18th Century Riding Habit: Getting Started

Despite our busy July schedule, I just began a new project - not one, but two 18th century riding habits. 

I need to have them done in time for The Feast of the Hunters' Moon on October 9, and that means I need to get started on them yesterday.

I mean it when I say yesterday - all that gold braid on this riding habit is hand stitched. (This is my sister Leslie and her husband Rick.) And while the two I am working on won't be duplicates of Leslie's, they will require a lot of hand stitched embellishments.

Mass marketed patterns like Butterick, Simplicity, and Vogue are checked and tested many times before being released to market. You can almost always count on their directions to be correct and their pieces to fit together well. 

But their patterns for historical clothing are actually costumes - details have been dropped and shortcuts taken that you would not find in historically accurate clothing. 

The patterns that are historically accurate target a very small market and are not tested as thoroughly. There can be errors in them, and it is those errors that make me leery.

The fabric is in for the first habit and I plan to get started today or tomorrow.

I've stitched 18th century clothing in the past, done alterations to wedding gowns, and made prom and bridesmaids' dresses, but an 18th century riding habit may just be the most challenging thing I have ever sewn.