Wabash Stripe Railroad chore jacket

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271500215997

This jacket was made recently by 3 Days Union / WorkWare in the style of a 1920s-1930s wabash stripe railroad chore jacket. It has an angled watch pocket and corresponding slanted buttonhole for your watch chain (shirt, watch and chain not included in auction). The breast pocket has an interior pocket behind it. The WorkWare label plays off the typographic design used on old Montgomery Ward products. The jacket has “union made” text buttons and a repro of the now defunct United Garment Workers of America label. There is a double button system at the collar to allow for adjustment. With a chest measurement of 41″, this would best fit someone who wears a size 36 or 38 jacket.

Tagged size: large (Asian large, please refer to measurements)
Chest (pit to pit): 20-1/2″ (41″)
Shoulder to shoulder: 17″
Sleeve (shoulder to cuff): 24-1/2″
Length (base of collar to hem): 27″

Merrill Woolens plaid jacket

Posted on May 14, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271489386897
This vintage jacket was made in the 1940s by Merrill Woolens of Merrill, Wisconsin. With its square bottom, boxy cut, and coat style collar, the cut is reminiscent of a Hollywood jacket. The plaid fabric and zipper breast pocket put it in a woodsier category altogether.

Chest (pit to pit): 21″
Shoulder to shoulder: 18″
Sleeve (shoulder to cuff): 24-1/2″
Length (base of collar to hem): 30″

1920s Red Head Hunting vest

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271478366338
This vintage hunting vest was made in the 1920s by the Red Head Brand, a premier maker of hunting garments at the time. It is an early style, high buttoning cut, with a six button front. It has canvas, closed bottomed shotgun shell loops, another hallmark of earlier manufacture hunting vests. There are loops for 38 shotgun shells on the front, and loops for another 23 on the back.
This has the earliest Red Head brand label I have yet to see. It is significantly larger than later labels, with a much more detailed duck. It reads Trade Mark Registered at the top, while labels from the 1930s and early 1940s read , “reg. us. pat. off”, and ones from the mid-late 1940s had the (R) symbol.

Chest (pit to pit):19″ (doubled = 38″)

1920s shotgun shell canvas hunting vest

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271469007778
This vintage hunting vest was made in the 1920s. It is made of brown canvas, with a five button front. There is a buttonhole at the back of the neckline, which I have not seen before on other vests. I wonder if it was there to attach something to the vest (or the vest to something else, like a jacket), or if it was there to hang the vest by? The vest has closed bottomed, canvas shotgun shell loops, which are typical of these early manufacture vests. At some point the vest was taken in, then let back out. The front buttons have been moved slightly from their original position to make the vest a smidge larger. Since garments like this were purely utilitarian, it wouldn’t be uncommon for them to be passed down from one generation to the next. I wonder if these modifications were made as the original owner lost and put on weight, or if they were done for a different owner?

Chest (pit to pit): 18-1/2″ (doubled = 37″)
Length: 19-1/2″

1940s Penney’s Belt Back Mackinaw coat

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281321564485
This vintage coat was made in the 1940s, and was sold by Penney’s. It is made of plaid wool- 65% reprocessed and 35% new. The use of reprocessed wool like this was common on work coats of the period. It is double breasted, with handwarmers on the chest and flapped cargo pockets. It has a belted back. The coat is lined in plaid cotton. It has seen heavy wear and usage, with wear, damage and repairs throughout much of the coat. The collar has been altered with an additional buttonhole and button to securely cinch the coat up in cold working conditions.

Tagged size: 46
Chest (pit to pit): 25″ (doubled = 50″)
Shoulder to shoulder: 20″
Sleeve (shoulder to cuff): 24″
Length (base of collar to hem): 29″

Chinstrap WWII Army Shirt

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281298794445
This vintage shirt was made in the 1940s. it has two chest pockets one with a pencil pocket, double button cuffs and epaulettes. It has a chinstrap collar stand, a detail common on workshirts of the 1920s-1930s. The maker of this shirt likely was primarily a maker of those workshirts before being awarded the contract to make this one for the Army.

Collar: 15-1/2″
Chest (pit to pit): 20″ (doubled = 40″)
Shoulder to shoulder: 17″
Sleeve (shoulder to cuff): 24″
Length (Base of collar to hem): 31″

1930s Black Bear Rain-Tite canvas suit

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271435185224
This vintage suit was made in the 1930s in Seattle, Washington by high end workwear and outdoor-garment manufacturer Black Bear Brand as part of their “Rain-Tite” water repellent clothes range. Black Bear Brand produced work shirts, pants, overalls, jackets and mackinaws from their plant on Rainier Ave. S. This suit is made from army duck canvas, the jacket from 10oz duck and the pants from 8 oz duck. It appears they both started out life a medium brown canvas, but years of wear and layers of waterproofing have darkened it. Both are extremely heavy duty, and are physically heavy and stiff, both from the material and from the wax proofing. The back of the jacket is two layers of the 10 oz canvas through the body, with three layers on the shoulders. The sleeves are two layers. It is constructed with overlapping capes and layers to keep everything dry in harsh weather. The pants are two layers as well. They are cut to be worn with tall boots. They have suspender buttons and belt loops. There is a crotch gusset, and a patch watch pocket inside the side pocket.

In the pocket of the pants, I found the package of a trolling spoon and an Elks matchbook advertising war bonds. This suit probably hasn’t been worn in a good 70 years or so if those are still in-tact in the pocket. The snaps are all branded “Union Made” as are all the buttons. There are union tags from the United Garment Workers of America inside the jacket and inside the flap of the back pocket of the pants. The waterproofing is still good- water beads up and falls right off. This type of suit was frequently worn by lumbermen in the North West. The heavy wear supports this. Going by the matchbook, the original owner of this one was probably from Vancouver.

Chest (pit to pit): 21″ (doubled = 42″)
Shoulder to shoulder (under cape): 22″
Sleeve (Shoulder to cuff): 20″
Length (base of collar to hem): 28-1/2″

Waist: 17″ (doubled = 34″)
Inseam: 25″
Outseam: 38″
Rise: 13″

A similar suit in the 1920s in Alaska. Photo from my collection

1930s Big Yank chinstrap workshirt

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271435207029
This vintage workshirt was made by famed workwear manufacturer, Big Yank, in the 1930s. The shirt has an extended, double button collar stand, now known as a chinstrap. There are two spacious, flapped breast pockets. Seams are triple stitched. Shoulders are reinforced, as are the elbows. The tails are gusseted. The blue chambray versions of this style were popular in the summer, while wool versions, like this one, were worn in the winter. There is the remains of a Dewitt Clinton Cigarette tax stamp in one of the pockets, possibly series 108 from 1938

Tagged size: 16-1/2
Collar: 16-1/2″
Chest (pit to pit): 24″ (doubled = 48″)
Shoulder to shoulder: 18″
Sleeve (shoulder to cuff): 23-3/4″
Length (base of collar to hem): 29-1/2″

1940s Hettrick American Field Half Moon Vest

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281294869181
This vintage vest was made in the 1940s by the Hettrick Mfg. Co. of Toldeo, Ohio. It is what is now known as a “half-moon” style, named after its round game pocket access on the front. This vest was intended for flyfishers, and has a fly rod loop to hold your rod and a multitude of pockets. It is made of green canvas. Wear to canvas. Missing fly pad. Period repair to back

Chest (pit to pit): 22″ (doubled = 44″)
Length: 19″

Advertisements for this model from 1940s Hettrick Mfg. Co. catalogs.

Early 1930s Woolrich 503 Mackinaw coat

Posted on March 15, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271423336178
This vintage hunting coat was made in Woolrich, Pennsylvania in the early 1930s by John Rich / Woolrich Woolen Mills. The 503 style hunting coat as been around with relatively few changes for the better part of a century, but the details make it easy to date. This is the earliest version of this coat I have seen.

While many Woolrich labels look relatively similar in isolation, the company changed their design every few years. This label was used in the very early 1930s. See the dating guide I have put together at the end of the auction. The snaps in this coat are by United Carr, and are a design only used from about 1930-1934. The top of the snap, with its line design, was used by Woolrich until about 1940. They switched to plain headed snaps during WWII, then to Woolrich branded snaps after the war. These early coats have asymmetrical breast pockets, while starting in the late 1950s, Woolrich switched to matching breast pockets. The brown buttons on this early coat are nicer than the red bakelite buttons which Woolrich began to use in the mid 1930s, which has a tendency to craze and crack over time.

Chest (pit to pit): 25″
Shoulder to shoulder: 20″
Sleeve (shoulder to cuff): 25″
Length (base of collar to hem): 28″

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Tag Archives: workwear

Wabash Stripe Railroad chore jacket

Merrill Woolens plaid jacket

1920s Red Head Hunting vest

1920s shotgun shell canvas hunting vest

1940s Penney’s Belt Back Mackinaw coat

Chinstrap WWII Army Shirt

1930s Black Bear Rain-Tite canvas suit

1930s Big Yank chinstrap workshirt

1940s Hettrick American Field Half Moon Vest

Early 1930s Woolrich 503 Mackinaw coat