Sunday, April 21, 2013

I Don't do Menswear

or so I thought.  What do you do when a loved one wants to recreate a favorite jacket and you've never done menswear?  Of course you say yes and then sweat out the details later.  Taking every precaution this project has been a mine field.

The Fabric
- First we swatched, 2 weeks later decide on the fabric and went to order it and they had sold out.
- The fabric arrives and it smells like wet dog

The Pattern
- He provided me with a beloved beat up jacket
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The Fitting
- Delays on both ends made only one fitting possible, and I would receive only pics of one shoulder that "the client" was not happy with.

On pins and needles I commenced working on the pattern using the old jacket as a base.  Interesting that once you turn off the internal dialog, you start to learn.  I really have to hand it to whoever made the original jacket, it came with fold back hems and facings which I have never seen on a pattern before. There are three welt pockets, two patch pockets, two back vents, a tab collar and mitered corner details.  When we started this project I was told, "Oh it's really a simple unlined jacket"..... beware those who give you a project that haven't the first clue what is involved in it.

Here's what I perfected with this project, and what I will use going forward.
- Mitered corners, which I can do in my sleep now.
- Fold back facings - which I will use as much as I can in future projects.
- Interfaced hems - which I have used before, but were really important on this project
- Molding the lapel curve
- Collar tabs
- Embroidered buttonholes

I am very pleased with how this jacket looks now, and am keeping my fingers crossed that the recipient is as happy with the result.

Here are some of the good, bad and ugly, pics.
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These of course were ripped out, there was a lot of ripping out of buttonholes.
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2 comments:

Corinne said...

To the questioning observer, one would have been wondering what project was in your queue! And now the reveal! What a fabulous challenge. It looks so professional. I think a little show and tell about the turn back facings would be interesting. Congrats, now you may take a deep breath!

ELMO said...

I am very happy to have this completed. I'll need to look for a turned back facing on the next project to photograph it. Black is difficult to photograph.