A Long Way From Home

1750s Major's Uniform 20th Regiment of Foot

Previously seen horrifically here: [link] and here: [link]

I see I haven't described the methods/materials of construction for this yet in any sort of detail. To start, it was all inspired by Joseph Highmore's excellent portrait of James Wolfe (c. 1747), which is currently at the National Gallery in Ottawa: [link] I decided to take on this particular unit because of an interest, verging on the obsession, in Wolfe that I had throughout the first years of university. Unfortunately, poor Wolfe has been getting a bit shafted of late by Copernicus but I suppose that's the way things go.

I used JP Ryan's 1750's Men's Coat Pattern JR-700 for the frock coat and the 18th Century Waistcoat Pattern JR-703 for the waistcoat. Both are laced in silver metallic lace which took me ages to find since fabric shops in Canada seem completely averse to carrying any kind of decent trim. That part alone took well over twenty hours of handwork. Had to draft the pattern for the gaitors out of my head, which was a horrendous task and they still don't look entirely right. Thank goodness the grass hides the bottoms. Bought the sash and gorget from the godly www.militaryheritage.com The tricorn came from the also godly Jas. Townsend and had to be reshaped since it was decidedly 1770s, rather than 1750s, as it was supposed to be.

I decided to wear my black neck stock for the pictures last night rather than my white just because I like it how the black there jives nicely with the black queue wrap and tricorn. It was quite windy last night too, hence the strange coat movement.

Lastly, the title is a reflection of my current state of emo!angst since the house was only a hundred meters away.