The difficulties I am facing so far with old patterns is that:
a) The size of the women, on average is much smaller than women today (about a 21 inch waist.) to my 34 bust, 29 waist, and 37 hips,a size 10 frame.
b) The backs are constructed from a much smaller width than ours, in the 1700s/1800s.
The sleeves are in two pieces and are rounded on the inside of the arm. The tops have one piece cut slightly smaller at the top.
c) The shoulder seam meet with the back at an angle and not where we see it now.
d) The side seam, because of the narrow back is not at the side of the body but meets part way into the back section. The front then seems unnecessarily large in width and height. I made the mistake of using the body length (or what I thought was the body length) and and not allowing for the extra width and height ended up with the entire pattern too small by 4cm per piece. The entire width of the jacket being in 4 pieces was therefore 16cm to narrow
What does this all mean when sizing up a pattern. Well if you dont know what scale it in as in the Norah Waugh book, and even if you did it wouldn't fit you unless you are about the size of an 11 yrs old, you have to find a seam or place where you can use your own measurment to find out how many times you need to multiply it by. i.e if the measurement is 2cm on the pattern and you need that measurement to be 16cm then multiply each line in the pattern by 8 - simple. The only problem now is to find a reference point, i.e the length of the arm when slightly bent seems the best bet.
Now you can cut out and pin/tack the pieces together in the order indicated by the pattern. Although there is no back/front/written on the pieces there aHore letters on corners i.e a-a or a1-a so it should be possible to find out how it fits together and usually marking like CF for centre front. I would strongly suggest you do this in a cheap cotton like an old sheet or curtains and not risk your expensive fabrics yet. Try it on for fit at this point you will be able to see any errors you have made.
FASTENINGS
You at some point need to consider how it is fastened - i.e hooks and eyes, buttons (this is drawn on the pattern), tapes - position marked on the pattern of skirt.
Is it back or front fastening? It is not always obvious but there were fashions at the time which were most common so researcing this may help. I think now my 1805 dress was an apron front as mentioned in the Norah Waugh book "The Cut of Women's clothes and an extant example is available in the KCM book.
In an 1805 Georgian dress pattern I did there were markings for two tapes but it didnt say how they were used on the dress or how long they were. The notes with the pattern said it may have been pinned in some way. Pinning was used to close garments I think it may have been like a hat pin but how you didnt stab yourself I do not know!
With this dress I made my own hooks and eye tape as I thought the shop-bought looked out of place by using a bought one as a guide this came out very well.
Buttons need to look authentically old wood, cloth or metal, pearl or precious metals were used and not cheap plastic. Lacing and eyelets is discussed in the section CORSETS.
