Designing a Victorian Inspired Waistcoat

The design

I have designed one that I would love to make in black leather as shown in my illustration. But before I do that, I’m going to make it in wool gaberdine! A sturdy cloth for a waistcoat and perfect for tailoring!

My design is double breasted and features panels and darts to sculpt the waistcoat around the body. The hem line is curved dropping at the centre back and front and rising at the hips. The neckline features a shawl collar that mimicks a tailored collar. I have designed this waistcoat to be worn with my 1920’s pyjama beachwear inspired pants.

the draping

Hand draping on the mannequin allows me to work in an organic way and requires patience and a gentle hand. By following the natural fall and fold of the fabric you can manipulate textiles into shape and create some lovely designs.

I chose to sculpt a design with a shawl collar and a long double breasted front panel with princess style seams starting at the bust point. The design is inspired by an example of Victorian riding fashion shown in the image below.

The sides are shaped close to the torso to accetuate the front panel. Creating this effect was by no means an easy task. It involved a lot of pinning, cutting, tucking and sticky tape until I was happy with the final result! I’m sure there’s an easier way to do this but that defeats the challenge of working in three dimension!

the toile

It can take a few toiles to settle on a final design and will take a few fittings on the client to complete. I’m really happy with how this pattern has turned out. A minor pattern alteration is all that is needed to finish this pattern and begin production. The next decision is what fabric to use for my first finished sample.