Manipulation of Jacket Back to Remove Shoulder Yoke

[jruley]

Hello everyone!

'Way back in 2016, several senior members were kind enough to assist me with drafting and fitting a jacket pattern with a yoked back (thread here: https://movsd.com/BespokeCutter/index.php/topic,361.90.html).  The jacket has served me well over the years, and I've recently made a couple of new ones, with small changes due to increased waist size and a little looser overall fit.

The separate yoke was necessary to accommodate my shoulder blades (thread here: https://movsd.com/BespokeCutter/index.php/topic,253.0.html).  At the time, posaune explained that with a coat, the shoulder dart could be split up between the armhole, the shoulder, the neckhole and a center back seam.  This would eliminate the yoke piece.  Peterle explained in the jacket thread that the waist darts could also be manipulated away by slashing and pivoting.

So, now I would like to apply this to the jacket.  The photos show my existing jacket back and yoke patterns, with all seam allowances removed. Note that I have a dropped right shoulder, so the scye is lower on that side.  My back also slants a bit to the left so the perpendicular centerlines of the yoke and back don't quite line up.

In the second and third photos, I have attempted to follow posaune's directions by splitting the left half of the yoke into pieces.  Am I on the right track? 

I am not sure how to proceed with the back darts.  Should I transfer those to the armhole, the center back, a combination, or somewhere else?

I hope others with similar fitting issues will find this interesting.  Once again, I really appreciate everyone's time and effort helping me in the past.  You are a wealth of information and very generous with your knowledge.

Best regards,
Jim

[Schneiderfrei]

Welcome JRuley.

[TTailor]

Looks like you are on the right track.
You just need to make sure the ease in the back shoulder can be eased in so that has a lot to do with the fabric you use.
The neck line witl need to be drawn in with a tape. The back armhole- you can try to draw it in but that area is more on the straight grain, so again, fabric dictates. Otherwise just let the armhole be slightly bigger and look at whether you can just tweak the sleeve a bit instead.

[jruley]

Thanks Terri!

I'm interested in ways to remove the back dart, but it also occurs to me that it's going to be very difficult to get a back with only a center seam to fit nicely over prominent blades.  So, I had another thought:

What if I cut a separate side piece, like this...



And then straighten the shoulder seam, like this...



And now I can split the yoke without changing the length of the scye or the neckhole - like this.



All the easing would be in the shoulder seam and the new curved seam - which are conveniently cut on the bias.

Is this a viable option?

[peterle]

This is a Viennese Seam wich is normaly used for tight pieces like uniforms and tailcoats. It enables a very tight fit. Usually it incorporates the waist and shoulder dart.
You could also use a Princess Seam wich ends in the shoulder seam instead of the armhole to incorporated the darts.

[TTailor]

All the easing would be in the shoulder seam and the new curved seam - which are conveniently cut on the bias.

Is this a viable option?

Yes, that's also an option.
The other option is a dart in the back shoulder. I think there was discussion on the old forum about that. Something that used to be done, but fell out of favour. I believe there were pictures from a German text.

[jruley]

Thank you both.  I hadn't seen the term "Viennese Seam" before; didn't realize it had a name.

Are there ways of manipulating the back dart away without resorting to a new seam?  Might not be appropriate for my prominent blades, but others might find them interesting.

[jruley]

OK.  Here are the new back pieces with the Viennese seam configuration.  No seam allowance has been added.  Darts are only for reference, showing the amount to be eased and shrunk.

Back seam length, neck hole and armhole length have not been changed.



Does anyone see a problem?