jendobyns

Lesson learned: take extra clothes, a shower and clean off anything you touched with gunpowder hands before going to the airport. And keep the paperwork handy just in case that isn't enough.

Yep. My "lost boys" were glued to it!

Those are gorgeous pieces! Lucky you!

Very fine silks were the thing. Slubs and irregularities meant poor quality. They were capable of very fine silk from somewhere in Italy in the middle ages, iirc. I'd have to look up the details of the silk industry in England, but I think it dates from early 17C or even late Tudor period.

Cool, did you get Betty Myers?

Any more details on the carbine? My husband would like to know.

Congratulations! He's adorable!

What a wonderful resource! The receit books with all the household recipes and medicinals are priceless! While they may not be so useful to a surgeon, any housewife worth her salt would find these useful.

Piecing is period. Take the collar off and add a piece to make it larger (I'd add it by splitting the back and inserting a piece), or as Michael suggested, make another larger collar entirely if you have enough fabric. Fixing mistakes like this is all part of the process. *** Just remember if you add a piece to compensate for the extra seam allowances _plus_ the extra you need to add to make it fit. Happy sewing!

Colonial Williamsburg. Betty Myers is wigmaker there.

Have you checked with Betty Myers in CW? Also, Madam Joan's wee wiggies (I know someone here has used her stuff) could be an option. I did have a reference for someone in the UK who made them, but that's two computers ago and I can't access that information. Foxe or Grymm might be able to steer you in a good direction.

Capt. Trueblood, I have a while before I get to the basket weave, but colors, and the astral type are on the short list. So is the covered button with the woven top threads that ends up looking like honeycomb. Ah, the possibilities! As long as the hands hold out! And I can check with Neal about the unlined broadcloth. It could be that it's only waistcoats that are unlined and that the coats have a lining (I know our regimentals do!) A lining would definitely reduce wear in some areas.

Yes, Grymm and I are talking about period techniques (at least I think he is!). And CF is "center front". So the two sides of the coat where the buttons and button holes go. It requires some reinforcement because it's a stress point. Buckram (real, period buckram) is used for that. Period buckram was made from linen (coarse) or sometimes old sails, painted with Gum Tragacanth (sometimes called Gum Dragon). Stinks like cheap disinfectant, but the results are great!

Oh, yes, it certainly does. Especially if you use some buckram along the CF, too--keeps it from flopping forward and gives some support to buttons and button holes. I am curious about the padding "'tween shoulder and pecs" though. Something I haven't seen yet. Do you have a visual (inside of a coat, perhaps?)

You can't go wrong with either Wm. Booth or Burnley & Trowbridge. Also if you want to have a coat made, and correctly, you might want to get in touch with Neal Hurst http://www.nhursttailor.com He is a journeyman tailor trained in Williamsburg. Fantastic guy, amazing work, really knows his stuff. The only way you might do better is to have Mark Hutter make it. Of course after you get something from him, you may never want to get it dirty *G*

We have one, but we also have wireless internet and satellite TV, and the other half does all the technical stuff. I have to say it's been great so far. Haven't tried to run it from the computer yet, though.

Just-au-corps, as defined by Sieur Benist Boullay in his 1671 Le Tailleur Sincere has two fronts, one back and two sleeves. It is in the same category as Casaques and Soutaines, and shares this type of piecing with doublets. The term appears to be a somewhat transitional one for what is becoming a coat in the form we are more familiar with in later period (18c) clothing. But as Michael has pointed out, definitions are fuzzy. We cannot expect them to be more precise then than we are now. Terminology varies by part of country not just between different countries. But we know a lot more than we did even 20 years ago Coats were (generally) made by tailors, for an individual, with materials provided by the person having the coat made. The expense in the garment was in the fabric, not the labor. You bought what you could afford, or sometimes more, considering debtors prisons So the individual having the coat made had a lot of control over style, with input from the tailor (what is fashionable, what style of buttons can be done, etc.) Lining is a function of protecting the raw edges and seams of the outer fabric from wear and providing additional reinforcement and support in areas of stress. Silk and linen fray easily and would be lined, and finer woolens as well where it was necessary. Hardier woolens, like broadcloth, would not need lining as much since they are quite dense and do not fray easily. Broadcloth can also be stitched more closely, and so a coat made from that is designed to last (as opposed to silk, which cannot be stitched closely-6 to 8 stitches per inch usually- and can eventually break, the fabric giving way before the stitching). Number of buttons and placement of pockets varies by decade, function of garment (there is a style of button still used for court suits today that became fashionable at the end of the 18C) and location. If you look at a collection of suits by decade, you can see that location of pocket (earlier, it's halfway to the knees, later it's closer to the waist), angle of pocket slit (vertical, horizontal), style of flap (curvy, straight), shape of flap pointed or wavy), shape of the pocket slit (earlier period can be more of a triangular pocket slit, later tends to be more of a crescent shape, for example), all tend to change over time. Button holes can also vary because someone is creative in their design. Varying the spacing to have groups of holes, then space, then another group, has been known to happen. They aren't always evenly spaced and consistent. (just making this even more confusing, eh?) People back then could sometimes tell where someone was from by the style of their clothing and some pieces of clothing were described as a "Hungarian" this or "Spanish" that--meaning in the style of that area. Exactly what that means, if not otherwise described or pictured, can still be a mystery. I realize all this is very general, but it's difficult to cover enough of what is very visual information in a forum like this. You have to look at a lot of art work and existing garments. Most of what we use today is based on English and American collections, but the internet has opened up the world, if you can navigate your way around other countries museum websites. And if you can get your hands on a copy of Waugh's "Cut of Men's Clothes" 1600-1900, it would be a good starting point in defining what pieces are what. Ok, enough of that for now. Gotta go get caffeine and practice death head buttons. It could become an obsession

That's wonderful news! Best wishes for his recovery!

Re: Firewood. There is also something up north called the emerald ash borer. It's killed off a lot of trees, and is another reason why you're not supposed to transport firewood from state to state. Basically, transporting plants & animals from place to place can be as bad as a plague carrier going from village to village. One infected plant/critter can wipe out a whole population or cost a ton of money in preventive measures (we had to spray a _lot_ of stuff on our apples because of these issues when I was growing up).

Buttons, especially linked buttons (the forerunner of cuff links). Although the norm in our time is to do them like modern shirts.

Awesome! Just in time for winter reading!

Yep, that would be one of them. And the giraffe like collars definitely aren't in yet, although though the book on shirts seems to indicate their size overlaps (no time at the moment to analyze this). I need to look at this further.

Oh, goodness, but you were lucky! I can recall at least two incidents where starting a fire with the aid of gunpowder ended badly.

That's too funny, I was about to send you that link! It might say 1769, but by the time things get published in that time period, the information has been used for a decade or more, so you're pretty safe. And the method doesn't really change. If you have trouble with the gussets (which I doubt you will) there is at least one online tutorial for that. Also, Burnley and Trowbridge sell various grades of linen sewing threads. I am using an 80/3, 60/2 and 50/3 weight between three different projects (sort of depends on what's available in the color I need). The white linen is the finest, I think that's the 80/3 (it's really fine, almost looks like cotton sewing thread). The trick is to use short lengths of thread so it doesn't unravel. Wax also works if you're just sewing an under garment in linen. Good luck!

Well, do you want a commercial pattern, or a cutting diagram? Machine or hand sewing this? Probably the best person to consult would be Captain Sterling. In the mean time, I'll look through my sources for earlier period shirts. So far I'm only finding 1750 and onward (where I've spent most of the last two decades). But I know there's earlier period stuff around here.