SO of course my SWAP this year is inspired by Anne Lister’s wardrobe in ‘Gentleman Jack’, and I also want to dress as Miss Lister for World Book Day, so apart from the ‘ordinary’ clothes, the look will need to be completed by a suitably swaggering coat.
She wears several coats in the series of course, all a combination of male and female styles of the time. Here she is striding along in her very masculine great coat with contrasting collar, probably velvet
Here she broods, Heathcliff-like in her caped coat
An unusual bit of colour here, which I think was the ‘wedding’ outfit
A spencer jacket, rather like a riding habit
A much more ‘feminine’ look when presented to royalty if I remember rightly
And here a lovely military inspired pelisse [or maybe it’s aspencer, can’t remember if it was long or short]

I love all of them, but this pelisse [or spebcer lol] looks the most fun, and the most wearable, so I’m going for this look. I found a pelisse/coat pattern from Laughing Moon [#137]
I rather fancy view B, although all the collars and sleeves are interchangeable. I’ve found two possible fabrics, a cotton sateen, and a cotton/viscose gaberdine. Both should be very usable for all sorts of goodies, so I’ll decide when they arrive. The amount of fabric will dictate the amount of fullness I put in the back of the coat, it may be somewhat less full, but that’s fine. As a jacket I think it would be very wearable BUT of course the style is high waisted, so I will experiment.
Fun and games!
Fun!
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Yep, view B is the one – that collar! Really looking forward to seeing all this come to fruition.
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oo, what fun!!
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I know right? This will alleviate the mild boredom of making lots of mostly monochrome tops
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I love Anne Lister and I am so pleased that she is your inspiration!
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Just got to decide on if I can be arsed to wear a wig, or just do some fake hair sausage curls and clip them in…and make her a blonde
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fake hair sausages in blonde sounds….. so appealing…
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lol Maxine Peake stayed fair haired in ‘secret Diaries of Anne Lister’ so I think I can work it. I’ll use one of our steampunk tophats though! Wearing an itchy dark wig all day is not going to happen!
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I’m convinced you will be fabulous, whether you’re dark or blonde
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lol always fabulous dahlink
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This looks like it will be such a cool costume – I can’t wait to see the result. I think the View B is very much what Anne Lister would have chosen (in black obviously).
I’ve often thought about making a regency costume to prance about in in Bath, but have never had the courage to make anything. Plus, those little empire-line dress……well, I’ve always wanted to wear something a little more “kick-ass”. That military-style spencer is so cool.
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I think the jacket is the way to go- it’s right on the brink of modern wearable, just a teensy bit Adam Ant/goth maybe? And why not…
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So much inspiration to work with. View B will mske a great military spencer/coat. Your SWAP is a real inspiration. Excited to see ut come to life.
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