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1872 Dress Uniform Help


FoxholeTom
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Hello all, its been a long time since I've posted. I have about 9 months to make 4 reproduction 1872 dress uniforms. I've been scouring the internet for reference material and photos. Ideally I'll be able to buy an original example in the next few months to pattern. Does anyone have an original 1872 uniform that would be willing to provide detailed photos of, or have any other information that might be useful? I have managed to find the measurements.

 

Thanks in advance.

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Yeah, I've looked at their website. The uniforms are for my wedding in the spring, and while I could justify buying a $400 uniform for a single day, my groomsmen can't, so I'm going to make them myself.

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I ran into the same problem in 1990 for my first wedding. I ended up getting my own uniform. My best man was outfitted as a North West Mounted Police Constable, and everyone else dressed in period clothing...even the families attending. This all happened at the Last Stand Re-enactment in Hardin Montana...we had a year to plan this all. The 7th Michigan Cavalry Brigade, with whom I proposed the previous year, were all in attendance in their best dress uniforms...they did the saber arch for us after the ceremony. A General Custer impressionist gave away the bride...in hindsight I wish he would have kept her though.

My suggestion would be to get yourself a top flight 1872 uniform, and have your grooms-men pursue an 1870's civilian dress outfit...these can be put together very easily with a bit of research. The focal point of the ceremony are you and your wife to be...the rest are just filler(not saying this in a negative way, but it is true). There are also a number of patterns available for 1870's wedding dresses...I know the wife at the time found a couple of good patterns, just the cloth was a bit tricky.

We had the same idea of having our full wedding party come down in period uniforms for the 1870's ceremony but they were in the same situation...the uniforms were very expensive and it was not a good idea to expect them to fork out the cash for a one time deal, plus there were no rentals for suits of this type anywhere. Check with F Burgess & Company, as well as C & D Jarnigan(mainly Civil war era stuff).

Good luck on your search hope it works out for you.

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I ran into the same problem in 1990 for my first wedding. I ended up getting my own uniform. My best man was outfitted as a North West Mounted Police Constable, and everyone else dressed in period clothing...even the families attending. This all happened at the Last Stand Re-enactment in Hardin Montana...we had a year to plan this all. The 7th Michigan Cavalry Brigade, with whom I proposed the previous year, were all in attendance in their best dress uniforms...they did the saber arch for us after the ceremony. A General Custer impressionist gave away the bride...in hindsight I wish he would have kept her though.

My suggestion would be to get yourself a top flight 1872 uniform, and have your grooms-men pursue an 1870's civilian dress outfit...these can be put together very easily with a bit of research. The focal point of the ceremony are you and your wife to be...the rest are just filler(not saying this in a negative way, but it is true). There are also a number of patterns available for 1870's wedding dresses...I know the wife at the time found a couple of good patterns, just the cloth was a bit tricky.

We had the same idea of having our full wedding party come down in period uniforms for the 1870's ceremony but they were in the same situation...the uniforms were very expensive and it was not a good idea to expect them to fork out the cash for a one time deal, plus there were no rentals for suits of this type anywhere. Check with F Burgess & Company, as well as C & D Jarnigan(mainly Civil war era stuff).

Good luck on your search hope it works out for you.

 

Thanks! I'm glad someone understands my madness. We're already well covered in regards to the 1870s dresses. The reason why I'm asking about construction details for the dress uniforms is myself and several of the groomsmen reproduce our own clothing for 19th century reenacting, either by hand or sitting over a sewing machine, as appropriate. Same way the women are getting their dresses done, one of the bridesmaids is willing to work cheap so the wedding party looks good. I've basically offered my groomsmen to sew up a dress coat for free, if they buy the material. Anyway, I appreciate your thoughts, and I'm glad to see someone else had the same idea.

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