Adjustments

Here is the collar halfway off the coat. The old center-back seam allowance is visible, and the collar lining is free to shorten the collar to match the coat seams.

After the seams are pressed open, the collar lining pieces get trimmed and everything is overcast back in place. Over to the side seams.

The underlying waistcoat seams helped line up where the coat seam should be. All the material is removed from the back. With the skirt linings turned back, the canvas reinforcing panel is pinned back in place.

The folded pleats will hang from this, and it holds the hip button cord. An equal amount of material is removed from the back pleat edge to match the side seam.

Behold: the glory of the inside of a mid-18th century British-style regimental coat. Leather cord holds the buttons, and the half lining is apparent. More hemp canvas stabilizes the shape.

All the tack stitching is cut off the pleats and they are ironed flat. Next: the torture of refolding.  

Sleeves

The end is in sight. For whatever reason, my sleeve kung-fu is strong. They look short in the picture, but mid-18th century cuffs tended to be large, so the sleeves ended right above the wrist joint.

The arm openings are rather large as compared to later in the century. I decided not to line the sleeves, since the coat is heavy already. All that is left is to finish the neck opening and turn all the body lining seams and back stitch them. Next time, the finished product.

Pressing

If you don't have The Cut of Men's Clothes 1600-1900 by Norah Waugh, get it. There are lots of patterns and tons of great quotes: "The art of the tailor consists above all in cutting and pressing--the latter process giving the garment the elegant durable shape it should have. This operation, which is very delicate, is sufficient in itself to give a garment a good or a bad shape, according to the way in which it is executed, for it can spoil one which has been well cut out and improve another whose cut has been imperfect." the pleats on the left have been pressed, the ones on the right, not so much. I think this is as improved as the imperfect cut is going to get.

Long have I wished for this view, so I added it myself. Here are finished pleats as seen from below. Tacks and brides are still needed to keep them from opening up too much.

The finish line is near--sleeves, cuffs and finish the bottom hem.

Fitting

M. de Garsault tells us: "Before sewing the fronts to the backs, pin them together and check by the measurements. Sew the armhole down to where the pleats begin, then sew the shoulder seams..." I'm not sure how this was done in the 18th century. Women were fitted for stays and had their gowns put together on them. Since the lining seams are open, I have pinned them out of the way, and buttoned the coat inside out on my form.

The center back seam looks a bit wonky, so I'll need to take more out of that by pinning and marking it with chalk. Adjustable men's dress forms are hard to find, but vastly superior to stabbing yourself with pins and bleeding on your project.

Here is the mess from the front. I only made the mistake of fitting a coat WITHOUT a shirt and waistcoat on the form once. Perhaps the best part about having a form is it allows you to step back and say "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED THERE?" And "THAT'S NOT STRAIGHT! I HATE SEWING."

After all the side and shoulder seams are back-stitched, the lining seams are turned under. These are pinned together and whip-stitched, then I can try it on.  Next time more grumbling.

Cuffs

The cuffs for the mid-century coat are tiny garments unto themselves. Here they are with one inside out to show the interfacing. You can see there will be four buttons on each to match the pocket flaps.

These babies will be non-functional and stupid large (though not as ridiculous as say the 1740s.) I may reduce the length of the interfacing slightly to have more to turn under, into the sleeve. Next time we start fitting the body.

Progress

Greetings!
Having just returned from an arduous journey to the colony of Pennsylvania, I thought I might post a small update.The buttonhole process is half done on the mid-18th century coat. 

To be honest I haven't really decided how the cuffs and collar of this garment should look. Plenty of options out there. Mostly I am trying to decide how lazy I am. If my button supply holds out and I am a masochist I can add four buttons (and faux buttonholes) to each cuff. I guess that beats sailor-style cuffs that actually work.

The giant pile of reference books near the bed yielded some inspiration. John Collet's The Recruiting Sergeant could keep me busy sewing for the rest of my life, and the lad taking the King's shilling appears to be wearing the coat I'm making.

So no need for a collar. This would even be a good excuse to leave the cuffs plain, but none of my other civilian coats have buttons so......

The back of the coat is "done." By done I mean it is lined, the center back pleats are in, and there are four buttonholes in it. Still to do: fold the side pleats, add buttons, and hem the bottom. All that has to wait for the fronts.

Wish  I could stop thinking about the stripey waistcoat on Collet's Sergeant.

Step One

So here is one back piece. Compare it to the right side of the diagram in the last post. M. de Garsault says the tops of the pleats need to be re-enforced first. I made mine out of scraps of brown hemp canvas. The coat back has two: the rectangle on the left keeps the slit above the center back pleat stable. The horseshoe-shaped bit is partially covered by the hymo that lines the pleat.

The green stuff is more hemp canvas, lining the center back slit of the coat. The creases of the center back pleat have already been ironed in. The cloth the coat is cut from has a nice herringbone weave, but it frays easily. Even though its for summer wear, I can already tell the finished garment is going to be heavy.

Next time the fronts get their interfacing.

L'Art du Tailleur

I find this diagram intriguing. All of these different types of interfacing were common in mid-18th century coats. According to M. de Garsault, the tail padding was out of fashion by the 1770's. Equally interesting is the center back pleat--a big gash in the coat that somehow needs to be hidden after it is all folded up.

I haven't gotten to the level where I make my own buckram yet. As a substitute, hemp canvas with the sizing in it is almost as good. Also, the horsehair material ("crin" in French,) is hard to get, but there is modern goat hair and wool canvas called Hymo, which I can get. Time to get online and spend some $$$$.