1830s Frock Coat Finally Finished

In what feels like a life time ago, but was in reality only 2012.... I began work on a frock coat for my husband. This coat was his dream coat. He wanted a full blown 1830s blood red coat with a rich black velvet collar. Thankfully, this is my third and final post as the coat is now finished.

Post One - Total Frustration with the pattern
http://daniellescostumingdiary.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/1830s-frock-coat-frustration-and-lining.html

Post Two - Progress
http://daniellescostumingdiary.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/1830s-frock-coat-frustration-and-lining.html

One big change was that we decided to remove the fullness from the sleeves and make them fitted to be more late 1830s.

He wore it first for the Business SA 175th Gala Dinner, where we were asked to promenade, meet and greet the guests in the entrance to the Entertainment Centre. Afterwards we headed into town to purchase fabric, have drinks and dinner. Nic received a lot of comments from women who found his attire very dashing and handsome.

 Business SA Gala. Sorry about the photo, but my small camera is not very good in bad lighting. Nic and myself are on the back left.

 Drink time at La Boheme. We met some tourists from Canberra and had a great time and a few amazing drinks.  

 

On Sunday, he put the jacket to its original purpose and filled his dream of wearing it while shot gunning. Sorry, but I took a lot of photos and the following are only a few. The jacket looks amazing in the wind and with his movements while shooting.

 

 

 Time for a quick selfie while waiting for Nic's next shot.... I love how I have colour matched my glasses and earmuffs. Very traditional as well.....

 

 

While we were in the clubhouse, we also noticed that someone had put a copy of a newspaper article advertising the Adelaide Regiment on the bulletin board. It was a very nice article with really nice photos of the group.

1830s Frock Coat - Part 2 .... The Collar

In undertaking this coat I have come to the sad realisation that I am not a tailor. Unfortunately, I have no one else to make Nic's coats for him.  I had a lot of trouble as the original pattern did not include any information on the interfacing and did not even include any facings or linings. The collar piece was also way too large on the the length and width. Once I had worked out how to construct the collar and had the patience to tweak it, I think it turned out quite well.

Thankfully, after 2 months of intermittent work, I have finally completed the collar, minus the pin prick stitching around the outside of the seam. I am still not sure if I actually want to do this. Knowing me I probably will once I am ready to work on this again.

Inside the interfacing of the collar.

The finished collar, minus hand stitching. I know it looks a little strange, but Nic is using my male form so I only had my female form available :-(. I do think that this would make an nice coat for me, too bad Nic doesn't agree.

The underside of the collar/Inside of the front of the jacket.

1830s Frock Coat - Frustration... Lining and Tail Finished

As it is the 175th aniversary of the colonisation of our state, I am slowly working towards creating 1830s outfits. As I am still new and unsure when it comes to tailoring coats I decided to purchase the Reconstructing History 1830s Frock Coat pattern as it seemed similar to those in 'Men's Garments 1830-1900: A guide to pattern cutting' and 'Making Costumes of the Eighteen-Thirties: Volume 2'.

 The basic body toiled up quite nicely with only minor adjustments needed. The issue that I found with this pattern had to do with the sleeve cuffs that only have 4 instructions that make no sense whatsoever... I mean who puts buttonholes down the fold line? I did email the company for clarification of their construction, however, they never responded back. Highly disappointing as their help line was one of the reasons why I chose their pattern. In the end I discarded their sleeve cuffs and drafted those from the book ' Making Costumes of the Eighteen-Thirties' by Brian Reader. Another problem with the pattern is that it omits the tail pockets and facings from the illustration.  These I also had to draft from the book. Over all I was very disappointed with this pattern and will probably not purchase from them again. I do highly recommend the book as it goes into very good detail about how to construct different male garments of the1830s, even though it does contain some modernities such as iron on interfacing and over-locking. These, however, are not big issues.

 For the lining I have hand quilted cotton flannel to the linen lining. The flannel holds amazingly well to the worked horsehair. I am hoping that by doing a lot more work on the jacket's insides it will create a far better finish. The lining shape was heavily adapted in the toile stage and then used to create my own pattern for the interfacing.

 As Nic requires glasses I have included a pocket inside the left hand breast lining as this jacket will be required for leisurely afternoons undertaking gentlemanly pursuit of shooting.

 As mentioned I had to draft my own tail pockets and facings. I think they turned out well. I chose to pipe the facings in black velvet to tie in the top collar, which will also be in black velvet. This took me three full days to complete... and a big headache... so I will take a day off tomorrow to work on my 1830s dress.

 Finished pocket facings close up

Inside the pocket

Full placement

Ekkkk messy tail inside, till the skirt lining goes in.

Sigh, the next task is the collar.....