American Duchess and the Great Lappet Adventure

By Elizabeth M.

Dear Venturers,

I have started my third ever 100% hand-sewn project and it is… drumroll please… a cap! The 1745 “Lappet Lite” cap from the American Duchess 18th Century Dressmaking book to be exact. 

Now following instructions is not something I’m used to with sewing. Generally I’m the trial and error type, so naturally I had intended to use the pattern shapes from the graph in the book and just ignore the rest, but I’ve actually found the instructions to be quite useful. They even specify which stitches to use and where! It almost feels like cheating! 


Part I: Drafting 

I started out by transferring the little picture on the page to a big picture on my white cotton (argue all you want about what the material should be, but this cotton just so happened to be free and available) with an authentic 1700’s ballpoint pen. I then discovered that the dimensions the book gives do not fit my head and so I had to add about 1.5 inches all around to make it the desired size and allow for some poufy hair. Because I’m a nice person, here’s the pattern…




Part II: Sewing

This is the part that takes *forever,* as it should. I also happen to still be sewing and so I’ll update this post when I finish it. 




Part III: Research

Since this is coming from American Duchess, I didn’t do much research, but if you’re looking for some 18th century examples, here ya go…










https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/98211 

if you have better research, then good luck! 


That is all.I will hopefully update this soon! 



https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/98211
https://www.metmuseum.org/


“I am no bird, and no net ensnares me.”

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