Historical Tailoring Masterclasses
Historical Tailoring Masterclasses
It’s time to final begin cutting and constructing the waistcoat! Lay your forepart pattern piece on the doubled fabric, aligning the grain lines with the edge of the fabric. I use a quilting ruler to aid in this. Ideally you’d have your pattern laid out closer to the edge to save fabric – I was …
There’s one last little detail to take care of on the pattern before moving on to the toile. The way the pattern is designed, you’ll be left with two little points at the bottom front of the waistcoat if you don’t trim them. The easiest way is to make a quick copy of your waistcoat …
With the waistband attached and any watch pocket installed, we can go ahead and install the interfacing. There are a couple of ways you could do this. The first would be to take your waistband pattern and cut out the interfacing as one piece from a linen collar canvas, or two (or more) layers of …
Begin the top collar by placing the collar pattern on the grain, and chalking the outline. Add a two inch inlay to the top and bottom, and three inches to the sides. You have the option of placing the collar on the fold, or seaming the pieces together. In the case of seaming, you should …
It’s now time to begin piecing the coat body together. I prefer to baste everything together before sewing for maximum control. It helps to ensure all the seams line up properly. Begin by basting the lapels to the forepart, wrong sides together. The lapel should line up with the tailor’s tacks, unless you needed to …
Before moving on to stylizing your pattern, it’s a good idea to get most of the fitting out of the way while the pattern is less complicated. To do that, we’ll construct a muslin vest, using inexpensive fabric to check for fitting errors. To begin, copy the front and back of your draft onto a …
Let us now proceed with drafting the back of the waistcoat. I’d recommend doing this on the same sheet of paper as the front, and align the point A on both front and back, so you can be sure that things are properly lined up while drafting. A – B Draw a long straight line, …
Now we’ll begin the drafting process. I like to draft on ‘project paper’, found at most office supply stores. A quilters’ ruler, french curve, and a sharp pencil will help get you started. If following the instructions below, use a normal ruler or your actual measure when the instructions say ‘to measure’. If graduated inches …
One of the more difficult concepts to understand is how Devere varied the size of a pattern. He used a size 18 3/4 breast as the basis for all of his patterns, which is equivalent to a 37 1/2 chest. This is called the proportionate model. If you are lucky enough to have a 37 …
This is an introductory course on drafting and constructing a period waistcoat circa 1860 – 1865. As it is intended as for the beginner, I’m leaving out a lot of the more technical information, which can be found in my frock coat drafting class. Before we can begin drafting our waistcoat pattern, it is necessary …
