1st Virginia Cavalry Jacket - Gala Rock Richmond Depot II

Before I draft my own pattern for a particular garment, I like to learn using someone else's pattern -- in this case, the shell jacket and the Gala Rock Richmond Depot II pattern.

The pattern leaves much to be desired. The neck was in a weird place; the wrists were too small to get normal size man-hands through. I made about a dozen changes to the pattern just for fit. And my husband is quite standard; all his modern Army 40L uniforms fit perfectly. However, I shifted the neck back, added the L to the 40, widened the cuffs, lowered the armscythe, and generally cut and slashed the pattern to bits.

 Once I got a well-fitting base, I made pattern pieces for the cuffs and collar unique to the 1st VA cavalry jacket.  Since it's an early war jacket, I went with the modern interpretation of it. In hindsight, I wish I had reproduced the work of this young man's imaginative tailor:


Since I was portraying a tailor-made jacket, I went full-steam ahead with the modifications to improve and flatter the fit. I did ironwork:

And I added padding to the shoulders. Next time I will try padding the chest as well:

I attached the hussar bar braid before I attached the coat to the body, and I was glad I did. I marked it with flour before pinning, which worked well. It was less difficult to brush off than, say, blue chalk.

 The final product fits very well. However, although my husband loves it -- he is Virginian to the core! -- it still seems wanting, to me, and I'm not sure what isn't quite right. It's not horrible for my first shell jacket, though, and I'll keep making them and probably figure out what is annoying me about it.

We'll get better pictures at the next event, but here's a quick cell phone snap: