Friday 25 September 2009

Five Coat - The Time Lord’s Pockets


Things are going well with the Five Coat!
So now that I am at last on a roll, its time to tackle the inside pockets.


Doing welts in a heavy woven material such as wool, or even better the Malabar or Alcantara my Tennant Coats were made from, has been quite easy for me as they are quite sturdy and self-supporting. As a result I had the chance to perfect my technique over the numerous coats I had made (see right).
You can read about all that in the Tennant Coat blog, under Inside pockets - smoke and mirrors

Wednesday 23 September 2009

Five Coat - Starting the final calico test

Having sorted out a number of problems I was having with the pattern for the Five Coat, I can now begin what will be the last calico test before making it for real.

I quickly breeze my way though assembling the back of the coat (see right), having done it several times now and nailed the pattern a couple of goes back. The fronts I am using are now to the revised design having cribbed it from the charity shop jacket last week.

I have salvaged the piped pocket flaps I did for the last version, and set them in place (see left).

The pocket bag is made in two flat halves, one of which is sewn behind the flap. The front half of the pocket bag is then sewn to the top of the skirt, and the two parts are then sewn together when the skirt is joined to the body of the coat, taking a detour around the pocket bag to create the opening.

Sunday 20 September 2009

Five Coat - Calico progress

I have been working on the Five Coat on and off for a few weeks now, having taken a number of breaks to clear some garment commissions.

I recently had my first go at some of the piping on the coat, doing one of the pocket flaps as a test.

I simply pinned the piping around the flap and hand stitched it in place, finding it a lot easier that I had dreaded! (see above)

I also had a go at piping the sleeve, though in a different way this time. First I made my sleeve as usual, but only sewed the shorter front seam together. I then worked out the level of the piping and lightly marked a pencil line on the calico. I then machine stitched the bottom edge of the piping to the sleeve, which worked very well (see below left).

So the piping would match the lapel and pocket flap edges, I then folded it in half (see above middle) and stitched the other side down too (see above right).


When the back seam was sewn, the piping lined up and the join was on the back of the sleeve out of sight (see right).

All this was certainly easier than I had feared, but now I had broken the ice with piping, I had to face up to another little problem I had been putting off.

Each time I have returned to the coat I have progressed it a little further, but I have equally been finding issues and problems with the pattern I was developing.

Sunday 6 September 2009

Regeneration

“It’s the end, but the moment has been prepared for . . .”

It’s by no means the end - but it is the beginning of a new chapter.
Just as Tom Baker regenerated into Peter Davison, so I now begin a new spin-off from my existing Tenannt Coat and Tennant Suit blogs.

What started out as just a way of practicing making trousers before cutting my precious JoAnn fabric has become a bit more than that.

The Five Trousers I made have now been commissioned by a number of very satisfied customers, and I now offer a choice of screen accurate fabrics to cover all of Peter Davison’s tenure as The Doctor, including the rarely done season 21 trousers
(see right).

I have been encouraged by their sucess, and have been ased to produce some further items if Five Costumes, with some secretly in the pipeline.
With what I know is coming up, I think it warrants its own dedicated blog.

In here I will cover all things Five and you will find I have already migrated the entries relating to Five Costuming from my original blogs so they are now all in one place.

This will then keep the Tennant Coat and Tennant Suit blogs concentrating on what they were intended for - all things Tennant!

As my repertoire expands I will bring other blogs online to cover those costumes.

Watch this space . . .