US Marine Corps Officer's Uniform Jacket: M1875 through M1900

[Malachi Thorne]

Good Evening, All;

PREAMBLE:

Several years ago, I saw an illustration from the cover of an old Marine Corps Gazette, featuring a Captain of Marines in fatigue uniform.  The illustration was meant to depict a typical company grade officer from the Spanish American War.  (see below)

After much research, including tracking down a supplier of English broadcloth, various trims and findings that only a few Regiments of the British Military still use, as well as a 19th Century Military Tailor's manual, I am finally ready to begin construction of a wearable copy.  This post, as well as those that follow, will document the process, and hopefully help others who may want a similar uniform (The USMC Fatigue Jacket is quite similar in cut and detail to many British Victorian-era Officer's Patrol Jackets) for themselves.  It is my hope that you will enjoy the process as well as the finished product, and will perhaps learn to avoid the mistakes I make along the way.

22 January '07
CONTENTS: Materials and Suppliers:

The following suppliers were utilized for the associated specialty items:

Najecki Reproductions
1203 Reynolds Road
Chepachet, RI 02814
www.najecki.com

Najecki carries Superfine English Broadcloth in the correct Navy Blue, and will sell you as little as one yard.  Mr. Najecki is very easy to deal with, and is a first-rate sutler.  His Superfine is from Hainsworth of Yorkshire, who have supplied the British Army with uniform cloth since the Napoleonic wars.  (You could buy from Hainsworth, but they won't sell less than 10 meters of fabric directly.)  Approximately 3 to 3-1/2 yards are required for the Fatigue Jacket.

Najecki also supplied ten yards of 1-1/4" wide Black Worsted Wool Braid to trim the Jacket.

Hand Embroidery
86 Margaret Street
London W1W 8TE
www.hand-embroidery.co.uk

The Fatigue Jacket is "fastened" up the front by five Netted Olivettes (elongated football shaped toggles covered in black woolen net) and festooned on either side of the breast with five matching one-inch diameter Netted Buttons.  Hand Embroidery of London is the only supplier I have found who are willing to sell these items in small quantities.   I did find another supplier who is willing to sell them by the gross (144), but as I could not convince the Treasury Department (my beloved and long-suffering wife) to part with the required sum, I purchased mine from Hand.

Needle and Thread
2215 Fairfield Road
Gettysburg, PA 17325
(717) 334-4011

Needle and Thread carries Hainsworth Woolens (just like Najecki, above) but wanted $5 more per yard at the time I purchased.  Needle and Thread did, however, carry (and still does, as far as I know) black polished cotton, the period correct lining material for the coat.

Wm. Booth
Draper
2115 Ramada Drive
Racine, WI 53406
www.wmboothdraper.com

Booth carries an obscure item: 1-3/4" wide worsted wool hat braid, in black.  This is only necessary for sleeve braiding if you are recreating a field-grade uniform.  Booth's part number for this material is WTC 120

Wyedean Weaving Company, Ltd
Bridgehouse Mill
Haworth
West Yorkshire BD22 8PA
www.wyedean.com

The mother lode.  These are the folks who actually manufacture much of the trimming still used for Ceremonial British Military Uniforms.  They are the only source I was able to find for woolen worsted tubular braid -- the frogging on the breast of the jacket -- and the minimum order was 100 meters.  I managed to convince the Treasury Department that this was a necessary purchase, even though my jacket will only require about 10 yards of the stuff.  Yes, the other 90+ yards are for sale; just tell me your coat size, and whether you are doing a Field Grade or Company Grade Uniform, (company grade uniforms have Austrian Knots on the sleeves made of this stuff) and I'll tell you how much I think you should buy from me...

There are a few other things you will need to recreate this uniform; thankfully, most of them are available at your local fabric stores.

IN THE NEXT EDITION:

Excerpts from the aforementioned 19th Century Military Tailor's manual on how to draft the pattern.

01/23/07 EDIT: Corrected URL for Hand Embroidery
From:  ...com
To: ...co.uk

[Dr. Bob]

Col. Thorne,

What a lot of research you have put into this.  Thanks for sharing this!

YMH&OS,

Capt. R. H. Dorian
Brv't. LtC., Chief Topographical Engineer

[Bristow Kid]

Very interesting project Can't wait to see how it progresses and the final product.

[Advertising]

[Pitspitr]

I'm still in the market for the braid Malachi, let me know how much and where to send payment.

[Malachi Thorne]

23 January ‘07
CORRESPONDANCE:  Good Evening, Dr. Bob, Bristow Kid, and Pitsptr:  Thank you all for your kind words!

Pitsptr, please send me a PM or an e-mail with your suit-coat size, your choice of Company Grade or Field Grade, and your mailing address, and I shall respond with a total and mailing information.

To another anonymous correspondent: Yes, it is certainly possible to use a less expensive grade of wool, and less expensive trimmings to construct this coat.  My goal, though, was to produce the most historically accurate reproduction I could, and that meant using only those materials which would have been available to a late 19th Century tailor.  Owing in large part to the relatively small size of the 19th Century Marine Corps, as well as natural “attrition”, there are almost no extant examples of the coat I am trying to recreate.

CONTENTS:  Excerpts from T. H. Holding’s Uniforms of the British Army, Navy, and Court:

One of the most prolific “bespoke” tailors of the late 19th Century; T. H. Holding was also an accomplished author of several tailoring manuals, and the Editor of “The London Tailor”, a 19th Century trade publication.  Headquartered in Cheapside, London, he published several volumes of patterns and tailoring systems for high fashion, livery, and Military Uniforms.  The following pages are excerpted from the latter opus, dated 1894:

Frontispiece:  http://members.cox.net/malachi.thorne/Military%20Tailoring/pp1.pdf

Preface:  http://members.cox.net/malachi.thorne/Military%20Tailoring/pp2.pdf

Introduction: http://members.cox.net/malachi.thorne/Military%20Tailoring/pp3.pdf

Introduction, Continued:  http://members.cox.net/malachi.thorne/Military%20Tailoring/pp4.pdf

The System:  http://members.cox.net/malachi.thorne/Military%20Tailoring/pp5.pdf

Plate 1:  http://members.cox.net/malachi.thorne/Military%20Tailoring/pp6.pdf

Patrol Jacket:  http://members.cox.net/malachi.thorne/Military%20Tailoring/pp7.pdf

Plate 2:  http://members.cox.net/malachi.thorne/Military%20Tailoring/pp8.pdf

NB: A “bespoke” tailor is one who makes clothing at a customer's behest, and exactly to the customer's specification. Bespoke clothing is created without use of a pre-existing pattern, differentiating it from made to measure, which alters a standard-sized pattern to fit the customer – and that is precisely what will be done here.  Using Mr. Holding’s system, I shall attempt to draft a pattern from my own measurements, and then use this pattern in the construction of the Fatigue Jacket.  The observant student will note that Mr. Holding’s system also covers frock coats as well, and that this information must, of necessity, be included in the information I have uploaded.

IN THE NEXT EDITION: Drafting the Pattern

[Major Matt Lewis]

Hey Malachi,

Do you think that the jacket could be swapped out for the M1895 jacket and agumented with the braiding?

[Captain Barrett]

Major,

One aspect of the USMC M1875 Jacket is that it is shorter than the M1895 or even then M1877. The skirt ends of the jacket are about 4" higher than either of the two other jackets. And all the braiding makes it an entirely different animal...

[Malachi Thorne]

Good Morning, Major and Bvt Col. Lewis;

I am assuming you are referring to the US Army M1895 Undress Coat.  If that is the case, then my answer would depend on whether you were modifying a pre-existing Coat, or using an existing M1895 Coat Pattern as a jumping off point.

As Captain Barrett has already pointed out, the US Marine Corps Jacket is slightly shorter than its Army counterpart.  Additionally, the front panels of the Marine Corps coat are curved at the bottom, while the Army version is straight.  Later versions of the Marine Corps coat have side slits at different heights (left side is higher than right side) as Marine Officers wore their saber belts under their coats; the differing slit-heights making allowance for the frog and saber strap hangers.  The collar of the Army Coat is similar to the US Navy's current "Choker White" jacket, while the Marine Corps Coat has a "v" notch at the throat, created by a 30-degree taper on either side of the collar.  All the photos of Marine Officers from the period show them wearing what appears to be a white wing-collared shirt beneath their jackets.  From a photo of the coat by itself, also featuring this "collar behind a collar", I have surmised this is a false collar, buttoned to the jacket collar, in much the same way the current Marine Corps Officer's Dress Blue Jacket accepts a button-in false collar.

Apart from the above, there are a few subtle variations in how the basic coats are trimmed, apart from the frogging on the breast and the rank-braid on the sleeves.  In light of all of these differences, I would have to say that if you are starting with a pre-existing uniform, the number of differences between the two coats would make conversion a job for an experienced tailor, while modifying an existing M1895 pattern would be much easier.

[xranger]

Hello All ...

 I've been offline for quite a while. I was wondering if anyone has heard from Malachi Thorne of late, or know how to reach him? The last posting I saw from him was in Feb of 2007. I was quite interested in his uniform project. Does anyone know if he was successful?

 -thanks

  R. Licon

[FTrooper]

http://www.regimental-quartermaster.com/Zululand1879.html  the "patrol coat" is ALMOST the same, its got four instead of five loops on the chest, he MAY make them with five if you ask!

Chris Fischer
Fort McKavett State Historic Site

[Malachi Thorne]

Good Evening, All;

Please accept my apologies for not replying to you sooner; "real life" has put a great number of obstacles in my way lately, but I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and look forward to much greater participation here and in the GAF beginning now.
 
Owing to family matters, I have not yet finished my USMC fatigue jacket.  it turns out that the "method" in Holding's book is nigh impossible.  I have spoken to a few tailors about the method, including a gent in Great Britain, who allowed that he had heard of the method, but had never actually drafted a pattern using it.  He also allowed that as he wasn't a military tailor, he could not state with certainty that Holding's system would not work, nor could he confirm that military tailors weren't using something very similar to it.  So, until I can track down a military tailor in either GB or Hong Kong, I fear that this method is something of a dead end.
 
From my historical research, I can say with some certainty that a size 36 men's jacket would have been on the large side of average for the times (Holden's method seems to be based on this size) what with the dietary situation in both the UK and the US; thus it seems likely that Holden's method will work for smaller sizes, but not for anything larger than a 38 or 40" chest.  I wear a 44 regular, and haven't been able to squeeze myself into a 38 since high school.
 
I do have two things going for me though:  I was able to find (on eBay) a USMC fatigue jacket of the period, which I procured for slightly more than $300, as the seller did not know what he had, and thus did not properly advertise it.  I have attached photos of this example, (a 2nd Lieutenant's coat, judging by the lack of eyeletting around the Austrian knots) for your perusal.  Based on the lines of this example, I found a "modern" pattern that will work with only a little modification: Butterick's "Cassock" (religious garment) pattern, #6844.  This pattern is currently out of print, but is available from several sellers on eBay, and has the correct back and shoulder lines for the Fatigue jacket -- and, more importantly, it creates a garment that will fit the modern, larger silhouette.

http://members.cox.net/malachi.thorne/pictures/milunic67a.jpg

http://members.cox.net/malachi.thorne/pictures/milunic67b.jpg
 
So, while my USMC Fatigue Jacket is not yet finished, I am still plugging away at it, with the hope it will be done in time for a 19th Century event I plan to attend around Christmas time.

Oh, and a part of the reason (and not an obstacle at all) for my lack of posting may be found here:

http://members.cox.net/malachi.thorne/pictures/DSCF0788.JPG

...my daughter, Coral Sarai, and my son, George Nicholas IV, born four weeks premature earlier this year.
 

[Dr. Bob]

Brvt. Col. Thorne,

I have a good friend that is a military uniform tailor.  He generally does earlier periods.  He may be able to help.  His name is Steve Abolt and he is in Georgia.  He has uniforms in several museums.  None better in the US!  His email is:

     sacbg7@lynchburg.net

A great big CONGRATULATIONS on the birth of your children!  Glad that they are doing well!

[Malachi Thorne]

Good Evening, Dr. Bob;

Thanks you for the contact, and thank you very much for your good wishes!  Things were a bit touch-and-go with my son -- he was born with respiratory distress, a not uncommon condition with near-term boys.  He was eight days in NeoNatal ICU, but you'd scarcely know it from looking at him today.  He's solid, just the way a little boy should be.  My daughter, on the other hand, is a delicate princess who had her father wrapped 'round her little finger within minutes of her birth.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Congratulations, Sir!

Fine looking youngsters and you are right to be proud!!