smoke n fire news has a couple of patterns,c and jarnigan and jas townsend and son. stay away from eagle view and some others,as the edges are rounded on the capes and the bottom of the frock. all 18th century shirt patterns are square edged, rectangle shaped. basicly a bunch of rectangles gathered at the shoulder and the wrist. get a medium weight for the body, linnen, linsey woolsey of fustian. get a course heavy weight for the fringe. the round pattern shirt patterns seened to have been invented either for, or after the bi-centennial.
for a summer weight shirt here in n.c., i use osneberg,it is a cheap rough grade cotton that looks like linnen but it breathes better in hot weather. it also dies very well with veg. dies. osneberg in the 18 th century was rough spun linnen not cotton, but is accepted in all the reenactor/ interpreter circles i run in. hemp works for colder weather. it was used extensively for slave clothes, and was a cash crop for many farms in the south. hope this helps..... mark ewing
