Five Coat - outer pockets and skirt

Today I am going to complete work on the outer pockets.

These pockets are very different from the usual welted ones I have come accustomed to doing my Tennant Coats.

So far I have made the flaps for the outer pockets and sewn them in place on the waistline seam (see right).

The next thing I need to do to make this unusual pocket, is sew the back of the pocket bag, made up of a pocket facing (so if glimpsed, the inside of the pocket looks like it is the same material as the rest of the coat) and a pocket bag made from silesia, a durable cotton material commonly used for just this purpose (see left, top).

The pocket backing gets sewn flipped upwards on top of the pocket flap.

When this is put on my tailor’s dummy you can get an idea of how it is working (see left, bottom).

I then need to sew the front part of the pocket bag to the top of the coat’s skirt, matching the position as closely as possible, working from the front edge of the coat (see below, top left).
Then with the pocket bag halves extended out, I match up the skirt and body of the coat and sew only an inch or so either side of the pocket to establish its width (see below, top right). This give me the chance to quickly check I am sewing the waistline seam at the right level.
Happy that it is okay, I finish sewing to the front of the coat on one side, and to the back on the other.

To finish the pocket I need to now sew the pocket bag itself.
It is very important to start precisely at the end of the waistband seam I have just sewn. Access to this is made difficult as all the other layers of fabric bulk together above it, preventing the foot of my sewing machine to get close enough to sew.
To get round this I use a clever, but simple gadget I picked up ages ago and have hardly had use for. It is intended to help sew seams on jeans and is a thick plate of plastic with a slot in it which you put around the needle of the sewing machine (see above, bottom left). This then takes the weight of the machine’s foot and raises it to the level of the bulky work you are approaching. The foot then effortlessly glides off the block onto the bulky fabric and can continue sewing without stopping, but for what I need it helps me get right on top of where I need to sew. I can then turn and stitch the rest of the pocket bag (see above, bottom right).

That finished the pocket off and the result looks very good (see below, left). The trick I pulled when I made the Pocket Flaps to prevent their corners curing is working a treat (see below, right).

I then need to set the rest of the skirt in place, finishing the waistline seam at the back before continuing the seam line from the back curved seams right down to the hem. I had deliberately left this seam unfinished when I assembled the back, so that blending this panel in would be easier when I got to this stage.

And that, amazingly, that finishes work on the bulk of the body of the coat.
I need to move onto the lining next time, with its inside pockets, before rounding off the coat with the collar/lapels and the hem.

Five Coat - making outer pocket flaps

Today I am going to make the outer pockets for the Five Coat.

To start with I need to make the pocket flaps, which need to be lined and piped before setting.

At first glance they are a very simple design – just a simple rectangle that will be sewn in place – but there are a couple of tricks I need to use to make sure they sit nicely and stay that way after the coat is finished. It may seem like I am making a mountain out of a molehill – how difficult can it be to sew a pocket flap? – but done properly they will look great; done badly they will look awful.

The main problem to overcome is the curvature of the body of the coat. If I just make flat pocket flaps and sew them in place, the curve of the body will pull on the fabric. The topside of the flap when then have to span a fractionally longer distance than the underside, and this will cause the corners to curl up and away from the coat. This may not be immediately noticeable when the coat is made, but as things setting down it could become more pronounced.

I will use a simple trick to stop this, based on how I make Lapels And Collars sit nicely.
Once I have interfaced the topside of the flap, and cut a piece of lining to match, I pin them together with four pins, one at each corner. The are positioned with their points towards the corners, and are pinned specifically from the lining side. This makes the corners curl upwards (see right, top) and will counter the pull I described earlier.

I can then sew them together, from the lining side with pins on top. Usually you remove the pins as they get closer to the needle, but to sew the curl into the flap I need to leave them in place (see right, middle).
This is why I put the pins with points towards the corners, so if I accidentally pit the pins with the needle, they will cause minimum damage compared to hitting a pinhead.

I then need to carefully clip the corners to prevent bulking at the points, but leave a little more than usual becasue of the delicate nature of the silk lining (see right, bottom).

Once the pocket flap is turned right-side out and pressed, it has a natural tendency to curl at the corners, but in the direction I want them to (see below).

Time now to pipe the edges.

When I did the Calico Test Coat I needed to make it fairly quickly. I therefore cut a few corners here and there, knowing I would do them more carefully when I did the finished coat. Piping was one thing I needed to make short work of.

I therefore machine stitched the vast bulk of it, with the expectation of needing to hand stitch it all later. However, the results were surprisingly good and I found I could machine a majority of the long straight runs, and hand stitch just the details such as ends and changes of direction. These details give the impression of hand stitching throughout.

So, to pipe the flap I first wrap the piping around the long bottom edge, making sure it is perfectly lined up above and below. I can then stitch, starting and stopping around an inch from the corner (see left, top).

Once this piece is secured in place (see left, middle) I can the do the same on the sides, gently bending the piping around the corner.

The piping then has a bulge (see left, bottom) which I can hand stitch together to make a nice neat corner.

The finished flap, ready for setting, still has its nice curl (see below).



The flaps are then sew in place along the line of the waist seam of the coat (see below). I need to be careful of the level I am sewing to, as later on this will form the datum for the waistline seam.

The pockets need to be positioned surprisingly far around the body. When I made the Calico Test I found I had placed them too far forward, with the flap not as big as it needed to be. All of this has been fixed for the final version, proving the importance of producing a sample garment before launching into the real thing.

At this point, with the sleeves set and the pockets flaps with the piping in place, the coat starts to take some recognizable shape (see right).

The final assembly of the outer pockets is a little unusual – at first glance quite simple – but surprisingly difficult to execute in practice.

Pop back soon to see how I get on.

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.