Adding top stitching to a frock coat?

[PrivateBrooke]

I'm about to pull the trigger on a Ben Tart frock coat, Dixon Conn pattern, and I was wondering; If I were to get it without top stitching, how difficult would it be and what stitch would I use to hand top stitch it myself? My sewing skills are actually non-existent, so I'll probably just let him machine top stitch it, but I'm mostly just curious...

 

[captaindrew]

Use running stitches, there's YouTube videos on how to do it. I just have my phone handy or I'd give you a link but search create topstitching using running stitches.

 

[7thWisconsin]

This may seem really nerdy, but what reenactors call ¨top stitching¨ isn´t top stitching. Top stitching is purely decorative. What we want to say is ¨visible stitching.¨ A good period garment doesn´t really have much visible stitching because, well, stitches hold the cloth together and shouldn´t really be seen. And yes, it shouldn´t be very hard to fill in the bits of visible stitching on a frock.

 

[PrivateBrooke]

I'm not going to lie, I'm tempted to try it. I suppose the topstich isn't strictly necessary if I fail. I've seen period jackets without, although I suppose a frock coat would be kinda weird without it....

 

[RedRover]

Here's a detail from a photo of the Conn coat... if it is indeed top-stitched, it is very close to the front edge.

Here's a detail from a similar frock coat at the Smithsonian. No top-stitching, and only some along the base of the collar.

From an 1840s tailor's book: (stitching from the back, or wrong, side), the tailors referred to the particular mode of stitch for edges as a "side stitch."

"The side-stitch is used for the edges of garments, to keep them from rolling over, or from being drawn out of shape. It is always intended for ornament as well as use, and requires a very quick eye and a careful hand to do it well. In this stitch the needle is passed through the cloth a little above or below the place from which it came out in the former stitch, but it must be at a very little distance from this place, or the sewing silk will be visible on the surface of the cloth, which is a great blemish, and yet it must be far enough away from where it came out to prevent its breaking through, in which case the stitch is lost, both as to use and ornament. Care must also be taken, that the stitches are at regular distances from each other, and that the whole of them are placed at the same distance from the edge of the cloth.

... the side-stitch, and the The only difference between [this], and the back- stitch and fore-stitch is, that the needle is... put entirely through [the cloth], and then passed back again, so as to ensure a thorough hold being taken of the cloth on each side. It is used in thick fabrics, where great strength of workmanship is required.

From the 1880s...

In other words, on the outside of the garment, the head of the needle is stitched to show as little of the stitch as possible, but so close together, and drawn tight enough, that the fact it is sewn is visible, in spite of the lack of very visible stitching.


Some Confederate garments are rather crudely finished, with this edge finishing...

 

[7thWisconsin]

That last garment is indeed top stitched. The others, I think I´d still call that visible stitching - but the examples aren´t hard to sew.

 

[PrivateBrooke]

Actually, looking at pics of the Beauregard's Tailor version of the Conn coat, it doesn't appear to be topstitched. Which seems accurate based on the photo of the original...perhaps I'll simply leave the top stitching off completely, on second thought. Now I just need to decide what color.....is that faded or was it always a "butternut" color?(I'm bad at telling, I know homemade coats sometimes just came in tan/brown shades from the beginning.)