VMI New Market Uniform- Part 2

The second update for the VMI cadet impression finishes off the trousers, along with the vest. After this, I just have the jacket, haversack and cap left.


Starting off with finishing up the trousers, a bit of stitching is added on, securing the osnaburg lining. This is done for both sides, as is the whip-stitch around the raw edge of the trousers.

The right side of the fly. This reaches over a good distance, buttoning off center. However, since the button is on the inside, the asymmetrical design isn't visible. The edges are whipped down. Compared to a normal fly, this is actually much easier to put together, and functions just as well. I wonder why these never took off?

After each half was complete, the long seams on the legs were sewn up, and a back belt attached. That completed the trousers, which went together relatively quickly.


Working my way up, I next have the vest. Since I didn't have any sort of a pattern, I needed to draft one. For that, I used L. Phyliky's The Tailor, from 1867. The 1867 date helps ensure the style is appropriate for the 1864 vest. The basic drafting was relatively basic, most of the pieces were identical to a jacket pattern; I suppose I could've just converted a jacket pattern over.

Either way, that gave me a generic vest pattern. However, I wanted something a bit more Cadet-specific. So, I used a picture of a Georgia Military Institute Cadet's vest as inspiration. This photo is from Echoes of Glory.  The vest is relatively basic, as vests tend to be, but nevertheless I copied the layout of pockets, lining, etc.

Given the relative complexity of making the pockets, which easily took up half my time, I'll cover the specifics of those in the next post. But let's skip past the pockets on the front, and move right on to having the major pieces of the body attached:

With the jean cloth fronts attached to the polished cotton back, I added a linen interlining, along with the jean cloth lapel facings, onto the fronts.

With that in position, the osnaburg lining is laid over and felled down:

The lining for the center, going over the brown cotton is laid over the edges of the front lining, and whipped down:

And, the armscye is closed off, with another felled stitch:

The majority of the vest consisted of pockets, and felling together the lining. There wasn't nearly as much to it as I imagined. With topstitching, buttonholes and buttons added, the vest was nearly done. The last step was to copy a neat detail in the original. The Georgia Cadet wrote his name on the back lining of his vest; I did the same:

And so with that, 2/5 of the VMI uniform is completed. I'll hold off on showing off the finished sections until the entire uniform is done.

VMI New Market Uniform- Part 1

Now for a much more drawn out project: a complete Virginia Military Institute (VMI) cadet impression for the 150th New Market later this year. I'll be making a new hat, jacket, vest, trousers and haversack for this.

The uniform is a little different from the dress uniform that VMI is known for. On the left is the more common, well known dress uniform, with bars across the jacket, as well as a shako and white pants. When the VMI cadets were called up to help repulse the 1864 invasion of the Shenandoah Valley, they donned a simpler uniform, shown on the right. It was consisted of a simple, plain jacket and pants, and unadorned blue kepi.

           



Despite it being simpler, it's still a lot to make. I'll begin with the trousers. The trousers, jacket and vest will all be made out of a dark blue-on-natural jean cloth


The trousers are actually oddly unique. To begin with, there aren't any pockets. Added to that, instead of a normal fly front, found on pretty much every pair of pants, they have a 'blind' fly. It'll become clearer with pictures, but basically the buttonholes are folded behind the main fabric

To start off, here's the left side, viewed from the inside. On the right is part of the fly construction.

That part of the fly is folded back, behind the main fabric. Six buttonholes are added, and the edges whipped down. That means that only one side of the buttonhole is accessible:

 The trousers are also unique in that there is no waistband. Instead, the edges are left raw, and just have thread whipped around them. On a jean cloth material, which unravels very easily, it seems short-sighted, but that's how the original trousers were made. Doing this around a raw edge is also surprisingly difficult; neat stitches are difficult to make.

Next time I'll finish up the trousers, and then work on either the haversack or vest

Richmond Depot III- Part 3

The third and final installment for the Richmond Depot III


Picking up where I left off, I've cut out the sleeves. Typical to 1860s fashion, the sleeves are comparatively wide. Below are the two-piece sleeves put together; one of kersey and the other osnaburg for the lining.

The sleeve ends are put together and turned under. The lining is then felled to the kersey, shown below.

The stitches are allowed to show through to the other side. This results in a visible stitch, almost like a topstitch. Some originals were put together with a running stitch, and some whipped or felled down the lining. Either way, all had visible stitching. This is what the outside looks like:

After this, the sleeves are attached to the body. I use a mixture of pins and basting to hold the sleeve in place. Whenever I can get away with it (ie. Whenever hand sewing is present on an original) I make sure to attach the sleeves by hand to the body, regardless of whether or not I've machined the other inner seams.
This results in a seam that has a little give, and won't be as likely to break as a stiff machine-sewn seam. In the armscye, which undergoes a lot of pressure, it's good to have a little leeway.

 With the kersey part of the sleeves attached, the lining is felled down, and the jacket completed. Not owning a form of any kind, I've got to resort to laying out flat anything I want to take a picture of. Here's the complete Richmond Depot type III:

And it wouldn't be complete without a picture of myself wearing it. The jacket is appropriate for a 1864-65 Virginia setting. For those interested, I also made the hat and pants, as well as the shirt, despite not being able to see it here. An interesting thing to note, which some astute readers might have already, is that up close and far away the jacket has a different color. Close up, it appears to be more of a dark grey, while outside in the sun, farther away, it appears a dark blueish color. This same effect happened with the original jackets, which in 1863 in Chickamauga, ended up with Confederate soldiers mistaken for Federals.

Next up, I have an entire VMI cadet uniform to make, so be on the lookout for that.

Richmond Depot III- Part 2

With heavy snowfall today, little else to do, and a growing backlog of other sewing projects, I decided to continue work on this jacket. The body is finished up, leaving the sleeves left.

Picking up from where I left off, the bottom edges of the lining and the shell are attached together. It's then turned and pressed.

After turning it, the lining pieces are basted down to their counterparts

With everything held in place by pins and basting, the outside edges are felled down over the lapel facings, an under the inner collar

Once the perimeter is felled down, the lining is done. Here's the complete body lining.

After this, the outside of the jacket is topstitched, and nine hand-worked buttons are added onto the front

Here's a close-up of one of the button and buttonhole. 

The buttonhole on this original RDII jacket is about similar, though mine have a higher stitch count.
The thread I'm using is logwood dyed, so with time and exposure it'll fade to the brown color seen in the original thread.

 And the completed body. All nine Script I buttons are added, topstitching done, and lining complete. What remains is completing the sleeves and adding them on.