Buttonholes and Distractions

 This is how I roll. Start one project, make decent headway, then get totally distracted and do something else. This is (somewhat) one of those cases. I've been working to make my green broadcloth frock coat more historically accurate, and I made pretty decent headway on it last week. Unfortunately the process involves almost completely remaking the coat.

So far I've torn the coat apart, cut off the edge seam allowances, re-attached the interfacing, and finished the button work. 1770's buttonholes are a thing of beauty if done correctly. They are thin and long--about 2.5 times the size of your button. This coat has 1.25 inch buttons, so these buttonholes are 3 1/8 inches of non functional beauty. Paired with the deaths head buttons, this coat is starting to look awesome.

I still have lots of work to do before it's done, but it's starting to look like a coat again. Naturally, though I took one step forward, so I need to take two steps back.

About a month ago, while portraying a refugee at Fort Frederick, friend of mine suggested that I contact the Fort to see if they would be interested in adding tailoring services to their collection of living historians. After a month of ironing out the details, I'm pleased to announce that I am officially the Artificer Tailor at Fort Frederick! Huzzah!

I will be at all the 18th century events for the remainder of the year, and will continue with new programs in 2019. I am very excited about this opportunity, and have all sorts of great plans and ideas that will be happening at the Fort.

First thing is first: I need an 1750s ensemble. All of my clothing is more appropriate for the 1770s. I could get away with 1760s with some of my waistcoats because extant garments did show a few examples of shortening panels in the 1760s, but I have nothing that is remotely 1750s. Looks like I'll be whipping something together in six days.

I would love to be able to make both a coat and waistcoat in six days, but it just isn't happening. Luckily for me, there are many mid-century images of working men wearing only a short coat with no waistcoat. Looks like I'm going for that. I am making a simple brown, unlined linen short coat similar to the one in this picture. Time for some speed sewing. What could go wrong?

Finished Waistcoat and Playing a Tailor

Got the waistcoat done in time for my event at Fort Frederick portraying a refugee. Didn't get my diet done in time though 😂 Maybe if I wasn't spending all my time sewing, I would have enough time to exercise. I'm pushing the "tight without constraint" a little bit. I may not be constrained but my buttons sure are.

For this event, I was portraying a refugee tailor who was forced to leave his home in a state of undress, thus only the sleeved waistcoat and no coat. As per usual, no pictures of me were taken at the event, but my wife snapped this one at home before I changed back into 21st century attire. It was a fun event, I spent most of my day working on mariner cuff flaps for for my waistcoat and making death head buttons and talking to visitors.

It was a nice day and a great event. I'm hoping to be doing some new stuff at Fort Frederick in the next few months, but those plans are in the very early stages at this moment.


UPDATE!!! Someone got a picture of doing things! See ma, I don't just dress up like a weirdo for the fun of it.

Word of advice to anyone sewing in a historical manner. Never sit tailor style on a bench. The edge will dig right into your ankle bone and completely cut of the circulation in your foot. Then you may or may not try to stand up and fall over because your foot is completely numb. Spoiler warning: you will fall over. Anyways, here's us sewing at Fort Frederick during the "Repair to the Fort," Pontiac's War event. As always, I'm making a stupid face.