Saturday, March 03, 2007

Red Coat



I spend the last part of the week make a coat for Dave, Julie's partner. I admit when he showed me the fabric which is a red uphostery fabric i wasn't convinced but it made up really well. It is lined with a polished cotton in a darkish karki from my stash as the first fabric I tried refused to dye.. good for mocking up but obviously too much artifical fibres in it but then what do you want for 50p a metre which is probably about what it cost.

Basic design was full length, gores in the centre back and sides of the skirt, double breasted fold over front. He wanted padding on the shoulders and elbows which I did with a thick layer of wadding and stitching over the top. There is a pleat in the centre back as he plans to wear it to fight I thought he needed the movement, it is sewn together at the waist to keep the fitted look..

The collar didn't work so well but I will re-do that for him. Partly a communication error and partly running out of time and doing it wrong about six times.. Actually it looked good on the dummy from behind but doens't come round the front enough and I think needs a couple of bones to keep it standing correctly.

I also didn't quite get all the buttons on but he is wearing leather armour over it this weekend and it does do up.

I hope he likes it.. i do and it looked very good on him.. It will look even better with a fixed collar though.. Has a warhammer / star trek feel to it some how. Here are some pics though only have them of it in progress as I was sewing till he rang the bell!!

3 comments:

Julie Spriddle said...

*marvels* One day, I hope I can draft patterns and then make up fully lined full length costume as quickly as you can. Admitedly, I only really get a few hours clear on Saturday and Sunday, but still... Something like that would have taken me a couple of weeks to complete. :(

That coat looks really good. Futuristic and military are the phrases which jump to mind. I haven't seen it in the flesh as of yet, but from your pictures it looks a very substantial garment. I especially like the padding on the shoulders.

Dave and Richard (who dropped him off) both commented last night about the coat saying it looked really good - so I'd say that yes he liked it :)

RichT said...

I thought the coat was brilliant & Dave cut a fine figure in it.

Unknown said...

it did take me a probably a day and a half solid so that isn't really that fast. But to be fair I did do this day in day out for five years.

Plus you have nowhere to leave things out and all that clearing space, getting things out, putting them back again uses a lot of time and energy

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