Fancy Dress Skirt

The skirt is done. I chose to make the front and back of the skirt a yellow, fake taffeta. The side panels match the jacket to imitate real matador suits of lights.

A note for future projects: spring for the good fabric, not the fake stuff. It was such a chore to sew; my needle barely went through the fabric.

The waist sash is also done and is red. On to the cape, which will be the yellow taffeta with red lining from which the sash was made. No more pictures until after the conference.

Chaquetilla

The Chaquitilla is the matador's jacket. Keep in mind as you go through this and the related posts that the point of the fancy dress was to develop an impression of the intended subject not to necessarily replicate it. Also, I am using non-period fabrics as stated in previous posts.

I used a brocade fabric that would mimic the designs on an actual jacket. I did not want to stitch on all the necessary trim so only added trim to add dimension. I used the bodice pattern from my last project and kept the basic period traits such as the dropped shoulder and the shoulder seam toward the back. Since this is a period fancy dress party I made the assumption that these traits would have been incorporated into any costume made at the time.

The sleeves were another issue. I picked from my patterns one I thought was from regular coat sleeves and ended up with shorter sleeves. So, ok, just an impression, right? I think with undersleeves it should be fine. I decided on coat sleeves to keep the period traits.

I then added the shoulder shields. I am going to change the tassels, removing one and placing the other to dangle from the center of the shield to be more in line with an actual jacket.

On to the skirt next. I plan to make a period pleated skirt with solid panels in the front and back and panels of the brocade fabric on the sides to represent the matador's pants. The skirt will only reach to the bottom of my hoop.