The obligatory intro post

[black_hound]

 My user name is black_hound . I've been in reenacting for 25 years as an American Revolutionary War reenactor and I am in the ranks.

I am primarily an artillerist. I have been working black powder artillery for the bulk of those 25 years. When I field with artillery it is as a member of the Pennsylvania State Navy and their 3 pounder cannon, "Defiance".

I also field as a rifleman with the 5th Pennsylvania Regiment, Rifle Coy.

I'm not sure what else there is to say except I love black powder, I love live fire competitions, I love the history of the Am Rev War, and I love the hobby. Warts and all.

If you belong to a unit or civilian organization and they have a website, please post a link and I'll add it to the sidebar.

Comments

[potboy]

Oh very nice! They're lovely shirts when they're made, but all those reinforcements and gussets under the arms, cuffs and collars and so on! You'd never imagine the amount of work involved.

[sharpiefan]

I'm lucky I was only doing it for the heck of it. There's a reason I don't do anything earlier than the NapWar!

I'm also very glad I was using a checked fabric. Even though it wasn't folded quite straight when we cut it, so it wasn't cut quite on the grain, I ended up using the woven-in lines of the check to follow when sewing it.

I ended up doing one thing at a time - the cuffs, or setting in one gusset then the other - just following the pattern - without trying to do everything all at once. It took me about six weeks or so, in the end. The trickiest bit, for me, was working out which way round the collar went (I added the decorative backstitch suggested by the pattern version I was using). Even gathering the sleeves to fit the cuffs wasn't much of a problem - and I have tiny wrists!

I've got just enough for a second shirt, if I'm careful when cutting it. Though I want a drill jacket and greatcoat first - greatcoat especially after Detling. (It was cold in the evenings!)

[potboy]

Yes, it's not that shirts are complicated, it's just that there's such a lot of hemming involved. Women's caps are similarly deceptive in that they look like you could run them up in an hour, but really there's days of rolled hems involved in the ruffles.

I was at Detling too, but I was there with Regia Anglorum. I know what you mean about the cold! I've just finished making a semi-circular cloak as a result of it :)

[black_hound]

Detling is a time line event?

[potboy]

I'm not sure if it's a time-line, it's more of a time-bucket. It's a multi-period show where the Ancient Greeks will be camped next to the 19th Century Samurai, next to the WW2 Spitfire, next to the Saxons. There may be a logic in the layout, but I haven't noticed it myself.

http://www.military-odyssey.fsnet.co.uk/mo/mo-f.html

[black_hound]

Aha! Over her we call events like that 'timelines'.

One of the big ones here is Military Through the Ages (MTA) that is held every year in Jamestown. Everything from Roman Legions to Iraqi war reenactors.

[black_hound]

I made myself a greatcoat some years back. I'll have to take some pictures.

I ended up just drafting the pattern myself. The pattern I bought must have been designed by the insane because the pieces didn't fit together and the sizing was all out the window.

I took the basic lines of Kannick's Workman's Jacket to get the double breasted front correct, and then just drafted the rest of it. I added in the tail pockets and constructed the cuffs based on what I learned from doing a civilian frock coat.