Circa 1805 Royal Marine Officers Coat, Part 3
So, armed with all of the adjustments needed to be made, we attacked our plastic pattern pieces, cutting them apart and adding/subtracting width as needed.
The one that surprised me the most is that we needed to add almost 3" into top of the sleeve to account for the "mere" 1/2" widening of the arm hole.
Barelyproper has some spare scarlet cotton fabric, so we used this for the second mockup. And this time I actually remembered to take some pictures after I finished cutting out the fabric.
Here is the red cotton, cut out with the pattern pieces still attached. you can even see the 5" in length I had to add to the front and back pieces on the plastic.
This version of the coat, being a full up mock-up, we decided to attach the tail pockets in order to make sure they all was well. It's a good thing to, as the instructions for the pattern were "Wonky" according to Barelyproper, and they had you sewing the pockets enclosed in such a way that the seam allowances would have been inside the pocket where they could catch lint and such, instead of inside the coat and lining, where they would not interfere with whatever you place in the tails.
Here is the tail pocket folded out on the back seam before the other front is attached.
Barelyproper dug out a scrap of the leftover blue satin taffeta from her Mrs. Scott dress in the idea that the mock-up might be donated to either the Dickens Christmas Fair or a local College Theater Company as a "Toy Soldier" costume piece.
Here is the lapels pinned to the front, ready to be sewn.
Once that was done, it was time for the final fitting (hopefully!). This time I was smart and remembered to bring a camera.
Picture of the front of the coat:
As you can see, the coat wants to sit open by about 1". It could be forced and stretched into place, but we decided to add 1/4" into the front on each side, and let the hooks and eyes do their thing.
Picture of the Cuffs:
Turns out that the sleeve of the coat is a little tight towards the bottom, so we added about 3/4" to both the sleeve end and the cuff in the final version.
Picture of the collar:
As you can see by the chalk line, the collar was sitting about a 1/4" too high in the back. However, I quickly noticed that in fact it was the neck of the coat that was too high, so I transferred my marks from the collar to the coat, following his neckline round with the tailor's chalk.
*UPDATE*
Sorry folks, the camera was being difficult last night, and I couldn't get the pictures of the tail turnbacks.
Picture of the Back of the Coat with Tails:
Closeup of turnbacks:
The one that surprised me the most is that we needed to add almost 3" into top of the sleeve to account for the "mere" 1/2" widening of the arm hole.
Barelyproper has some spare scarlet cotton fabric, so we used this for the second mockup. And this time I actually remembered to take some pictures after I finished cutting out the fabric.
Here is the red cotton, cut out with the pattern pieces still attached. you can even see the 5" in length I had to add to the front and back pieces on the plastic.
This version of the coat, being a full up mock-up, we decided to attach the tail pockets in order to make sure they all was well. It's a good thing to, as the instructions for the pattern were "Wonky" according to Barelyproper, and they had you sewing the pockets enclosed in such a way that the seam allowances would have been inside the pocket where they could catch lint and such, instead of inside the coat and lining, where they would not interfere with whatever you place in the tails.
Here is the tail pocket folded out on the back seam before the other front is attached.
Barelyproper dug out a scrap of the leftover blue satin taffeta from her Mrs. Scott dress in the idea that the mock-up might be donated to either the Dickens Christmas Fair or a local College Theater Company as a "Toy Soldier" costume piece.
Here is the lapels pinned to the front, ready to be sewn.
Once that was done, it was time for the final fitting (hopefully!). This time I was smart and remembered to bring a camera.
Picture of the front of the coat:
As you can see, the coat wants to sit open by about 1". It could be forced and stretched into place, but we decided to add 1/4" into the front on each side, and let the hooks and eyes do their thing.
Picture of the Cuffs:
Turns out that the sleeve of the coat is a little tight towards the bottom, so we added about 3/4" to both the sleeve end and the cuff in the final version.
Picture of the collar:
As you can see by the chalk line, the collar was sitting about a 1/4" too high in the back. However, I quickly noticed that in fact it was the neck of the coat that was too high, so I transferred my marks from the collar to the coat, following his neckline round with the tailor's chalk.
*UPDATE*
Sorry folks, the camera was being difficult last night, and I couldn't get the pictures of the tail turnbacks.
Picture of the Back of the Coat with Tails:
Closeup of turnbacks: