The completed trench coat

The coat has actually been finished for awhile.  I was hoping to have a photographer and some gritty Asbury Park, NJ backgrounds.  But my photographer was only available before his work day begins, and we both totally forgot that it's pitch black these days before 7 am.  C'est la vie.  So here I am in my garden in Maine.  

Remember there was a time that I wanted this coat to be longer?  Now I'm not so sure

The fabric is a lightweight stretch denim twill in what I'd call loden green.  I had never worked with a stretch fabric before.  I have to say that it sewed up like a dream and is very resistant to wrinkling.  It was $8 yd in the Peron's half price room on W. 40th.   Funny, I've never seen another thing that I liked in there.  

My goal now is to have the coat waterproofed.  I've checked with my local dry cleaner and they no longer do it.  The chemicals they used are no longer legal.  Does anyone have any experience with this?  Please chime in.  

Here's a glimpse of my most recent project.  Every man needs a brocade vest, right?  I'll do a short post on it soon.  

Please don't call the couture police!

Sewing a lining in by hand may be tres couture, but it's difficult to do and do well.  You probably all know how much I hate working with polyester lining material, so the quicker I can be done with it the better.  Here is the completed lining (minus its hair canvas front interfacing which was basted on after taking this photo).  Truth be told, I almost forgot it!  While making the muslin for this coat I figured out that I could attach the collar and the lining at the same time.  The instructions (just diagrams) made it way too complicated.   

I started by basting the collar stand to the neck edge of the coat.  The neck edge had been stay stitched and I clipped the seam every inch or so.  The clipping lets the neck edge "flatten out" and makes attaching the collar much easier.  

The lining is then "married" to the coat, sandwiching the collar in the middle.  I pinned it together for starters and then basted the hell out of the entire seam.  There is a lot of fabric to contend with so some patience is required.  The "Big Seam" starts at the bottom hem of one of the front facings, comes up the front of the coat to the top of the lapel, pivots, crosses over the neck edge to attach the collar, pivots at the top of the other lapel and then continues down to the opposite hem.  I really took my time at the machine, stitching just an inch or two at a time, then readjusting the fabric which seemed to be all over the place.  

The whole mess is flipped inside out and Voila.  The collar is attached and the lining has a neat clean professional appearance.  The only part of the lining that will need to be hand stitched is at the back vent.  I plan to do this with a prick stitch, which is both fun to do and looks great.  

This coat is really on its way to completion at this point.  

Tackling the details

The details of this coat have been both challenging and fun.  All of the small parts are made first and then they get incorporated into the larger seams that actually turn it all into a coat.  

Here are the epaulettes and the right front storm flap.  I've become a "baste-a-holic" after making the wedding jacket, so you'll see that things are basted into position.  Basting has really improved the quality of my work, and it beats the hell out of getting my fingers stuck with pins constantly.  

There are straps at the cuffs that will button into position.  

I've constructed an inside left chest pocket, which is a nice detail to have on any coat.  I like having a place to put a letter, directions, map or phone.  This is called a double piping pocket and it's surprisingly easy to make.  The Roberto Cabrera tailoring book walks one through it step by step.  The extra hour spent working on this detail is well worth it.  

Making the collar was great fun.  The undercollar was supposed to be a single piece cut on the bias, but I didn't have enough fabric.  Making it in two pieces made absolutely no difference in the end.  Hair canvas interfacing was basted onto the wrong side and then held in place by decorative topstitching.  It makes for a very substantial collar.  

 

Here is the finished collar / collar stand unit.  A tailoring ham is great for pressing and shaping the curve of the collar.  The bottom of the collar stand will be basted together.  The next, and maybe most challenging step, will be to sew the coat, lining and collar all together in what I'm calling the "Big Seam".  

TC = { (a2 + b2 +(cde)} in other words a trench coat is equal to the sum of its details?

For me a trench coat is all about the details.  There's just so much stuff going on! Epaulettes, storm flaps, belt loops here and there.  Maybe one of the reasons I've delayed making the coat is all of these details, which are usually topstitched to the Nth degree.   In my opinion if they're not done well, the whole coat looks like crap.  I'm using my Singer 301 which does a fine job of straight stitching, but I really struggle with edgestitching.  So I'm going to forego the double topstitching and will just topstitch everything at 1/4".  Call this playing it safe ( and knowing my limitations). 

 

3 of the 4 patterns in this book have welt pockets, but none of them are constructed the same way.  I'm getting more comfortable with them, but there's still something unnerving about slashing the fabric to make the pocket.  To calm my nerves I made a quick mock-up of the pocket with some sheeting.  It's nice to know where I'm headed, and it's good practice.  

This trench coat has rows of topstitching on the undercollar and the outside of the collar stand.  I decided to repeat this detail on the pockets, so before actually forming the welts, I topstitched rows 1/4" apart on the outside of the pocket.  The welts are then folded right sides together, the edges are stitched and the pocket is turned.  

Here is the final result. 

Because I live in a cool climate, I like putting my hands into warm pockets.  So I constructed one half of the pocket with black flannel and the other half of cotton pocketing.   For those of you with access to NYC, the flannel is from A & K Fabrics on W 39th.  It's 120" wide and only $10 / yd.  That's a lot of soft warm pockets!   

Here's the view from the outside.  Now it's on to the collar and the other little bits and pieces.  

Ix-nay on the longer trench

Although I would have like a longer coat, in the end it just wasn't possible.  In fact, I struggled for hours to get the coat as drafted out of my limited amount of fabric.  Above you can see how close I had to place the major pattern pieces.  Thank God the fabric was 60" wide.  

The sleeves, storm flaps and collar pieces had to be orchestrated by trial and error onto the remaining fabric.  The bias cut undercollar turned out to be an impossibility, so it will be in two pieces.  The undercollar has lots of decorative topstitching on it, so I don't think the center back seam will be an issue.  

Somehow I managed to get the smaller pieces ( pocket welts, epaulettes, belt loops, cuff straps) out of this table full of scraps.  

So, as much as I would have liked a longer coat, I'm sucking up my regrets and moving forward. Needless to say a valuable lesson has been learned.  All of this could have been avoided for $8 !  

The trench coat muslin and a question

The muslin for the trench coat is complete, so here I am with the first fitting.  Overall I'm pleased with the fit.  Why the sleeves are so long I haven't a clue.  I can safely shorten them by at least 2".  The extra 3/4" across each shoulder will allow me to wear this over heavier clothes.  In these pics I'm wearing a lightweight fleece with some room to spare. 

I don't know if anyone really belts a trench coat.  More often than not I see the belt just hanging at the sides or doubled back and fastened behind.  I wrapped a belt around myself just to get the visual gist of things.  In all honesty I'm not 100% sold on the proportions.  The belt seems to bisect the coat right in half.  Am I wrong in wishing the coat were longer?  Feel free to weigh in on this one.  

Here's a closer shot of the collar.  I have to admit that the "engineering" of these Japanese patterns is superb.  The collar, collar stand and front facings aligned perfectly.  Usually I struggle to get one part or the other to match up.  Hopefully the real collar will go together as easily as the muslin.  This is one of those cases where making the muslin is well worth the time and effort.  I'm going to be lining this coat and with some careful engineering I should be able to attach the lining, facing and the collar with a single seam.  At least that's the theory right now.  

Because of my concern over the coat's length I've done a little trench research.  This is an Aquascutum model.  It's length from neck to hem is advertised as 94 cm , or 37" .  My coat is 37.5 inches, so apparently I'm in the ballpark.  BTW the coat above is $720.  I think I can come in under that.  

 
This is a Burberry trench.  Again the back length is 37".  A similar model is available on Bluefly for $1596.  Seriously????  The Brooks Brothers model varies from 38 to 40" in length.  Dear readers, what's your opinion?  Should I try to eek out a little more length?  I'm unfortunately very tight on material, so it may not even be possible.  Is it worth the struggle to add just an inch or two?   

Getting back to my roots

Ok.  Getting back on track here.  I've decided to make the cover trench coat from the Japanese coat book.  It's been while, and I have to admit that it's been easy to drift into pre-printed patterns.  It's been a treat to open up an envelope and, VOILA.... a pattern and instructions in English.  But I have all the materials to make the trench coat, so it only makes sense to move forward with it.  Plus it would be really nice to have this coat for fall.  

For those of you not familiar with Japanese patterns, the book above is sitting on the pattern sheet.  All the pattern pieces are overlapped onto a single sheet.  It's like finding the hidden pictures in the kid's magazine Highlights.  Hmmm.  where's the collar stand?  

Once again I'll extol the virtues of Swedish Tracing Paper.  Here I've rolled it out over the pattern sheet.  It's translucent and very durable.  

I find a pattern piece to trace and pin the tracing paper onto the pattern sheet.  It's a good idea to let your eye follow the shape all the way around before tracing.  There are so many intersecting lines that it's very easy to get mixed up and get off track.  It's best to know where you're headed.   None of the pattern pieces include seam allowances or hems.  I use a small ruler and make little dashes all around the pattern piece at 5/8" with a pencil.  Then it's just a matter of connecting the dots.  Easy but tedious.  I've learned from my previous 2 coats that the Japanese size XL isn't even a size M by American standards.  I was able to alter this pattern during the tracing process.  I increased the shoulder width by 3/4".  This ends up giving me an additional 3" in circumference of the coat.  

Jumping ahead, the sleeves ended up being about 2" too long on the muslin.  The tracing paper makes this an easy adjustment to make.  I simply take up a 1" fold while at the same time maintaining the grain line.  A little piece of tape and it's done.  

Here you see the fold taped into place.  The pencil line is the grainline which must be maintained.  The worst is truly over at this point.  On to making the fitting muslin.