gentleman's toiles

week II  - Northern College of Costume.  1830 Gentleman's outfit - toiles.


 Not a powerful lot to show for a challenging week. This was a preparation week - finishing drafting, drawing up, constructing toiles, a first fitting, and redrafting. In amongst this we also fitted a day of fly fronts and split fall samples. Add into that waistcoat collar and buttonhole  traumas plus a visit to the Quilting Museum to see the costume exhibition, and it seems amazing that it was only 5 days.
In fact it was so engaging that I forgot to take photos of most of it- again. Did get the camera out but not much further....

Main task of the week was finishing drafting and assembling the Cossack trousers, waistcoat and frockcoat for the 1830s gentleman's outfit.  We were working from the patterns set out by R I Davis in  Men's Seventeenth & Eighteenth Century Costume: Cut and Fashion   which are long lists of  dot to dot  coordinates and instructions with line diagrams. Should end up something like this from the V&A.
 Getting started was scary - there was maths involved but thankfully  a logic in the construction  which helped. The drafted patterns were then transferred to calico,  cut out, marked up and assembled into the toile (test garment).

pattern for the frock coat



brave soul!

  The deadline for this was Thursday when my poor victim was coming in for the first fitting. This should have been traumatic as most of the measurements were guess work.( the one we actually had was wrong!) but it went very well. Some parts  - neck lines - have to go out a bit, the shirt collar redone completely, some parts have to get longer - the waist of both trousers and waistcoat plus the coat hem, and  we are creating a side seam in the coat to give the torso more shape.  These adjustments have been made on the pattern pieces and some have been redrawn ready for  next week when we make up the trousers for real.  I'll show the fabric and details of the design and construction in the next post.

The other practical this week was samples for trouser fastenings; button flies and splitfalls.  Guest tutor Julia took us for this - we made calico and woollen cloth samples for the flies and just a calico for the splitfalls.
Flies seem to have an accepted standard layout but the splifalls seem to be more of a moveable feast, the principle remains but the number and placement of buttons, plackets, etc, can changeable. Where the photos  for the wool cloth flies and the splitfalls are I don't know! - just imagine them - like the example from Augusta Auctions, beautiful, precise, immaculate - I wish! The idea is that there are flaps that crossover and fasten with buttons behind the front panel that covers all the draughty bits and buttons up like a bib front. The 2 buttons either side at the waist are for braces.


example from Augusta Auctions

 The first revision is done - replacing the shirt collar was completed yesterday - lounging on the sofa, munching raspberries and cashews, watching a borrowed film- The Company of Strangers- worth a watch if you are after something intriguing and quiet rather than dramatic.

man's shirt c 1830s

Northern  College  of Costume, York.  Summer Course- wk 1 -shirt

Actually started! This is a costume course - not a 'lets make a historically accurate garment down to the very last detail' course. Modern machines and techniques are used so don't expect a purist's outcome. In other words - overlocked and machine sewn.

From V&A, earlier but similar

project one -  gentleman's ensemble c 1830s



Waugh, Norah. The Cut of Men's Clothes, 1600-1900

First the shirt - this was based on the Norah Waugh pattern for the 1700s/early 18th C. The cuffs are changed to  fitted ones and a stock at the neck rather than cravat. It is fitted at the neck and cuff, quite tight at the armhole - but  most of the rest is just gathered in almost all directions- and with gusset mania .  There is a huge amount of fabric in the body and sleeve- it is hard to imagine it 'fitting' anyone except the Michelin man.

Also, being a forward thinking and highly organised person I did take a camera everyday to record the process - then forgot to use it. The construction images are from a mini version done yesterday as a 'revision' exercise.

Task one -
First scaling up and drafting. This was simple enough - it is all right angled blocks - although my fabric pieces tended to change shape somewhat after their experience of the industrial overlocker. Must remember not to giggle.

 The construction  should have been straight forward enough as well but there were one or two tricks and ideas (and gussets) to play with-

frill and placket on my small version

A small  dart into the centre front at base of the neck opening was new idea 1 for me. This gives a small allowance for the placket and it worked well. Having the placket behind the top fabric was different- the buttons on the chest are hidden.





New idea 2  was to  put in a  gusset into the shoulder seam at the neck.  This  gusset is folded into a triangle and  opens out the seam to give some shaping at the base of the collar to allow for the slope of the shoulder line. On the photo, to the left of the frill, the folded gusset is quite clear, sticking up above  the flat line of the shoulder seam.

underarm gussets, raw edged and partly felled

On to gussets 2. This was not a thing I was looking forward to but it went well - just had to be careful about leaving seam allowances at the first and third corners  and lining up the seams at right angles. Locating the second part of the underarm to complete the  gusset (corner 3 &4) did get a little confusing - first find the back of the sleeve in all of those billows of fabric!
Another folded gusset  (number 3s) opens the  bottom of the  side seam.


The rest was familiar territory, which means it was more frustrating to make errors.
I had a proper Wednesday which  was frustrating - it was collar day. The process is simple enough but there was plenty of fight left in the shirt. There is gathering all round the neck, with tucks at the shoulder on the gussets. Problem one gathering evenly, problem 2 stopping the fine fabric of the collar from rucking and pleating as I was machining, and problem 3, of course remembering to fold the top placket back underneath the shirt front before attaching the collar. Once all of this was sorted out ( unpicking skills to the fore) the iron decided to strike and mark the fabric as it was pressed. It will come out in the wash, it will.....

After this it was sleeve plackets and then cuffs. These we cut with a slight flare to go down onto the hand and to be buttoned at the wrist. Guess who got the buttonholes muddled?  My model - the Phantom Man of Mystery -will use cufflinks now. I shall cite one of the V&A examples if challenged.










Now that the shirt is done the rest of the ensemble was begun - Cossack trousers (pleat fronts) waist coat and frock coat, had to be drawn out and pattern pieces made. Ron Davis' patterns were the guiding light for these, they are not hard but do require some maths, precision and care - all of which were in short supply on a Friday.  A minor concern is the elusive nature of my male model - only 3 confirmed measurements ( or is that sightings?) - I am beginning to visualise him as somewhere between the Cheshire Cat, fading in and out of existence leaving only traces, and the Scarlet Pimpernel, - we seek him here, we seek him there....  We have done best guess patterns based on a similar guy and will run up the toiles next week  for a fitting. It is going to be an interesting time!
Photos and reports on these next week.......

.