Beginning the ordering process with me is as easy as emailing me at RStuartClothier@gmail.com or using the following Google Form: Google Form
We will then work together to establish your:
Kit goals,
Budget,
Fittings,
Fabrics, notions etc,
Production.
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In the 18th century, a middle-to-upper class sort would have one or several tailors, mantua makers, stay makers or seamstress. Each was a different profession, with different specialties, and often had several staff working in the shop, seated 'tailor legged' (cross legged) on large table surfaces near windows for best light, to keep the garments off the floor.
The customer might have one tailor that creates his frock coats, but another that creates his breeches. He would more than likely procure his own bolt of fabric, notions like thread and any fancy lace, buttons buckles etc, and provide them to the tailor, for once a tailor has customized the pattern for a customer, it is always kept on hand, and the customer knows exactly how much yardage is necessary for each piece of clothing.
Shirts and shifts and other common items, were generally quickly produced, a person owned several of each, and the only customization was arm length, neck measure, and cuff circumference, (and they were often marked with the owners initials in cross-stitch on the front for identification on laundry day) as linen was woven in a width that made it appropriate to easily create a very full shirt or shift that would fit almost everyone.
Stays on the other hand were, and still are, a tedious and custom process. Staymakers were career artisans. For middle and lower class women, it was common to have only a single set of stays, but they were still well fit and properly proportioned to a woman's body to achieve the conical shape so easily recognizable as 18th century. Through wills and theft reports it is evident that middle and upper class women may have had multiple sets of stays, or a day set, and a partially or unboned waistcoat, for home wear under a dressing robe, or for warmth under a gown in addition to stays.
A note on the sleeveless bodice: Evidence shows that the sleeveless bodice (the female pirate look, where she is wearing lace up sleeveless top and a shirt underneath, or the majority of her shift sleeves are exposed, and no gown) is not a customary American or New England look. It is occasionally seen in portraits from mainland Europe at the time but there hasn't been any evidence of sleeveless bodices in American colonies. Reference to this look may have been from accounts of women, at home, without guests wearing their waistcoats for warmth, as they are often referenced in wills, as quilted waistcoats, so inferring about 'quilting' of the time, they had a layer of wool bat sandwiched between linen or wool fabric layers.
