Its been a while since my last post i have been busy sorting out a few things for when i go back to university in October. i have finally got onto cutting out the coat in the top fabric. Also i ordered the structural fabrics as well with drab coloured French canvas, collar melton, hair cloth and chest felt from this brilliant website MacCulloch and Wallis Ltd. Having got myself a bit confused over where this canvas all goes as the book is good for the pattern but lacks a bit of construction information in some areas, i emailed my tutor at uni. My question was that the wool fabric was rather thin and floppy so i wanted to know whether i put the canvas on the back to structure it a bit more. The answer was to use cotton to line the wool and treat it as one fabric. A bit annoyingly i had already cut out and mark tacked my pieces therefore i had to try and match the cotton to the top fabric as i will be following the inside lines oppose to the ones on the top fabric. This took up quite a bit of time. I decided to do this on every piece except the front as i think with the canvas and felt it would have structure and be too bulky with the cotton as well. I made sure i basted all the lines and balance points and marked the roll line on the lapels.
I basted all my lines in as well and balance points.
I have learnt a few interesting points whilst doing this as in not to pin the pattern to the wool but use weights otherwise it distorts the pattern, i didn't think it did but after pinning a bit it really does and for tailoring which has to be accurate that little extra few cms could throw it all off a bit.
Next you have to do some shaping and stretching the pieces. When i first read this i thought it sounded quite strange and thought that it can't be that accurate but you only stretch certain areas 6mm max. On the front the shoulder, gorge and skye are stretched and the middle of the shoulder seam is shrunk by basting down the centre and pulling shorter and place a steam iron on it shrinking out the crinkles. This did shape it very well.
Next step is sewing the sides to the front. My chest line didn't match up which was annoying but i match the armhole and the hemline and stretched out the middle. This is as far as you go with sewing it.
Next is the pocket
