They don't have to be pretty, just practicle.
The pockets? or the Mrs? LOL
Blanket jackets, I just don't get it?
- Thread starter richardhb
- Start date
The pockets? or the Mrs? LOL
That's one reason that Gabardene was developed and improved on as spinning and weaving technology became widely available.
We also know that wool does soak in water, and we have that wonderful advantage now, in that we put up a tarp, a brolly or put on a waterproof over jacket......and we're not stuck in a muddy hellhole of a trench in wartime.
M
We also know that wool does soak in water, and we have that wonderful advantage now, in that we put up a tarp, a brolly or put on a waterproof over jacket......and we're not stuck in a muddy hellhole of a trench in wartime.
M
Huh? Are sheep aware of this amazing stealth cloaking technology, they could sell it to the Klingons, maybe Lockheed Martin should make woolly jackets for the new fighter bombers, How does it fare for Mach 3 dash capability? Does it flap about?
Hessian makes it really easy to add fiber with a crochet hook. Tedious as all get out.
I've used what we call "cut-leaf blind" material. It's a thin fabric which doesn't unravel,
fairly waterproof and has many dozens of partially cut out leaves that wiggle in a natural breeze.
Instead of draping a full sheet in the woods, I cut the sheet into 12" strips which I can bond to
a base coat with a hot glue gun. Pockets & all zippers still work, the rougher the better.
You can see one of the jackets here: www.kettleriverguides.com with the first wild turkey taken from the
Kettle River camp.
I've used what we call "cut-leaf blind" material. It's a thin fabric which doesn't unravel,
fairly waterproof and has many dozens of partially cut out leaves that wiggle in a natural breeze.
Instead of draping a full sheet in the woods, I cut the sheet into 12" strips which I can bond to
a base coat with a hot glue gun. Pockets & all zippers still work, the rougher the better.
You can see one of the jackets here: www.kettleriverguides.com with the first wild turkey taken from the
Kettle River camp.
When I worked for the Manx museum I spent a lot of time in the textiles room.
(Blasted dry place; made me cough and sneeze)
(Then the TT leather suit fell on me when the rail broke under the weight.)
One artefact was the blanket coat made by an internee during the war.
It was very well made and stylish, -I imagine the maker had a good earner going and the buyer was snug and warm.
You would need a good tight woven blanket for that...and a pattern.
(Blasted dry place; made me cough and sneeze)
(Then the TT leather suit fell on me when the rail broke under the weight.)
One artefact was the blanket coat made by an internee during the war.
It was very well made and stylish, -I imagine the maker had a good earner going and the buyer was snug and warm.
You would need a good tight woven blanket for that...and a pattern.
I can't help but think that a wool blanket is a much heavier fabric than that commonly used for clothing.
Easier found and in large pieces (despite moth damage) than coats from a mill.
Anybody who could ever afford to chop up Hudson's Bay Company blankets was just plain rich!
Easier found and in large pieces (despite moth damage) than coats from a mill.
Anybody who could ever afford to chop up Hudson's Bay Company blankets was just plain rich!
Blankets come in a huge range of weights - some of my favoutite winter shirts are made from blankets I found in charity shops and are no heavier than Swannies.
Gorgeous, John. Mostly -25C nights and colder here. We might see -15C during the day.
Sure could use a few in this day and time. How wind proof do they feel to be?
Sure could use a few in this day and time. How wind proof do they feel to be?
I saved the link and they still have stock of these. Bought a couple for £15.50 posted, one for me and one for a friend with a hedges/lawns business. Many times I've leant into a Hawthorn hedge from a ladder and got stabbed, I reckon these will turn out to be handy bits of kit.
I really regret only getting one of the meshback leather jerkins when the had a bale of new huge ones at Abingdon airshow one year for i think it was 3 quid a pop. Your'e right it is great for hedging I along with a pair of 1950s wire laying gauntlets I picked up at Beltring, (sealed pattern for a pound!) !or carrying big rocks about when you are walling. If I ever see them dirt cheap again i'll get two, remove the plastic parts on one except the zip, and all the plastic from the other and trim and sew them into a jerkin with a blanket lining, it would be a doddle!
RV, er I have to admit that way back pre kids and this money pit herself did buy me a Capote from Smoke and Fire over in the U.S. made from a brand new Whitney point blanket, as supplied to the HBC. I never inquired too closely how much it was but since it was XXXL it must have been a lot. Its lasted wonderfully, the kids all slept under it at various times when they flaked out away from a bed and its kept my back warm around innumerable fires. One of the main reasons i keep looking in charity shops is in the hope of finding a green with black stripes blanket to match.
After a dry spell the charity shops seam to all have the odd blanket, I found 9 in just two shops in Accrington today and bought the three nicest for £3.50 each. I guess the cold snap made people dig out more bedding and the surplus and "old fashioned" was dumped on the charity shops.
From the labels they are all English pure wool jobs, ( for some reason they all look paler than in real life in that pic, the bottom two are much darker green and the top one is a browner more heather colour). One green is a "Dormy CC41", the other a "Kozy Coverlet", the brown one just says "Guaranteed pure wool Made in England". All heavy singles. I have soooo many blankets I will have to finally thin them out!
I know modern reenactors have a lot of trouble getting hold of wool as thick and as heavy as back in say the late 18th/ early 19th Cs, One mill over Bradford way does something close but I've been fortunate to handle some of the real stuff and its like ridiculously thick, like a quarter or even a third of a inch thick. It looked more like felt insulation material than wool cloth. I think its down to the way it was fulled. The old hammer fulling machines ( There's some great ones at Helmshore Mill, a museum sadly mothballed by Lanc's County council to cut costs ) were truely brutal compared with the later roller fullers or what ever they call them. I don't know when the went from using urine to other liquids while fulling but that may have had a effect as well.
ATB
Tom
RV, er I have to admit that way back pre kids and this money pit herself did buy me a Capote from Smoke and Fire over in the U.S. made from a brand new Whitney point blanket, as supplied to the HBC. I never inquired too closely how much it was but since it was XXXL it must have been a lot. Its lasted wonderfully, the kids all slept under it at various times when they flaked out away from a bed and its kept my back warm around innumerable fires. One of the main reasons i keep looking in charity shops is in the hope of finding a green with black stripes blanket to match.
After a dry spell the charity shops seam to all have the odd blanket, I found 9 in just two shops in Accrington today and bought the three nicest for £3.50 each. I guess the cold snap made people dig out more bedding and the surplus and "old fashioned" was dumped on the charity shops.
From the labels they are all English pure wool jobs, ( for some reason they all look paler than in real life in that pic, the bottom two are much darker green and the top one is a browner more heather colour). One green is a "Dormy CC41", the other a "Kozy Coverlet", the brown one just says "Guaranteed pure wool Made in England". All heavy singles. I have soooo many blankets I will have to finally thin them out!
I know modern reenactors have a lot of trouble getting hold of wool as thick and as heavy as back in say the late 18th/ early 19th Cs, One mill over Bradford way does something close but I've been fortunate to handle some of the real stuff and its like ridiculously thick, like a quarter or even a third of a inch thick. It looked more like felt insulation material than wool cloth. I think its down to the way it was fulled. The old hammer fulling machines ( There's some great ones at Helmshore Mill, a museum sadly mothballed by Lanc's County council to cut costs ) were truely brutal compared with the later roller fullers or what ever they call them. I don't know when the went from using urine to other liquids while fulling but that may have had a effect as well.
ATB
Tom
Tom, my heart aches to see those. Won't mean dust to most people.
I wrote what you read below before I saw the blankets.
We had a bunch of green, cream and red HBC blankets around the house with those indigo stripes.
I remember my grandmother stitching moth holes with a light bulb inside for a base.
They all went, like so many other things, to my summer house, to die.
Then the hot summer night came in my beach house that I was having beers with a friend of 40 years
and he started to talk about a popular local family who, as it turned out, were as poor as rats.
So we boxed up all my old HBC blankets in a steamer trunk of equally uncertain vintage
and twizzled down the only road to their place and dropped off the trunk.
A year later, one of the older kids (they had a mess of them) came to say thanks.
I wrote what you read below before I saw the blankets.
We had a bunch of green, cream and red HBC blankets around the house with those indigo stripes.
I remember my grandmother stitching moth holes with a light bulb inside for a base.
They all went, like so many other things, to my summer house, to die.
Then the hot summer night came in my beach house that I was having beers with a friend of 40 years
and he started to talk about a popular local family who, as it turned out, were as poor as rats.
So we boxed up all my old HBC blankets in a steamer trunk of equally uncertain vintage
and twizzled down the only road to their place and dropped off the trunk.
A year later, one of the older kids (they had a mess of them) came to say thanks.
A bit of a thread drift but I finally pressed the button on one of these leather jerkins a couple of weeks ago.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/British-...971819?hash=item418af1b9eb:g:IBAAAOSwkNZUbe0l
The L size (180/104) is a little large on me (42" chest) but I generally tend to be in the gap between "M" and "L" for most tops.
Not something I am likely to wear down the disco but a cheap and functional bit of kit which has probably already saved a few shirts and fleeces from being ripped while wrestling with barbed wire and thorn bushes. Sadly of little protection against the blackthorn which got stuck deep in my right index finger - after a week of antibiotics, the knuckle is still 50% bigger than the left one!
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