Well I've been busy. House-hunting, mortgage applications, sewing, keeping myself fed while the girls are off skiing in Italy. I was invited to ski by the way, they didn't simply have enough of me and bugger off without me, it's more that I don't have the balance or coordination to ski and I won't fly unless I absolutely have to.
That's not to say I've been completely idle on the project front, far from it, in fact a week off of work has given me plenty of time to progress a few different items, along with trying a few things that didn't work out so well... So sit back and I'll bring you up to date with where things stand.
When we left off last time I'd just finished off my new coat for May's Comic-Con and I was pretty happy with how it'd turned out:
However, I was less happy with adapting my previous year's effort for Jay's (little 'un) costume this year. So, in a selfless act of generosity I decided to let her use this new coat, while I'd (selflessly) make another one for myself. I had the time and there were a few new ideas I wanted to try out anyway. After trawling around the net and mocking up a few sketches I decided to try and adapt a leather/suede over-coat from eBay as a departure from my usual scratch-built items. Some internet shopping later, £5.50 and a few days' wait, this arrived in my eager little hands:
I was pretty pleased with the coat - it was clearly "vintage" but the suede seemed sound and more importantly it fit me. I set about removing the woven edging and the lining, with a plan to re-line it in white or off-white cotton to replace the golden satin lining it came with. So, some trimming and destruction later, we had this:
I added a back split to the waistline, ready to dismantle the lining to use as a pattern. And then I decided against it... Seriously, garments from the 70's are really well made. Seriously. I must have spent two or three hours trying to un-pick all of the overlock stitching, reinforced seams and the like before deciding that sod it, this wasn't worth it for now. So the coat and lining are now folded up by the shoe rack awaiting some future attention.
With this success behind me I turned my attention to designing another coat to wear. Starting with the Simplicity pattern 4923, which I'd used for the coat Jay would now be using, I decided to adapt the pattern pieces to create a four-piece pattern to simplify and make it my own.
In reducing the number of pattern pieces required for the coat, I added a cuff extension to the altered arm pieces, lengthened the body sections for a longer, fuller skirt section and trimmed back the front opening so it would sit open when worn. While researching the style of this coat I had in mind two particular reference images - firstly a piece of concept art from Assassin's Creed 3, plus a photograph of re-enactors wearing a particular type of justaucorps frock-coat, used extensively by the French-Canadian armed forces in the 18th century. It's not a coincidence in my opinion that the two articles of clothing look so similar, as we know how much research Ubisoft puts in to it's game design.
I decided to take my inspiration from the Ubisoft concept art, and started construction of the coat itself, featuring some coloured panels to add to the overall design. Theses templates were designed and cut by eye, which went pretty well!
The base fabric for the coat was my usual heavy cotton drill in pale grey, with the blue detail panels of the same fabric. The piping is a plain, deep red, selected to match the deep red lining I planned to add. To attach the piping I pressed the bias tape in half with a hot iron then glued it around the edge of each blue panel to provide a decorative trim - I know glue is cheating, but it was only used to keep the fiddly narrow bias tape in place for sewing.
With the blue piped panels in place, I top stitched along either side of the piping to hold it in place. Which took an absolute age and a lot of concentration. Still, it seemed worth it for extra level of detail it brought. Next came the lining, which followed the same pattern as the shell but without with detail panels. As an interesting side note, I'm getting pretty good at set-in sleeves and matching seam lines:
And this is where things started to fall apart. Not literally, I'm a stickler for double-stitched seams. Once the lining was inserted, I realised that even though the grey shell fabric is of the same type and make-up as the other colours of cotton twill I use, it seems to be a lot less "rigid," much more pliable and less able to hold it's shape. The result of this was awkward bunching around the sleeves and a shell that was being dragged down by the weight of the lining... So this coat is now hanging unfinished in a cupboard. If anyone wants it, let me know.
So at this point I was ready to call it quits, but I remembered I had another coat I'd started some time ago, but abandoned due to other things to do.
This one was based on Simplicity's 2895 "old west" pattern, but adapted to have no skirt section. I'd only constructed the body section an one of the sleeves before I'd put it down, so it was time to dig the adapted pattern out and get going.
After adding the second sleeve, which I'd modified to feature an open sleeve end, I constructed the lining from cream cotton twill with a dark brown facing and collar. Speaking of the collar, I decided to use the upper collar pattern piece for both the upper an lower collars, thus allowing the finished collar to stand upright, rather than laying flat to add a little more flair to the finished coat.
Interfacing was added through the body of the coat, plus shoulder pads salvaged from the suede coat I bought from eBay earlier in the post. Once the shell and the lining were complete, I stitched the two together and used the same bias-bound edging I've come to like from previous projects.
I've added the hood in the final picture to show the finished effect, but I still need to add buttonholes, buttons and some additional details to finish the coat off. The hood will be attached with hooks and eyes to make it removable for washing.
Phew. That was a lot of updating. And that's not even all of it (told you I'd been busy). I also managed to get my friend Scott's coat ready for a final fitting, but that will have to wait for the next update, which I promise will be sooner than four weeks. As a parting shot I'll leave you with something I'm toying with patterning out after May's Comic-Con, Isaac Clarke's coat from Dead Space 3. Yeah, that seems like a nice, simple project...
Until next time.
