Making an overshirt

[pvtben]

Howdy,

Hello, i am in the middle of trying to make an over shirt. I would like to make it out of a white material what would be a good material to use. Also does anyone have a pic of an original overshirt that i may be able to base mine off of. Thanks and all is appreciated .

Pvt. Benjamin Neal Jenkins
19th LA Vol. Infantry
Vance Gaurds

[PrettyBoyDonovan]

Re: Making an overshirt

I recall seeing a photo of an overshirt on Ebay of all places. It depicted two soliders from a Mississippi Regiment ( I'd like to say 11th MS) sitting in a studio setting.

The shirt as far as I can remember was a white matierial, with the common breast pockets seen on many styles that were trimmed in black. The sleve cuffs were solid black along with the collar. Other than that it was pretty much plain.

Hope that little bit helps. The photo was claimed to be in EOG, but I can't remember seeing it.

[high_private78]

Re: Making an overshirt

Howdy,

Hello, i am in the middle of trying to make an over shirt. I would like to make it out of a white material what would be a good material to use. Also does anyone have a pic of an original overshirt that i may be able to base mine off of. Thanks and all is appreciated .

Pvt. Benjamin Neal Jenkins
19th LA Vol. Infantry
Vance Gaurds

Ben, I made an overshirt last year for my TMD impression. The material I used was undyed cotton jean from Family Heirloom Weavers. It is pretty cheap concerning price as far as material goes and makes a pretty good overshirt. Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Jason Reasor

[Jefferson Guards]

Re: Making an overshirt

Are you trying to make a battleshirt or a civilian overshirt? The two items are similar, but some battleshirts are manufactured of different materials than a typical civilian overshirt.

I can only document wool flannel and linsey-woolsey as being fabric used in the manufacture of civilian overshirts. Red, blue, and grey flannel overshirts would have been extremely common among civilian laborers engaged in their tasks.

A great place to look for overshirt pictures are in those of the 49'ers in California.

Have you tried the forum search function yet?

[Gerkin]

Re: Making an overshirt

I have seen a picture of a citizen's overshirt, and it is of a white color. A friend of mine has a copy of it, I'll see if I can get him to post it. I appears to be canvas material. Well, I'll see if I can get that picture up.

Best Regards

[Jefferson Guards]

Re: Making an overshirt

If you can get a copy to post of that image it would be great. I had always thought that there were also linen overshirts, sort of like a holdover from the farmers smocks of an earlier era, but have yet to find any evidence. This might be a photograph of one.

[Amtmann]

Re: Making an overshirt

Someone has my original overshirts right now, so I can't post a picture. One is made of the grayish natural linen and another is a whitish linen with small tannish "tiger stripes" running vertically.

(I also have one of the "earlier farmer's smocks").

[Gerkin]

Re: Making an overshirt

As promised here is the info and pic on that shirt. I had to put it in word as it would not load right as just a picture. So here it is. This information was not composed by myself, and I have not seen the book myself. A friend who has access to it did this for me. If you have any questions, I will pass them on. Sure hope it works.

Your Obedient Servant