I hadn‘t sewn anything in almost ten years when on August 26th, 2022 I saw a billboard advertising the „Venezianische Messe“ – a big bi-annual festival celebrating the carnival in Venice as well as the year 1768 in our almost-hometown of Ludwigsburg.
My first thought was „That‘s only two weeks away and… I have nothing to wear!“ – as sure as I had outgrown my wedding suit, I had outgrown all my old costumes, that was a no-brainer. I could have decided not to go, or to go as most people do without a costume, but no, the mojo was back and with a vengeance. I pondered over the weekend if there was any way to salvage one of the old suits (and didn’t see the obvious solution), then decided to hunt for a fabric that would enable me to do a sew-a-thon not requiring me to embroider the whole thing.
On monday my wife and I drove off to a big fabric shop and there she discovered it. Pure silk brocade in a graphical pattern acceptable for the late 18th century and at a bargain price at that. I bough ten meters of it, added some red acetate twill that wonderfully imitates silk faille and fit the color scheme and there I went.

I didn‘t manage to fully finish the suit, but I got it wearable for the weekend, including all the passementerie buttons, partially done by me, partially done by the best wife of them all. In the weeks to follow, I finished the suit with some soutache embroidery and felt that I didn‘t want to stop. In no time I bought the fabric for two more suits and then it happened,
For the first time in historical costuming I wanted to work on a female persona. But that is another story and will be told next time.