sewing tips: inserting jacket zippers

      I am sure that it is something many people already know, but for me I am not routinely inserting zippers into coats, but when you need to do it, you figure it out and get on with it. This sample represents a coat with a centered zipper, an offset facing, and has a Peter Pan collar. It was also quilted, but that is neither her nor there really, just an added layer!

Step one. My pattern is Nett so all the lines are sewing lines. I have my centre front stitched through the quilting and the backing. Press the seam allowances of the CF back to give it a light crease.

Measure from the centre of the zipper teeth to the edge of the zipper tape. That is 1.5 cm by my ruler. 

Mark a line on the CF body seam allowance  1.5 cm away from the CF. 

This is a guideline for sewing the zipper in. lay the edge of the zipper tape against the drawn line. Stitch the zipper in approximately .5 mm in from the edge of the tape.

Fold the CF edge back on the crease you ironed in. Check to see that the teeth are in a good position. The stitch line is 1 cm away from the CF line.

Next the facing. The next stitching line needs to be marked 1 cm from the CF. Mark a line 1 cm inward from the CF on your facing. This line will be sewn to the previous line of stitching you just created. 

You can work it out so you have a line to visually run the edge of the zipper tape against or you can just pin the facing in place and stitch line to line. 

The facing seam and the previous stitch line for the zipper are right on top of each other.

Done? Now you will fold back the CF of the body again and see that on the inside, the facing is now set back 1 cm back from the CF edge. 

Nice! If you have a stand collar where all the seam allowances will live up inside the collar you can go ahead and catch all the CF  layers down by topstitching, or if you are careful, and things look fab, stitch either just beside the facing seam through to teh fronts, or edgestitch the facing edge from the inside. 

If you have a collar such as I do- a peter pan style, one that requires the seam allowances of the neckline to be opened, then you must wait until the collar is installed before topstitching the CF.

 This type of garment has a fabric facing around the whole neckline. The only place the facing and body are attached at this point is the CF zipper insertion.

 Bag out/ prepare your collar as usual. 

Open up the front body and facing at the CF so they are flat. Match the CF seam of the under-collar to the CF of the body at the neck. Pin or baste it all around the neck.  Stitch*.  (*it just may make it easier to have one section already stitched while you pin and prep the top collar/facing neckline side). Pin or baste the top collar all around the neck line of the facing, pushing the seam allowances of facing/zipper seam away from the CF. Stitch.

As I said you can do this all in one go it you wish.

Here you can see what happens at the CF area. 

Trim, clip and press the seam allowances of the neckline open, on the body and the facing. 

Press and whack it with a hammer if it needs encouragement!

Turn right sides out and check the placement of everything.

Go back inside the facing at the neck and hand stitch or machine the opened neckline seam allowances together face to face.

I think you are done. 

Topstitch as desired.

One advantage to this is that all the seam allowances are not all concentrated at the CF which can get quite bulky. 

mid 1950's references

I posted photos of the mid 1950's jackets that I recently made, and I thought it might be interesting to show some of the references I used to make my patterns.

There were the sketches and visual reference provided by the designer, but I like to research a bit more in order to make the patterns. I like to look at various drafts of the period I am trying to recreate but I don't actually use them because I don't have time to find out if they do or don't work on someone else's dime. I use my basic drafting set up and modify from there for fit and style.

I have a small collection of reference materials to use, and here are a few things that helped me.
I have had some opportunity to make 1950's  suits before but I think I really was not successful in getting the silhouette right. I was determined to do better this time.

One thing I found was a chart showing proportionate back widths for jackets- you can see they offered three distinct widths for each chest size, depending on the style of jacket the customer wanted-
1. regular
2. modified drape or wide shouldered young men's
3. drape coats or lounge coats


You can see that for a size 38 the back width could be between 8 1/8 inches  and 8 3/4 inches

Compare that to the standard proportion of  approx 7 1/2 inches for a size 38 across back.

We wanted a more extremely young men's shape for these jackets and in looking at some of the period photos of these musicians, and other people of the period, the jackets were quite roomy, boxy and slightly oversized, and long. The waist shaping was minimal, the visual waistline was lower than the natural waist and the hip was quite slim. The shoulders were wide and quite square, buttoning point was lower, hence longer lapels, and pocket placement was lower as well.

These pages give an indication of the body silhouette, shoulder width, waist shaping, and overall jacket length.

These jackets were for young men so you can see that the studio style is longer, has lower set pockets and less waist shaping.

The length for someone 5'10" is 32".

Suit drafting uses a formula to determine length and a basic jacket length calculation is half height minus something- minus 4 inches or 1/2 h minus 1/16 of height.
If the actor is 5'10" (70") /2 = 35 minus 4= 31 inches
in metric which I prefer to use
178cm/2 = 89 minus 11.125cm = 78cm (30 3/4")

So these jackets are longer than that.
for 5'10" 70/2 = 35 inches so 35 -3 would give us a 32" length.
for 6'2"   74/2 =37 inches so 37-3 = 34 length



I started then with this information in hand, set up my drafting as I usually do, and made modifications until I though I had a good idea of where I was going.
I then cut out a half jacket in some cotton I had and put it on my stand. I photographed that and sent it to the designer for his input.
Once that was done, I took an idea from my colleague Evan and I drafted in half scale to show the changes and modifications to my basic draft. This is what I then referenced in making the subsequent drafts for the other jackets.
That half scale draft is now tucked away in my files for future reference.

work table weeks 8 and 9

Time is flying by.
Week 8 saw the delivery of a missing fabric.
This jacket was based a bit on this reference, below.
Menswear is interesting because there are many options to play with, but for many people the details elude them because, lets face it, they are subtle. The changes are more easily seen over the decades rather than the season or the year. If you delve into it though, you are rewarded with many interesting details, and I have fun with these details, encouraging designers to consider incorporating them into the suits they want me to make.
 Nowadays- everything looks the same, whereas say in 1938 as this catalogue page shows, there are more "sporty" or casual models available. Still a three piece suit but a different vibe than one for business wear. The one on the left offers a two button, notch lapel, patch pockets, the bottom ones with flaps, and the back view has an expansion gusset, as well as a bit of fullness pleated into a half belt at the waist. The one on the right is a 2 button, semi-peak lapel, three patch pockets with inverted pleats, lower pockets with flaps and the back pleated into a half belt. Both have top stitching detail. We are going to go with the one on the right but with the plainer pocket style of the one on the left.

I have been given a nice blue plaid flannel to work with. I had a devil of a time getting it all laid out nice and square on my cutting table, so in the end, I had to cut the yardage in sections then block it at the iron table, using my metre stick and a square to then press it properly just to get it in a better shape to cut out. It literally took me most of the day to cut that three piece suit. 

Here is the back, just ready in week 9 with a fitting yesterday. 

Yesterday, week 9 also looked like this (below). I managed to cut out the shell of a velvet coat, cut all the bits and pieces needed for a pair of breeches that I fit earlier in the week, I cut out my last 1840's waistcoat and trousers, and switched back to the eighteenth century today so I can call fittings next week when that designer is back in residence. I cut another cloak and made a coat pattern and cut it in muslin. The I will have to flip back to my 20th century things, have a few last fittings, and cut some of the final bits like top collars and mark alterations. 

Tomorrow is already Thursday! I have so much to get done and I really could use another pair of hands- not so I have four myself, but another set of sewing hands. We have a lot to get done.

Project puzzles.

Every so often interesting projects turn up out of the blue and I have to say that  love it when this happens.
Give me a puzzle and I am on it.

This week I am making a pattern for a friend who spend quite some time in the Arctic decades ago and wanted to make herself a new winter coat. She wants a modern take on a traditional amautik. 

I have not checked all the information I was told about, and I do not pretend to know very much at all about these garments. Just be forewarned. 

She told me how the Inuit would wrap their babies when they were small and carry them inside the coat, up against the mothers back. The coats were cut in such a way that as the babies grew, they were accommodated by the shape of the coat. The hoods were made large enough to cover the heads of both the mother and child.
The babies were held in place with a cord or sash that looped through a hanging cord at the centre front of the coat, pulled down between the breasts and wrapped around the waist holding the back of the coat tight and keeping the baby inside. She recounted how the mothers would line the inside of the coat back with moss, (no diapers then) that would absorb the child's urine and feces for later removal.

She gave me a child's size cotton amautik that she had, which I took a pattern from, and I have to say it was a very complicated garment. More complicated than it looks.

I am refraining from posting a picture of the pattern I made, as I believe that it is considered the intellectual property of the Inuit and that needs to be respected.

It was quite fun to design a coat for her incorporating some of the traditional aspects of the amautik.
I will have a mock up fitting with her tomorrow, and I am interested to see if she likes it. I know the hood isn't quite right on mine, but I really was winging it! Hooray for mock ups! She plans on making the coat out of melton, and has a nice little Arctic fox in her freezer (really!) that she may use to trim the hood....

The other puzzle I am working on is a soft case for a stand up bass I made for another friend almost 20 years ago. The zipper finally went!
Just a wee repair, but it was another one of those fascinating puzzles that grabbed my attention. His old case was not sturdy and it was falling apart and I took it on myself to make a new one all those years ago.

In other news, if you want to see the waistcoat for the Opera in action so to speak, click here.
The beautiful dress and the other ladies' costume was cut by my colleague Margaret.

1914 sack coat

For those out there who enjoy period drafts, I'm posting a draft from The Sartorial Art Journal of August 1914 which ties in a bit to the Extreme Style postings.

I don't think this draft would give as extreme a shape as depicted in those pictures, but I haven't tried it out. If you do try it let me know.

I hope it is legible- I'd like to set up a proper photo taking method for these old journals- I don't want to try to flatten them into a photocopier or scanner because some are fragile.

There's another project for the New Year.

Extreme styles#2 Drape

These designs, available from Chicago Woolen Mills in their 1943 booklet should make you give your head a shake! There's a lot of online discussion about drape so this should add fuel to the fire.

Above you can see the basic drape model in full colour along with the description

NOTE: when ordering, observe that these DRAPE MODELS have extra wide shoulders, fullness across chests and in sleeve heads. They tailor best in the softer fabrics.

Not too extreme a look- broad shoulders, nipped in waist, strong and ready to take on the world kind of look.

Then we have these two pages of Extreme Drape Models for Young Men. Interestingly, they come with warnings that you may not order trousers wider than specified in the chart because of the War measures in effect, but wow, I guess the jackets were exempt- maybe they could lay them out with a narrower trouser and use the same amount of fabric as in a regular suit- I don't know.

Quite the silhouette though, don't you think?

I'm out of town for a week so I'll catch up with you later.

Extreme styles

I have been collecting reference materials for a number of years now and as I was organizing things the other day I stopped to leaf through some of these catalogues and books.

I try to photograph or photocopy the more fragile examples so I don't have to worry about them becoming more damaged and I thought I'd share some of the things here with you.

We often think of extreme fashions as being something limited to our own present time because we don't often see examples of earlier times.

I wonder what people thought of these possibilities that were available to order in this 1914 Bannerman Tailoring of Chicago catalogue.

Obviously someone used the book as ascrapbook and interestingly they seemed to paste over most of the really interesting fashion plates and left the basic looks untouched- co-incidence? Who knows, but you can see some of this look developing earlier and I think the "novelty" drafts in The Blue Book of Men's Tailoring shows evidence of this direction in fashion.

Enjoy and I'll post more later.