Waistcoat Buttons

I started with the 7/8 inch covered button kit, that you can obtain from most fabric stores and Walmart as well. It worked, but the little embroidered flower was not centered on the button.

After putting it asside for a couple of days, I decided to use smaller buttons, the 3/4 inch buttons. They worked and though not perfect, they were much better. I was just able to get the circled embroidered flower centered on the smaller button.

1780s Waistcoat

Finally, I finished prick stitching the entire waistcoat. Now what remains is for me to sew up the arm holes. Above you see the before and after pictures of the completed garment Iused light cotton for the back of the waistcoat. I only had approximately 1 yard of the light weight upholstery fabric.

Buttons and buttholes remain, plus, I will need to add the ties to the back of waistcoat.

Fabric Stash

My fabric stash keeps growing. I mentioned before that I label all of my fabric when I purchase it. Included are the date, number of yards, width and type of fabric.


Sharing my stash of fabric, this is not going to be pretty. It's funny, but at the time that I purchased each of the pieces, I actually had an idea of what the fabric would be made into. I also know pretty much what I have. The other night, I was looking for a particular piece of fabric and had to go through a large portion of the stash before I found it.


Ideally, I would love to have a proper sewing room, currently, I am using the guest bedroom. When there are guests, I have to put everything up and out of the way, so the room can be used.

There is another smaller room that could be used on the floor above, but it only has one window and really is a bit small. I had thought of using it, it is mostly just a storage room now.

1787 Wasistcoat

The pictures show you the lining, prick stitched inside and outside of the fashion fabric.
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I realized that I forgot to share the pictures of the insides of the waistcoat. I used a mid-weight linen fabric. I tend to use linen when possible for most of my linings. In addition, I prick stitched the edges of the waistcoat, this technique produces a running stitch on the inside and just a little thread dot on the exterior. All of the lining edges will be prick stitched. This will stop the lining from rolling toward the outside. It is a bit time consuming, but it is worth it.

I have to work the buttholes and the buttons down the front of the waist. The challenge will be to get one of the little embroidered circled flowers centered on each of the self fabric buttons. The button kits came from Walmart.

Plus, I have to complete the armscyes. I have not done those yet, since I am using them to enter the garment between lining and exterior to start the prick stitch. In this way, there is no visiable starting point on the outside or inside of the waistcoat for this stitch. The thread is hidden between the layers.

1787 Waistcoat

It is basically done. I still have to add the buttonholes, buttons and prick stitch the edges to keep the lining from rolling out. The challenge is to get those little round flowers centered over those little self fabric buttons that you can pick up from a fabric store or WalMart's.

I think that I have just enough fabric to cover ten to twelve buttons. Oh, I forgot to show you, there is a large vent in the back which I will close with two sets of ties, one set of ties will be 18 inches long and the second set will be 15 inches long. The pattern doesn't mention the ties at all, but it does say plain back and tie back waistcoats were both used during this time.

In top two pictures, you can clearly see the smile pocket. To me they look pretty good. Next time around, I won't make the smile opening quite so large. It was smaller, but I opted to make it a bit bigger since I hadn't made one before.

1780s Waistcoat Pockets

I initially thought that inserting the pockets would prove to be difficult for me, since I have never placed an 18th century smile pocket before. Actually, it has only been in the last year that I have been able to set a pocket, mostly welt, but set never the less.

I took my time and followed the instructions to the letter. I found that it was extremely helpful to hand stitch around the smile through the wrong side of the lining with small stitches. This was done prior to slasing pocket opening. One other thing, at each end of the smile opening, you needed to take a couple of stitches before starting the lower curve of the smile. I believe that this helps when you have to turn the pocket lining to the inside.

I completed one pocket one evening during the week and the second pocket the next night. I am quite pleased with the way they turned out.

I did reduce the size of the pockets, the pattern actually had and 11 inch pocket flap and 9 1/2 pocket smile. I thought that this was way to big after I cut the pattern piece out. Plus, I had altered the original waistcoat to make it a better shorter. This shorter version didn't look right to me with an extra large three point point flap. Points were removed and the size scaled down to 9 inches for the pocket flap and six inches for the under pocket smile.

Before cutting the slash . After cutting the slash and pulling the lining through to the wrong side of the fabric.

1780s Waistcoat

I pinned the linen lining to the outer fabric last night. I wanted to start the final assembly of the waistcoat, but I was too tired. I knew that If I did any sewing, there would be mistakes. So, I have learned that when I am tired, for me its best to stop.

This morning, I got up early 6am, walked the dog, had coffee and immediately started to stitch the lining and the outer fabric together.

I don't think that I shared with you what the fashion fabric looks like for the waistcoat. I selected a mid weight upholstery fabric. It was bluish grey with little embroidery pattern of a single dusty rose flower surrounded by a blue circle. It was on the remnant table at the fabric store last year and even than I thought that it reminded me of an 18th century fabric pattern. I did not have any idea what I would do with it. There was only a yard and 1/2. Wait, I believe that I had intentions of using it as the outer fabric for an 18th century corset. But that never materialized.

Anyway here is the fabric.

I really think it is perfect for an 18th century waistcoat. Plus, since I don't know how to embroider, this fabric was a great compromise.