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.
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.
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