RSS FeedRomantic History Historical Clothing: Mid-19th Century Gentleman's ...
At a recent reenactment I saw several men wearing overalls made from the Past Patterns overall pattern . Since my husband David *always* wears modern blue denim overalls (along with a collared plaid or check shirt, long or short sleeve depending on the season) I was very interested in obtaining the pattern so I could make him a period correct set to wear. As of late he has decided to go "old fashioned" in his wardrobe and has asked me to make him some new clothes. Since David already has a good fitting trouser pattern that we have adjusted and altered to his height and preference (although, since he has lost 35 lbs. over the summer they are a little baggier now) I decided to take what I had learned about mid 19th century overall styles and modify his existing trouser pattern for an overall pattern. Here is the sketch I made showing what I wanted the final overalls to look like:
To make the pattern I took his trouser pattern and laid it on fresh paper. The back of his trouser pattern has a yoke, so I just put the two pieces together and traced around the yoke and trouser back as one piece. I added 2.5" in height to the front and back trouser pieces to take the place of the waistband that is on his regular trousers. I added 4" extra in height at the center back, tapering down to the side seam in a rounded shape. I extended the length of the fly 2.5" and made an apron piece for the front of the overalls, taken the dimensions for it from the bib on his modern overalls. (since then, David has requested that on the next pair I make, I make the top of the bib wider, more along the lines of the 1838 painting shown above). Then I made the apron. I have no idea what is the correct method of construction of these type of overalls so I used basic mid 19th century techniques gleaned from many different sources and garments for these. I don't know if it will be particuarly accurate to overalls but it...