Tags
common dress, common people, common soldier, fashion, frock coats, Making Things, sewing, sewing project, style
Coat, Nantucket Historical Association, 1985.0068.001
I could have a coat problem so very easily. Look at that coat!
I was looking for something else when I came across this coat. Pity my friend who got the excited, “Who do you know on Nantucket?” text message, because after I saw this coat and couple others, I was checking out the high speed ferry schedules. (They’re not too great; I’d need to stay overnight at least one night– poor me, right?–which means this must be a winter visit.)
Once you’re hooked on 1812, it’s hard to travel back in time, but travel back I must, for Bennington is just a little over a week away.
What am I thinking? Well, in my madness and in the face of the enormous growth of the Young Mr, here I am thinking Coats in August.
Paul Sandby, 1731-1809, British, London Cries: A Fishmonger, ca. 1759, Watercolor and graphite on medium, cream, slightly textured laid paper, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1975.3.210
I know, Bennington/Walloomsac is 1777, so why am I looking at 1759 coats? Because I’m thinking a short-skirted workman’s jacket for the kid, of striped linen, rather than another frock coat. My plan–such as it is– is to alter the pattern I know fits him to make these shorter skirts…we’ll see how this experiment goes, and hope for fewer than six toiles!
By next Friday night, I need to complete:
- One new coat, from a newly drafted pattern
- One new waistcoat
- New buttons for a waistcoat
- Alterations to breeches including new buttons and new knee bands
That doesn’t seem so bad, does it?
Kitty Calash 