I have made two size 42 waistcoats from J. P. Ryan’s Waistcoat pattern. In general I found this to be an easy pattern to use and the instructions allowed a sewer of moderate skills to construct a garment with accurate period fit. I did not make a waistcoat with sleeves and so I can not comment on that part of the pattern.
Regretfully, the pattern’s lack of hand-finishing instructions inhibits the sewer from creating an accurate period garment, as opposed to a costume piece. For example the instructions lack any information about how the period garments were top stitched, except around the pocket flaps. My garments were for a 1750’s British military application and the pattern is more tuned towards a civilian garment in a couple of its aspects. For example, the pattern calls for sixteen front buttons. Most military waistcoats of the period that this pattern represents would have had a ten to twelve button front.
The pattern does have several problems that can trap a sewer. First, the front shoulder seams are not long enough to match the back shoulder seams. The mismatch is not enough to ruin the garment, but enough to cause concern. Second, the pattern is VERY long in the body. J. P. Ryan mentions in her instructions that the garment is sized to a “barrel-chested Irishman”, and she urges pattern users to make a fitting garment first. This was good advice. This is not the type of discovery one likes to make after cutting-out pieces.
John M. Keahey –
I have made two size 42 waistcoats from J. P. Ryan’s Waistcoat pattern. In general I found this to be an easy pattern to use and the instructions allowed a sewer of moderate skills to construct a garment with accurate period fit. I did not make a waistcoat with sleeves and so I can not comment on that part of the pattern.
Regretfully, the pattern’s lack of hand-finishing instructions inhibits the sewer from creating an accurate period garment, as opposed to a costume piece. For example the instructions lack any information about how the period garments were top stitched, except around the pocket flaps. My garments were for a 1750’s British military application and the pattern is more tuned towards a civilian garment in a couple of its aspects. For example, the pattern calls for sixteen front buttons. Most military waistcoats of the period that this pattern represents would have had a ten to twelve button front.
The pattern does have several problems that can trap a sewer. First, the front shoulder seams are not long enough to match the back shoulder seams. The mismatch is not enough to ruin the garment, but enough to cause concern. Second, the pattern is VERY long in the body. J. P. Ryan mentions in her instructions that the garment is sized to a “barrel-chested Irishman”, and she urges pattern users to make a fitting garment first. This was good advice. This is not the type of discovery one likes to make after cutting-out pieces.