Linen Frock Coat

It’s now time to finally set the sleeves into the armscyes. While in the past I’ve used several rows of shirring stitches to help gather the excess material into the armscye, I’ve found that this is slow and tedious, and with a little practice, it’s quite possible to set the sleeves without the shirring stitches, …

Now that we’ve got the cuff basted in place, we can now move on to sewing the rear sleeve seam. The right side of this stitch should be on the undersleeve, as shown, and with the usual 1/2″ seam allowance. At the cuff end, the stitching stops 1/4″ beyond the start of the button inlay …

Now that we have the pattern issues straightened out, it’s time to begin the construction of the sleeves and cuffs. It’s actually quite involved, so this first section will cover up to the basting of the cuffs. Begin by laying the sleeve pieces on the table, right sides together. Baste along the front seam, working …

Following the instructions in my drafting tutorial, draft a basic sleeve. There are a couple of alterations to be made to the basic pattern. First, we are going to assume the original pattern found in Devere’s includes the seam allowances in the draft. When drafted this way, the sleeve will have about 2″ of extra …

It’s now time to install the top collar, which must be basted into place much like the front facings were, in order to ensure that it drapes correctly. Begin by pressing and basting the under collar seam allowance 1/2″ along the top edge. Do the same thing to each end. By doing the ends second, …

If you have not done so yet, now is the time to draft your collar pattern using my guide in the Frock Drafting series. Here is my pattern, freshly drafted: Before cutting out the pattern, add a 1/4″ seam allowance along the bottom curved edge (or whatever you used for the neck seam allowance). Add …

Before moving on to the collar and sleeves, it’s a good idea to get the back facing out of the way. This facing hides the top of the plait pockets and the vent, and also provides a little structure and stability to the back of the coat. Begin by measuring the inside of the coat, …

As soon as you finish the back seam, you’ll want to immediately begin work on the back vent, to prevent any tearing in the area. The left vent should overlap the right side of the coat. The exact position can be very difficult to figure out. It depends on the wearer’s posture and sometimes the …

It’s now finally time to sew the two halves of the coat together. Lay the two halves, right sides together, on the table and align the back seam. Baste along the seam about 5/8″ from the edge, just outside of the seam allowance. At the bottom near the vent area, the top of the diagonal …

It’s finally time to move on from the facings! We’ll begin sewing the shoulder seam by first removing any unnecessary inlays. Feel free to have a fitting beforehand if you want to fiddle with the fit more closely. With right sides together, line up the neck edge of the shoulder seam on the forepart with …