Greatcoat - and skip to the end

As you may have been reading, I’ve been having a bit of a roller-coaster couple of weeks since just after  Let’s Kill Hitler was shown.

Doing my best to keep my mind off things, I have immersed myself in finishing off my Greatcoat.

As I mentioned before, I haven’t documented its full creation, but here are a number of photos of it at various stages.

Stage 1 - Body panels
First I made the panels for the fronts and the back. The pocket were made and set, and the storm vents on the front and back were sewn in place.

As a quick check I pinned the shoulders together and put it on my mannequin (see left).

Stage 2 - Sleeves
Once the body of the coat was finished, and the lapels all pad-stitched, I then made the sleeves.

The cuffs have a tricky flared vent, but once I had the pattern worked out it was fairly easy for me to assemble.

Once the sleeves were on I took another view of the coat to check how things were looking (see left).
Be aware the lapels are with seam allowance and the  length has a 3-inch hem allowance, so things look a bit long and large at this stage.

Stage 3 - Lapel setting
Next I sorted the lapels and collar.

I had patterned them, but I always test them before cutting cloth, as they sometimes need adjustment.

I made them first in calico and trying them for size (see left, top). Once I am happy I can then make them for real and sew them in place (see left, bottom).

The collar doesn’t have anything underneath it at the moment, so its a bit shapeless, but I can see it is working - trust me!

Stage 4 - Collar setting
Now the lapels are all in place, I can create a pattern for the under-collar.
I want to make this as a reversible collar, ie one that can be flipped up at the back. I therefore need to give it some support, so the under-collar is cut in four panels, the three vertical seams of which give some boning to the collar.

At this point I also put the buttons on – and it really starts to look like it’s getting there (see left).

Stage 5 - Hand finishing

And finally, here is a picture of the coat very nearly done - I just have some little bits of hand-finishing to complete it.

I’ll take some proper pictures of it shortly, so check back soon.