STORE POLICIES
SEWING
We do not make hand sewn garments. Machine stitching is much stronger than hand stitching, and is 14 times more efficient. So, a garment that is $140.00 sewn by machine would be about $2,000 if done by hand, even if we could find someone to do it. We primarily use a 1951 Singer Anniversary treadle/electric/hand crank combination machine, as this machine gives us the greatest stitching control. It also does not get tired.
On many heavy-duty garments, we overcast the raw edges to retard fraying; nothing can stop it completely except some complicated seaming which materially increases the cost of the garment. We use a contrasting color of thread for the overcasting so we can see it and verify that it was done.
In the 18thcentury, fabric was relatively expensive and hand sewing even more expensive, so every scrap of fabric was used and excess hand stitching avoided as much as possible. Accordingly, raw edges were commonplace, as were garment components pieced together from smaller pieces. Our vests are raw edged because that’s the way they were made back then. We try to avoid piecing.
BUTTONS
Metal buttons were so expensive in the 18th century that only the rich and governments could afford them. The only documented use of those flat white pewter buttons so common in the hobby is on the Lottery coats of 1778. These buttons are now $1.00 each, increasing the cost of a garment by about 10%. We therefore use an array of less expensive buttons, including cast pewter, bone, leather, mould, and stamped, including 4-hole buttons, which were very common. We generally use leather or metal ones for heavy duty garments, and others for lighter duty garments. Military coats always come with flat plain white pewters.
BUTTONHOLES
The simplest buttonhole is just a slit in the fabric. Soldiers’ wool coats had slits, not buttonholes. This worked out because wool was woven and fulled so tightly. Slightly more complicated is the sewn buttonhole, which is a slit with parallel back stitching. This looks like modern straight stitching, but is parallel to the slit, not perpendicular. Next is the perpendicular stitch, which is just a modern machine buttonhole. Most non wool, aka “linen,” garments had these buttonholes because the weave is not as tight. “Linen” does NOT mean just flax; hemp, silk and cotton are also “linen.” Hand “worked” buttonholes are the most complicated, but we don’t need to go into that because we don’t offer them. We provide buttonholes appropriate to the garment, usually machine ones.
If you would like to do your own buttonholes, let us know, because without buttonholes, we don’t know where to locate the buttons, so you’ll have to sew the buttons on, too. We attach the buttons to the garment in a small plastic bag in this event. We assume that you don’t want to do this.
