Indian Version of a Coat using a blanket.

 Equipage des Chasseurs Sauvages Canadiens, no. 1-Circa 1730ad.
http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/SearchExecXC.asp

Can you see the split pouch at the waist. I would say that this is being used as a shot pouch, Powder horn is at his left side.

Notice the hood that is formed at the back.

Blue was the favored color. Like most textiles, capots rapidly became highly sought-after trade goods in New France. Native North Americans soon adopted the design to make their own garments from square-cut blankets, creating a kind of knee-length hooded cloak held together at the waist by a sash and closed at the chest with a clasp or pin.

http://www.1704.deerfield.history.museum/popups/artifacts.do?shortName=capot&anchorName=2

My sincere thanks to my Friend Gilbert Desmarais for supplying this image.

Blanket Coats, Blankets and Matchcoats.

Blanket Coats and Matchcoats.

Finding a pattern for an authentic blanket coat or French capot is not easy. Information on the 17^th century to early 18^th century capot has been contaminated with western patterns showing blanket coats of many stripes and fringes. The original capot was as far as I am able to discern a simple plain coat made out of blanket material, wrap around with a sash or belt to hold it together. As I have read that French sailors originally wore these coats, I would imagine that using a button at the neck would not be beyond the realm of authenticity.

A late 17th to early 18th century sketch of a capot. This has been redrawn from an original.

Of course the French military are also reputed to have worn the capot, but they also had the use of their knapsack bag, which was designed so they could put their feet into it at night when sleeping.

 

However, the more common use of the blanket seems to have been for the matchcoat.

 

"The Indians fasten their blankets below with their belts, and make them pass over the head like a monk's hood, arranging them so well that they only expose their nose and hands" (Pierre Pouchot, Memoir upon the Late War in North America, Between the French and English, 1755-60).

http://www.oldetoolshop.com/trekking/library/matchcoats.html

To me, the matchcoat seems like a much better garment to wear. It appears to have traditionally been made out of either a length of woollen material, or from a blanket. The original matchcoat was an Indian garment and it was made of feathers.

The matchcoat can simply be wrapped around the body, or it can also go over the head. A belt or sash can be used to secure it around the waist and by making a few folds; it can resemble a great coat.

I found that wearing a capot I got too hot on the trail and it was not easy to remove. I had to take off my packs and accoutrements to do so. Also the capot did not keep all of me warm at night, and carrying a blanket as well as a capot just meant I was carrying more weight. Now I simply use a half blanket round my shoulders cape fashion. If it is very cold then I can wear my blanket as a matchcoat. These two items keep me relatively warm at night and are more versatile than the capot.

Wearing the half-blanket.

Here I have simply taken the half-blanket off, and passed it over my head to sit at my back over my pack.

soldiers-on-the-march_watteau-jean-antoine-1684-1721.

Detail from above painting. man on a horse wrapped in a blanket.

 

 

Description of Woodland Indians in Canada.

These savages are tall, well made and robust, they have the same skin as us, but theirs is burnt by the strength of the sun and which they spoil with the different colours they use to stain themselves. When they come to council or leave for war, they pluck their beards. In the summer they wear a shirt and breech cloth, which is a piece of cloth which goes around the hips. In winter, the wear a capot, like a redingottes, and mitasses, which are a piece of cloth wrapped round each leg. They like blankets which they wrap around them when marching and to sleep in. The women are dressed in much the same with a piece of cloth around them larger than the breech cloth, called maxtikote. The men wear their hair very short, and intertwine it with pieces of bone or ivory, they split the ears, and put in small plates of silver and bits of binding wire. The women wear their hair long and behind them and enclose in sleeves made of leather and decorated with silver. Men go to war and hunting. Women follow them to carry their things, take care of the cabins, which are a type of tent made with tree bark, and to the chaudière  which means getting the dinner, otherwise they remain in the villages to cut the Indian corn that they love and watch over the well being of the family.

Journal of the Campaigns in Canada from 1755 to 1760
by
Count de Maures de Malartic
Lieutenant General of the Armies of the King
Governor of the Iles de France and of Bourbon
1730-1800

http://www.newfrancedocs.co.uk/newfrancedocs.co.uk/Malartics_Journal_Sample.html

Link To Another Blog: More Matchcoat weirdness or the time I lost 24 friends in the woods...

http://buffalotrace1765.blogspot.com/2011/08/more-matchcoat-weirdness-or-time-i-lost.html?showComment=1314320804821#c2389192127676663111