Join me in my adventures as I write romance novels and sew vintage and contemporary fashion.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Butterick 3721 Men's Victorian Cutaway Coat -- Finished!

I'm happy to report that I finished two coats during my absence from blog writing. I also finished a book for Harlequin and I sold a book to a new publisher--Tule Publishing. I'll be part of their Montana Born series. The book will come out next summer. And now to the sewing...

The first coat I finished was the gray men's Tailoring -- the Classic Guide to Sewing the Perfect Jacket and Simplicity's Sewing for Men and Boys.
Victorian cutaway coat. I learned a lot while making this coat. Instead of following the pattern instructions, I decided to practice tailoring, so instead of getting done in two days, I got done in a month, working in my spare time. I used two main resources:

After doing the pad stitching that I discussed in the last post, I used 1/4 inch twill tape, sewn in by hand, to establish the roll line and to stabilize the edges of the lapels.




I also used twill tape to stabilize the armholes.

I made a chest piece, following the instructions in Sewing for Men and Boys, to keep the hollow of the chest from collapsing.
This is the right chest piece in the photo above and the left coat front in the photo below. Poor photo
planning on my part. :)


I put in an interior pocket, again following instructions from Sewing for Men and Boys, because my husband and son have both commented many times that they wish their coats had an interior pocket. It was actually pretty easy.





I put in a back stay.

Stabilized the bottom of the cutaway with strips of hair canvas.

Left Floydie alone after cutting the lining. Note to self: Do NOT leave Floydie alone.

I sewed the entire lining in by hand. It was fairly relaxing, since I sewed during football games and Boardwalk Empire. I used silk thread to mark the line along which I sewed the sleeves to the body of the lining. I put in a half-inch shoulder pad, but the sleeve head didn't look good, so I took it back out.

Sadly, now that I'm done, I have no one to model the coat, since the future wearer is miles away in San Francisco. So until next Dicken's Fair, I have to make due with Tillie, my unpaid assistant. Her hips are a little too large, and her shoulders a bit too narrow, but she'll have to to do. Please forgive the drag lines.





My one regret...this is a soft, loose weave wool that I used and it's too soft, too droopy. I stabilized it by underlining it with batiste, but it still has a wee bit of a droop. From now on, I'll use wool with a tighter weave when I put this much work into a coat.

I also made a vest to go with the coat. You can just see it peeking out here.


The nice thing about the vest is that I was able to use the gray charmeuse I bought to line the bodice of Vogue 4617. It was too heavy for bodice lining, but perfect for this vest.


Next up--the pink plaid 1940s jacket. See you all soon.