As Ye Sew, So Shall Ye Rip

So I took off the lapels today; which was unpleasant, as I had topstitched them, as well as whipstitched the brocade to the corduroy lapel underneath. (That is why there are so many sad little cut threads there.) But I drew the new angle, cut it, and sewed the lapels back on. Then I put on the second Hornblower dvd and started to sew on the buttons. (J even was willing to try it on for button placement, pins and all.) The buttons were not perfect, though--the shanks are not lined up with the design on the face, so if you sew all the shanks the same direction, the pattern of the buttons faces all directions. And since it's important for the shank to fit neatly in the buttonhole, I sacrificed the neat rows of anchors I wanted for the lapels. The tops are crimped onto the bottoms of the buttons, too, so I couldn't even turn the tops around to make the pattern line up correctly. I shake my tiny fist at the La Mode button company. Here's how everything looked at the end of today:

To be honest, the button tops are not the least of the problems this costume has. It should really have been made of wool. The buttons, the trim, the rayon tablecloth and the pinwale corduroy are adding up to about 15 pounds of costume already, even without a shirt, cravat, waistcoat and breeches. I understand too why the later uniforms (this one I am making is from 1760) had the skirts trimmed away, fit tighter and the pockets moved around more towards the back, so you could walk. Here is the midshipman's uniform from around 1802, made of the correct blue wool. And the buttons have the midshipman's proper Tudor Rose-- and I bet they all face the same way.