1830s Waistcoat Week!

This was the week for waistcoating... in fact it took far less time than this, minimum button therapy and only 2 icecreams.

Recap - 4th week of the course at the  Northern College of Costume, working from Ron Davis' pattern for an 1830s single breasted, shawl collar waistcoat. Patterns were drafted and toiles fitted. This now is the waistcoat proper....

From the toile the modifications were pretty straightforward, just lengthen at the waist  by 2 1/2" at the front and 1" at the back.

The fabric is a grey blue with a dull metallic broken pattern woven in. It is a kind of twill weave and manages to have very little substance - it's like that annoying friend who only says 'I'll do whatever you want to do' or 'I'll have what ever you are having' and then looks miserable for the rest of the day. The lining is a dull, dark duck egg blue, heavier and more substantial but reverts to floss when it frays. I imagine that any natural fibre content was purely accidental.

The fabric was cut and flat lined with a light calico and interfaced on the front and collar pieces.

front - with pocket!

inside front - facing and lining

After flat tacking to mark the key lines assembly began. Initially it is very clear - pockets (perhaps I should admit to pocket traumas - working out how to set them on the slant and how to minimise bulk, distressingly simple once the penny had dropped),  sew the centre backs to make complete back units, attach collar piece to front, collar facing to front lining, and join fronts to backs at side seams.  From this point on life gets more complicated.




side seams done - looks like bat sign




 I have never yet found the definitive simple way of putting a waistcoat and lining together, it seems I am not alone. This time we  placed rightsides together and sewed  around the armholes, front edge and front hem line. This meant that it could  still be turned rightside out.  The top 1/3 of the front
edge was left open so that we could get in  to sew the front shoulder to the 2 backs on machine ( The front lining would be turned under on the shoulder seam to hide all of the raw edges later on). 

Think the bit in the middle
 is the shoulder seam!

The under collar's centre back  seam was joined  and then it was  sewn to the  neck line. The top parts of the collar were sewn at the centre back and then the

centre back joined and sewn
 in place along neck line

front edge seam completed all the way round.  It did get confusing but was nowhere as fiddly as I thought but..... nothing can ever be that easy - we had misread the pattern a little and the facing  did not match to the shoulder seam - emergency surgery was required and with the help of the new best friend, Fray Check, disaster was averted.  Closing the remaining shoulder

back inside - the horizontal seam is the collar edge

seams and closing the last part of the neck by hand calmed the tattered nerves a little and it was on to the final stages.

The back has two layers so the hem allowance was folded up inside ( thanks to interfacing for helping to create a nice firm edge to sew along)  and hand sewn closed. Then key hole style button holes. By hand. All of them.
 Ok, did cheat a little- zigzagged down each side, punched the round edge and fray checked it before hand stitching. These are something to be practiced, and practiced, and then practiced again.

 Add the buttons, eyelets and attach the tabs ( still need ties) and it is all done - one complete waistcoat.

Distractions- let out to play with power tools - refixing Pauline's eyelet punch to its tabletop - starting to look for work placements for after the course, and creating a monument to Wednesday to keep those malevolent midweek spirits appeased.

Thursday was a part day  so did I sit in the garden reading, rescue pets in the on line games, clean the house? Yes, but also made a  waistcoat for Gwen. Went from  drafting all the way through construction.  How sad. But that emergency surgery on the facing had rankled, I needed to work this through and make it happen. Understanding the mistake did make life easier. Instead of days it was completed that same evening apart from the tabs. The fit is good considering  Gwen is definitely female - the back waist is too large and I had to put in front darts but it has worked! Not bad for a 50p upholstery sample and some left over pink and dotty cotton.  May be a bit too much frill on that shirt?














Coats next.......

 

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.