Sunday, May 20, 2012

khaki uniform

 We made quite a few uniforms this season! Karen was just finishing up a jacket for an understudy who didn't fit into any of the existing uniforms that were originally pulled for this show.
This uniform is made of a cotton duck from Carr textiles. It was overdyed slightly, and I really like the feel of this fabric. I don't know the fabric weight, but it had a nice hand, not too heavy or light. It was just right for what we had to make.
Here it is on the stand in process. I cut right into fabric for this, and made a few minor changes at the first and only fitting I will have with it.






In this detail picture you can see the finishing treatment we used on the pockets and flaps. The pocket pleat is stitched closed from behind, and then the pocket was bagged out with silesia. We finished the top edge with a narrow bias binding of the same silesia. The pocket was then topstitched onto the front. The flap was interfaced and then bagged out with silesia and topstitched. The top edge was serged, then stitched in place before being folded down and topstitched along the top edge. 





The sleeves have a grown on gusset for specific movement the actor needs to do onstage. The green cuffs are interfaced, then the top edge is faced back with silesia, then joined in the round and slipped over the sleeves. The hem of the sleeve and the cuff were then joineed together and turned as one to the inside, and finished, then the lining was brought down and hand finished in place. This does allow easier alteration in that the cuff isn't stitched into the sleeve seam. If you want to maintain the proportion of the cuff and lengthen or shorten the sleeve in the future, you don't have to unpick the sleeve seam.

This was a different technique to the wool uniforms. The wool uniform cuffs and sleeves were too bulky to turn together at the hem, so the sleeve hem was cut raw at the finished length and the cuff hem allowance wrapped over that raw edge to the inside, where it was hemmed and finished by hand.




Here it is all finished and ready to go. He will wear a Sam Browne with this, and it will sit in the belt hooks provided, and the fabric epaulettes can be unbuttoned if needed to put the strap through. 

3 comments:

  1. Oooh, a military outfit with a waist seam.. what era is this from?

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  2. Oh Edwardian "ish". Pre WW1.
    The wool uniforms had waist seams too, just harder to see. Waist seams were still being used on certain jackets in certain countries into WW2.

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  3. Terry, how does a sleeve like this look when worn? On the mannequin the sleeves fall rather well but I imagine when filled with an arm they become much less tidy in appearance? Thanks, Sam.

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