Problems

George Weed had a problem. In Woodbury, Connecticut in 1746 he handed off some bogus examples of the colony's script to a known counterfeiter. George informed this fellow that his brother Samuel signed the notes and could imitate any man's handwriting. The counterfeiter got arrested in Fairfield County in October. Weed passed some fake 20's in a local tavern and visited his "friend" in jail, sharing a mug of flip. The doctor advised him to escape. As soon as the counterfeiter was released on bail, he ratted out his co-conspirator. Weed was arrested but promptly ran from the constable.

Around that time, the great actor turned evangelist George Whitefield visited Connecticut. Weed may have seen him, or someone similar like Eleazer Wheelock, which might explain his problems with the Baptist church he attended in Philadelphia in 1765. He called their attempts to curb his preaching a trick that Dr. Faust played with the Devil:

Whereas George Weed has withdrawn himself from this church without applying properly for a dismission, and has since declined to come to show cause for his conduct for which irregularity and refusal, and also for his declining to pay the money he subscribed towards building the meeting house we do therefore erase his name out of the church book and declare him to be no longer of us, and this we do in hope it may be blest for the good of his soul.

Speaking of problems, here is one of the linings I cut for the coat.

At first, I thought this was because I forgot to iron the silk before I cut it. Yet the other lining piece fits fine. They were both cut at the same time, from the same pattern. Nothing for it but to cut another lining for one side. Ino, I could piece the tail, just don't feel like it.

The silk also tends to explode when cut with a buttonhole chisel.  I could have done the fancy-pants individual lining squares between the buttonholes, but this coat isn't nice enough. 

Instead, I get a confetti of tiny pink threads poking through the buttonhole slit. I learned the hard way not to pull on these, as shown below.

As with the pocket flaps, I have learned a new and better way to handle pleats. Not sure why I have been doing them wrong all these years. More on that later.

  
 

Finishing Touches

When it comes to pleats, it's good to keep that sh*t tight. Anchor the tops to the reinforcing panel and each other. Two long stitches through each pleat keep the folds from opening too much. Tacking the pleats to each other and the coat is the final step.

The coat is flipped on the form constantly, and buttoned to check fit. Since the back pleats droop below the fronts slightly (after the side seams are trimmed,) the lining bottom is cut free, and the pleats are trimmed to match the front. Buttons inside the pleat folds finish the bottoms. Buttons at the hip seams are secured with leather cord to the reinforcing panels like this

 Time to fix some neglect of the cuff panels. Mid-century regimentals often had huge fake sleeve flaps. Three decorative buttons make the faux flap look secure. All they need is some close worked buttonholes to set them off. We're all about appearance here. It's hard to beat elbow buttons for style, or a cuff large enough to hold tobo or spare rounds.

Here is a problem we may not be able to fix. Not easily, anyway. Oh well, it fits fine fully-buttoned and open. The NEXT coat will be better.

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.

Mysterious Folds

Time to study the beast in the wild. This fantastic English suit coat at the Met dates to between 1750 and 1775. You can see more pictures of it here: http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/80014551?img=0

One thing has always bothered me about men's coats in this period. Where do those big pleats (on either side of the center back vent) come from? The side pleats are easy--there is a seam there, and a pair of buttons and pocket flaps to hide the train wreck of stitches from which they hang. The only thing that makes sense is a big horizontal seam right across the back.

Not terribly obvious, is it? Except for the six sets of weird stitches, (actually close worked buttonholes from the last post.)  At the start of the 18th century, the entire length of the center back opening of coats could have buttons and buttonholes. This one only has six. It is the top pair of decorative buttonholes that hides the seam. Clever little bastards, those tailors.

 Hard to tell if there is any interfacing in the tails of this mid-century coat. It starts to disappear in this period. Go back in time 30 to 40 years and the horsehair padding becomes pretty apparent:

This one has eight buttonholes. The gentlemen of the 1730s loved their poof. M. de Garsault calls it "pannier," like a dress. I chose the goat hair/wool Hymo for my pleats so I could split the difference on these two styles. Stiff, but not fluffy.

Next time, the mystery pleat's inside.

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.