Peterson 1861 Knickerbocker suit

[Amanda L]

I am playing around with my CAD program and decided to enlarge the Knickerbocker suite from Peterson's in 61.
http://www.vintageconnection.net/PatternforBoysKnickerbocker.htm
I have two issues
1. the image is poor and so I don't know what the length is on piece number 8. Anyone have a better copy of this pattern?
2. the sleeve is confusing me. It also does not appear to have a measurement on it.
I have noticed that the pieces are scaling up weird, if I  have them at the proper length, the shoulder seams are too short and irregular between pieces.
At lest it is easy to enlarge patterns on the computer rather than wasting time by hand.

[Stephanie Brennan]

Amanda- Thank you so much for the 1861 Knicker bocker suit. I had been looking for this as a reference on breeching, but could not find the pattern again. I know this doesn't really help in your situation. But I can tell you I drafted the pants for my son and the seat of the pants is pretty baggy.    Stephanie

[Amanda L]

glad to have helped you.
the pattern looks pretty baggy.

[Marta Vincent]

Baggy butts were IN for boys! 

[Jessamyn]

Is the sleeve simply proportionate to the jacket front it's sitting on? I've seen that a lot in Regency-era patterns.

You're right about the scaling issues. Just looking carefully at the pattern, I can see that the various measurements don't make sense. For examples, pieces 4 and 5 seem to be drawn about the same scale if you go by the length, but the shoulder seam marked "5 1/2 IN" on piece 4 is obviously much shorter than the seam marked "5 IN" on piece 5! I know they expected you to enlarge the pattern by ruler and eye, but eye isn't going to help much when the proportions of their examples are so bad.

I have an original 1861 Peterson's, but unfortunately the original print is not much better than the scan. I think the length on No. 8 may be "9 IN" - note how the 9 on piece No. 9 is dyslexically backward? The length on No. 8 looks, in my copy, like it could be another backward 9.

As to how the sleeves go together - I admit, pretty mysterious. What if No. 7 is the top AND UNDERSIDE of the sleeve, with the dashed line being the alternate cutting line for the underside, and then No. 8 is not really "sleeve and cuff" but just the cuff? It's not really going to look like the picture no matter what you do, but I could see these pieces turning into a fairly normal coat sleeve with a peaked cuff.

[Amanda L]

thanks Jessamyn.