Mary Lincoln probably purchased her machine-stitched cloak as a ready-made garment.
Outer wraps were the first ready-made garments for women. Cloaks were commercially available as early as the 1840s, although large-scale production of other women's garments lagged behind the manufacture of men's clothing. Commercial sewing machines were readily available by the 1850s and the styles of American manufactured cloaks or mantles soon rivaled those from Paris. (SEVERA 15, 103, 202)
A full-length silk velvet cloak was an extravagance during the Civil War years.
Silk velvets were expensive imports during the war, and several yards of fabric were required to cover the voluminous hoop skirts of the period. At the New York Sanitary Fair in 1864, the Women's Patriotic Association for Diminishing the Use of Imported Luxuries pledged to substitute American goods for imported dress goods, particularly velvets; the Lincolns agreed to honor this ban. The cotton batting in the cloak's quilted lining was also difficult to procure during the Union blockade of Southern cotton supplies. (SEVERA 88, 204)
Mary Lincoln incurred thousands of dollars in debts purchasing luxury goods during the war years, and she feared financial ruin after her husband's death.
She traveled to New York with Elizabeth Keckly and attempted to sell her dresses, shawls, and jewelry through a dealer. The press ridiculed Mary for her "old clothes" sale and she left New York empty-handed:
The attraction for ladies, and the curious and speculative of the other sex in this city just now is the grand exposition of Lincoln dresses... The feeling of the majority of visitors is adverse to the course Mrs. Lincoln has thought proper to pursue, and the criticisms are as severe as the cavilings are persistent at the quality of some of the dresses... Some of them, if not worn long, have been worn much; they are jagged under the arms and at the bottom of the skirt, stains are on the lining... The peculiarity of the dresses is that the most of them are cut low-necked -- a taste which some ladies attribute to Mrs. Lincoln's appreciation of her own bust. (KECKLEY 260)
