets.
With the other garments that I had sourced I made some alterations and added some details to them. For the jacket I put on Some extra red fabric that I bagged out to create a long scarf like item, some of my green drill that I sewed as a patch on the top and some strips of other fabric and zips that I added to the bottom of the jacket. I then added some ribbons to the shoes and cropped the shirt so it came to lily’s hips.
Once I was sure that everything fitted I added my eyelets to the breeches and began my breaking down session where I used a variety of different methods to break all my items down. To begin with we used different tools such as wired brushes, cheese grater and sand paper to tear the fabrics down making them look old and broken. Once I had done this I used a variety of different oils and greases to such as green of earth, Vaseline and shoe polish to make the garments look greasy and dirty. Once I had done this I added bits of paint and sawdust to add some texture and dirt into the fabric.
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