There are not many
examples easily found of early 1700's breeches. Mainly because of the fact that all images show them worn with the waistcoats of the day, which are nearly as long as the breeches of the time and completely hide those garments! The sleeveless and sleeved waistcoats of that time were just above the knee and were always worn, as it would be inappropriate for a man to go without a waistcoat. {scandalous}
We do know that pre-Rev war, the men's breeches were a French Fly front closure. This is actually more like a modern pant construction than the Drop Front closure of later in the century.
The pockets were fun to do on this pattern! The instructions seemed bizarre, but I just kept following step by step, and it was like magic! Such fun!
The images below are of a pair of breeches I just finished this week! This heavy chocolate brown linen was fabulous to work with. It along with these beautiful German Silver domed/rimmed buttons are from
Wm. Booth Draper. They are a fantastic supplier for all your historical costuming needs!
I used this
pattern found on Etsy to make these breeches. I was fairly happy with the pattern, but the directions where a little off. I had to take the project to my historic sewing mentor to figure out several steps, and we kind of re-worded things to make more sense and re-worked parts to make it work properly. Also, most of the steps were using modern construction; so some things were changed to retain a closer authenticity.
Let me know what you think!!
Thanks for reading - Kerry
