This was the focus of Tailoring II -- creating a men's suit coat. We started by following the recipe for a pattern called "Young Man's Sac Coat." I drafted my pattern with Matt's measurements. Once I had the patter drafted, I created a canvas mock-up of the jacket and we had the first fitting. Everything went really smoothly -- not many changed to be made. We adjusted the balance of where the jacket falls by opening up the shoulder seam and letting it out a little. Then the collar needed to be lengthened a bit to compensate for that alteration. The sleeves needed to be made narrower. I moved the side dart to the front and we moved the buttons a bit closer together. After all the alterations were made in the pattern, it was time to start creating the actual suit coat. We started with the canvas that goes in the front of the jacket. Basically, you create carefully shaped padding to make that smooth look from the shoulder down. It consists of canvas, felt, and french canvas with a hearty helping of pad stitching (which I find incredibly enjoyable to do!). After the canvas front is constructed you place it with the wool front and baste the two pieces together. These basting stitches do not come out until you are completely done. As you can see on the photos above, all the basting stitches are still there. I didn't quite finish putting the button holes in yet. Anyway, in brief, because this could go on for a while -- The lapels are pad-stitched and taped (with tailor's tape) which helps to create a nice smooth line once you cover everything in the wool. You create the under-collar from felt and collar canvas. These are pad-stitched together in order to create the collar shape. I custom made the shoulder pads -- these are inserted under the wool layer of the jacket but on top of the lining. The back of the jacket has canvas and a single vent. The whole coat is lined. Again, this is a quick, very brief explanation of things, but at least it is the gist of it!
