jessamygriffith | A Study in Coat - Pattern Sketches and Notes

No, really, I swear this will be the last post. I don`t want to spam people with this, but since the reaction was so favourable and because people seeme interested, I am putting up the crap pattern pieces and sketches.

Firstly - before embarking on the project try to have a dummy or victim to try on the coat and stick pins into. MAKE A TEST PATTERN, out of CLOTH.

Here`s how I rolled - I sketched the coat, noting seam lines and details. I sketched the pattern pieces based on this.

Then I sketched directly onto the test fabric, cut and sewed with a large baste stitch on my machine. I screwed parts up, tore them apart, cut new pieces or adjusted others. I had of course my own body to measure from, and an old coat pattern to get the approximate sleeve holes and upper collar from. I had bits from Burda 4127 to use. I say bits because I lost most of the parts of the pattern but didn't care - I made up my own freaking pattern after all. The coat isn't that hard - few seam lines. The tricky bit is the back... and then getting the button and pocket placement, but see the previous posts on this by clicking on the tag, 'how to make'.

If you have an old winter coat pattern, grab it. Look at it, use it to get things like "Where's the waistline? What's the best length? (Hint - mid calf on Cumberbatch.) How do I do an armscythe? What the fuck is an armscythe it sounds like a weapon with curves? (Hint, it IS, the bastard things.)"

You want the coat to be loose if you are doing a true man's style. If you are doing a lady's, well. If you have a substantial chest and want to accentuate it a princess line coat would be more your thing and this is not the coat pattern for you. Even so - LOOSE FIT. How else will you fit your John jumpers/ Sherlock suit jackets underneath? This ain't a corset or goth coat!

Cut the body front first and the top back of the coat, and put it together, test the shoulder width, the length. Actually, no. Don't test the length - best if you cut it to length AFTER it's all together. Always leave hem space, always cut too big and leave room for error.

Above - the button used on Sherlock's coat. It looks like leather, is domed and has a gold-colour rope edging.

Mine was nowhere near that quality. I had a leather look plastic button with stitch marks on the outside. I touched it up with gold paint and then added gloss. Be creative. But definitely try to get a gold border button or paint one - it provides contrast.

The skirt back is box pleated in centre with two knife pleats aligned with the darts in the upper back.

The cuff has what I suppose I can call a Peter-pan round edge to it. It is edge stitched and is a turn-back style, I think. Well, mine is - I have the option of rolling it down or up more. At the moment It's tacked in place at the perfect length.

The belt pieces are about 3" wide WITH NO SEAM ALLOWANCES (don't forget to put them in!) and the ends are rounded off, overlap and have buttons placed just inside the dart line. Are there button holes on the top piece? Possibly. Can't see. I tacked the belt ends together - I guess if I want the coat to be more waisted I could pull them in more. The belt should cover the join of skirt and back by at least 1 cm! (I don't know what that is in inches.)

The under collar - I don't really know what to call this piece - there's something like a... stiffener? Extra support? Something under the collar, anyway. I could never get a good pic of it, because I had only seen Series One at that point, and you just don't get a good pic of it. I extrapolated. If anyone ever geeks out enough to correct me on this and how it should go, I would love to know. I cannot advise on it properly.

So, there's clearly an piece on the under collar - I see the seam lines, I see the top stitch. Is it applied over the under-collar? Was it integrated as part of it? I am not a tailor IRL so I can't say. I went an easy route since I had no idea, and I wanted the stiffness of a double layer of wool to help the collar stand up in the back.

**Edit - yes this piece is a feature on some coats. If anyone gets a pic of their own coat collar I could say more about this piece. And how it should look? I would love to know.

The red lines are top stitching, the blue are probably seam lines.

My interpretation -

I tapered the end so it didn't have clunky thickness intersecting the collar edge.

The button is an element you see in some pics of the coat. It's for doing up the coat fully to the chin, breast flaps completely overlapped.

I also noticed two small buttons on the inside of the lapel near the buttons holes, which definitely must be for the fur collar. You do NOT see these buttons on every coat he wears - I assume that the costume crew removed them on two of the three coats, and left them on one. Up to you to include or not.

The sleeve toile is version two - version one was too narrow and the cuff too complicated. As you can see, I ended up redrafting the cuff - I wasn't think about what I needed to turn them back- too tight! When making yours, look at the Belstaff one - it is so tight and smooth to the sleeve. It could be tacked down. If you do make a turn-back cuff like mine, you have this option. You want to be careful not to make it too tight or the sleeve will be wrinkled underneath, squeezed by the cuff. Too loose and it doesn't look Belstaff.

Sorry about the above back pattern pic - the one in wool is NOT the one used, or I wouldn't still have it to take pics of. It was too narrow, and the coat was too tight on my chest. The red SHOULD be the cut lines. Look at the pattern sketch above for how to do it.

Actual pocket size for my coat when finished and lined - 7 1/2" by 9", the flap 7 1/2" by 4". You could make them a big bigger if you are my size (5'9ish"). they hold mi phone and wallet comfortably.

AGAIN I SAY - cut the coat long, and trim it to length afterwards. This way you won't have a crooked hem.

Okay, think I am getting to the end of notes here - what else can I say?

If your coat has an obvious pattern, be aware of this when cutting - make the pieces pattern go the same way. I ripped off the one pocket because my hounds-tooth faced the wrong direction. Why yes, I AM anal retentive that way! And if you look at the Belstaff coat, you will see they did the same. Make yourself stand out in the details, even if no one will notice.

Oh, and the welt pockets - you could conceivably just fake them on. I chose to have pockets and added a snap inside to keep things in place. I like pockets. I only regret not putting an inside breast pocket in, I love those best of all in mens' coats. I would love to think the Belstaff has one, but there's no proof as yet. I may retro-fit a path pocket with zip on the inside to keep the line of the coat smooth - when I put my iPod in the welt pocket it lumps the front. Well, my boobs do that as well, so life's a bitch.

Note the pattern direction of the fabric - Belstaff knows their shit. The pattern of the welt pockets and patch pockets and flaps all go the same direction. I did the same.

That's the snap I put inside the welt. I think I's rather have a zip, but this is enough to keep my iPod slipping out. I wouldn't keep change in these pockets.

Anyway. That's it - that's the pattern. It may be of help, or it may not. I am an experienced Army docto... an talented semi-amateur who likes to play around until she gets things right and obsesses over details.

If I ever was fool hardy enough to do this again (like, if someone handed me the real Belstaff Irish tweed wool) I would tweak the following on the coat:

a) Make the collar a shade shorter in length, more cornered. And the lapels a smidge narrower again.

b) Find out what the under collar extra piece really is.

c) find the right dye to darken the wool. The houndstooth is fine but this wool is bizarre and has a small amount of Mylar, MYLAR for god's sake. I sparkle in a subtle way like a Twi-vamp in the sun. Had hoped I could burn the mylar out with the iron, no such luck.
d) do the interior pocket.

e) add a touch more flare for the pleats in back.

Thanks for reading!

**EDIT** Someone wanted to know the exact dimensions of my pleats. Probably not perfect, because I am rubbish at pleats, and because I mainly just draped the coat and eye-balled it to make sure the pleat depth was similar to screen shots.Measurement are in centimeters, NOT INCHES.