The Admiral Project

J is in Rio right now, and before he left he expressed a vague interest in a Halloween costume. To my surprise, he must have been poking through all the Royal Navy stuff laying around as I work my way through the Patrick O' Brian novels, because he wants to be a Royal Navy Admiral (I had suggested a Captain, but no, an Admiral c. 1760 it had to be.) In some ways it makes sewing easier, as once an Admiral had achieved that lofty status there was no limit or direction to the amount of random gold braid that was applied to the outer coat. In the interest of keeping the costume bill a little more reasonable, though, I am going to try to make an outfit more like what would be the "working uniform" of an admiral--no silk or brocade, and too early for epaulets. I wanted to make it out of Navy blue wool, but for some reason, in Chicago, in October, there is No Wool in the fabric store. I had to settle for pinwale corduroy, which at least hangs pretty well and is pleasant to sew with, and looks like velvet from a couple of feet away. The second problem was that I needed at least 38 gold buttons...16 for the coat lapels, 6 for the cuffs, 12 for the waistcoat, and perhaps 6 more for the waistcoat pockets. The buttons I could find that were right are sold on cards, in pairs, imported from Italy; and the ones I wanted I could not find on the Internet, so I had to drive around Chicagoland stripping shelves of what they had in stock. I also found a felt mariachi hat, which I have cleaned off the tacky silver trim so I can apply tacky gold trim to it, and pin up the corners to make a tricorn hat out of it. Since J has a big head, I also had to soak the hat in hot water and block it over a mixing bowl to make it larger. (you can just see the mixing bowl under the hat). We will see how well all this works out, since all I have for detail reference is a Pirates of the Caribbean coat pattern and some picture guidance from Sir Joshua Reynolds, who I have come to appreciate as a portraitist. Look at this engaging rascal, Augustus Keppel. I bet Gus was a lot of fun in person.

Gus was a commodore in this painting,(there are more Reynolds paintings of him as he moved up the ranks) but the cut of the coat is the same (as far as I can tell) from lieutenant on up in 1760.