more coat cuff progress

I was going to say that these coat cuffs were finished but they are not quite done yet. They are attached to the sleeve and the sleeve is in the coat so we have made progress but they still need their decorative buttons.

Obviously at some point, historically speaking, this cuff style was literally buttoned up onto the sleeve with functioning buttons and holes. A practical solution that grew out of the fashion for display and ornamentation.

Often we will make sham buttonholes out of trim and the button will be sewn on the cuff to make it look as though they were really buttoned on. This time the buttons will be sewn onto the border of plain blue, but we often will tack them through to the sleeve at the front so that the cuff has some support and to keep it from falling down.

We have managed to make everything wearable for the tech dress rehearsal, but we have a lot of finishing yet to do.

It is nice though to be backstage when the actors first get a chance to see each other in these elaboarate costumes. They were thrilled and we were too.