LACMA 1790 tailcoat - disaster

A productive and busy week. Completed a commissioned drawing which was pretty concentrated work, made an appalling fabric choice and set out to try the Los Angeles Museum of Art's (LACMA) pattern for a French 1790 tailcoat. This I thought would be a counterpoint to the ladies jacket completed a couple of weeks ago and a way of consolidating some of those new techniques. Oops. In fact, OOPS.

    Click on the picture for the LACMA collections page or on the link for the patterns page. Of course this  is the last one listed-

http://www.lacma.org/patterns  

 

The LACMA download includes gridded outlines to scale up, very brief notes, and one drawing of the centre back detail. It looked enough – having worked from Janet Arnold Fashion and from the NSCT pattern sheets- this was familiar territory and usually what I don't know someone else will tell me about. The usual sites offered general information  - http://www.marquise.de/ has a useful over view and some tips but the example she makes is from earlier in the century.   It was still useful to get me started - the general garment did not seem to alter much over time, just the styling and details. My general research led me in to allsorts of odd corners, how to get curled not flat revers, how to do the rolled collar, welted pockets,  more Garsault- L'Art du Tailleur (1769), but I have survived.

 

 

a close match?- David. Louvre

The fabric was lovely, at least to look at, a purpley maroon with a top layer of fine soft gold and a woven pattern of trailing flowers. What I didn't appreciate was the low ironing temperature, its indestructible belief that creases are bad and the world should not have corners, and as for its ability to fray, to split at seams, to distort – utterly world class. The lining was the vile berry stuff used for the pink and dotty pelisse, so at least it was a known pain to deal with. Enough moan.

I think the pictures tell the story of its construction quite well - step one was making the pocket - and yes it is a proper opening one! From then on it was flat lined through out the major construction, back first then side and shoulder seams. Padding, interlining etc were tried one mad afternoon on the fronts but discarded - they were impossible to manage at this scale and attempted to bully me - never goes down well. At this point all was rosy. It seems so long ago....

It was collar time. The lapels form part of the front; there is a seam down each side roughly under the buttons and the points are curved back to make the lapel. This where it all goes wrong - the angles are not right, the roll back is too large and in getting that seam to sit in the right place the fit of the back is lost. This became apparent later; it was initially disguised by the Battle of Pad Stitch. This was pointed out as the traditional way of getting layers of fabric to fold or bend - as in a shawl collar or rolled lapel. Good little me tested it  and then applied. On one side the pad stitch is through an interlining and the underneath fashion fabric - not ideal but it seemed to work until the fabric started to separate and break up. On the other there is a pad stitched interlining sandwiched between the fashion fabric. This was fine with the bottom layer but was not strong enough to resist the top layer's desire to bounce back. The back of the collar was done in one rather than 2 pieces, for reasons of sanity, and pad stitched to death or at least until it stopped arguing.  It is not pretty from the inside but the stitching is hidden by the collar fall from the outside.

Sleeves were added - standard 2 parters, but at least I remembered to add the cuffs first. This is another part I am not happy with -  the proportions are wrong and I wasn't really sure of the construction details. They are best guess solutions but I do like the buttons.


 You can see how differently the coat sits now- the whole front has distorted - never mind, it can only get worse. Some of the seams are fraying as the gold thread gives up, and the top fabric is giving more than the lining so there are bumps and rolls forming. Can't win every time. Pah.

The final offering -  Don't look too closely.

 Some of the details still do please. Why I thought the pockets have to be for real I do not know- they are finger sized! and not big enough. They should fill the space from elbow to back button, but the urge to open them  and play is irresistible.
  What has been surprising is the button eating potential of this design. To date it has 12 on it, but there should be nearer 20. And as for the collar and lapels -  after an evening of quiet, calming meditations the collars are curving. It was 10 minutes first thing this morning with death threats and a steam iron that persuaded them.
Ok, I hate the fit - the distortion is so annoying but the gist of the coat is there, even though it is far more Sir Percy Blakeney dandy in it's exaggerations than respectable Frenchman. This is something I will have to come back to, hopefully with a fabric than doesn't think it's Tigger ( The wonderful thing about Tiggers
Is Tiggers are wonderful things.
Their tops are made of rubbers
The bottoms are made of springs.
They're
Bouncy,
Flouncy,
Trouncy,
Pouncy,
Fun, fun, fun, fun, FUN!!!

The wonderful thing about Tiggers
Is I'm the only one )

As long as the last line is true....and it didn't mention fraying..
 It has been abandoned outside all day - just went to fetch it in and there was a big happy bumble bee sat on one of the back buttons - somebody likes it!    Well, stap me! (is that right?)