August 7, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 18th Century Embroidered Waistcoat
If you’re into historical costuming, sewing, dressmaking and so forth, then you have likely heard of Bernadette Banner. If you haven’t heard of her and you are intrigued by historical costume, then you might look her up!
Bernadette Banner is an online content creator (you can find her extensive YouTube channel here and her website here) who focuses on dressmaking before the era of the sewing machine. She recreates period-specific clothing by hand (and sometimes with period-specific machinery – but it’s mostly by hand, and that’s No Small Thing).
Recently, she and Hand & Lock (of embroidery renown) collaborated on an engrossing documentary about embroidering an 18th century waistcoat and produced a little embroidery kit to go along with it.
The images here are screen captures from the video that you’ll find linked to below.














