Five Coat - Hemming

Now I have lined the body of the coat and the sleeves, I can move onto the skirt part and finally finish it.

I have created a pattern for a narrow vertical strip to run the height of the skirt at the front. This, looking at publicity photographs, needs to be narrower than the lapel panel above it (see right).

This is cut and interfaced with the same fusible canvas as the lapels for structural stiffness. By interfacing this lining panel rather than the outer skirt, I will get the stability I need on the leading edge of the coat, but still retain the fluidity of the skirt on the outside of it.

I can then cut the lining panel for the skirt, less the width of the facing I have just cut. These are then sewn togther.

I trim the lower edge of the body lining so it is level, and then attach the skirt lining to it. I need to be very careful to alighen the horizontal waistline seams at the front edge of the coat.
Some adjustment was needed to make sure the facing panel hung vertically, as initially this pulled on the skirt causing unsightly folds down the front.

The back edge of the skirt lining is blended into the back of the coat as the outer skirt had been before.

The skirt is then ready to be hemmed, once a satisfactory length had been decided. Looking at the calico test I felt in hindsight that it was a tad short (see left), so I’ve learnt from that at added enough to make a better length.

Firstly I pin the length I want with the coat on my tailors dummy, folding the excess up and pinning it up in place. After checking it for fit I then firmly press the folded edge to define the hemline. Then using the seam guide I got for Christmas I can trim an even two inches all round.

I now lay the coat tails flat as possible on the floor, drawing the coat upwards to drag the lining as flat as I can. The lining it then trimmed to match the skirt.

The lining is then pinned to the skirt, inside out and through the open seam I have left. The edge lining is pulled around half an inch lower than the skirt so that when finished it hangs higher than the skirt, and thus out of sight.

I can then sew the hem together, starting at the hem length at the ends, but for the duration of the lining fabric, switching tracks to the edge of the two-inch seam allowance I have left. This defines the length at the corners, but leaves capacity for the rest.

I just then need to secure the hem’s seam allowance up so it does not gape. These days I would hand stitch this which is a more discreet way to secure it, but I have been finding the gaberdine to show these stitches through. Also I want the skirt to be a little stiffer around the hem, so I use a tailors cheat of WondaWeb instead! This is a strip of fusible glue which is pressed and steamed in place.

All I need to do now to complete the coat is sew the three vertical lines of piping on the fronts and back split. This conveniently seals up the open seam I left for access to the hem (see left).

Finally I’ll add the buttons and buttonholes and I should be done.

Check back REAL soon to see the results of my labours!

Five Coat - collar and lapels

So far I have made the body of the coat; set the inside pockets; lined the upper body area and sleeves; and made the dog-leg back split.

Time now to do the collar and lapels.

The upper collar is made from two pieces: the visible collar and a neckline part, which is below the roll-line (see below, left). You will notice that they both curve, but in opposite directions to each other. When they are sewn together (see below, centre) the two curves pull against each other, creating a natural roll to the collar (see below, right).

I then attach the lapels fronts to the collar at each end (see left), ready for adding to the coat.

The assembly of this style of collar is quite different to how I usually do it on my Tennant Coats. This time the lapels are sewn together and the collar is put in place without its underside. Its edge is then folded and pressed to form the final shape and adjusted until I am happy with it (see below).

I then need to cut the under-collar from melton, a form of thick felt which, because it has no weave to it, does not pull and distort the collar above it (see below, left).

This is the only pattern piece I leave to cut in-situ as it need to be a perfect fit to the upper collar, the line of which I have just been adjusting and refining.
I transcribe the shape of the collar with tracing paper (see below, centre) and once it is cut out, mark it on my melton, flipping it to produce the entire under-collar (see below, right).

Before attaching the under-collar, I pin it in place and check how it is fitting and revise the shape if needed (see left).

Because the edge of the collar and lapels are bound with piping, I can cheat a little at this point and top-stitch the melton in place around the notch and edge of the collar. This then just leaves me to hand-stitch the bottom of the melton at the neck line. I do this with a diagonal zig-zag stitch so there is a little give and take to allow the collar some movement.

I can then crack on with piping the collar and lapels.

I machine stitch as much as I can for time (see below, left) before hand stitching the awkward bits around the notch (see below, right).

Getting nice sharp points to the piping at the corners is a little tricky, but once I found a technique it was pretty simple.
First I sew the edges together at the inside of the corner (see below, left); the pinched corner is then pushed inside out and I loosely zig-zag stitch the diagonal line to the corner point (see below, centre); I then carefully pull the thread and the zig-zag stitch closes up, drawing the piping to a sharp clean corner (see below, right).

This is done for all four points, and before long the lapels and collar are piped and looking quite dashing!

The coat is suddenly starting to look finished and ready to wear, but there is a little way to go yet . . .

Five Coat - lining and inside pockets

Now that I’ve completed work on the outside body of the coat, I can now turn my attentions to the inside and the lining.

For the bulk of things this is a fairly straight forward affair, with many of the pattern pieces from the outside doubling up for the lining too (see left). The back panels and under arm area is soon together, leaving me to make and sort out the inside front panels.

The inside front and lapel are the only significant difference from the outside. I traced the front panel incorporating a style line for the lapels and produced the two halves with their overlapping seam allowances.

The lapel is cut from the beige gaberdine and is interfaced with a fusible canvas for stiffness (see right). The rest of the inside fronts are made from lining and include the pockets.
Although I cut the lapels now, they do not get joined at this stage.

Setting these pockets is more like the pockets I am used to doing, being a simple welted design, though on this occasion almost entirely made from lining fabric. As I explained in The Time Lord’s Pockets, working in lining can be daunting as it is a very slippery fabric to use, and I want to keep the pockets clean and soft and where possible free from fusible interface stiffening. I also want to make the welts as narrow and delicate as possible, in keeping with their surroundings. The research I did my deconstructing a Marks & Spencer jacket revealed a very easy way to do the pocket, and I am using this technique again here.

First I mark a tailor’s chalk line on the top-side of the lining piece (see below, left). Then I set about making the welts I am going to set. This method uses a single piece of fabric for both welts. I need to press two exactly parallel lines along the welts, so to get it as accurate as possible I use a steel ruler as a stencil and fold the fabric around it (see below, centre & right).

I am using a piece of calico left over from the test version of the coat as a stiffener for the welt, rather than using an iron-on interface. I have found this give a much better result as it does not stress the lining fabric.

Next I pin the welt over the chalk line, and catch another piece of calico underneath the lining panel at the same time. This will give support around the pocket and help prevent distortion as well as stress at the corners (see below, left).

I can then sew the welts in place, stitching through all these layers at once. The spacing is critical at this point: I need to sew the welts precisely one quarter the side of the parallel fold, otherwise the welts will not meet if I sew then to narrow; or crash into and overlap each other is I sew them too broad (see below, centre).

Just to show things don’t always go to plan, it took me a couple of attempts to get this balance right, but I got there in the end (see above, right).

To put and set the lining, I start by assembling the back; made up of the back panels and the side panels. The first thing to do is unite it at the top of the back vent.
Extra fabric is included in the pattern for the overlap of the vent, and these are clipped at the top so they can cross in front of each other to create the distinctive dog-leg top the the split.

The vertical edges of the lining are sewn to corrosponding edges of the coat tails (see left).

The right-hand side, which laps under the left, first needs to be sewn into the lining at its top.
It can all get very awkward and confusing at this point, as working space is limited, plus I need to work reasonably quickly and carefully so as not to stress the fabric where it has been clipped.

I then pipe the top half of the left-hand side, leaving the uppermost inch loose.
The overlap needs to be pinned very carefully into position. Angled too high and the split overlaps too much; too low and it will gape open. This is best done on my tailor’s dummy so I can see exactly how it will hang and adjust accordingly (see right).
I can then sew the top of the vent through all layers, except the top-most layer of piping.

It’s then a simple (I wish) process of maneuvering the loose end of the piping to form the dog-leg shape at the top. This is then hand-sewn all round into place (see left).

Now that the split is sorted, I can sew the inside fronts, with their welted pockets, to the backs, forming the armhole.

The neckline is then sewn and some secret internal stitching to keep the lapels in check and folding at just the right point.

The last piece of upper body lining is for the sleeves. While researching the coat, I noticed in Castrovalva, when The Doctor puts the cost on for the very first time, it is possible to see the sleeve linings (see right - click to enlarge) which are white. It is quite a common thing in suit tailoring to make the sleeve linings a different colour, and white is a preferred choice.

I sourced some suitable fabric, and repeated my sleeve pattern for the lining and set them accordingly (see left).

That’s a good point to take a little break before tackling the collar and the lapel notch, which can be a little tricky.

Check back soon to see how I get on.

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 - Assembling the body and sleeves

Having prepared all the pieces of the coat’s body, I am now ready to start putting it together.

Assembling the main body of the coat is relatively easy, the only real tricky bit is sewing the curved seams on the back. These need to be carefully eased in as the back has a longer curve than the side panel it is attaching to (see right). As you can see, the smaller side panel ripples a lot, so to control it I need to always have it the top.

As a quick check to make sure each panel is coming together correctly, I have put the Calico test coat on my dummy, and lightly hung the new work in place like an enormous 3-D jigsaw puzzle (see left).
Early stages, but things are looking good.

The making of the Five Coat’s sleeves are a little unusual, because of the ring of piping around the cuff.

Usually I would sew the long seam up the back of a sleeve first, then while the work is still flat I can stitch the ease of the sleeve head.

However, I need to disguise the join in the piping in the back seam, so I stitch the front seam first instead (see right), which I press flat.

I had carefully worked out the level of the piping when I cut the pattern for the Calico Test, so I am able to accurately mark its position and pin the piping along its lower edge (see below, top left).

I machine-stitch the lower edge (see below, top right) then fold the piping in half (see below, bottom left) and sew the upper edge to finish it off (see below, bottom right).

I can then sew the long seam of the sleeve. It is critical that the piping matches up across this seam, so first of all I pin the ends of the piping together (see below, left) ready for sewing; I then sew only a few inches of the seam, surrounding the piping (see below, centre); this give me the chance to check I have matched it up accurately (see below, right) before sewing the rest of the seam from cuff to shoulder.

Finishing off my work for today, I fill in some more pieces of my jigsaw puzzle and add the sleeves to the dummy (see below).

It looks a little saggy and the shoulders, but that is because the sleeves are not even sewn in or padded.

That will be my next job.

Five Coat - Working on the collar

Now that I have sorted out how I will do the inside pockets, my attention turns to the collar and lapels.

The charity-bought jacket I dissected helped me get a much better shape and fit to the fronts.

My plan now is to crib the shape and cut of the lapels, though the collar does not have the correct shape, so I will need to adjust for that (see above, noting the angle of the collar coming away from the notch).

The lapels and collar I am using as a template are, like the fronts of the jacket I did earlier, from a more tailored school and a little different to the method I am used to. I think it is high time learnt some new techniques, so I aim to follow what I find.

The main difference is the underside of the collar, which is made from a thick felt rather than the same fabric as the body of the jacket.

I am working on the basis that this is applied last, so I look first at the structure of the upper collar. This is made in two parts, which at joined at a seam just below where the collar will roll. To create the shape of the collar, the two parts are curved in diverging directions (see right). You could be forgiven to think I have put the lower part upside down, but this IS the way they go together.

I replicated the collar, adjusting the shaping needed as I go, and sew it to the lapel fronts as I would usually do.

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.