Quarter Sheet and Breast Cloth: Bound Kersey Stable Sheet With Buckled Chest Cover (Hasluck, Saddlery, 1904)

"Horse clothing is made of many different materials. Kersey, fawn rugging, princess check, and fancy checked and coloured linen stuff answer for day use, and for dust covers in the stable; the shapes and patterns also vary."

Cut the sheet in two halves, one for each side, to the horse. Do not make the back quite straight: scoop it out a little behind the shoulder towards the loin, leave it full at the rump and slanting a little at the end. The quarter sheet has only a slight cut backwards towards the shoulder and falls straight down from the shoulder on each side. Making a paper pattern on the horse first is our suggestion.

Whip-stitch the two halves together along the back. Put a piece across underneath at the shoulder, coming down about 1 ft on each side, pointed at the ends and about 9 in wide in the middle, all in one piece to strengthen the point at the shoulder.

Place a piece of the same cloth from the off side at the front, with a strap 1 ft 9 in by about 2 in on its point, to buckle on the near side where there is a chape and buckle; a belt across the chest holds both sides down.

Cut the breast cloth in one piece to cover the front of the chest and run up each side of the neck to a point, its bottom in line with the edge of the sheet. Put a buckle and chape on each point, and stitch two straps 1 ft 3 in by 1 in to the shoulders of the sheet, coming down to meet the buckles.

Bind every joint, stitching on both sides. Cut the binding cloth 1-1/4 in wide, turn it round the edges just enough to catch the first row of stitching about 1/4 in from the edge, draw it flat and stitch a second row along its inner edge. Add a strip along the centre of the sheet where it joins, its ends under the binding. For two colours, bind in red all along, then lay blue cloth about 7/8 in wide just over the edge of the red, catching both in the first row and finishing the upper edge the same way.

From **Saddlery**, edited by Paul N. Hasluck, David McKay, 1904 (archive.org saddlery00hasl), chapter IX, "Horse Clothing", pp. 70-75, Figs. 26-27; every figure was read on the scan. He gives no overall size for the sheet: it is cut to the horse. The Newmarket sheet, which has no breast cloth and is cut on a curve to the chest, is not made here. Kersey of his materials, the paper pattern, tools and metric figures are ours.