More Casual Jacket Fun

[Gerry]

I thought I would try to take some more width out of the right side seam to clean up that side of the back.

Postimages is inaccessible at the moment, so I can't see any images from this thread. Must be a maintenance issue ... or the Kremlin have it in for tailors. With that in mind, I have no idea what you've done, but I don't understand why you're making changes to one side of your body only.

Much of what tailors do is artifice. They take our crooked bodies and make them look straighter. What you seem to be doing is the reverse. By catering to every quirk of your figuration you're actually accentuating your body's asymmetry. That was clearly the case in your first jacket. The seams run at a diagonal, slanting from left to right. Imagine what that would have looked like with check cloth. You'd cut right across the pattern and your jacket would have looked badly sewn.

With the exception of the shoulder drop adjustment, your pattern should remain symmetrical. Anomalies of fit from side-to-side are generally catered to by adjustments internally - wading to even up shoulders, for example - or with the iron. Or simply left alone, so that the body looks more even (if stiff enough, the internal structure of the garment will maintain shape).

The body lines all seem to be horizontal, but one thing that concerns me a little is the coat isn't sitting into my back. 

As mentioned I can't see any of the photos. From memory, you've created side seams that are very much at the side. Consider shifting them towards the back, like a lounge coat. You can then create suitable suppression to clean up the back. Alternatively, you can create a yolk, ditch the centre seam and incorporate two darts either side of the CB line, running from the yolk to the hem. These can be turned into seams.

Also the front skirts seem to want to swing open a little at the front.

When unbuttoned, a jacket will always swing open a little. If it's problematic then the fronts need picking up at the neck. I can't see any of the images right now though. If you mean that you have this problem when buttoned, then many tailors draw in the fronts and hems with tape or selvedge from lining/Silesia to stop them 'detaching' from the body. That's something that's done in the making, though, and doesn't concern us at this stage.

[peterle]

The side seams hang straight, that's good.
The front grapes a little since the strip was ironed inside,so most likely the strip just pushes a bit.

When taking in at the side seam you also make the arm hole smaller. Not a good thing. I think it would be better to correct at the curved seam. In my eyes the right side is wider throughout from the shoulderblades to the hem. You should just make the right side widths (chest waist hip) the same as the left and see what happens.

[Gerry]

Bizarrely, I have to use a VPN now to access/see postimg. Opera is inadvertently blocking it: I get a 'failed to load' message. Solutions (other than a VPN), anyone?

Anyway, with this type of jacket, 5 buttons are preferred. Either that or space your four buttons more. Preferably the former arrangement because, as mentioned earlier, alignment of the lowest button with the top of the hip pocket always looks right; and an extra button should allow you to do that. Reference the Cardin and Hardy Amies examples I posted.

Better/lower spacing of the buttons will help with keeping your fronts closed. Drawing in the hem and front when making the jacket will do the rest.

You're creating asymmetry on the RHS. It looks bad - see above mini-rant ( ).

The balance is looking good though, well done. If you want something more sculptured at the back, then you really should consider shifting the side-seams further back. That way you can add proper suppression. Did you add any along the CB seam?

Do remember to check your apex measurement as described earlier. Those darts look like they could do with pulling in slightly. It will look better.

[jruley]

I think it would be better to correct at the curved seam. In my eyes the right side is wider throughout from the shoulderblades to the hem. You should just make the right side widths (chest waist hip) the same as the left and see what happens.

Previous alteration has been removed, and 1/2" taken off the right side piece along the curved seam, graduating to nothing at the top:

[jruley]

Here unfastened in front:









This seems to me to fit better in back, but now the fronts are slanting a little again.

What do you see?

[jruley]

This one has the same alteration as post #63 and #64, but with 1/2" pinned out of the right side seam below the waist.  Above the waist line, it graduates to nothing at the chest line, so the armhole does not change.

I think it helped the back.

Fastened:

[jruley]

and unfastened:









Tell me what you think.

[stoo23]

Bizarrely, I have to use a VPN now to access/see postimg. Opera is inadvertently blocking it: I get a 'failed to load' message. Solutions (other than a VPN), anyone?

https://help.opera.com/en/latest/security-and-privacy/#:~:text=Whitelist%20a%20website%20in%20Opera's%20ad%20blocker&text=Instead%20of%20having%20to%20completely,off%20for%20this%20site%20button.

https://www.sitepoint.com/community/t/images-not-loading-in-opera/4132

https://help.opera.com/en/latest/web-preferences/

https://perishablepress.com/opera-brave-blocking-images/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm1BqS1vs4k

[peterle]

The last pic set looks good to me. Are all the widths in the back symmetric now?

[jruley]

Are all the widths in the back symmetric now?

Yes, that seems to have been the problem.

[jruley]

Well, if the body looks good, maybe it's time to think about sleeves?

Before going any further, I thought it would be good to check the armholes.  I laid the pattern pieces (with existing alterations marked) on a sheet of paper.  Working front to back, I traced the outlines, then matched each piece at the seam lines.  The result is shown below:



The heavy lines are the pattern piece edges.  Dashed lines indicate seams, and the chest line is marked on each front.

Next I marked in for the seam allowances (see the finer pen line inside the heavy outline), correcting for the obvious irregularities.  Then I "walked" each seam with a ruler to measure the circumference.  The left sleeve is 24-5/8", right 24-7/8".

I don't remember what method I used to draft the original armhole shape when the jacket pattern was developed.

Questions:

- Other than smoothing things out, what changes should I make to the shape?

- What to do about the unequal length?  I would like to use one pattern for both sleeves if possible.

[jruley]

Here is my existing sleeve pattern:



Currently this is fitted to the armhole, with little to no ease.

I would like to have some "rope" in the sleeve crown, just for aesthetics.

Can I do that by slashing and spreading the existing pattern, or should I draft a new one?

[peterle]

Why are your armholes different in length? When adapting for dropped shoulder, the whole armhole should be dropped, thus it's length would stay the same.

I think you should mark the armholes in your toile. It seems to have wide shoulders and probably a dropped/overcut sleeve seam?
If yes, your sleeve crown seems quite high to me.

[jruley]

Why are your armholes different in length? When adapting for dropped shoulder, the whole armhole should be dropped, thus it's length would stay the same.

It's not on purpose.  I did drop the armhole when we lowered the right shoulder.  But we also adjusted the slope on both shoulders, and the balance correction on the left side made the front of that armhole longer.  Putting all these together is the reason I did the check.

The question now is, what to do about it?  Where to add or take away length?


Here are closeups from the last fitting:









The armhole seam will run 1/4" inside the cut edge.  The right front will need a little additional width at the shoulder tip to match the back - unless we cut back on the shoulder width.

The shoulders are about 1/2" wider than on the original denim jacket.  That's because when I altered the pattern for more room in the waist, I basically spread it 1/2" in width.  That was "quick and dirty" and I probably would have been better off with the "belly cut" that we have now.  If the shoulders (and even the side seams) need to be taken in we can do that.

If pictures from a different angle would help to show the run of the scye we can do that as well.

[jruley]

I measured the seam length of the existing sleeve pattern.  It is 23-3/8", so some additional length is required in any case.