Grey Wool Coat

Fall break was fun. We went out to eat Greek, had donuts and cider to celebrate Fall; went for a walk, bought steaks(John cooked me dinner) and generally just enjoyed being all together. Now it's back to the grind, and I'm shipping out the grey wool coat today!

Twelve buttons down the front.

Two very large pockets.

Three back pleats/vents

A three inch tall stand collar.

A rather bulky back pleat and lots of hemming.

And a very nap-ready Baby M with the finished product. A fairly basic coat, fun, and I look forward to seeing a picture on the customer!

Under Construction

I added a page to my blog about the Redcoat, for the benefit of the world and so I can keep looking at pictures of it, and flatter my own pride. It's an evolving page, but hopefully it will be helpful to someone. It's a seemingly unexplored realm in the blog world, tailcoat construction. Maybe I'm the only seamstress who googles things like "How to sew a Colonial Redcoat," but when I did, there just weren't any good blogs about the subject. Lots about Regency tailcoats, but not so much about 18th Century military tailcoats.

The Fs are back home, so I moved back home too. No mice here, but less privacy. I bought a new piece of furniture for my sewing room; a mammoth gorgeous wood thing that takes up a large amount of my old-woman-in-a-shoe room. We're also in the midst of burgeoning construction project, which is wonderful, but it means that there is dust simply all over the entire house.

The upstairs gets a new wall, and the rest of the house gets a layer of dust. My brain says yes but my sinuses say no.

Cool Things:

Making a leather suit of Roman Armor- how neat is that?? 

Making historical home accents- I love it, but I may be too lazy for this level of historical dedication.

Fabric definitions- still so many I don't know.

Closing of the Clothing Shed

The weekend was a whirl with work, guests, grandparents, a wedding, work, guests, church, and more guests. Saturday was my last day at the Clothing Shed, so I'm currently jobless and should be looking for a new job much more seriously than I am. 

For lack of any other pictures to post, here's the coat again. It's coming along.

Speaking of jobs, I've applied at a nearby clothing store, code name "Plato," don't ask me why because it's already too obvious. Plato is very similar to Clothing Shed, and my manager knows that manager, and put in a good word for me. My interview is this week and I'm foolishly pinning my hopes on getting that job, because I'm lazy and don't want to fill out any more applications. Plato is, amazingly, even closer to home than Clothing Shed.

You will all be glad to know that I am feeling much better about my closets this week. I got bags full of pants-hangers from the closing of Clothing Shed, so I categorized all my skirts; which made me realize all my church skirts are black, and linen is a very large part of my wardrobe(no surprise there, linen is the best). And I even sold more costumes last week!

Presbytery Post-Partum

It's always nice to see cross-country friends at Presbytery. This was our family's fifth year to attend, so we know a lot more people now. Though in the family-camp setting I'm beginning to feel like the eighth wonder of the world: The Unmarried Woman. I'm sure I was easily the oldest unmarried woman there, as I am at church, and it's a rather dubious distinction.

We returned home just in time for the second serious storm of the season.

Anyway, we're home, I love my bed, and thank you Lord we don't have mice. I'm back to work, though my job is still up in the air. I may or may not be transferred. With only two weeks left before the store closes, I hope to find out soon one way or the other. My car is also up in the air. Poor thing is fifteen years old this year, feeling it's age, and demanding some financial attention.

In part due to the cost of car repairs and also because I really wanted to get it done last month, I'm determined to finish the redcoat in June. At first this process meant looking at the fabric, looking at pictures. Looking at the fabric, looking at pictures. With no pattern and only a few photographs to work from, it's been a challenge. 

That lace. Wool lace is murder. I think, taxes aside, the decorative lace on Regimental uniforms would be enough to provoke the colonies to rebellion against the crown. Last night I realized that I put the buttons on the second sleeve cuff upside down, so I had to take it out and flip them. Then I realized that the wool tape on the first cuff was less than a quarter inch too low, so I had to move all of those. Sigh. But it's coming along.

There aren't a whole lot of resources online(that I've found) on how to actually make a Rev War military coat, but here are some pages that helped me:

Some basic descriptions of standard measurements for this style of coat.

Wool lace. Press, cry, press, and cry again.

 A coat from a different era, but some of the steps are similar and the pictures here are great.

Again, a different coat but great pictures.

Here's a very similar redcoat; a different regiment, still, but similar.

Tailcoats

So one of my projects for the next month is a Rev War redcoat of the 71st Regt. of Foot. The forty Regimental buttons(which are entirely decorative, not functional) and wool trim seriously cost more than $60. I ordered lovely madder red and white wool from Wm. Booth, Draper, which was the lowest price I could find for appropriate fabric where I didn't have to buy wholesale. And they shipped it very promptly, too. This coat has lots of trim, like on Caleb's coatee, and I want to do it better this time. The wool trim tends to fray badly, so this time I'm sealing the edges with bonding glue.

Caleb's coatee collar after a long over-due mending.

I replaced the collar facing on Caleb's coatee, which had sweat stains already, with a navy blue linen. I was told when I made the coatee that the collar facing should be the same wool broadcloth, but it's so thick that it makes the collar very bulky and doesn't look sharp. Plus the linen will be more comfortable. Don't tell me if this is historically allowable or not, because I already changed it.

I also tacked down the trim again (the wool lace seems to jump around easily) and re-plugged the buttons. I was told to plug the buttons underneath using a strip of the wool coating, so that no other color would show through on top, but the wool pulls apart and then the button falls out, and it's a pain to replace. I saw another coat where a sturdy string was used, and I think that's a better way to go.

The outside of the redcoat cuffs. I started out with the cuffs, since I figured I need to practice in the least visible place. Since I'm just going off online images, there's not a lot of detail available to me on exact measurements of the trim and such.

The inside of the redcoat cuffs, with the button shanks showing and a string through the holes. I hope to get the sleeves all done before departure this weekend.

New Summer Projects

Sunday night Caleb and I went out Ballroom dancing with good friends. It's so relaxing to attend a dance that I'm not organizing, well done with live music. It's also a treat to do some ballroom once in a while, and with such accomplished dancers, too! Performance Group starts up again for a short summer season, but until then I have to find other ways to get my dance fix.

Three Regency Tailcoats

One summer goal I have is to make three Regency tailcoats for my costume closet. The costume closet, if you didn't know already, is full of rental garments that are primarily used by my ECD Performance group. I'm using the Period Impressions 1812 Coatee pattern as my starting point, and I'm working to alter the collar to make more civilian variations. I have three colors of wool: dark grey with the grey cotton lining, dark blue with the white and blue floral lining, and the camel brown tan with the green paisley lining. The guys may complain about the floral bit, but it was on sale! Last spring I focused on ladies' garments; now I'm excited to start on the guys. They all have trousers, shirts and waistcoats but I just know they'll look even better in tailcoats.

To finish the coats I ordered a 100 button pack from Jas. Townsend. I'm getting really tired of the button choices at Hancock's(not that there's anything wrong with them, I'm just tired of them), and even though self-cover buttons are cheaper I wanted something different and historical.

I also bought another 20 yards of fine white linen/cotton for men's shirts.Somehow the ones I made last year out of hotel sheets were mostly sold or disappeared. But that's ok because now I have the chance to make better ones, maybe even a few fancy ones with ruffles.

I just wish I could get paid to do this!