Tailored Jacket Front

This week has been quite an exciting week for me as I've been making the front of a mini tailored jacket. The front of a bespoke tailored jacket is the hardest part as it involves using canvasing, domette which is a type of interlining and a huge amount of basting. Completing the front of the jacket has been a really enjoyable task as I've been able to see the improvements I have made through my stitching and my general knowledge of what fabrics are included in the process and what  fabrics should and should not be used during the process.    

I started off the process by making mini patterns as it is just a sample I will be making the jacket smaller (child size). The images above show some of the patterns I made, the left image is my master pattern, you can see all the different shapes and pattern components that I will be needing from this piece. I started putting together the front and side of the jacket first which was easy enough to do by machine. I then cut a piece of domette and canvas taking the shape of the entire top arm whole and chest area of the jacket. The domette/canvas stops just before the collar breaks, you're supposed to baste the domette and the canvas onto a bigger piece of canvas that takes the shape of the entire jacket front. However by mistake I basted the domette and the canvas on its own (shown in the image below) this meant I had to unpick all the stitching which took me an entire day to do and start again. 

This was annoying but it meant that I could practice my chevron stitch some more, and in actual fact I actually finished basting the domette onto the canvas a lot quicker a neater the second time around, which just goes to show that I am already learning and making improvements. The image below shows mine and Ivor's samples, I do feel as if mine is a very good first attempt and not too far off what its supposed to look like. 

Once I finished basting the domette onto the canvas I cut two slits, one in the arm whole and one at the bottom near the centre of the domette. These slits were to be overlapped on top of each other and  machine stitched together keeping it in place. Once I had machine stitched the slits together (almost like a dart) I cut triangle like shapes using lining fabric and hand stitched them into place on top of the darts to make sure they were fully secure. The two darts create a curved shape to the jacket front which is designed to fit against the body better and helps to give the suit more of a structured look and feel. 

 

Once the darts were done I could focus on the collar lapel. For the collar I cut a small rectangular piece of canvas and basted it onto fabric leaving a small gap between the domette and the collar, this small gap is for the bridal which is a thin strip of lining fabric that is basted into place between the canvas collar and the domette. The purpose of the bridal is to help give a sharper more refined edge to the break line of the collar.

Once I completed the finishing touches to the collar I was then able to start attaching the facing to the jacket however before doing this I cut a long thin strip of canvas (about 2 cm wide)  and stitched it to the larger part of the canvas and then sandwiched the strip of canvas between the facing and machine stitched it into place. The strip of canvas allows movement to the jacket and it also reduce bulk between all the layers of the fabric hence why the facing is attached to the strip of canvas and not to all the other bulkier pieces of canvas, bridal and domette. After attaching the facing I pressed the collar into place and the sample was complete.

Creating this mini jacket has been a lot of fun because it has made me feel like I am or could be a proper tailor as I've been following the correct steps and doing things properly. A big part of creating the jacket has been hand stitching which for this you need a lot of patience. Hand stitching is definitely what I enjoyed most because it feels like more of an achievement when you have finished and the finished item feels more personal and surprisingly strong and durable.