Frock coat

“ In comparing the vest and frock coat on the angle of 15 deg., we find that the vest has a gore under the arm at line 171⁄2 of say 31⁄4, while the frock undercoat has only about 2 numbers cut out in both gores, and, besides, the waist seam of the frock is to be stretched from 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 inches—all of which will make the half frock coat about 2 in. larger over the hips than the vest. ”

“ THE BACK SKIRT.
As shown, H to Q, agrees with H Q of the back. C C, D D, is 1⁄4 inch more than H Q: 1⁄2 inch is added on for seams above H Q, and 1 inch is allowed for the making up of the pleat beyond Q and D D.
GENERAL'S FROCK-COAT SYSTEM.
The Frock-coat, such as is worn by those Officers who are mounted, requires: little adaptation from what we have already described, and we herewith give a small diagram, showing the necessary variations. As far as bodypart is concerned this particular coat is identical with what we have already described, the lapel, however, is cut wider. ”

“ Of coats, the frock is better than the evening or dress-coat. It fulfils the purpose of a garment more completely, and when buttoned up is capable of protecting the chest. The triangular opening in front of the coat and waistcoat is, however, an absurdity. It leaves unprotected from cold and wet the very part which most requires protection. Pictorially, the regularly-defined patch of white seen through it is always offensive ”

“ He said a frock coat was all right in society or among the crowned heads, but when you have to mingle with lions and elephants one minute that would snatch the tail off a coat and chew it and the next minute you are mixed up with a bunch of freaks or a lot of bareback riders or trapeze performers, you have got to compromise on a coat that will fit any climate, and not cause invidious remarks, whatever that is. ”

“ The Frock-coat worn by Field-Marshal, etc., is made of blue cloth, D.B., with blue velvet collar and cuffs, cuffs being round 3 inches deep: plain flaps are put in the back pleats, 11⁄2 inches wide and about ll inches long, for an Officers 5ft. 9in. in height. There are two rows of buttons down the front, the rows being 8 inches apart at the top. 4 inches at the waist; two buttons at the waist behind and one at the bottom of each skirt flap. The skirts are lined with black silk; shoulder cords of the same pattern as used on the Tunic. ”

“ On a frock coat the back center is thrown out below the tack, and all roundness over the seat is produced by two curved lines on the side of the back and side of the front skirts, all of which is shown in the diagrams. The center of the back is open below the tack, and a curved line there would simply produce a curved edge, but would not give the oval form to the garment. If it is desired to roll the lapel further down, a gore should be cut somewhere in the forepart, and whatever the gore and its seams take up must be allowed in front, or else the coat will be too small there. ”

“ The waist proportion on a frock coat cannot be made according to the close measure taken over the vest, but must be made according to the measure over a well-fitting coat when buttoned up, and to be taken as large and as loose, yet as snug, as the coat really requires it to be. ”

“ A frock coat has a chance to go backward or forward by an open front and open back skirt, without showing wrinkles, but pants are sewed up all around, and the least misconstruction will show. But there is another reason. The waist and skirt of a coat is all outside of the body, while the pants may be said to have a partition in the shape of a crotch seam, and which crotch seam is affected by every step. ”

“ The coat is simply that much larger over the hips, as the swing of the side piece from a square of 20 to a square of 171⁄2 amounts to.
The square of 18, for either a three-seamed sack, or a frock coat, may be reduced at the waist as shown in Dia. II, and if the diameter of the waist indicates that more space is required at the side, it should be allowed according to that indication. Some men are quite well filled out in the sides of the body and flat in front, while others require more waist proportion in front. ”

“ Certainly, when it comes to the artist at Truefitt's wearing a frock-coat while cutting your hair, you cannot help asking yourself whether its hour has not struck. Yet, when one has said this, one must hedge from a conjecture so extreme. The king wears a frock-coat, a long, gray one, with a white top-hat and lavender gloves, and those who like to be like a king conform to his taste. No one, upon his life, may yet wear a frock and a derby, but many people now wear top-hats, though black ones, with sack-coats, with any sort of coats ”

“ The back may be called the face of a coat, and it requires constant watching on the part of the cutter. At lines 9 and 15 the back should not be cut less than three numbers wide, and the whole calculation in regard to the height of a frock coat back is made with a back, three numbers wide at that point, and the calculation for a sack coat back is made with seven number width at line 9. At the waist the width of the back depends a good deal upon the size of a coat. A large size may have enough with two numbers, while a small size may have two and a half numbers. ”

“ The run of the seams, when covering the crooked form of a man, must always assume a different position when laid out on a flat surface, which is fully demonstrated in the back slope of pants. But a cutter should know how much they are out of gear from a certain line or base. If a cutter is able to cut a frock coat with a waist seam running horizontally around the body when the coat is on, then it will be easy for him to produce a square bottom, which is always in good style, and a coat that is too long or too short at one place is always a misfit. ”

“ We should prefer a tailed coat of greater amplitude of skirt and depth of body than the one in present use; for it is certain, and will be acknowledged by all who have performed marches and pedestrian excursions, that the skirts of a frock-coat flapping against the front of the thighs, more or less impede motion and add to fatigue. ”

“ A low hat should not be worn with a long coat—a double-breasted frock, for example. Dark suits are preferable for Sundays, especially in town, and light suits should never be worn to church anywhere. Double-breasted frock coats should always be black. ”

“ Stretching certain parts will accomplish a great deal of good, but all stretching should be clearly marked by nicks, for a journeyman cannot always be expected to know just where the stretching is required. Thus, if we take a regular frock coat pattern, and stretch the sidepiece half an inch downward on the front and at the hollow of the waist, that is equal to contracting the sidepiece the same distance at the back seam ”

“ But in the city where a man is supposed to make visits as well as lounge in the street, the frock coat of very dark blue or black, or a black cloth cut-away, the white waistcoat, and lavender gloves, are almost indispensable. Very thin boots should be avoided at all times, and whatever clothes one wears they should be well brushed. ”

“ Modern habits of activity and personal independence require the dress to be tolerably succinct and unvoluminous; but some change in the right direction has been lately made by the introduction of what are called paletots, and other coats of various transitional forms between them and the shooting-jacket proper. In these a good deal of the stiffness and angularity of the regulation frock coat is got rid of, and they admit of adaptation to different statures and sizes. ”

“ The lap of the sidepiece and forepart, and the lap of the bottom of the sidepiece and top of the back skirt, are explained as follows: A sack coat is wider at the back of the waist and runs down straighter than a frock. A straight line from the shoulder blade down to the seat is shorter than a line running down closer and in a greater curve toward the body. The circumference which the sack coat occupies at the back of waist is larger than that of a frock. The closer the garment fits to the body of the back the narrower it must become, and at the same time it must become longer. ”

“ The vest is a figured worsted piece of goods, of lilac colour, about half-worn. The coat is a black cloth frock, or surtout, but little worn, no velvet upon it, lined inside of the skirts with black silk or serge, the sleeve lining twilled linen. Inside of [Pg 186] the left sleeve is a mark of the merchant, which is one cipher—nothing more. From the looks, I should have taken the coat to have cost twenty dollars. The pantaloons are rather of a blue colour, striped casinet, and have never been worn much. ”

“ No soldier, who has been reduced to his coatee in a campaign, but must have sighed after his original smock-frock, or any other outer covering that had at least some pretensions to being useful. Since, however, the idea of defending the body of the foot-soldier by steel or leather is given up, the two things requisite in a serviceable coat are warmth and convenience. ”

“ Can I,” said Lord Peter, looking at himself in the eighteenth-century mirror over the mantelpiece, “can I have the heart to fluster the flustered Thipps further—that’s very difficult to say quickly—by appearing in a top-hat and frock-coat? I think not. Ten to one he will overlook my trousers and mistake me for the undertaker. A grey suit, I fancy, neat but not gaudy, with a hat to tone, suits my other self better. Exit the amateur of first editions; new motive introduced by solo bassoon; enter Sherlock Holmes, disguised as a walking gentleman. ”

“ They wear no woollen but if it be a poor coat under their outermost garment made of great canvas and called a frock. Their hosen be of light canvas and pass not their knee, wherefore they be gartered and their thighs bare. ”

“ No doubt Madame Fashion saw to it that the changes were rung sufficiently to make hay while the sun shone on extravagant tastes. The coat was held at the waist with a sash of silk tied in a bow with short ends. Towards the end of the reign, foreshadowing the Elizabethan jerkin or jacket, the custom grew more universal of the coat with sleeves and the high neck, the bases were cut shorter to show the full trunks, and the waistcoat was almost entirely done away with, the collar grew in proportion, and spread, like the tail of an angry turkey, in ruffle and folded pleat round the man’s neck. ”

“ The eighteen-shilling chintz great-coats, so ostentatiously put forward by nefarious tradesmen as dressing-gowns, and which resemble pattern-cards of the vegetable kingdom, are unworthy the notice of all gentlemen—of course excepting those who are so by act of Parliament. Although it is generally imagined that the coat is the principal article of dress, we attach far greater importance to the trousers, the cut of which should, in the first place, be regulated by nature’s cut of the leg. ”

“ We do not appreciate the jacket as we ought, or rather we do not remember the good service it did us at Eton and Harrow—when the limbs were free and supple, and when their full activity was called into constant play, who would have thought of a coat? It was only when we began to fancy ourselves men, and to think that our claims to virility lay in the skirts of our coats, that we discarded the jacket. ”

“ The head of one skin is made into the hood by fitting it in with seams. All these garments are made on regular patterns, just as our clothes are; all jackets, for instance, having practically the same number of pieces. To make the frock fit round the neck, there is a curved triangular piece let in on each side of the throat, and these throat-pieces are always made of the white skin from the belly of the deer, no matter what is the color of the rest of the garment. This gives a very pretty effect to the frock. ”

“ No coatee nor jacket can be warm enough for the British service, exposed as the men are to all varieties of climate; and infinitely more to cold and wet than to sunshine. In India, and in some of the colonies, a lighter kind of clothing may be indeed necessary; but for the common use of the army, a coat is wanted that shall be a protection against wet and cold, and yet not inconvenient to the wearer—making him comfortable, in fact, while it allows him free use of all his limbs and muscles. ”

“ A pouch or wallet depended from the belt, and a sheath containing two daggers, an anelace, and a misericorde. The pouch was a very rich affair, often of stamped gilded leather or sewn velvet—ornamented, in fact, according to the purse of the wearer. In winter such a man as he of the cotehardie would wear an overcoat with an attached hood. This coat was made in various forms: one form with wide sleeves the same width all the way down, under which were slits in the coat to enable the wearer to place his hands inside, as in the modern Raglan [Pg 125] coat-pocket. ”

“ In a very thorny country, a leather coat is almost essential. A blouse, cut short so as to clear the saddle, is neat, cool, and easy, whether as a riding or walking costume. Generally speaking, the traveller will chiefly spend his life in his shirt-sleeves, and will only use his coat when he wants extra warmth.
To carry a Coat.--There are two ways. The first is to fold it small and strap it to the belt. If the coat be a light one it can be carried very neatly and comfortably in this way, lying in the small of the back. ”