Caraco

This style of caraco jacket was a popular ladies’ fashion
from approximately 1770 to 1785.

This caraco is designed with a false stomacher front which has a center front hook and eye closure. The over-the-elbow length sleeves are finished with shaped cuffs. An optional ruching strip may be fastened (by hooks to thread eyes) across the stomacher to secure a neck handkerchief if it is worn over the caraco. Covered buttons have been added to the base of the side back seams. Optional ribbon loops may be sewn inside the caraco which can be fastened up over the buttons to lift the jacket skirt à la polonaise.

This original caraco pattern is fashioned after two extant examples, one in the collection of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and the other in the Wade Collection, Snowshill Manor, England. A similar false stomacher front may be seen on a gown described as an "Afternoon Dress," which was made in France c. 1775, in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
This pattern is designed to fit over my 18^th century strapless stays.
This pattern will not fit a 21^st century figure wearing modern underwear.

Caraco is illustrated as it looks when made of cotton chintz with a thin silk lining, worn with plain sleeve flounces, over a false rump, quilted petticoat and flounced silk taffeta petticoat.
Pattern is for caraco jacket only.

The Recollections of J. P. Ryan
PO Box 1016
Randallstown, MD 21133 
E-mail: recollectjpr@earthlink.net
©2001 Janice Pence Ryan All rights reserved