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.