My Hussar's Jacket

[Atlanthia]

Hi All, I was imagining...if there had been a period version of Black Ops back in Napolionic times, how would they have been kitted out?
I like to think it was something like this. I have recently finished this Jacket. I just need to install a lining in sapphire blue. I thought you might be interested. I am completely Sewing machine ignorant, so every single stitch was done by hand.

The Jacket is a little wrinkled in places but it has no lining yet, for support. Well I just thought I would share.....Not bad for a bloke with a needle???

 

[Atlanthia]

This Is my frst attenpt at sewng, and I would be grateful for your comments/critisisms....

 

[Bountys Hunted]

Daaaammnn, you sewed all that by hand?! Wow! It looks fantastic! "Napoleonic Black Ops" 'eh? What are you doing for the rest of the outfit?
Grey pants w/ black stripe? Tall black boots or pants over boots? Sash or no sash? And headgear??? Those tall Dragoon style or something else?

Rifle?

Reminds me of Sharpe's Rifles! Great job! Look forward to seeing more!

 

[Atlanthia]

Bloomin' Heck!!! You know your Stuff!! :lol

I have no Idea....I just loved the thought of owning a Hussar's jacket, so I thought I would make one - I could NEVER afford to buy one! :eek

Your suggestions have already given me much food for thought!

 

[OB10]

Zoinks! Soooo, even the jacket itself is sewn by hand? Not just the ribbing and stuff? :confused Ay, carumba! Looks great! Did you use any special material for all the cords and piping and stuff? Or is it just something available at fabric stores?

Good work!

 

[Zeppo]

Wow, that is stunning! :eek I want it *grabby hands*

 

[Risu]

That just blew my mind. I could never do something like that by hand. Very impressive.

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

Awesome skillz, man! And all of that jacket from paper rolls and paper mache?! Awesome, plain awesome !!!


Seriously, great work so far.

Regarding "black ops", the napoleonic times uniforms with all their colours and decoration served IIRC the purpose of showing the enemy that nobody was afraid, being clearly visible on the battlefield with the bright colours and all.

So a "black ops" uniform might have had no actual decoration on it. But I would imagine that something sinister like a napoleonic suppressing police force might have been all black and evil, like an 18th/19th century SS. The thought alone makes me shudder, though...

 

[SmilingOtter]

YOU SUCK!

(Translation: I am several shades of green with envy.) That really does look great. How long did it take to do?

 

[Hovito loincloth]

Man that is awesome:thumbsup Just stunning work!
You could totally rock an Emo Adam Ant Kings of the Wild Frontier look!






and kids you can google Adam Ant if you are less than 200 years old :lol

 

[geordietrooper]

top job for a 1st time sewing :thumbsup
but you should have done the adam ant version

 

[Atlanthia]

Zoinks! Soooo, even the jacket itself is sewn by hand? Not just the ribbing and stuff? :confused Ay, carumba! Looks great! Did you use any special material for all the cords and piping and stuff? Or is it just something available at fabric stores?

Good work!

Hi OB10. No alas, the jacket itself was and old Nehru jacket that I bought in a charity shop for £5. I just cut it up and changed the shape, and with the material that I cut off of the bottom, I had more than enough to cut and sew a higher collar on. All the cording and piping is available in any fabric shop but I managed to get all I needed online for about £20. The black velvet was an old top that the missus hated, and the ribbon is plain standard. The buttons, however were high chrome finish and so I sprayed them a sort of pewter colour, which I thought was more in keeping.

Wow, that is stunning! :eek I want it *grabby hands*

Hi Zeppo, I get that feeling about 100 times a day on this site when I see what people are doing!! :love Thank you for the compliment!

That just blew my mind. I could never do something like that by hand. Very impressive.

Hi Risu! It took nearly a year on and off. I had to finish it though as I got married in it!!!:lol

Awesome skillz, man! And all of that jacket from paper rolls and paper mache?! Awesome, plain awesome !!!


Seriously, great work so far.

Regarding "black ops", the napoleonic times uniforms with all their colours and decoration served IIRC the purpose of showing the enemy that nobody was afraid, being clearly visible on the battlefield with the bright colours and all.

So a "black ops" uniform might have had no actual decoration on it. But I would imagine that something sinister like a napoleonic suppressing police force might have been all black and evil, like an 18th/19th century SS. The thought alone makes me shudder, though...

Greetings ManfromNaboo! Nah!!!! This one is built from duct tape and spaghetti! :lol

That was incredibly interesting and insightful and I thank you for it. Yeah! I kind of like the idea of a Napoleonic secret police!!! But if the whole Uniform costs more than a tenner, count me out!!!:lol

YOU SUCK!

(Translation: I am several shades of green with envy.) That really does look great. How long did it take to do?

Hi SmilingOtter, it took about a year, but that was with periods of inactivity. I guess about three to four months all in, without the lay offs. Thank you and I am glad you like it!

Man that is awesome:thumbsup Just stunning work!
You could totally rock an Emo Adam Ant Kings of the Wild Frontier look!






and kids you can google Adam Ant if you are less than 200 years old :lol

Hi Hovito. Well the funny thing is, the embroidery on this jacket is identical to the one that Adam Ant wore, which is now on permanent display in the Victoria & Albert Museum, in London. I took SOOOOO many photos of that one jacket, that security came and asked me to move on! They must have thought I was a needle terrorist or something!!??:eek

Right now I would settle for an Emo Lawn. The amount of time I am spending on my stormtrooper helmet,( see my other thread: Tutorial: How to build a Stormtrooper Helmet for Less Than 10 GBP.) I could do with grass that 'cuts itself' :lol

top job for a 1st time sewing :thumbsup
but you should have done the adam ant version

Thanks Geordietrooper! Well as I stated a little earlier in this list of replies, The embroidery on this one is identical in design and layout. The problem with doing an authentic Adam Ant jacket is that the right golden cording is about £12 per meter and I used nearly 100 metres of cord on this jacket:eek
I gould just do another one in a yellowish/goldishcording but I feel that it would look like crap when compared to the original. That is partly why I decide against it and went for black on black. Also, I believe mine is unique!

 

[Bountys Hunted]

Was thinking...if you used a dark maroon sash- (first thought of a black one...) it would add another color to the uniform, still keeping fairly close on the ol' "color wheel", yet still dark enough for the black ops purpose. Matching grey pants w/ a 1" to 1.5" black stripe.

Officer or NCO?

 

[Jayn]

Fantastic job! :thumbsup Get yourself a sewing machine now!

 

[Bossk]

Great job. This jacket bears a close resemblance to those actually worn in the Napoleonic Wars by both Hussar and Infantry officers of the Duchy of Brunswick. To change this into a Hussar officer's jacket, you would need to give it medium blue facings on the collar and cuffs. The buttons were black glass. The shako worn with this jacket had a skull and crossbones, and drroping black horsehair plume. The sash was silver and gold bands.

For many years I commanded the 'Black Brunswickers' reenactment group based in Germany, which attended Napoleonic battle reenactments all over Europe, and three of the big ones at Waterloo. You can see pics of our group in "German Napoloenic Armies" and "Wellington's Army", in the Europa Militaria Seria books from Windrow and Green Publishers.

The Prussians also has black Deathshead Hussars in the Napoleonic Wars with a similar uniform.

The idea of the black uniform with skulls was to show mourning for the 1st Duke of Brunswick killed by the French in 1806. The black SS and panzer uniforms with skulls stem from the black Brunswick and Prussian deathshead uniforms. The Prussians also had black hussar uniforms with skulls in the time of Frederick the Great, though the jacket cut was different.

 

[Bountys Hunted]

Great job. This jacket bears a close resemblance to those actually worn in the Napoleonic Wars by both Hussar and Infantry officers of the Duchy of Brunswick. To change this into a Hussar officer's jacket, you would need to give it medium blue facings on the collar and cuffs. The buttons were black glass. The shako worn with this jacket had a skull and crossbones, and drroping black horsehair plume. The sash was silver and gold bands.

For many years I commanded the 'Black Brunswickers' reenactment group based in Germany, which attended Napoleonic battle reenactments all over Europe, and three of the big ones at Waterloo. You can see pics of our group in "German Napoloenic Armies" and "Wellington's Army", in the Europa Militaria Seria books from Windrow and Green Publishers.

The Prussians also has black Deathshead Hussars in the Napoleonic Wars with a similar uniform.

The idea of the black uniform with skulls was to show mourning for the 1st Duke of Brunswick killed by the French in 1806. The black SS and panzer uniforms with skulls stem from the black Brunswick and Prussian deathshead uniforms. The Prussians also had black hussar uniforms with skulls in the time of Frederick the Great, though the jacket cut was different.

Awesome, just awesome. That must be a blast!!

 

[Riceball]

Sweet jacket! I love Hussar uniforms and I am so jealous of your work. Do you plan on wearing it Hussar style with it draped over your shoulder(s)?

 

[Atlanthia]

Great job. This jacket bears a close resemblance to those actually worn in the Napoleonic Wars by both Hussar and Infantry officers of the Duchy of Brunswick. To change this into a Hussar officer's jacket, you would need to give it medium blue facings on the collar and cuffs. The buttons were black glass. The shako worn with this jacket had a skull and crossbones, and drroping black horsehair plume. The sash was silver and gold bands.

For many years I commanded the 'Black Brunswickers' reenactment group based in Germany, which attended Napoleonic battle reenactments all over Europe, and three of the big ones at Waterloo. You can see pics of our group in "German Napoloenic Armies" and "Wellington's Army", in the Europa Militaria Seria books from Windrow and Green Publishers.
The Prussians also has black Deathshead Hussars in the Napoleonic Wars with a similar uniform.

The idea of the black uniform with skulls was to show mourning for the 1st Duke of Brunswick killed by the French in 1806. The black SS and panzer uniforms with skulls stem from the black Brunswick and Prussian deathshead uniforms. The Prussians also had black hussar uniforms with skulls in the time of Frederick the Great, though the jacket cut was different.

Hi Bossk, and thank you very much; that was incredibly informative, and interesting! I appreciate you taking the time to share this information with us. I know you are aware that this was not meant to be a period accurate jacket, but that still doesn't detract from the generosity you have shown in sharing your knowlege with us.

Sweet jacket! I love Hussar uniforms and I am so jealous of your work. Do you plan on wearing it Hussar style with it draped over your shoulder(s)?

Hi Riceball, and also to you, thank you. I wore it on my wedding day, with a black kilt and black kilt socks. It looked awesome and everyone was taking photos of it, (my bride was a little jealous! lol!) I guess I would kind of wear it normally as I am not doing the Period re-enactment thing. Hats off to those that do, though!

I'm thinking of vacuum forming it and doing a run........lollol

 

[swift3109]

You did this all by hand?!? That is amazing.

 

[Atlanthia]

Hello again, Swift!

Yes, Tis all done by hand! It took the best part of a year, on and off, but I still have the lining to do and then it will be finished!