So, you want to make your own Civil War shirt. You have so many decisions to make - one or two-piece body, type of front, buttons, material, colors, collars! Wow.

A common pattern is a one-piece body with gussets under the sleeves with or without a collar using the same pattern.

You can vary the widths of the cuffs to copy original photographs. There is no standard pattern - even issued shirts were made off civilian patterns of the day. The variation of shirts is mind-boggling. You will see everything.

The most common shirt has a placket front with about 3 buttons. But you will see shirts that button all the way down. There is everything from A to Z.

If you see a shirt in an original photo and you want to copy it, do it. The red, white, blue on this shirt was a copy. Patriotic shirts were a common theme.

All topstitching should be by hand.

If you don't have enough material to do a 1-piece body, you can do 2 and piece them together using a shoulder strap.

It depended on how much material they had. You can only tell if it is a 2-piece body if you turn the shirt inside out. Yes, the 2-piece body was common during Civil War times.

There were many civilian shirts during the war and they varied greatly because many of them were sent from home.

All my shirts have glass buttons on them, but that is no rule either.

By Paula and Coach McCoach http://www.civilwaruniforms.net

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