The Tale of A Wedding: Clothing The Men

I like to think I am fully responsible for all that hotness, but lets face it...there's some good looking dudes right there...

I started with the simplest bit first. The Ties. I found the perfect for skinny tie pattern on Pinterest. Which can be found here. I used the pattern exactly as posted. But I completely scraped the instructions. Mainly because I didn't want to fully line the ties and the steps of construction just seemed plainly slow and impractical...I just lined the tips up about 2 inches, sewed it into a tube, and turned it. The only issue I had with this was the ties wanting to twist up a bit and not lay smooth and flat.
In hind sight...go with the original instructions. You'll end up with a more professional looking tie. 

For the vest we finally choose Vogue 7488, view A. We left off the upper welts and the bottom ones are actually faux. (This girl is not a fan of the things and seeing as they will likely not be worn again I didn't feel they were necessary.)

We found the vest material at Joann's. Its a Charcoal dapple suiting by Sew Classics. Got the buckles and buttons forms there as well (yay coupons). (Note to self - they don't have 1" buckles like the pattern calls for, but the 3/4" one works perfectly!)

I found it interesting to compare the construct and shape of these modern vests to the mid-nineteenth century ones I do.

The only real issue we had was with the blasted covered buttons popping apart the morning of, when the guys were getting ready...I had made several extras, but I wasn't on site when it was going on to be able to fix them so that was super stressful (^thus me arriving and kicking in to quasi freak mode. lol).

As you can probably observe the only alteration I had to make to the pattern was in a few cases adding length....Tall men...All of my guys were long distance, but one so that added a dose of fun for sure.

I was happy my work even with stood some playful, rough housing! ;)

I had all the pieces, but the grooms vest ,done about 2 weeks before the wedding. There was some complications with who was going to make the grooms vest and I ended up finishing the last half the *night before* the wedding around 11:30. Thank goodness for a helpful sister in law that could sew the buttons on while I ran off to write my maid of honor speech. I was saying never again at the time... lol I don't know when, if ever I've felt that stressed out. Definitely not a wise move waiting that last minute.

And there you have it!
All the wedding sewing completed. Next step seeing how it all came together...

What do y'all think of the more casual look for groomsmen? Is this something you would choose?

Love,
Brooke 

1860's Civilian Men's Shirt

A while back I had a gentleman commission this shirt....

I used pima cotton for the first time ever. One of the most fabulous materials I've ever worked with. Perfect weave and incredibly smooth! I was able to find the best price with an eBay seller - who unfortunately no longer offers this product. :( It is available for just a tad more here at fabric.com.

Made in the same fashion as mentioned here.

I sewed the majority of this one by machine. I always do buttonholes, gathering threads, and other finishing touches by hand tho...

China buttons from my secret "supplier".

 Very lightly gathered back. 

Buttonholes - not my favorite part of mid-century sewing. ;)

 

I am still chugging along on the biggest 'commission' I've ever taken on in my sewing career...An overload of pictures will come around sometime in September.. ;)

 

Love,

Brooke

'Nother 1860's Civilian Waistcoat

The front is silk taffeta, as requested, from Pure Silks. It was my first time ordering from them. I was very impressed with the quality of the material as well as with the shipping time. It was coming from India and I only had 2 weeks from the day ordered till I needed to ship the finished product. And it got here with time to spare. 

Gotta love those covered buttons!! 

I sent one mockup to my client. There was one slight alteration on the lapels, but thankfully I was able to recruit my mom to help me out with that as I was pretty much just having a duh moment and couldn't get it done. lol

It has all the same credentials (pattern-wise) as this one I've previously done. 

The back - I used polished cotton from Needle and Thread (Wooded Hamlet). My first time working with the stuff, but it was also fabulous quality-wise and I quite liked it.

And I got the buckle from there too...  

 

Ended up making the whole thing from start to finish in 2 days....It definitely seemed easier then that last one I made...perhaps that means practice does make perfect.. ;)

 

Love,

Brooke

1860's Civilian Waistcoat & Cravat

 Since I took this on awhile back and didn't finish it right away...I decided to use it as my UFO project for The Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge I'm participating in. It seems to be a common trend for me... as usual this exploit was full of many firsts.

For the front I used cotton velvet from fabric.com and the back is silk taffeta from Fashion Fabrics Club. (*Note to self* they have great price on it and its perfect. No slubs, crisp, and lightweight.) The lining is white cotton. As far is notions go the only thing I used were the button forms and buckle for the back.

 First time doing welt pockets. Quite the experience. Velvet was an all around pain in the neck to work with. I'm definitely not planning on rushing into another project involving the stuff. I've never really made anything with it before so it was a true learning affair. lol

 The pattern is based on Past Patterns: Single Breasted Shawl Collar Waistcoat. One of the main reasons I went for the shawl collar is so it would perhaps look a tad bit more "formal" (yes, I know different fabrics were the main factor of formality). I'm eager to try one with notched lapels... or whatever the PC term for them is....
Both items were made to be accurate for 1860-64.

 These buttons, arghhhh. I thought they were going to be the end of my sewing career. :p lol It took me hours to get them together...the velvet was just so bulky and obviously frays like bonkers. Not to mention the buttonholes - since I was worried about getting them made without the front turning completely turning to fuzz...I, first, machine sewed where the holes would be. Then cut them and hand sewed regular buttons holes. Wasn't quite the charm I was hoping for. The machine stitching often pulled off the fibers when I was whipping around it. In the end I prevailed and they didn't look half bad. ;)

 Unfortunately I have absolutely no clue how many hours it took for me to complete. I've never kept track of such things. I would say its been one of the smaller, but more time consuming things I've made. Between the welt pockets, covered buttons that wouldn't cooperate, 80% of it being hand sewn and bagging it backwards the first 2 times it probably took over 30 hours... 

The materials cost around $35, I think. My sister ordered everything so it may not be exact on the dollar, but close enough. ;)  Not sure when its going to be first worn as this was for a client and it probably won't be till April or so...

 I would say its about 95% historically accurate. While I did my best to find the most accurate materials - the 5% missing is due to the difference in fabric from the 19th century and today. Otherwise the cut, techniques, etc are period correct. Even the cravat is copied from originals. ;)

 I thought this segment about clothing etiquette was incredibly helpful for knowing when it would be proper to go with/without a waistcoat, etc....
 "Clothing etiquette will depend a great deal on the type of impression, the personality of the gentleman, societal perceptions of the appropriate attire for the situation, and the types of activities the gentleman is engaged in.
 In the most general form... vest, coat, and cravat/neckerchief are needed for situations deemed more formal... going without is accepted in situations deemed less formal. If the gent is seen "about town", he is probably on some business he deems moderately formal, as in.. he'll be seen by persons upon whom he'd like to make a good impression. A vest/waistcoat and coat are important for that occasion. If he is engaged in heavy labor... or at a picnic on a hot day... or in the evening hanging around home... less formal situation and the coat definitely can be and the waistcoat/vest may be left off. He may choose to replace the coat and sometimes a vest with a smock/ work-shirt for heavier or dirtier tasks or sporting events (including hunting, which leads to the number of militia troops and early war uniforms that include them as a key uniform component) and still be deemed "decently" dressed. Remember that the farmer who may wear a work-shirt to tend his fields and animals would don a waistcoat and coat before squiring the Mrs. to shopping in town... or meeting with the bankers concerning his loan for next season's seedlings... or certainly a dance, supper party, or church service. The young dandy might start the lakeside outing in his nice linen dittos, but remove his coat to row the boat or take his afternoon nap in the sun or carry the basket.
 Among the very working-class, one does see pictures of gents with just a shirt, coat, and neckerchief (no vest/waistcoat in sight). One can also find pictures of gents in waistcoats/vests but without coats... but often there are "occasion indicators" in these pictures as well... a camaraderie of men, interrupted work, at work, very hot day, and such, that tell us when they thought this appropriate." Taken from this post.

  Not necessarily part of my UFO, but it went to he same gentleman. Thus I was inclined to include it in this post. It was the first time we'd done a pretied cravat. Pretty much just winged it. So not much to say about it. :p Its made up of 3 seperate peices. The bow, knot, and band. Each peice is sewn up then all are attached to each other...It buttons in the back and is made out a lovely, forest green silk taffeta.

 

Love,

Brooke

Beginnings in Haberdashery

We've recently begun to venture into the "dangerous" world of men's clothing. Actually I quite like it - everything is, for the most part, straight forward and simple. Not nearly as fiddly as women's clothing.

 It all started out with a simple cravat for our friend Chris' birthday.

I really had no clue where to start. Thankfully I can usually count on The Sewing Academy to help me out with problems like these. This thread in particular enlightened me quite a bit. I had little time to do much more digging so we decided to wing it. Michelle donated a strip of her gorgeous, teal, silk taffeta to the cause (from the great fabric.com sale a couple years back). :) And this is what we whipped up. He seemed to like it quite alot so we're counting it as a win. ;)

Shortly after our friend, Dave, commissioned a civilian shirt and 2 cravats.

For the shirt I started off with Laughing Moon #107 as a base. I made several modifications tho -most of which are listed in this post. I squared the bottom and left the side seam open about 4 inches. Then finished it with a simple hem. When I put the front placket in I simply cut the pointed end off and made it squared instead. For the placket on the sleeves I used the seam rather then cutting a slit for a separate one. Also on the back I gathered it to the yoke all the way across rather then just on the edges like the instructions say to. Had the lengthen the sleeves a bit too...  

I wish I'd had some bigger china buttons, but these are what I had on hand and I have such a hard time finding good ones that match. :-/ 

It was about 95% hand sewn. I find myself liking hand sewing more and more every time I do it... :)

 

In the meantime my good friend, Jasper, educated me more on cravats. He's extremely well versed on men's clothing and never ceases to be really helpful. :)

 I order some silk from Fabrics & Trims. The green I received - I ended up not using, but who doesn't like have some extra taffeta laying around. ;) The shot burgundy/black on the other hand was so lovely and worked out wonderfully. A kind lady sent me the perfect dark green for the other one. We all, immediately fell in love with it and wanted dresses out of it - so crisp and such a deep, rich color. Much to our disappointment there was only a enough for a few cravats. ;D The fun thing about cravats is that there is very few limits. So we have fun experimenting with all the different tips and options. I've been trying to remember how to tie them several ways. Its not as easy as it looks. lol

We're currently studying up on waistcoats - I've been told they are worse to make then jackets so I'm eager to see how it works out. :) Might also try our hands at pre-tied cravats - that shouldn't be to difficult since we make our selves pre-tied bows fairly often.

Love,
Brooke