Photo Inspiration

Ps. I am very behind in my posting. This should have been written in March. My honours thesis has been taking a lot of my time and energy at the moment so while I am still sewing, its taking longer and blogging has been sort of put on hold.

Before I met my husband he had purchased 2 CDVs. These were his first inspirations for his non military fashion inspiration.

 "Rose" (taken in England, dated 1865) and an unidentified Gentleman (taken in Adelaide, no date)

The photo of the gentleman has been the inspiration for a brown woolen waistcoat that he made before he met me and grey corduroy trousers that we made together when we first met. As you can imagine there has been a long gap between starting this project and now. For his birthday present this year Nic requested I attempt to make him a sack coat to finish his outfit. As you can imagine my self esteem is still suffering from working on the 1830s coat that still needs sleeves and I have never seen an original sack coat to base my copy on. Therefore I did the best I could to make a copy based on the few photo examples of originals I could find. It is also amazing how detailed CDVs really are. The photo technology captures amazing details that can be viewed through a monocular, something that modern photos can not accomplish.

The completed sack coat.

As I did not have much time to complete it I did not take many photos of the construction. I am also not sure about how "correct" the sewing techniques I used were for this type of coat. I did take photos of the pockets as on checking the photo in detail it had 3 slit pockets (which I hated making, but Nic loves for putting stuff in). The front was lined after this photo was taken.

I know that this was not for the Historical Sewing Challenge, but I still like this information layout.

Fabric: Brown Melton Wool, 100% Cotton Ticking, 100% Cotton for lining, modern horsehair

Pattern: Drafted using patterns from the Victorian Tailor, the Complete Guide to Cutting (1853) and Mens Garments 1830-1900
Year: ca. 1860s
Notions: brown cotton thread, custom metal shanked covered buttons
How historically accurate is it? mehh, maybe 80%... I question my construction understanding without originals to study.
Hours to complete: about a week
First worn: 16th March, for our Victorian Afternoon Tea Party - and he has been wearing it daily since
Total cost: About $70