Sewing For Men
Men’s shirts and undergarments were available for purchase ready-made early in the nineteenth century—a large network of “outwork” sewers operated in the 1810s around New York City, for example—but it was still more or less expected that women would sew their husbands’ and fathers’ shirts. Home-sewing manuals warned that store-bought shirts were of inferior quality, would not wear well, and would need to be replaced more often.
Men’s coats required tailors’ skills to fit well (see the coat in this section), but legwear and waistcoats could be partly or entirely made at home. Tailors’ account books record many commissions to “cut” or “cut and baste” (cutting included measuring the customer and making a pattern) as well as their orders to “make” garments (from start to finish).
Cotton under-drawers, 1830s, DAR Museum, 2008.35
Linen shirt, 1800–1820, gift of Elisie A. Norton and Edna Norton Clark, 50.4
Linen socks, 1820–1850, gift of Mrs. Kent Hamilton, 3316A&B