My finished 18th century breeches

Here are my finished breeches!

 

Button holes are the final finishing touch that still needs to be added,
they will be done later on the special button hole machine.

Coin pouch and button fastening.
Below the 3 gold buttons are to be 3 linen ones,
i'm just waiting on those to be sourced and handed over to me.

I'm so pleased with how well my breeches have turned out. I've been very pickey with my sewing and the finer details when I could have been lazy and ignored it which is something I'll never do again, as for a first attempt at making a pair of 18th century breeches its a damn good one!

I think the one detail which i struggled with the most was the jiggers that are at the front of the trousers on either side of the front opening flap. This is down to the fact that they are the main detail so It was important that I made sure they looked perfect and not over work them as then your work will deteriorate and get worse. That's definitely a good point to consider and one that I've valued, and that's that whatever you work on the trick is not to overwork the fabric. If there's a small detail that could have been done better but is now past the point of enhancing, leave it because more often then not you'll only make it worse and not better.

Something else I've learnt from making the breeches is to be very carful with the iron. I've learnt to appreciate and love the iron as it can do wonderful things however It can also ruin something in a second. When I came to pressing my breeches after working on them I pressed on the seems where I'd overlocked which meant the fabric bruised on the right side and gave my fabric a slight sheen which is very frustrating. It's also very important to always put a piece of fabric between the iron and the garment to stop you from damaging it or transfering dirt from the iron.