Avre Friday Briefing #76
Cutting Batch No. 4 - the 1940 Pattern Battledress Blouse
We've been deep into Battledresses this week, specifically our Batch No. 4 Battledress Blouse. Limited to 100 pieces with each one containing a piece of Allied parachute silk lining the collar.
Each garment is cut to an individual set of measurements so there's no standard size grading to work from. Each one gets it's own set of paper pattern pieces, adjusted from the base pattern to each customer's numbers.
Once the pattern pieces exist, the next job is working out how to lay them onto the cloth, which is done by hand. It's the sort of job where you can teach the basics, but becoming proficient (and quick) takes years of experience. The paper pieces are all named and numbered and are laid out on the fabric and shuffled around until the fronts, backs, sleeves, collars, pocket flaps and waistbands all fit together. We're looking to minimise waste and maximise yield. It's literally a giant jigsaw puzzle except we're making the pieces as well as solving it.
Sounds relatively easy until you realise that you need to allow for things like seam allowance. Also, the merino wool we're using for this batch has a grain, so each piece has to run in the same direction, otherwise panels would look odd once the garment is finished.
Batch No. 5
Things are moving now apace with our next jacket which we're all very excited about. If you're coming to We Have Ways Fest next month, you'll get to see it in person before we launch online. If you're not, don't worry, we'll be letting our email subscribers know soon after the show is finished.
We Have Ways Fest 2026
And while we're on the subject, We Have Ways Fest is now only a fortnight away. 11-13 September at Blackpit Brewery. Last year we were pleased to launch Batch No. 2. This year we'll have the very last remaining smocks, plus denim shirts, a single finished Battledress Blouse and some Batch No. 5 samples which we're very excited about. Plus we'll have our Vat 01 blended malt. Do come and say hi.
On this day - 28th August 1940
Twelve Boulton-Paul Defiants of No. 264 Squadron took off from Hornchurch early on the morning of 28 August 1940, sent up against raids heading for Eastchurch and Rochford. It turned out to be the last daylight sortie the type ever flew.
The Defiant was built to an Air Ministry specification for a turret fighter. No forward-firing guns at all - four Brownings in a powered turret behind the pilot, the theory being that it would pull alongside a bomber formation and fire into it. Against bombers, that worked. Against a Bf 109 it didn't: nothing to shoot with head-on, and too much weight to turn out of trouble. The squadron had already lost seven aircraft in the preceding few days, and lost several more that morning. Fighter Command withdrew the type from daylight operations.
It had a better second life. Fitted with airborne interception radar and painted black, the Defiant became one of the more effective night fighters of the winter that followed. The only complete one left is at the RAF Museum in Hendon.
