It’s clear that I’m gonna have to suck it up and buy more fabric. Oh horrors (hah ;-). Robe a l’anglaise or polonaise are the popular ideas, and my crazy notion of using black brocade from The Stash with white eyelet failed to make the cut. I kinda knew I’d have to buy new fabric, friends just confirmed it.
However, I’m reallyreallyreally drawn to the caraco, so that’s probably the style I’ll go with. This historic garment (found on Demode) was the clincher. That’s so what I want to wear! The trick will be finding a black cotton print and a coordinating white cotton print. Not essential to replicate that gown, but I love how the two prints look so light and frothy, even if the jacket is a dark color. And in cottons, it all should be quite comfortable and appropriate for June in Sonoma. If I’m lucky, I’ll find some cheap quiltery stuff at Joann (as that’s all the store is really good for these days, that and pattern sales). I don’t recall Fabrics R Us being big on cottons, but that and the nearby SJ Flea Market could be worth a trip in January.
I’m thinking of using Butterick 3640 instead of ordering a bunch of expensive patterns (I already have this one). You proper historical costumers will probably laugh at me, but I think this one’s not bad. The lines look pretty accurate, no stupid darts or anything glaringly modern. I’ll wear it over a corset — the pattern actually calls for boning along all the seams, not sure if I’ll do both. Not sure if I want to make it into a one-piece stomacher that fastens up one side or leave as-is with a center-front closure. I looked at a zillion historic images last night and both styles of closure seem common.