more info on 19th century tailoring

This particular jacket wouldn't necessarily apply to a military coat but I will find it valuable research in to the way a jacket would have been lined in the 19th century.

The tailoring techniques that developed during the 19th century were brought about by several important factors. During the previous century there had been an increase in demand for woollen cloth and and upsurge in the making of this material. Tailoring skills were now directed towards the production of clothes made form woollen material. From the tailors point of view, wool cloth could be manipulated by stitching and pressing it to mould the fabric to the body shape. In addition, cutting techniques were improving and it was now possible to produce form-fitting and elegant garments.

This is an early tailcoat. The fronts and the collar had an interlining of canvas and a piece of linen across the back shoulders. The sleeves were usually lined with white linen or cotton fabric. An interesting fact is one that I know can be applied to military uniform, a feature was the use of unfinished or raw edges instead of sewing a seam to complete the edge. This was because of at that time cloth was of a tightly woven texture with a heavily milled finish which prevented the cut edge of the cloth from fraying or unraveling. 

In the second half of the 18th century, the making of men's garments began to follow a standard procedure. There was a wide range of different  types of woollen fabrics which required seams in place of raw edges as the quality of material started to diminish because of this mass production demand. A popular lining of the 19th century was a heavy glazed cotton called 'Italian' used for jackets and coats. For military formal dress and civilian evening dress, a richer type of lining material would have been used such as satin or silk serge. Sleeves continued to be lined with white or cream cotton.

The canvas interlining that gave form foundation to the coat fronts was given much more attention than it has previously warranted. In addition to the canvas through the fronts, extra canvas was places in the chest and front shoulder and these layers of canvas were stitched together with a herring bone stitch. Padding was placed in the shoulder where it extended from the front of the armhole over the shoulder to the back.  Wadding was placed in the top of the sleeve which filled out the sleeve fullness and gave the sleeve head a smooth appearance. The introduction of the sewing machine took much of the tedium out of the tailoring procedure and also helped speed up the process of making garments. The tools were comprised of cutting shears, scissors, press iron, needles of various sizes and a block board for pressing seams and different parts of the garment. The tailoring methods developed during the 19th century became a basis for garment making by bespoke and custom tailors in to the next century.