A Study in Coat - Finished

[jessamygriffith]

Though these are only my iPhone pics and not anything orgasmically GQ, the coat is done. Okay well, I must put in the sleeve linings but I can do that at school tmrw. Free time, whee.

First I must bitch about the sleeves. The original drafted ones were shapely but too narrow - I would never have got a suit jacket into them. I recut a test sleeve (revamped the cuff to something so simple I think I must have been an idiot when I made the first draft). They are lovely, roomy. I set them. One is puffy in the shoulder. They are bunching weird in the armpit. I LOATHE THEM with the poisonous hatred of a thousand hissing radioactive spiders.

"Fuck," says I. But this project is charmed. Why, you say? Must be some Sherlock magic, like he's standing there and saying, 'You're an idiot, but you can do better.'

I agree, Normally a 'real' sewing project for something of this magnitude involves a trifecta culled from the following:

a) Frustration
b) bleeding (makes the gods happy, oils the sewing machines of Satan.)
c) Tears.
d) Throwing the project across the room. I did this once to a commissioned piece and I sulked, It stayed there two weeks.
e) holes in fabric from tearing/ accidental cuts/ ripping things out over and over

I had heaps of frustration but all in all, learned tons. I would definitely use some of these techniques in tailoring again. And I understand completely about how the underlying architecture of a garment makes it look so much better.

I ripped those damned sleeves out and tried again, recutting the armscythe. And hey presto, it worked, I stuffed in the shoulder pads and Bob's my uncle.

You are spared the pics of me fighting the sleeves and instead get a tip for perfect pleats. Do a huge ugly stitch down the pleat to hold it in place, the steam and press the garment with your wooden clapper. Hammer the wool with the clapper if it's really thick.

And now the finished pics, not really nice, but with the Sherlock ones to compare.






That's it folks. The Coat.
Originally by Belstaff for Sherlock BBC. Copied by me.

And yes, it's not as big in the chest as Benny's because, fuck it, I don't want to SWIM in it.
Houndstooth wool, plastic buttons and all materials bought respectively in Nippori Fabric District, Tokyo, and Okadaya, Shinjuku, Tokyo. Notions from Yuzawaya in Yokohama.

Now I can be tortured by not having The Scarf.

Comments

[jessamygriffin.livejournal.com]

I had the use of approximately three pattern pieces from an old Burda pattern, I look at the seam lines of the original coat in screen shots, I gridded Sherlock up to get approximate button locations and pocket placement.

The time is kind of hard to say... I made and finished a TEST coat for this sucker just to try out the pattern. (Conclusion - needed work.) Do I count that time? Probably 20 hours on the test coat alone. On the real coat... I can't even say.

Materials - about $120 I think? The wool was cheap, ironically - 700 yen a meter, I got 5 meters. The buttons were 130 yen each. I had the gold paint already to touch them up. Red silk thread, 250 yen. Iron-on interfacing, maybe 1000 yen. The stupidly annoying and expensive stuff was the mohair/wool interlining (I was testing real tailor techniques) which gives the front of the coat that crisp, smooth look. THAT right there, for 3 meters... ugh. 8000 yen or so. The lining was cheap. 100 yen a meter, just some crisp taffeta of polyester in dark grey.

If I made this again, I would get a cheaper equivalent of that tailor's interlining.

[swissmarg]

Thanks for the explanation. You are incredibly talented. It must have felt amazing to have the finished product turn out so well. :)

[jessamygriffin.livejournal.com]

I AM SO HAPPY. And all you fellow fans help fan that into raging fanlove. You all understand, you get it!

If I did it again, I would tweak the lapels slightly, and the collar - just about 1 cm... and maybe add a touch more flare to the back. Oh, and do a better job lining it - i.e. Iron the damned wool pleats BEFORE lining. Such a wally am I.

[mr-lark.livejournal.com]

You've probably been asked this a dozen times (I haven't read all your comments), but would you ever make more to order? I freakin love the work you've done and really want a houndstooth coat of my own.

You could become like that dude who does replica Doctor Who coats for people. :)

[jessamygriffin.livejournal.com]

There's a guy who does Doctor Who coats? Is that... Magnolia Clothiers or someone else?

People have asked, yeah. I'm just one person and never figured it would be worth my time, to get the amount of work out in I'd have to charge a lot more than most people want to pay. (Well you know how it goes - people who don't sew/know tailoring how no clue at all of the skill and effort and time, so they want enerything for nothing. Artisan life = fighting idiots for proper pay for work done.)

Technically the original fabric isn't quite a houndstooth, but this was the closest I could find! If I ever found the fabric again in Japan for a decentish price... oh who am I kidding. Probably this is a one shot deal. I made the blog more so people could get inspired to make their own, with a tenative pattern to go from. Glad you like it though! It's about time to put the Coat away for the spring here. Sad.