1825 Dress-Coat test run

I ought to have posted this earlier, since I put together this muslin/toile of the 1825 men's coat from Cut of Men's Clothes shortly after scaling up the pattern a couple weeks ago.

The only adjustment I made was to the collar at the center back, as the collar was originally too large to fit into the neckline properly.  The collar is too large in the diagram in the book as well, so it wasn't just me being sloppy with the scaling things up... as it was, I had to take a total of nearly four inches out of the collar for it to work properly.

The coat is quite small, too.  As a matter of fact, it fits me pretty well which makes me wonder about the person who owned the orginal!  Perhaps I'll have to make myself a tailcoat sometime in future...

Making for the men- an 1825 dress coat

When it comes to constructing costumes for the 1820s (and really, for the majority of all time periods) I'm far more familiar with women's clothing than with men's.  To start to gain that familiarity with the shape and inner structure of men's clothing, I'm putting together a muslin of the 1825 Dress Coat from the book Cut of Men's Clothes.  I'm not sizing it in any way, just scaling up and making a mock-up in the original size.  The idea is to be able to understand the garment so that when I get around to making the actual pieces for my project, I'll know how and where I want to deviate.  The coat is actually really small; it might even be a decent size for me!

I scaled the pattern up by hand, which was super easy to do once my tutor told me a little trick... since the measure at the side of the page isn't a nice and neat 1/8 to an inch, draw a grid (or partial grid) over the pattern and then cut the scale off the side of the page to use as a sort of mini-ruler.  Such a common sense solution.  I couldn't believe I'd never thought of that before...

The muslin is currently all cut out and partially constructed, and I should hopefully finish putting together tomorrow.

This is my normal

Obviously, my recent creative pursuits have been somewhat taken over by Steampunk, and it's provided a refreshing contrast to the vast majority of what I constantly sew and make (which has not before appeared on my blog).

As many of you probably know, I work at the Costume Design Center of Colonial Williamsburg.  I was a stitcher for about a year and a half before becoming the first hand approximately six months ago.  (I say "the" first hand instead of "a" first hand since I'm the only one... in the shop there are two cutter/drapers, myself as the first hand, and about twelve stitchers)

For eight hours each day I fit, alter, cut, make, and repair countless pieces of clothing for the historical interpreters and actors at CW.  Lately I've been working a lot with our designer on a couple special projects, including some experimenting with 18th century techniques for painting silk (that's been loads of fun so far).

Naturally, the vast majority of what I work on is 18th century clothing, though due to the 150th anniversary of the Civil War there are now several programs set in that time period for which I've made mid-19th century clothing, plus some 17th century pieces for programs at Jamestown.

I can't even begin to tell you how many full allotments of clothing I've worked on.  Hundreds.  Too many to possibly remember.

Men's civilian coats.  Regimental coats.  Waistcoats.  Breeches.  Shirts.  Shifts.  Petticoats.  Plain gowns.  Gowns with ridiculous amounts of trim.  Caraco jackets.  Bedgowns.  Short jackets.  Jackets from Patterns of Fashion and Diderot.  Aprons.  Cravats.  Kerchiefs.  Caps.  Haversacks.  Trousers.  Gaitor trousers.  Spatterdashes.  Riding Habits.  Cloaks.  Greatcoats.

And that's just the ordinary, 1770s stuff... special programs and the theatrical plays often branch out into other time periods or sometimes simply get a little bit crazy.

Here's a small sampling of things I've made at work... obviously this doesn't cover the whole scope of what I do, and have done, there, but it should give you a general idea.  All designs, materials, etc belong to Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Wool coat and small clothes, cut edge with hand finishing and buttonholes.  Worn by Tailor's Apprentice Michael McCarty.

Continental Army Officer: Regimental Coat.  Worn for the portrayal of The Marquis de Lafayette. Photo by Jurgen Vösych.

1860s Dress for the Women of the Civil War Tours.

Corded Mid-19th Century Corset.

1770s Stays.

  

Fife and Drum Regimental Coat.  Incidentally, this is the first full garment I made working at CW.

So there you have it.  A little taste of what I'm up to all those hours I'm not working on my own projects and ideas.  Being surrounded by the 18th century all day every day has certainly changed my attitude in regards to my own work... I think it has a great deal to do with why I've become so inspired lately by Steampunk.  Historical clothing has become my normal, and like the Amazon commercial says, "normal just begs to be messed with".

Paintings of the lower sort- still in 1795!

Unless I decide to add backgrounds, the paintings are done. 

I worked quite a bit smaller than normal on these, using paper about 12x20 inches large for each piece, with the figures being approximately 6-9 inches tall.  That's about the size I normally like to paint faces.

One of the things that had impressed me about the original 1795 ad was how colorful so many of the garments described were.  I tried to get that same feeling of color in the paintings without it turning into a circus (though that would have been fun... late 18th cen circus... hmmm).  After all, how often do you ever run across yellow, purple, and white striped trousers?

These were all painted on rag paper primed with gesso, and, as per my usual, are done with oil paints.

Common men sketches

When breaking down the list of clothing in the ad from 1795, it was decided to mix and match the garments on a variety of figures.  We settled on having six figures total spread across three separate illustrations.

Naturally, the first step of any project is to sketch it in order to work out general composition and provide a point of reference for the painting.  Depending on how good my reference images are changes how detailed the sketch is.

I shamelessly ripped off the pose from Thomas Rowlandson's Seaman for this one.  As it's in public domain, the only real issue at hand is my oftimes inherent laziness.  However, the point of this project is to depict the clothing, not to create pieces of fine art.  In this instance (like when doing costume renderings) I'm quite content to cut a few corners.

Once the sketches were approved and changes discussed, it was time for the actual paintings to begin...

At the Mayor's Office- working mens' clothing from 1795

A good friend of mine, Tyler,  is currently studying for his masters in material culture at Winterthur, and as part of his thesis is discussing working mens' clothing from the late 18th century.  He is looking at a particular advertisement from 1795 which lists a number of clothes that a certain criminal had made off with... ideally, there would be images of these types of clothes to use as a reference in this thesis.  Unfortunately, there are not a lot of visual references for working mens' clothes from the time, much less ones which contain the exact items listed.

This is where I, as the artist friend, came in.  I agreed to paint several illustration depicting specific articles of clothing mentioned in the ad.

The problem was, I'm not terribly familiar with men's clothing from the 1790s and really didn't want to completely bollocks things up.  Fortunately for me, Tyler knows a great deal about the subject (you know, it being the object of his thesis and all...) and he provided me with some prints and drawings of sailors and slaves, plus the original ad in question.

It reads as follows:

"At the Mayor's Office
Are the following articles of Clothing, all new, supposed to have been stolen out of some slop shops or shops.  They were found upon a Joseph Lone, a convict who not long hence escaped from gaol - They may be seen by the claimants.  Sep. 5, 1795

I pair cotton striped yellow, purple and white trowsers.
3 ditto- yellow and white do.
2 ditto- red and white do.
I ditto- black and white do.
I ditto- plain nankeen do.
I ditto- do with fringe.
2 sailor's jackets, plain nankeen, bound with black silk
I ditto- striped silk
I ditto- plain nankeen
I ditto- Raffia duck, bound with black
I red waistcoat, bound with black
I buff fustian waistcoat, striped yellow and grey
I white waistcoat, with red stripes and spots
I cassimere muff waistcoat, with blue and red spots
I white waistcoat with blue and white spots
I nankeen purple, striped waistcoat
I muslin waistcoat, with red spots
I cotton checked striped shirt
A sheeting bag with a drawing string"

These are the images that Tyler sent me to look at.  It's all his research, not mine!

 British Plenty by Henry Singleton- 1794

 Scarcity in India by Henry Singleton- 1794

 Barber scene by Benjamin Henry Latrobe- 1797

 Seaman by Thomas Rowlandson- 1798

 Industry and Oeconomy by Henry Singleton- 1800

 Making a Compass at Sea, London- early 19th Cen.

For better or worse, I am basing my illustrations off these images, discussions with Tyler, and what I read in the book The Dress of the People: Everyday Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England.  I fully acknowledge that this subject is not my strong point, but as it is, I've already learned a lot from this project.  The biggest thing that has jumped out at me so far is the prevalence of striped trousers.  Of the nine pairs of trousers listed in the ad, only one pair was completely plain.  Seven pairs were striped and one was fringed.

I'd have to look at a lot more ads from the time to really see if striped trousers are that common across the board, or if Joseph Lone happened to steal from a shop owner who was really fond of stripes.  But it's interesting nonetheless.

Next up, preliminary sketches and illustration progress...