If the lines of text are too long you can fix the problem with these instructions.
Below are photos of the suit. The program that produces the patterns has options for different configurations to conform to different body shapes.
The particular options used to make the suit shown below are as follows. The coat has a thin canvas, compound dart, dancing sleeves and no bevel. The compound dart is a combination of a chest dart and a lapel dart.
Black fabric cannot be seen clearly in normal photographs. So I did not use normal photographs below. They are triple exposure plus and minus three stop high dynamic range composite photographs.
The first picture shows the front view of the suit.
The next picture shows the arms raised into dance position. Note the shoulders of the coat are not raised. The front of the coat does not open up as much as it otherwise would.
The next picture is the side view. The chest dart prevents the lower part of the coat front from poking out as much as is sometimes seen in tailcoats.
Last, the back view. Pleats are closer to each other at the bottom than at the waist. An alteration would be required to achieve perfection.
The body of a tailcoat should fit close like a vest, not loose like the coat of a business suit. This gives it a more agile and athletic appearance. This article is about making a traditional tailsuit, complete with coat, pants and vest. But the sleeves are modified for dancing.
While this introductory section gives insight into what a tailsuit is, it is totally inadequate to give a complete picture. This article is not only a way for an individual to make his own tailsuit, it is intended to be a historical record of a once culturally significant garment. An adequate definition of a tailsuit requires the sequence of sewing pieces together described in the lengthy sewing instructions. It also requires instructions for pattern construction as expressed in the source code of the computer program. Too much in both of these sections is far from obvious, and the details need to be a matter of record. The tailcoat is not simply an ordinary coat with tails added.
A good tailsuit is intended to have a shape that looks more athletic than a business suit, and at the same time be more formal. It has the opposite of the clumsy look of a long overcoat. To achieve this it must take advantage of the contours of the human body. Just as the letter "K" has an angle on the right side of the letter, the human body has an angle on the back side of the body which is called the small of the back, or the natural waist. The height of the small of the back may be slightly different for the spine and for the silhouette of the back. For tailoring the silhouette of the back is the important one. The distances from the base of the neck to the natural waist and from the natural waist to the floor when not wearing shoes, are both important in drawing the patterns for a proper tailsuit.
The coat, pants and vest are designed with reference to the natural waist. The coat and pants are intended to overlap a small amount at the natural waist. The heights of the top of the pants, the bottom of the coat or the bottom of the vest are not the same all the way around. The bottom of the coat where it joins the tail in the back is one inch below the natural waist. This is called the fashion waist. The lowest point of the top of the pants will never be lower than 1.5 inches above the natural waist. The coat is open in the front, so the white vest can be seen through the open front. But the vest should not show below the bottom edge of the coat.
The small closed front part of the vest must cover and hide the top edge of the pants. The lapel of the vest is long. The bottom of the vest lapel will be at the top of the overlapping portion of the vest. For a neat and harmonious appearance the bottom end of the lapel fold on the coat should be at about the same height as the bottom of the vest lapels. An exception to this rule is when the waist measurement is very large the overlap of the vest halves will be wider to be sure the top edge of the pants is covered, but the coat lapels would not be raised to match.
The width of the lapel at the widest point should be about half of the distance from the lapel fold to the seam where the sleeve is sewn on.
Because the height of the top of the pants is critical, the pants will be held up with suspenders, not a belt. The crotch of the pants will be made slightly asymmetrical so the suspenders can pull the crotch of the pants up against the crotch of the body.
This article provides sewing instructions to make a tailsuit for dancing. It assumes you have never sewn before but want to try to make a suit yourself anyway. I had never used a sewing machine before I made my first one, and this is how I did it after reading a few old, hard to find books. The instructions should be detailed enough so you will not make the mistakes I made learning by trial and error. The instructions are so detailed that there are about 650 paragraphs. That is what a beginner needs. When I make a suit, I read these instructions as I go, because I cannot remember all of the details. Most of the procedures for each of the items of clothing must be done in the order given, without skipping any steps.
I prefer machine sewing. Most of the hand stitching required will be only quick coarse temporary basting. And not much of that.
The old fashioned patterns I use are for natural shoulders that do not require shoulder pads, not the exaggerated shoulders that require shoulder pads. The natural shoulders are easier to make and less likely to raise up when the arms are raised into dance position.
The white vest is made in the traditional manner to only show through the open front of the coat, not below the bottom edge of the coat. Today vests are often seen below the bottom edge of the coat. This just means that the pieces were not made at the same time to fit together. It presents a sloppy appearance.
The suit you make will have four pockets in the coat and four pockets in the pants. The coat will have an outside welt pocket on the left side, a hidden inside pocket on the right side, and a hidden pocket in each of the two tails. The pant pockets will be the four usually found in pants. Of all of these pockets, competition tailsuits typically only have the first two mentioned. That is because competition suits are only intended for very brief use in a competition. For the last two centuries tailsuits for social use have traditionally had the two pockets in the tail. They are referred to as pleat pockets. The opening is not in the tail pleats, but even with the tail pleats on the lining side of each tail. The most common use for them was to store his white cotton gloves while eating, not dancing. If seated while eating, the lady would have her gloves in her lap. But if standing, she would give her gloves to her man to put in his pleat pockets.
The kind of dancing intended is the Viennese waltz as danced at formal balls. This is a very athletic dance, so the dancer wants a suit that will be cool to wear, inexpensive, and washable. Accordingly, the suit will be made of black cotton twill without a lining instead of the traditional very expensive suit with an outer layer of black worsted wool and a lining inside. Cotton twill is the same material that khaki pants are made of, but in a different color. Competition dancers only dance a few minutes at a time, and can tolerate a wool suit with a lining. Social dancers may dance for hours at a time, and need a cooler suit. It is impossible to dance Viennese waltz for more than a half hour at normal room temperature with a lined wool coat on. Before buildings had modern heating and air conditioning, balls were in the winter time in cold ballrooms and lined wool coats were appropriate.
If you already have a sewing machine with the recommended presser feet in 2019 you could make this suit at home for less than $400. After you get the patterns, fabric and other supplies it will take you about 120 hours of work to make it. Or it could take half that time or twice that time depending on how fast you work. You will learn by doing. You cannot learn by doing if you are afraid to make mistakes. Seams that are sewn wrong can be taken out and sewn again. Pieces of fabric that are cut wrong can be made again if you buy some extra fabric. Even if you make a perfect suit, it will be after making and correcting several mistakes.
You do not have to be a sewing hobbyist to make this suit. You need determination and time. Most sewing hobbyists make quilts. An especially elaborate quilt might take as long to make as this suit. But the two projects are opposite. Making a quilt requires a few procedures to be repeated many times. Making a suit requires many different procedures to be repeated a few times. All of these procedures are explained so thoroughly in this article that a beginner should have no trouble with them.
When tailsuits and tailored clothes were popular most big city tailor shops had a well dressed cutter who worked in an elegant shop and took the order. With his tape measure he took your measurements. After you left he expertly drew on brown wrapping paper and cut out custom patterns to fit only you. This is why he was called the cutter. He had many different kinds of fabric that came from the factory folded in half lengthwise and rolled up. They came folded good side to good side, with the wrong side out. He would then cut folded lengths of the different kinds of fabric needed to make the suit off the different rolls of fabric. He would use white tailor's chalk to trace the outline of the paper patterns on the top layer of the folded length of fabric. He chalked additional lines to allow for alterations. He would hang the paper patterns in storage and record them in a filing system. He would roll up all the rectangular pieces of folded fabric in to a bundle tied with cotton twill tape, then send the fabric to a tailor. Some shops had tailors working in the back of the shop, but most shops sent the work to tailors who worked at home. The tailor stitch marked and cut the pieces out, made the suit and sent it back to the cutter for a first fitting. After the first fitting on the customer, the cutter would mark alterations if any were necessary on the suit and on the patterns, and send the suit back to the tailor. One cutter could keep many tailors busy.
But the family cat might like to play with the tailor's thread. The tailor might resort to extreme measures to discourage the cat, as illustrated in this old cartoon of a tailor:
This tailor is your role model if you undertake this project.
The tailsuit will fit more snugly under the armpits than a suit you would buy in the store. This is so that raising the arms will not distort the rest of the coat as much. But it will have a more contoured, fitted, traditional look than most competition tailsuits made for dancing.
Most tailsuits for dancing fit loose in the back like a bathrobe without a belt. I suspect that the reason they are made that way is that it is easy to make the tail pleats hang exactly parallel. But if you look at old movies from the 1930's when tailsuits were popular, they all fitted close in the back waist. I would rather have the fitted look of a close fit in the back than perfectly parallel pleats.
This suit should also be suitable for amateur theater productions, and for orchestra conductors.
The instructions found in tailoring books for drawing patterns are similar to a recipe for preparing food. A computer cannot add ingredients, stir a pot or salt to taste. But it can draw patterns. Instructions for a person to draw patterns can easily be translated into instructions for a computer to draw patterns. The instructions for the computer are called a computer program.
Like the very expensive traditional suit this suit will be made from patterns based on measurements of the individual who will wear the suit. The patterns will have been printed out on an oversized printer at your local blueprint or graphics shop from pdf files obtained from the program in this article. My pattern program is experimental and you use the patterns it produces at your own risk. My program was written using the drawing software found at this link. My program is listed at the end of this article along with instructions for installing it on your computer.
You could draw your own patterns using instructions in the books described later. The shop near me charges about $32.00 to print out a set of patterns, but I live in an inexpensive part of America. The fabric, thread, buttons, zipper, suspenders, tie and shirt will bring the total up to less than $400.00. The sewing equipment will be a much more significant expense if you do not already have it. Or you could skip the equipment and sew by hand if you are willing to do a lot of extra work.
All tailsuits have a lot in common. But there are differences in style. The style that I have tried to achieve is the style worn by the fictional character Colonel Pickering in the 1938 movie "Pygmalion". But I adjusted the top of the lapels slightly lower. The style is more conservative and elegant than flashy and flamboyant.
I only went in one of the shops on Savile row in London, and do not know how much variation there was between shops. A Savile row tail suit cost $5000.00 in 2006. The people who made it were very experienced and would do a better job than you will do. Such a suit will be made of wool that costs 4.6 times what cotton twill costs, the lapels of silk satin that costs 5.8 times what polyester satin costs, linen canvas that costs only a little more than cotton canvas, but cannot tolerate tumble dryers as well, the pockets of cotton silesia that costs 3.3 times what inexpensive cotton muslin pocketing costs, and the vest of cotton marcella or birdseye pique that costs 4.0 times what cotton twill costs. The suit you will make will have machine stitching of inexpensive materials and can be made by someone who has never sewn before in a reasonable amount of time. The Savile row suit will look better made upon close inspection. But it should look similar from a distance. A low cost tailsuit at your local tuxedo shop will look well made upon close inspection, but will not have the style and fit that this one will, hopefully. The suit you make will probably have some wrinkles that the other suits would not have. If you make so many mistakes that you would not wear it to a ball, at least you will have the best costume at next year's Halloween party.
If a suit coat is made of only one layer it will show more wrinkles and be more like a shirt than like a coat. All suit coats have canvas inside the coat front pieces to reduce wrinkles. You may worry that canvas would prevent a cool suit coat, but you would be wrong. The canvas is only in the front of the coat. Your body loses heat primarily from the back side of the torso, not the front.
The body of a Savile row suit has a shape provided by darts in layers of linen canvas. A dart is a V shaped cut in the fabric that is closed by sewing it together so the fabric will no longer lay flat. The Savile row suit I saw clung to the body when the tails were pulled hard even though it did not button in the front. The people who made it seem to have secret techniques that have never been published. The suit you will make will not cling this well. The Savile row suit I saw had bevels in the coat. The Savile row suit had a thick stiff canvas. A stiff canvas can be used in a tailcoat because it does not go much below the rib cage. Only the tails in back go lower and they do not need a canvas. A stiff canvas in a tailcoat will not in any way restrict the movement of the wearer. A stiff canvas would not work in a business suit because the coat goes far below the rib cage and must be flexible to allow the body to bend. Competition tailcoats typically use soft flexible canvas of the same type used in the coat of an ordinary business suit. To make the coat cling competition coats have elastic straps that connect the inside of the coat with buttons on the pants.
You can make your suit using thick stiff #1 cotton canvas or ordinary thin flexible "10 oz" canvas like that sold at your local fabric store. It appears to me that cotton canvas and cotton duck are two different names for the same fabric. If you knew the tricks of Savile row your thick canvas coat would require considerable force to open the front further by pulling on the tails. But I do not know those tricks. The thin canvas is soft and flexible and very easy to pack in a suitcase. I find it satisfactory and think it more practical for most people. The coat with thick canvas will retain its shape and take more space in a suitcase. The coat with thin canvas will be machine washable. The coat with thick canvas will need to be washed by hand.
Thick polyester satin will be used to face the lapels. Its use in the lapels is purely for appearance. Polyester lining fabric will be used to line the tails. Its use in the tails is mostly functional, not for appearance. The lining of the tails must be slick so the tails will slide and not stick and cling to the pants. Satin is only slick in one direction. Lining is slick in both directions, and lighter in weight, so we prefer lining inside the tails. The vest will be made of white cotton twill.
The patterns have inlays added to permit letting out seams for alterations. They also have other inlays, which the old British tailoring books call turnings, which are required for edges that need to be hemmed. These patterns do not distinguish between the optional inlays for alterations and the required ones for hems, but the text does. Most of the inlays are one inch wide. The patterns do not show seam allowances. The standard seam allowance in the patterns is 1/4 inch, and is implicit in the solid lines of the pattern, which are 1/4 inch outside the seam line. This assumes the sewing machine presser foot is 1/2 inch wide, and the edge of the presser foot is 1/4 inch from the seam.
If you wish to undertake this project you probably should get a tailoring book that discusses this type of garment. The book "The Modern Tailor Outfitter and Clothier" by Bridgland is a three volume book. Unfortunately, it is not usually sold as a set, the three volumes must be ordered separately. The 1928 edition has been reprinted and is available from internet book sellers. In the beginning of each volume it says "copyright 2013". The only part that is copyright 2013 is the two and a half page article "dressmaking and tailoring" that is inserted at the beginning of each volume. The rest, thankfully, is from 1928 when tailsuits were popular. The paperback edition seems more durable than the hardback. Note that on p.20 of volume one it says that 1/4 inch seam allowances are included in the patterns. That is standard tailoring practice for men's clothes, but not for women's clothes.
Another fine point of tailoring should be mentioned. This point is not explicitly stated in any book I have found. When any piece has a corner that is an acute angle that must be sewn to the corner of another piece, the corner must be modified to have a short straight edge that modifies the acute angle. The purpose of this is to allow for the quarter inch seam allowance. The angle and length of the short straight line is estimated to match the corners of the two pieces when the seam is started a quarter of an inch from the corner to sew the two pieces together. The intent is to achieve the correct relation between the pieces when the edge of the pieces form a smooth curve after the pieces are sewn together. On p.55 of volume 1 of Bridgland's book the top end of the sleeve bottom piece has two acute angles that are treated properly. On p.63 the top of his side piece has an acute angle that is treated properly. But in volume 3 on p.117, the acute angles of side piece and sleeve bottom are not treated properly. The cutter was assuming that the tailor would take care of it properly when he cut the pieces out. The side piece should be modified so that a short straight line extends diagonally down from the point of the acute angle. Then the curve below the acute angle would be drawn down from that short line instead of down from the acute angle as shown. If this is not done the side piece will not fit the back piece at the waist when it is sewn to the back piece. Some cutters expected a lot from their tailors. My patterns are drawn with acute angles properly modified.
Volume 1 has a chapter on alterations that will be useful if you need to make alterations to get the fit and appearance you want. Volume 2 has a glossary of tailoring terms. Volume 3 has instructions and drawings for making a business suit, much of which is applicable here. Of special interest is the old fashioned kind of pants shown there, which is the kind for my patterns. My patterns are similar but not identical to his tailsuit patterns. I used his book and other books that are out of print.
Bridgland was the editor of the book. Many of the chapters were written by other cutters. Bridgland's chapter that includes a tailcoat complete with tails is written by Thickett. The tailcoat pattern is on p.62 in volume 1. There appear to be some typographical errors on p.62 of Bridgland's first volume, as can be deduced by comparing with similar patterns on other pages. Thickett must have had terrible handwriting. "15 from 1" should be "15 from 7". "less 0 to 8" should be "less 0 to 6". There is a sentence that is terribly confusing: "Deduct 1/2 inch from the over-shoulder measure...". I think what he means is take the over-shoulder measure, deduct 1/2 inch, then deduct the distance from A to 21, and make the remainder the radius of a first arc centered at 18. The intersection of this arc and a second arc centered at 20 will locate point 22.
Bridgland's volume 3 shows patterns for other coats. Thornton's figure on p.117 of volume 3 diagrams the body of a tailcoat, but not the tails. I use it instead of Thickett's. He must have had good handwriting, as there do not seem to be any mistakes. I preferred Thornton's because it required fewer measurements than Thickett's. It had a shoulder seam that reached the scye at a sleeve pitch point which was simpler. While neither pattern required shoulder pads like some modern patterns, Thornton's required wadding under the top of the scye. I was able to make a simple modification to the pattern to get rid of this requirement. His curve from point Y to point X can be approximated by an arc that starts vertically at point Y and transitions to a straight line the rest of the way to point X. He used an arc with a small radius that transitioned to a straight line about a third of the way from point Y to point X. I used an arc with a larger radius that transitioned to a line three quarters of the way from point Y to point X. The shoulder was not exaggerated and no wadding was necessary. I find this quite satisfactory. I made changes in the way some points were calculated which was more in line with Thickett's thinking. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I am less certain now. But I consider the results satisfactory.
My program can be set for normal sleeves or for dancing sleeves before compiling the program. The program as listed below is set for dancing sleeves. This option extends the sleeve front seam an inch higher to make it better for dancing. This minimizes spreading the coat fronts open when the arms are raised. It also reduces the sleeve pulling on the coat when the arms reach forward. But this causes noticeable bunching of fabric in the armpits when the arms are hanging down by the side. It also produces a wrinkle under the back of the neck that careful measurement of depth of scye was intended to avoid. Bridgland's volume 1 p.55 shows normal sleeves but also a very complicated sleeve designed to help when raising the arms high. What I have done is simpler than that and more similar to the way competition suits are made.
Bridgland does not show where inlays are usually added to the patterns. An example of my patterns is included where you can see most of the inlays that tailors traditionally use.
You might be tempted to make only the coat and use store bought black pants instead of making the black pants according to the pattern. This will not work. You have to have these pants. The coat has a high waist and requires high waisted pants to match. You could get by with ordinary pants if you used a lower waist when making the measurement, but this would not look right because the suit would no longer have the classic shape and contour. It would have the frumpy look of the tailsuits in your local tuxedo shop.
Most of the units used in this article are inches. One inch is 2.54 centimeters or 25.4 millimeters.
The sewing instructions are for the most part text with no pictures. The picture referred to in the text is the fabric pieces before your eyes as you are working.
Another book that would be useful is Thornton's book "Thornton International System of Garment Cutting" has been reprinted and is now available. On the back cover, the publisher says it is from 1885. I doubt this. British books were not required to have dates printed in them. Another book by Thornton, "the sectional system of gentlemen's garment cutting" has a preface to the second edition that says 1894. It also reprints the preface from the first edition with the date 1893 added. This date was not in the first edition. The preface to the first edition indicates that this is his first book. The preface to the newly reprinted book indicates that it was 20 years after his first book. That would make it 1913. This makes sense, since it has clothes for motoring, which the earlier books did not. On p.21 he says he started tailoring "nearly 50 years ago". That would be 1863. So he was a 19th century tailor even if he was still alive in 1928 to contribute to Bridgeland's book.
This new reprint is hard to read. The original was probably printed on large pages. The reprint has been photographically reduced for small pages. You cannot read it without a large magnifying glass. It is an exhaustive treatment of 19th century gentleman's patterns.
Most tailcoats made before 1900 were made of different pattern pieces than most tailcoats made after 1920. Thornton's book has one modern pattern on p.47. The rest are old patterns.
Thorntons's book gives good instructions for making overcoats for those interested. In Bridgland's book volume 3 p. 14 he has a section "correct dress for the occasion". On p. 15 he recommends astrachan covering for overcoat collars. He means an expensive fur pelt from a newborn karakul lamb which was imported from the Russian town of Astrakhan on the Volga river near where it empties into the Caspian sea. An inexpensive artificial equivalent is sherpa fabric. That is probably too extravagant for modern tastes. Pattern for such a coat is given on p.100 of Thornton's book. He only shows the front part of the collar.
Bridgland's volume 1 on p.133 refers to an evening dress tailcoat as simply a "dress coat". He gives a formula for the length of the coat, by which he means from the neck to the bottom of the tails. His formula depends only on the height of the man. But I have seen two other books written in the 1930's that specify the length of the tails with reference to the height of the point on the back side of the leg where the bottom of the knee meets the top of the calf muscle. They specify that the tails should hang two inches below the knee. That is the way my patterns are drawn.
If you plan to draw patterns yourself, you do not have to have a large compass to draw arcs. A string with a loop in the end will hold a pen or pencil well enough to draw arcs accurate enough for clothing patterns.
The bevel is only useful with thick canvas. My program shows the pattern for the bevel if you are inclined to use it. I would not advise making a coat with thick canvas and a bevel until you have made one with thin canvas and no bevel. The pattern for the bevel is an arc shaped strip that is almost 2 inches wide. The angle of the arc is equal to the angle of the curvature of the waist of the body where the bevel will be, times the sine of the angle of the bevel from the vertical, typically 45 degrees. This would be 0.7. The formula for the radius of the bevel is simpler in radians, but more convenient in degrees. The radius of the outer edge of the bevel in inches is 0.5 for lap seam overlap, plus the length of the straight bottom edge of the canvas where the bevel will be attached, multiplied by 57.3 to convert radians to degrees, divided by the angle in degrees of the curvature of the waist where the bevel will go. The bevel must be attached with a lap seam, not a butt seam to work properly. This is because there will be vertical compression force at the top middle of the bevel.
The computer program used to draw patterns allows for optional darts to conform to different body shapes. Now for more detail on the front piece of the coat. First, the front piece with no dart:
This picture shows the lapel fold line. The lapel of this front piece would not stay folded. The following is a version of Thornton's pattern on p. 117 of volume 3 of Bridgland's book. The pattern has a lapel dart opened 6.5 degrees up to help the lapel to stay folded:
After the dart is sewn closed, the front piece will take the shape of the pattern before the dart was opened. But it will no longer lay flat, it will have shape. All coats should include the lapel dart no matter what other darts are used or omitted.
If the waist is much smaller or much larger than the chest, the front bottom edge of the coat will not be close to the body. To fix that, a waist dart is commonly used. The lower front corner is extended so that when the dart is closed the length of the bottom edge will be the same as before:
An alternative to the waist dart that I have seen used only once is a bevel at the front bottom of the coat. This only works with very thick, stiff number one canvas. The way I have implemented the bevel is with a curved strip that replaces a straight strip cut off the bottom of the coat canvas. This is an option that most people would not want because it would be more difficult to pack in a suitcase. The program will not allow the bevel option if a waist dart has been chosen. All other darts can be combined or omitted as desired. The front piece with inlays and the bevel piece are shown here:
If the waist is not larger than the chest, a chest dart will make the coat cling to the body more, and it will reduce the amount that the bottom end of the lapel fold pokes out from the body. In old movies from the 1930's I only saw two coats that appeared to have been made this way. If the waist were larger than the chest, this would not have the desired effect. My program allows the option of opening up a 10 degree chest dart at the vertex of the lapel dart. This results in a compound dart which works very well. The sewing instructions explain how to sew the compound dart, it is not hard.
But how high or how low on the coat the bottom end of the lapel fold would be has not yet been determined. To force the bottom end of the lapel fold to be where we want it, we could use more than one method. We could pad stitch the lapel fold to force it to fold where we want it. Pad stitching is labor intensive to do by hand, and very hard to do with the cotton canvas we will be using. Pad stitching machines are way too expensive for amateurs. But if the pattern is drawn to permit it, the collar can control the fold line. The pattern only shows half the collar. Two collar halves are joined to make a complete collar. The angle between the fold line of the lapel and the fold line of the collar is 10 degrees to force the bottom of the lapel fold line to be where we want it:
Studying 19th century patterns I concluded that I needed the fold line of the collar to be 10 degrees from the fold line of the lapel to achieve the desired result. It worked very well. But I could not explain theoretically why 10 degrees is the angle needed. This could no doubt be proved with the mathematics of "developable surfaces", but that is not for me.
The greater the angle between the collar fold and the lapel fold, the higher the bottom end of the lapel fold will be. Here is two overlapping collars of different angles to show how they are drawn:
You might worry that the deep neck curve would ruin the appearance of the coat. But as near as I can tell, it has no effect on the final appearance except for lowering the top of the lapel to the desired height. The deep neck curve is entirely hidden by the collar and lapel.
The fold line is chosen when drawing the pattern. The neck curve, or gorge, transitions from a straight line to an arc at the fold line. The collar pattern is bent at the fold line. Presumably one or the other or the combination of both of these things forces the lapel to fold where the fold line crosses the neck curve when the collar is turned down. This works because both the collar and the coat at that point have canvas, a relativly stiff material in them. I doubt it would work with light flimsy material.
Following is some of the basics of tailcoat tailoring as I understand them. I will leave it to others to decide whether they are all facts or some of them are just ignorant superstitions.
Circumference measurements of the customer are made only at the chest, waist and seat. The measurements are increased about 1.5 inches for ease. In the program these measurements are then divided in half to draw patterns. Since each garment is made in left and right halves, half measurements are used to draw patterns.
The half chest measurement is used the most. It is called the scale of the pattern. For instance, coats in a store typically have depth of scye set to half scale. That is acceptable for most people, but not for everybody.
When patterns are drawn by hand, patterns for the body of the coat are first drawn with all of the pieces on the same very large sheet of paper. Adjacent pieces drawn on the pattern touch in at least one point. Pieces do not overlap except in special cases where it is unavoidable. A portion of the collar will overlap the coat. The tail will overlap the back piece and perhaps the side piece.
A simple lounge coat for a business suit could be made with the pattern for both the left and right half of the body of the coat being a front piece and a back piece. The sleeves and collar would be separate. Because of the curvature of a person's back, this coat would not fit against the body at the back waist.
Classic tailoring achieved a fit at the chest, waist and seat. Because of the curvature of the person's back, a fit in the back waist required the back piece of a simple coat pattern to be split into a back piece and a side piece, with separation between the back and side pieces at the waist. This separation is 1/12 scale.
The lapel of a coat is important to the final appearance. The fold line of the lapel is usually chosen to miss the neck point by one inch. The bottom end of the fold line is the point on the front edge of the front piece where the bottom end of the lapel fold will be.
The top of the lapel must not be too high and the bottom of the lapel must not be too low. The pattern determines the top of the lapel. The part of the top of the the lapel where the collar ends should have a lower elevation on the pattern than the neck point by about 1/6 scale.
The lapel must not be too wide or too narrow. 40% of the distance between the fold and the sleeve seam is about right.
The bottom of the lapel is determined by how the lapel folds. How it folds could be determined by pad stitching in the lapel fold. Some patterns require pad stitching. But pad stitching requires an expensive machine or laborious hand work. How it folds can be determined without pad stitching just by a pattern that permits the collar to control the fold. The collar can control the bottom end of the fold even though the collar attaches to the top of the lapel. In this article we choose a pattern that will allow the collar to control the fold. We chose the bottom of the fold to be about the same level as the bottom of the vest lapels, typical of coats in old movies.
The collar must control the fold of the lapel so that the bottom of the lapel is at the right height. For the collar to have good control of the lapel, the gorge from the fold line to the end of the collar must be a line with at least a 50 degree angle from the fold line. 55 degrees would be better. Since the collar angle will be 10 degrees, in the finished coat the final angle will be an aesthetically pleasing 45 degrees. The gorge is completed behind the fold as an arc ending at the neck point.
If the top edge of the collar is a straight line it will have a firm control of the lapel. A narrow collar with the top edge a curve might be too flexible to have firm control of the lapel.
For best appearance the lapel would ideally fold enough so the top corner of the lapel touches the coat when the coat is being worn. The collar helps the lapel to fold, but not enough. The lapel dart helps the lapel to fold more. But if the lapel dart had a big enough angle to complete the fold the vertex of the dart would bulge the coat in an unsightly manner. So a small angle is used, only 6.5 degrees. More folding is achieved with fake pad stitching not in the fold but forward of the fold. The fake pad stitching curls the lapel slightly, getting it closer to touching the coat. Fake pad stitching can be achieved easily with an ordinary sewing machine.
The pattern is drawn so the bottom of the collar is at the top of the lapel from the lapel fold line forward to the end of the collar. The bottom of the collar fold line is at the same point as where the lapel fold line reaches the top edge of the lapel. Neither fold line is vertical. The collar fold line is farther from vertical than the lapel fold line. The lapel fold line on the pattern is only a wish. The farther from vertical the collar fold line is, the farther from vertical the lapel fold line will turn out to be in the finished garment as actually worn. The angle the collar fold line needs to be to achieve the desired angle in the lapel will be 10 degrees.
Most tailcoats you see in movies from the 1930's did not appear to have a chest dart. The bottom end of the lapel fold line poked out from the body, as did the front edge of the front piece down to the lower front corner. But a chest dart will help the front of the coat conform more closely to the body. The chest dart will work well provided the wearer does not have a protruding belly. The chest dart should open 10 degrees. It can be combined with the lapel dart to form a compound dart.
Patterns are drawn by using the customer's measurements to compute the locations of key points. If darts are to be opened in the pattern, a vertex point is chosen, and a point where the dart will open at the edge of the pattern. Then a second point starts at the opening point and is rotated about the vertex point the number of degrees desired for the dart. Any other points near the opening side of the opening point are rotated about the vertex the same amount. After all the points are located, they are connected with arcs and lines. This completes the pattern.
When the pieces are drawn on a large sheet of paper in the customary way it will be possible to draw the tail piece relative to the other pieces in such a way that the tail hangs properly.
After the back, side and front pieces are drawn on a large sheet of wrapping paper, the tail can be drawn. For the tails to hang straight down in the back with the pleats parallel, the tails must be drawn with the back side of the tail at an angle with the vertical. What this angle needs to be depends on how the top of the tail is drawn. In this program the top of the tail is coincident with the bottom edge of the front piece at the front of the tail. As you go to the rear, the top of the tail remains coincident with the bottom of the front piece until a point directly below the front of the scye. Then it continues as an arc ending even with the rear of the side piece but a half inch below the fashion waist. At the front edge of the side piece draw a dart in the top of the tail. It should be a half inch wide at the top. The vertex should be down 1.5 inches. If it is sewn with a quarter inch seam allowance it will draw the top edge in one inch. The width of the tail dart does not match the gap between side piece and front piece at the waist. It is for a different purpose.
If the top of the tail is drawn this way, the angle in degrees from vertical of the back of the tail is approximately 22*(seat-0.69*chest)/chest, where "*" means multiply. Thus, if chest=36.3 and seat=37.8 then the angle would be 7.73 degrees. Body shapes differ. Hopefully this angle will be satisfactory for most people, but it cannot be guaranteed for all. I have devised this formula from Thornton's 1913 geometric construction of tail angle, with a modification to make it independent of the size of the man.
When I used this program the tails overlaped more than desired. The pleats were separated by about 4 inches at the top but they were together at the bottom. If the tails overlap more than enough to have the pleat separation the same at the bottom as at the top, an alteration can fix it if you are willing to go to the trouble. If the tails do not overlap enough, lots of seams would have to be removed and new tails made. If the tails overlap more than is desired, this will be noticed when standing still and up close. But it will not be noticed when dancing or up on a stage. If the tails overlap less than desired, they will be separated at the bottom. This would be noticed up on a stage.
The front of the tail is the result of a geometric construction resulting in a long straight line, an arc with large radius, an arc with small radius, and a very short straight line. The construction is explained in excruciating detail in the source code of the program.
The rear of the tail differs slightly from a straight line. It is an arc that is separated in the middle from a straight line by a half inch. I just copied Thornton's tail on p.49 of his 1913 book. Some other books have very different shapes of the rear of the tail.
bias: the direction on the fabric that is 45 degrees from both the warp and the weft.
butt seam: a way to join canvas edges flat with no overlap. See the sewing section for a complete description of this complicated procedure. There is a way to sew by hand a butt seam in thin fabric called stoating, but we will use a different method to join canvas by machine.
dart: A place where a piece of fabric is sewn to itself so the fabric will no longer be flat.
A pattern is drawn by computing the location of pattern points, then connecting those points by curves and lines to draw the pattern. Some darts are "taken out" of a pattern without changing the location of the rest of the pattern points. Other darts are "opened up" in a pattern in a way that changes the location of other pattern points before the pattern is drawn.
The simplest form of dart has two lines of stitching in the shape of the letter V. This will be indicated in the pattern by lines in the shape of a V. The lines could mean cut lines or seam lines. The instructions should make that clear. The point or vertex of the V is away from the edge of the pattern, but the opening of the V is at the edge of the pattern. The most important things about a simple dart are the location of the point or vertex of the dart, and the angle between the two sides of the V. Where the opening is at the edge of the pattern is a matter of convenience, and has little effect on what the dart does to the shape of the fabric. In my patterns a dart may be drawn as two nested darts, the outer dart representing a seam line and the inner dart representing a cut line for twill, and the outer dart to be used later as a cut line for canvas. To a first approximation the effect of the dart on the shape of the fabric is determined by the location of the vertex and the angle of the opening of the dart. It does not matter a lot whether the opening of the dart is up, down, right, left or diagonal from the vertex of the dart. In a piece of paper, a simple dart shapes the paper into a shallow cone.
More complicated darts are sometimes used. Two V shaped darts not at the edge of the pattern can have the same V opening for both darts, making a four sided figure. This is sometimes called a fish dart because it is long and pointed at both ends like the shape of a fish. It has two vertices and no opening at the edge of the pattern. An inverse dart is sometimes used at the shoulder edge of the canvas of the front piece of a lounge coat. Instead of taking a V shape out of the canvas, an extra V shaped piece of canvas is inserted a slit cut in the canvas. It is drawn without changing the location of other pattern points. Its purpose is to make the canvas bulge into the hollow in the body at the front of the shoulder.
ease: a small amount added to circumference measurements if the measurements are made over skin or only a thin layer of clothing. Chest, waist and seat are the only circumference measurements made for making suit patterns. If ease is not added to the measurements, you will barely be able to get into the coat and pants. They will not be comfortable to wear. It will be difficult to take a deep breath, eat a large meal, or put anything in the pockets. Ease is never added to height measurements such as natural waist height, depth of scye, rise etc.
fashion waist: a term that applies only to "body coats", which are coats that fit the body closely. It is the level of the bottom edge of the coat in the back. It is usually one inch below the natural waist. Body coats include tailcoats, morning coats and frock coats. These were popular more than 100 years ago. Tailcoats are also called dress coats. The reason the fashion waist is one inch below the natural waist is to achieve a sharp angle in the back waist. To the extent that a tailcoat has artistic consistency, it appears to have large curves, sharp angles and straight lines, but no small curves.
gorge: the neck region of the lapel. Everything from the neck point to the notch of the lapel.
hem: where the edge of the garment is folded under a short distance and sewn to the inside of the garment so the exposed edge will be a folded edge and not a cut edge.
inlay: the extra fabric beyond the seam allowance that is allowed to hem or to later move the seam if the garment needs to be altered.
lapel: the part of the front of the coat that folds back over the coat.
neck point: the neck point on the front piece of the coat is the point where the shoulder seam reaches the neck. The neck point on the back piece of the coat is also the point where the shoulder seam reaches the neck. When the coat is sewn together, the two neck points are at the approximately the same place on the coat.
pattern: a drawing showing how to cut and sew the pieces of the garment. In men's tailoring the edge of the pattern is where the fabric would be hemmed or where the fabric would be cut outside the seam allowance. The seam would be inside the pattern line by the amount of the seam allowance, a quarter of an inch. The edge of a half inch wide sewing machine presser foot would run along the pattern line. Outside the pattern line may be a dashed line representing fabric added for an inlay or a turning. If the dashed line is present, the fabric will be cut along the dashed line and not along the solid pattern line. Inside the boundaries of a piece of the garment, lines, circles and points will represent things that instructions should explain. Do not cut things inside the outer boundary of a piece unless the instructions tell you to. In women's patterns, the pattern line is a seam line or a hem line. Women's patterns for amateur sewers always add an extra line outside the seam line or hem line to indicate the seam allowance where the fabric will be cut. The seam allowance shown on women's patterns is typically larger than a quarter inch so that it will serve the dual purpose of a seam allowance and an inlay. Women's patterns for professional tailors typically do not add the extra line for seam allowance.
pitch points: The sleeve is made of two pieces that are sewn together before the sleeve is sewn to the scye or arm hole of the coat. Thus the sleeve has two seams before it is sewn to the coat. The two points along the scye where the sleeve seams will be when the sleeve is attached to the scye are the pitch points along the scye.
pleat: a fold in the fabric of a finished garment that is either for decoration, or to permit stretching, or to make the pieces easier to sew together.
private tack: a short seam designed to reinforce a spot that might be too weak. Typically at one end of the opening of a pocket. Typically a zigzag stitch 2mm wide with a very short stitch length of 0.5mm. A private tack looks like a bar tack, but the two are different. The purpose of a private tack is to resist tension across the width of the tack. The purpose of a bar tack is to resist tension from end to end of the tack. A bar tack starts with long hand sewn stitches from end to end. Then these are protected and hidden by stitches like the private tack.
scale: Take the chest measurement, add a small amount for ease, then half the total is the scale. Thornton noticed that this definition of scale is almost the same as two thirds of his "width shoulder measure", mentioned on p.115 of volume 3 of Bridgland's book and illustrated in the inset on p.117. Presumably he preferred that definition because it was as easy to measure on women as on men. He was a cutter for both men's and women's clothes.
scye: the arm hole on a coat.
seam allowance: the amount of fabric between the seam and the edge of the fabric required to keep the seam strong, so the fabric will not pull apart at the seam.
securing stitch: where a straight seam reverses direction for about a half inch at the beginning and the end of the seam. This results in overlapping seams for a half inch. In hand basting a securing stitch would be repeating the stitch about six times at the beginning and end of a seam. In both cases the purpose is to prevent the ends of the seam from coming loose.
selvedge: a contraction of the two words "self edge". the manufactured edge of the fabric. If a roll of fabric is 60 inches wide, the selvedge edges are 60 inches apart. Selvedge edges do not unravel in the wash, but cut edges do unless zigzagged with a sewing machine or serged by hand or with a serging machine.
turning: the extra fabric beyond the pattern line that will be folded under to make a hem. Since inlays and turnings are drawn the same way in patterns, this article refers to both of them as inlays.
warp: the direction on the fabric that the fabric moves when you unroll it off a fresh roll from the factory.
weft: the direction on the fabric that is perpendicular to the warp.
The following set of measurements was chosen because you can make the measurements on yourself. It would be more convenient for someone else to make the measurements on you, but that will not be necessary if you have no one to help you. This set of measurements can be used to produce tailsuit patterns using a computer program.
This section describes the measurements required as input data to the program that produces patterns for a tailsuit. The measurements can all be made by yourself with no assistance or by someone else.
Certain items are needed to make the measurements: A cloth measuring tape, a retractable metal or plastic measuring tape on an enclosed spool, a roll of medical adhesive tape, and a roll of cotton cord or string. If you are going to measure yourself you will need a hand mirror with a handle, and a mirror on the wall, It would be most convenient to have a moveable rectangular mirror larger than a hand mirror, at least 30 inches tall. If this is not available, ingenuity may make the hand mirror suffice.
Some of the measurements locate certain definite points on your body. This does not necessarily mean an edge of the garment will be at that point, rather that the edge will be positioned relative to that point.
The code word for each measurement is followed by a description of the measurement.
The measurements will be more accurate if made in your underwear and sock feet. But if made that way some measurements will need some ease added to the measurement. If made over an existing suit no ease will need to be added, but the measures will be less accurate.
The first line of the list of measurements should be the name you wish to use to identify the pattern. If you are making suits for different actors in a stage play, this would be each actor's name. If you do not wish to have your name on the file, you could simply put "me". The name must be in double quotes to be properly read by the computer.
chst: Chest. Using the cloth measuring tape measure around your chest under your armpits. Make sure the tape is not snug enough to press your flesh. If the measurements are made over skin or a shirt, add 1.5 inches to the measurement for ease.
scyd: Depth of scye. Coats in a store typically have scyd set to half scale. This would also be 1/4 of chst. But if your shoulders are unusual it would be better to measure scyd.
The way tailors usually measure scyd is most convenient for them. But you could not measure yourself that way. There are two ways you can measure scyd yourself.
First, you could measure the distance from the lowest part of your arm pit down to the carefully placed rope around your waist described below where "nw" is measured. Then subtract that distance from nw. The difference will be scyd.
The second way to measure scyd requires more effort. Do not wear a shirt. You need a small rope or string that will slide across your skin. Cotton or nylon slide better than polyester. Loop a rope or around your back, under both arm pits, up and around the back of your neck. You will have to have both ends of the rope over to one side in front of you so you can tie a knot in the ends. Use the same kind of knot as when you tie your shoe laces. Make sure there is lots of tension in the rope. It should be tight straight across the back with no sag or droop. Manipulate it under both armpits to make sure it is as high under the armpits as it wants to go. Use a small hand held mirror to see the reflection of your back in a mirror on the wall. The rope around your neck may be too high. Pull the rope around your neck down and release it. Then it will raise up to the right height. Put the end of a cloth tape measure at the bottom surface of the rope around your neck. The tape measure will hang down over the string around your back. The reading of the tape measure at the top surface of the rope around your back is your depth of scye. If the depth of scye is a half inch too large, there will be a small horizontal wrinkle in the back of the coat just below the collar.
When measuring scyd mark the point representing the top of the scyd measurement with a piece of white medical adhesive tape on your skin. It will be useful later in measuring the natural waist.
wst: Waist. This measurement is the circumference of your waist at the indentation of the silhouette of your back. Again, it must be measured without pressing the flesh. If someone else is making the measurement they can bend over until their eyes are at the height of the indentation of the silhouette of your back where it will be easy for them to see where the exact height of that point is. Add 1.5 inches to the measurement for ease. After the measurement, a cord should be tied around your waist at that height because it will be needed for further measurements. The cord will press your flesh. The cord should be the same height above the floor all the way around. The cord should be taped to your skin in a few places to prevent it in place.
But if you are making the measurement yourself you will have to use a more complicated procedure to determine the correct height where you will make the waste measurement. Put the moveable mirror in the seat of a chair leaning against the back of the chair so that it is slightly tilted upward. Put a piece of tape on the mirror at about waist high as a marker. If you only have the hand mirror, tape it to the wall at waist height and put something behind the lower edge to tilt it up slightly. Move away from the mirror until the image of your waist is at the height of the marker on the mirror. Turn so that your side is toward the mirror. You now have a view of yourself from waist height. Locate the hollow of your back. The hollow of your silhouette as seen from the side is what is important, even though that may be slightly different from the hollow of your spine. Locating this point is the single most critical thing in measuring yourself. Use the cloth tape to measure your waist at the hollow of your back. Make sure the tape makes a horizontal loop around your waist. Add 1.5 inches to the measurement for ease. After you finish the measurement, tie a cotton cord or string around yourself at the level of the waist hollow. Use the same kind of knot you use to tie your shoes. It does not matter if this cord is snug enough to press the flesh. Tape it in place so it will not move. You will need this cord for future measurements. It is very important that the cord looks horizontal in the mirror.
seat: Measure around your seat about 3 or 4 inches above the crotch, whichever gives the largest measurement. If the measurement is made over skin, add 1.5 inches to the measurement for ease. When the program computes tail angle, it assumes the same amount of ease has been added to both chest and seat.
wh: Waist height. Use the spool tape to measure the height above the floor of the cord around your waist when your are standing on a hard surfaced floor in sock feet.
rise: Sit up straight on a flat hard surface such as the edge of a desk, a table or a kitchen counter. Measure the distance from the surface up to the cord tied around your waist.
nw: Natural waist. This is the distance from the tape at your neck still remaining from the scyd measurement down to the waist string. Be sure to measure from the point at your neck that marked the top end of the scyd measurement. Measure with a cloth measuring tape. The distance down your back from the neck mark to the waist string is what we want here.
kh: Knee height. Your calf muscle is the large muscle on the back side of your lower leg below your knee. Feel the back of your leg to feel where the calf muscle ends and the knee begins in back. You want a loop of string tied around your leg at that height. Make sure the loop is horizontal at that level. On the side of your leg use the spool tape to measure the height of the loop above a hard surfaced floor in your sock feet.
It is worth pointing out that this knee height measure is only used to draw the coat pattern. The knee height in pants patterns is different, and is calculated from the length of the inseam.
sleeve: When you purchase long sleeve shirts, what sleeve length do you specify? You want a half inch less than that number. If you need to measure that number, it is the distance from the center of the back of your neck along the top of your shoulder down your arm hanging down vertically to your wrist. Subtract a half inch from that measurement so the shirt sleeve will be slightly longer than the coat sleeve.
That is all the measurements needed as input data for the program.
Below is an example of the format of the set of measurements that my program uses, all the measurements being in inches. Decimal fractions must be used. Thus 9 and 5/8 inch would be 9.625. All quantities are required.
"norm" 36.1 chst 9.0 scyd 32.2 wst 37.9 seat 41 wh 11 rise 16.5 nw 17.9 kh 32 sleeve 1 lpldart 0 chstdart 1 dcsleeve 1 wstdart 0 bevel
The bottom five items are pattern choices. The choices are numbers, not letters. You must make each choice, do not leave any of them out. "1" means you want the feathure, "0" means you do not. "lpldart" is the lapel dart, which is essential for all coats. "chstdart" is the chest dart. "dcsleeve" is for dancing sleeves. They provide more freedom of movement and prevent the coat from opening up when you raise your arms into dance position. But when standing still with arms at your side, the other option looks slightly neater. "wstdart" is the waist dart. "bevel" is the bevel. The program will ignore this choice if you have chosen "wstdart".
It would be best to make the complete set of measurements at least three times. You would be amazed at how often ordinary people accidentally get simple measurements wrong. That just means you are human.
Most of your measurements will be very different from the above example. Everyone is different. The suit will not fit correctly if the measurements are not correct.
My program is listed at the end of this article.
The set of full sized patterns are named file1.pdf through file7.pdf. The set will have to be printed on a large printer at a commercial blueprint shop, reproduction shop, graphics shop, print shop, office supply shop, or copy shop. You will use your computer to copy the set to a USB stick, then take the stick to the graphics shop to have the files printed full size.
You will need to check to see that the files were correctly printed. Measure the printed border, not the cut edge of the paper. You should use a steel tape, not a cloth tape for this. My steel tape measures file1 accurately as being 57 inches long. My cloth tape inaccurately gives 57.5 inches. The cloth tape is accurate enough for short measurements, but not for long measurements. The paper sheets will have slightly larger dimensions than the printed rectangular borders. File1.pdf should have a printed rectangular border that is 35 inches wide, 57 inches high. Files 2, 3, and 6 should have printed borders 35 by 42 inches. Files 4 and 5 should have printed borders 34 by 59 inches. In each case the right side of the border has tic marks separated by 4 inches less than the length of the border. The bottom border has tic marks separated by 2 inches less than the length of the border. If the borders are not correct, the patterns will not be the right size. If the graphics shop cannot correct the problem, find another shop.
If you are making more than one suit for different actors in a stage play, you should write each actor's name in the middle of each pattern piece before you cut any of the paper pattern pieces out so there is no chance of mixing up the patterns.
Below are shown small examples of the pattern files I supply. Even if you are going to make your own patterns, you will want to add the inlays shown as dashed lines outside the solid lines of the patterns.
File1. Black twill coat back, side, tail and collar. Also muslin pocket for tail. If you are drawing your own patterns, these instructions assume that the back piece below the waist extends 3/4 inch forward of the back piece immediately above the waist. The rear edge of the tail extends 1.5 inches behind the pleat line.
The rear of the back piece at the waist cannot be seen clearly in file1. Here is that part blown up. The edge of the presser foot would go along the vertical solid line and the seam would be a quarter inch to the right of that. The bottom end of the seam would be at the bottom end of the diagonal dashed line.
Another detail that needs a closer look is the top corner of the side piece:
File2. Black twill coat front.
File3. Black twill coat sleeve top and sleeve bottom. The front seam has been extended upward one inch to make a dancing sleeve.
File4. Black twill pant top, fly and side pocket facings. Also muslin for side pocket. The left side of the J shaped fly is an exact copy of the left side of the pant top down to a point one inch before the crotch.
File5. Black twill pant bottom.
File6. White twill vest front, lapel and neck piece. Also canvas stiffener for bottom of vest.
File7. For welt pocket, only welt and facing. Black twill.
Any time you are not sure how to do something, search the internet for how to do that specific thing. There are sewing articles and videos on the internet showing how to do just about everything.
The edges of cotton clothing will unravel in the wash unless something is done to prevent it. Cotton street clothes have edges that are enclosed or edges that are serged.
A typical man might wear a shirt and pants 16 hours a day for a week before washing them. That is 112 hours before they need to be washed. The clothes will be washed many times before they wear out. But a man who wears a tailsuit to dance at balls will wear it 4 hours at each ball twice a year. It would take 14 years before it had to be washed. It is not worth the trouble to serge or enclose edges of a garment that will only be washed two or three times. A serger machine is expensive and difficult to use. An ordinary sewing machine can zigzag the edges, which is good enough for this purpose. But it would be different if you were going to wear the tailsuit at work every day of the week.
These instructions specify zigzagging the edges to make the suit washable. When zigzagging edges of twill, remember that the feed dogs grip the wrong side of the twill better than the good side of the twill.
Since my own suit has not been worn much yet, I have not yet washed it the first time.
To make the suit a simple home type sewing machine is recommended. Certain features are needed on the sewing machine. It should have a foot pedal that will control the speed of the machine. It should have a standard presser foot about 0.5 inches wide that can be used for straight seams or zigzag seams. This is because the patterns assume a 0.5 inch foot for straight seams. You should be able to remove the presser foot and insert a different presser foot. The machine should have a bobbin winder. You need to be able to select either a simple straight stitch, or a zigzag stitch. The length of stitch and width of the zigzag should be adjustable. It should be capable of a zigzag at least 4mm wide. You will need to be able to lower the feed dogs to sew without advancing the fabric. The machine should have a hand wheel so you can manually raise and lower the needle. The machine should have a tension adjustment for the upper thread that can be adjusted from normal all the way down to zero.
A sewing machine has an upper arm that the needle comes out of, and a lower arm that the needle goes into. If the lower arm has space between it and the base of the machine it is called a free arm. The machine should have a free arm small enough that you can slip a coat sleeve or pant leg over the free arm to hem it. To achieve free arm capability some machines require temporarily removing a piece that is normally attached to the lower arm. Some machines have a free arm small enough for a pant leg, but not small enough for a coat sleeve. If your free arm is not small enough for a coat sleeve, you will have to do some extra hand sewing.
I have seen a machine advertised without extra presser feet that cost only $100 that claimed to have all the features mentioned above, but I have not tried it. I suspect any machine that costs more than $1000 would be satisfactory. I bought an expensive machine, a Bernina 330. This is the least expensive machine Bernina made at the time. It has all the features needed for this project. It is the only machine I have ever used extensively. Comparing machines on the internet, it seems than the most obvious advantage of the Bernina is the variety and more importantly the quality of the presser feet available for it. The extra presser feet cost extra and they are expensive. If you to not have all the recommended presser feet, you may have to do more complicated procedures or more hand sewing to achieve the same result. Once I briefly got to use a cheap machine to sew a vertical seam starting at a pant leg and ending on top of the waistband. It sewed properly the whole way, but made loud knocking noises inside the machine as it sewed over the thickness of the waistband. It sounded like something inside the machine was about to break. The expensive machine sewed the thick part quietly with ease.
You can find places on the internet that will sell presser feet that your sewing machine dealer does not have. One such place is sewingpartsonline.com. Make sure you order feet that will fit your kind of machine.
You will need the normal standard presser foot that is about one half inch wide and has a slot for zigzagging. A half inch is 0.50 inches. On my machine the standard foot is 0.59 inches wide and it will make a satisfactory suit. It is wider than 0.5 inches to make room for a slot necessary for a zigzag stitch. A special foot that is exactly 0.50 wide is available at extra cost. It has no slot and cannot make a zigzag stitch. Only on one seam in the whole suit, where the coat back piece and side piece are sewn together, will it make a noticeable difference after the seam is finished. And even there, the difference will be compensated for later so it will not show in the finished garment. It will make a very small difference in the welt pocket, also.
You will need a tailor tack presser foot for mark stitching. A tailor tack foot is sometimes called by other names, such as marking foot, fringe foot or looping foot. It has a central blade that goes through the zigzag slot so the zigzag stitch is sewn over the blade and does not lay down flat on the fabric.
You need an edge stitch foot for the lapel facing seam and for the lining seam at the top of the tail. It has a central blade forward of the zigzag slot that does not affect the sewing in the slot. It is more often used for a straight stitch than for a zigzag stitch. The slot allows the straight stitch to be to either side of where the central blade is.
You will need a zipper foot for the pants fly.
You will need an overlock presser foot for zigzagging the edges of thin materials of pocketing, lining and satin. The overlock foot has a slot for zigzagging just like the standard foot, but there is a pin in the right side of the slot. The zigzag used must be wide enough that the needle goes down on the outside of the pin. The pin prevents the tension in the thread from contracting the zigzag and curling the edge of the thin fabric. To prevent curling do not allow the edge of the fabric to get as far past the center as the pin. When finished sewing with my overlock presser foot it is necessary to raise the presser foot and move the fabric backward to free the thread from the pin in the presser foot.
A walking presser foot will obviate the need to hand baste the edge of the canvas to the twill with white thread before the edge of the canvas is sewn to the twill with black thread using the standard presser foot. It is especially difficult to hand baste through thick canvas. Most presser feet only need to be attached to the machine at one point but the walking foot is different. The two different parts of the walking foot must be attached to two different parts of the machine to work properly. It is easy to forget this when you attach the foot to the machine. It is wider than the desired half inch, but has alignment marks on the front a half inch apart that can be used to sew a quarter inch seam allowance. If you are sewing a quarter inch from the edge of the fabric with the walking foot, sometimes the edge will pucker up ahead of the walking foot and fold when it gets under the walking foot. When you see this about to happen, raise the walking foot with the needle down and the fold will go away.
A button sew-on foot is useful to sew on buttons. A darning foot can also be used for this but the button sew-on foot is preferable. The feed dogs will need to be lowered. Position the fabric so the stitchmark that indicates the location of the button is under the presser foot, and lower the presser foot to make sure. Then raise the presser foot and put the button under the presser foot. Lower the presser foot again. Be sure to slowly crank the handwheel to see that the needle goes through BOTH holes, not just one hole, before you sew. Some machines have a special zigzag mode for sewing buttons that does a securing stitch so you do not have to tie the threads after the button is sewn on. For sewing on suspender buttons you may want to put a wooden match stick over the center of the button so the stitches will allow plenty of room for the thickness of the suspender. Lower the presser foot before you insert the match stick. If your foot has an adjustable height metal pin, put the match stick under the pin or the tension in the stitches will bend the pin down. If the button has 4 holes, sew the pair of holes closest to you first. Raise the presser foot. Then move the garment forward and lower the presser foot. Push the match stick further back under the threads that are already over it. Sew the rear pair of holes. Do not remove the matchstick between pairs of holes, because you can never get it back in after you remove it.
If you need to remove a button without damaging the garment, repeatedly pulling at the threads on top of the button seems to work best. You need good sharp tweezers to grab individual threads. If you can grab individual threads you can pull on them hard enough to break them.
You will need to make buttonholes for the buttons on the front of the vest. A normal foot on a simple machine will work but a buttonhole foot would be easier. This will probably require an electronic sewing machine that has a buttonhole mode to automate the making of buttonholes. Most sewing machines these days are electronic, not purely mechanical. This is different from the button sew-on foot previously mentioned. Before you sew a buttonhole make sure there is enough thread on the bobbin to finish the buttonhole. It is also helpful to get a small chisel with a sharp blade especially designed for cutting buttonholes. These are available at fabric stores and sewing machine stores. If the chisel does not come with a wooden block to cut against you could turn your sleeve board upside down and cut against the wooden base of the sleeve board. You will not need a hammer, the chisel is sharp enough that just pushing with your hand will cut the fabric. If you must use an ordinary foot to make a buttonhole, practice on scrap fabric first. Mark the beginning and end of the buttonhole with chalk or white thread before you start. Use a stitch length of 0.5mm. Use 1.5mm stitch width for each side of the buttonhole. Use 5mm wide stitch for each end of the buttonhole.
You will need three bobbins for your machine. One each for white, black and colored thread.
Make sure you know how to clean and lubricate the insides your sewing machine. Your machine will probably come with a small brush to remove lint. Lint will collect under the stitch plate. You should keep the lint brush near the machine, not put away in an awkward place. Every time you have to wind new thread on an empty bobbin, while the bobbin is winding raise the plate and brush lint away. Every time you start a new day of sewing you should raise the lint plate and remove the lint. Even with this, some lint will from time to time fall lower down where moving parts are. Lint in the moving parts will wipe away the lubrication. Without lubrication the metal parts will wear out quickly. So less frequently you will need to clean and lubricate the moving parts.
If you buy thread in spools with a diameter of 3cm or 1.2 inches, you will need three spools of black thread and three spools of white thread. I use cotton thread, No. 40, 500yds/ spool. Either Mettler or Coats and Clark are good brands. For special temporary marking get only one of the smallest available spool of some other bright color, such as gold or red. A good source is redrockthreads.com.
You need a desk or table 60 inches long or longer and 30 inches wide or wider to have enough space for a cutting table. Your dinner table will probably work fine. If you have no cutting table you will have to cut on the floor. If you do not want to have to keep moving the sewing machine on and off the cutting table, you need a small table to put the sewing machine on.
You will need a cloth measuring tape with inches on one side and centimeters on the other. A meter stick or a yard stick. A small flat steel ruler about six inches long with inches on one side and centimeters on the other side. White tailors chalk will be used to mark the black twill, satin and lining with, and colored tailors chalk to mark the white twill. A black fine point permanent marker will be used to mark canvas and muslin fabric that will not be visible in the finished garment. Scissors with offset handles, about 10 inches from end of blade to end of handle, for cutting fabric. For the fabric cutting scissors to stay sharp they should never be used to cut paper, use different scissors for paper. Some people like rolling cutters, but I make fewer mistakes with scissors. Spring loaded thread cutters with pointed blades for cutting marking thread between two layers of cloth. You will need two thread cutters, one at the sewing machine and one at the cutting table. Two spring loaded tweezers. Two seam rippers. Hand sewing needles, a box of paraffin wax, a thimble, a box of straight pins with colored plastic balls on one end and a pincushion. A box of assorted sizes of safety pins. A ball point bodkin for manipulating tight folds of fabric. My bodkin is a stainless steel rod 6 inches long, 0.075 inches in diameter, with a steel ball at one end that is 0.155 inches in diameter. An electric iron. A sleeve board for pressing sleeve seams and other seams open. You will not need a large ironing board. I do not use a steam iron. I use a bowl with water in it and dip my fingers in it to wet seams before pressing them open. Four wooden clothes pins with metal springs. A small bright LED flashlight is good for finding small things that fall on the floor and to see small details on black fabric. It is also helpful to tell which is the good side and which is the wrong side of black twill. A white synthetic eraser is handy for the rare cases when you need to erase chalk marks on the fabric. You will need an elbow lamp where you will remove stitches. You need to see well to remove black stitches on black fabric. Unless you never make mistakes you will have to remove some stitches from time to time. A tennis ball is about 2.75 inches in diameter, a pickle ball is slightly larger. Either will work. You need two balls to hold up the lining while fitting it to the tail.
Other features are desirable, but not necessary, as listed below:
A sewing machine with a needle threader is nice too.
At the beginning and end of each seam you will need to sew briefly in the other direction, to keep the seam from unraveling. This can be done by manual control of the sewing machine, but it is more convenient if the machine can be set to do this automatically. This might be called a securing stitch or a back tack. To do it manually you must raise the presser foot slightly so you can move the fabric in the reverse direction about 0.5 inch while sewing.
It is convenient to be able to select whether the needle will remain down or remain up when you stop sewing in the middle of a seam. This is usually called a "needle down" capability. Without it you will have to remember to turn the hand wheel to lower the needle before you raise the presser foot on corners and curved seams.
You need a small cardboard box to put all your presser feet in. The kind of box that business cards come in is ideal. The box should also contain a wooden match stick for use with the button sew-on presser foot. It should contain one pin with a plastic ball on one end. This is because the automatic threading function does not always work perfectly. With the pin you can pull a small loop of thread from one side of the machine needle to complete threading the needle.
You need a larger cardboard box to put the rest of your sewing supplies in. Scissors, tweezers, chalk, black marker, spools of thread, etc.
You will be sewing black thread on black fabric. It will be helpful to have a bright LED flashlight sometimes to see clearly what you have sewn.
Some fabrics are advertised as having a certain weight, some have no weight specified. The weights can be specified in different ways: ounces per running yard with a specified width, ounces per square yard, ounces per square meter, or grams per square meter. Grams per square meter is abbreviated "gsm". I used a Chatillon tubular brass spring scale to measure weights of the fabric I use. I used a Starrett micrometer to measure the thickness in mils by screwing down to the first "click". One mil is 0.001 inch. Then I calculated weights by some of the above measures.
cotton twill 15.3 mils thick 6.84 oz/sq yd 8.18 oz/sq m 231.9 gsm
cotton muslin 9.2 mils thick 3.83 oz/sq yd 4.58 oz/sq m 129.9 gsm
cotton #1 canvas 57 mils thick 30.8 oz/sq yd 36.9 oz/sq m 1046 gsm
cotton "10 oz" canvas 26 mils thick 10.6 oz/sq yd 12.68 oz/sq m 359.4 gsm
polyester lining 3.5 mils thick 1.78 oz/sq yd 2.13 oz/sq m 60.5 gsm
one inch wide cotton twill tape 56 mils thick
half inch wide thick cotton twill tape 22 mils thick
The lightest polyester satin I bought was 120 gsm and was only 6.6 mils thick. I doubt that you would be happy with the lightest. The heavy weight satin is more likely to lay smooth and flat with no ripples in the surface. The best I have used was advertised at 260 gsm, but measured 225 gsm and 11.5 mils thick. Amazon.com has a wide variety of black polyester satin. Both light and heavy satins can be either dull or shiny, depending on how they were made.
Before buying fabric consult the section on fabric weights. The items listed below that are not available in your local fabric shop can be found on the internet.
The coat and pants will be made of medium weight black cotton twill. The vest will be made of white cotton twill. Cotton twill is available from most fabric stores. It is available online from hobbylobby.com, nickoftimefabric.com and fabricfinders.com. Tail linings will be black polyester lining fabric. Unbleached natural color cotton muslin will be used for the parts of the pockets that will be inside and not seen. More expensive muslin is typically bleached and wrinkle proofed. In volume 3 of Bridgland's book, p. 93, there is a warning that pocketing treated this way will be weaker. Presumably it will not last as long.
The lapel facings will be black polyester satin. You need plain black polyester satin with no extra decoration. Traditionally silk satin was used for the lapels of tailsuits. Polyester satin is is much less expensive and is washable. Thin satin will be more likely to have an untidy rippled surface, so thick satin is preferable for a neat appearance. Fluffy material is traditionally put over the canvas of the lapel and under thin silk satin. I am not sure, but I think the reason for the fluffy material was to smooth over lap seams in the canvas. We will not use lap seems in the canvas, we will use smoother butt seams. We want this suit to be washable, and fluffy material might not stay flat and smooth if washed. Extra effort would be required to put in fluffy material. In old movies satin lapels were usually shiny. On the internet you can find many different sources of polyester satin. If it is important to you perhaps you should get different samples and decide how shiny or dull you want for your coat.
Canvas fabric is often called duck fabric. Lightweight canvas is described by its weight in ounces per square yard. 10 oz/sqyd is most typical, and 21 mils thick. Heavy canvas is described by numbers, #1 being the heaviest. #1 canvas is available from canvasetc.com. It is typically about 30 oz/sqyd and 57 mils thick, which is very thick.
Bridgland's book tells how to make a buttoned fly on p.223 of volume 3. Now most people prefer a zippered fly, which is the only kind I have made. You could make a buttoned fly if you wish.
Tailor's scissors and tailor's chalk are available from bblackandsons.com and other places.
Get a black zipper long enough for the pants fly. These pants will use a longer zipper than any pants you already have. These pants are unusual. An average size man will need to cut the zipper to about 13 inches long. A tall man will need longer. So you need to look for a zipper 14 inches long or longer. If you are tall you will need to study the pants pattern to see if you need more than 14 inches. The zipper in most men's pants have teeth 5mm wide when zipped up. They are described as #5 size zippers. The width of fabric on each side of the zipper teeth will be about a half inch. Men's pants have either metal or plastic zippers. Metal is most common but you want plastic because you will have to cut the top off without damaging your scissors. If you were going to fall off of a galloping horse at a rodeo and roll in the dirt you would need a metal zipper. But for these pants you will definitely not need a metal zipper. All zippers open at the top when you unzip them. A "closed bottom" zipper does not open at the bottom when you unzip it to the bottom. This kind of zipper may also be called "non-separating". That is what you want for a pants fly. A "separating" zipper does completely unzip at the bottom. That is what would be in a coat. Zippers are not expensive, get two or more to allow for experimentation and mistakes. Plastic zippers are either molded or coil. Since the pants pattern is curved where the zipper attaches, I suspect coil would be easier to curve than molded. I found #5 black coil zippers at wawak.com. But if you went to the website looking for them, you would probably not find them, because the website is poorly designed. They are not under pants zippers because they never heard of pants that needed such a long zipper. At the website click on "zipper", under "specialty" click on "boot", then "14 inch" then "black".
Get black suspenders, also called braces. Most suspenders have clamps to attach to pants without buttons. That is NOT what you want. You want suspenders with slitted leather pieces to slip over buttons that are on the pants. Some suspenders come with both clamps and slitted leather pieces and you can remove the one that you will not use. Look carefully to make sure which kind you are ordering. Inexpensive button type suspenders are available from amazon.com. Your pants are so high waisted that the suspenders may not adjust short enough. If this is the case, you will need to cut the single back strap on the suspender, overlap the cut ends and sew them together.
Amazon also sells white bow ties, you will need one of these. While any white bow tie will be satisfactory, it will look better the more closely it matches the material of the vest. So a cotton tie will be preferable to the more common polyester satin ties.
Get 15 shiny round black buttons about 0.75 inch or 19mm in diameter with four holes in each button. These will be used both to attach the suspenders to the pants and for decoration on the coat. Search the internet to get exactly what you want. Order buttons early and test them. Some black buttons are clear buttons with a thin coat of black paint that easily rubs off, you do not want that. Three white buttons 0.5 inches or 12mm in diameter will be needed for the vest.
The vest will need about four feet of 1 inch wide cotton belting for the straps in the back, preferably natural cotton color or white. It is available from twilltape.com. You will also want some 0.5 inch wide tape possibly for a trouser tab for the shirt. The half inch tape is available thick and thin, I prefer thick.
Get a standard simple long sleeved white dress shirt with buttons that are either white, an artificial mother of pearl look, or clear. It should have plain cuffs, not fancy folded back french cuffs on the sleeves. Folded back cuffs tend to catch on the coat sleeves when you raise your arms into dance position. A shirt that is 100% cotton should be cooler than one that is cotton and polyester. The shirt will be modified so that it will not be suitable to wear with anything but the tailsuit. A button down collar is preferable to a plain collar, because the plain collar has a plastic stiffener at the point of the collar that would have to be removed.
To wear with the suit you will need black dress shoes with the upper part made of leather. The cost of shoes, socks and gloves is not included in the cost estimate of this suit. You can buy special dance shoes with leather soles and heels. Or you could buy ordinary dress shoes with rubber soles and heels, then glue chrome tanned leather on the rubber soles and heels, as explained in the viennese waltz article. Expensive black wool socks are available from pantherella.com, or reasonably priced black cotton socks are available from boardroomsocks.com, blacksocks.com, or mat & vic's socks are available from amazon.com.
Gloves are not essential these days, but traditionally white cotton gloves were worn. Women with sleeveless or short sleeve gowns wore gloves long enough to go above the elbows. Men wore short gloves. Suitable gloves are available from greatlookz.com. Do not be tempted to get satin gloves, which are too slick to hold on to your partner, or leather gloves, which look bad when your hands get sweaty and the sweat soaks through the glove.
In my local fabric stores some cotton twill is 58 inches wide, some 60 inches wide, and some is 44 inches wide. For the black cotton twill 60 or 58 is what you want, 44 is too narrow. This is because you will cut pattern pieces of black twill two layers at once. For the other fabrics such as muslin and canvas narrower widths will be OK. The thick #1 canvas is not available in wide width. You will need to estimate how much fabric to buy. After you buy the fabric, you will have to cut it into lengths no longer than two yards. Each length of fabric will need to be about 3 inches longer at each end than the extent of the pieces. The total length would be 6 inches longer than the pattern. This is because the length of fabric will need to be run through the washer and dryer to shrink it before any pieces are cut from it, and you want a comfortable margin at each end when you pin the patterns to the fabric. You need two mirror image versions of each piece. If the fabric is wide enough it is folded lengthwise. Cutting through two layers of fabric will cut the two mirror image versions of each piece at the same time. The two layers of cloth will be folded so that the good sides, the sides showing the twill pattern, will be facing each other while the cutting is taking place.
How long a piece of each kind of fabric you will need will depend on how wide the fabric is and how large you are. If following fabrics were 58 or 60 inches wide, an average sized man would need approximately 8 yards of black twill, 1 yard of black polyester satin, 1 yard of black polyester lining fabric, and 1 yard of white cotton twill. If the cotton muslin and cotton canvas were 42 inches wide, 2 yards of each would be needed. One yard is 0.9144 meters. Tiny simple pieces not included in the patterns will be needed, but they can be cut from the scraps left after you cut the pattern pieces.
The preceding paragraph estimates fabric needs assuming you make no mistakes. You should allow for mistakes and get extra fabric.
Some fabric shops permit customers to change their minds and return pieces of fabric. A roll of fabric in the shop may not be one continuous length, but several short lengths. If the fabric store is part of a chain of stores, the easiest way to get large lengths of fabric is to order it from the website of the chain of stores and have it delivered to your house. But even if you order it, it may come in two lengths, not the one length you expected. If you order 10 yards of black twill, they may supply the last 7 yards off of one roll and the first 3 yards off of the next roll. But if you plan to cut the fabric into four rectangles of two yards each, two of the lengths will be very different. So you will need to order more than you expect to need.
The black twill pieces you need can be cut from four rectangles, each two yards long. The twill pieces in file1 can be cut from one rectangle. Note that the pocket piece in file1 would not be included, since it would be made of muslin. The twill pieces of files 2 and 3 could be cut from another rectangle. The twill pieces of file4 and file5 can be cut from one rectangle.
A final item that you should get is not for permanent use in the garment, but for temporary use in making the garment. Two large sheets of art paper will be useful. It is thick paper usually called watercolor paper, vellum or bristol board. It is about twice the thickness of a typical business card. I use paper that is 0.018 inches thick, 140 pound or 300 gsm weight. It can be found in hobby supply stores or art supply stores. The sheets need to be large enough to trace the front piece pattern on them. You will need a spool of drafting tape to tape paper patterns to the art paper. You will need a roll of cloth duct tape to close darts in the art paper. They will be cut into the pattern of the coat front piece canvas, and the darts joined with duct tape. They will then accurately take the shape that the darts impart, and make it easier to lay canvas, twill and satin layers on each other to pin them in place without wrinkles before sewing the layers together.
The polyester fabric will not shrink. The cotton fabric will shrink. Some cotton fabric has been treated so it shrinks very little. But I have seen cotton fabric advertised with a warning that it could shrink 10%. So to be safe shrink your cotton fabric no matter what the supplier says.
I have seen different recommendations on how to shrink cotton fabric. I ran my own test. I cut strips of cotton canvas two inches wide by two feet long. I zigzagged the edges of all strips to permit washing. To my surprise this canvas had been treated so it shrank very little. I ran different tests on different samples of twill. Soak in cold water and iron dry shrank 4mm. Soak in cold water and dry in tumble dryer shrank 5mm. Boil in water 10 minutes and tumble dry shrank 5mm. Boil in water 10 minutes and hang dry shrank 7mm. Wash in washing machine and tumble dry shrank 10mm. So I conclude that flexing the fabric in water must be a major contributor to the shrinkage. I would recommend that you simply wash in a washing machine and dry in your tumble drying machine to shrink your fabric.
Before you cut any pattern pieces out of the fabric, the fabric will be cut into lengths, each length being appropriate for multiple pattern pieces. The lengths will be put through the washer and dryer to shrink the fabric before any pattern pieces are cut out. All of the cotton fabric, twill, canvas or muslin must be shrunk unless you test a sample first and see that it does not shrink. The white twill will get dark if it is shrunk with the black twill. The white twill should be shrunk with the muslin. All of the cotton fabric you bought should be shrunk, even if some of it seems extra. You want to leave no doubt which part has and has not been shrunk, so shrink it all. In the course of making the suit extra small pieces will have to be cut from time to time, and the fabric they are cut from must have already been shrunk. But the lengths must have their cut ends prepared before the shrinking.
#1 canvas is so heavy and stiff that it should be cut into rectangular pieces only a bit larger than the pattern pieces for shrinkage. A large piece of #1 canvas might damage your washing machine. The canvas will probably have to be ironed flat after it is shrunk, and you do not want to iron anymore than necessary. It is so much trouble to shrink canvas you should test a strip of it first, maybe it does not need to be shrunk.
The twill and muslin can safely be shrunk as pieces as large as 2 yards cut off the bolt of fabric.
Before you cut the fabric into rectangular lengths, make sure it has been unfolded enough that you are only cutting two layers. If the fabric is 60 inches wide, it will come folded 30 inches wide in two layers. You may need to place a chair at the end of the table to hold the long length of fabric, pull up the amount you want to cut onto the table. Cut with the fabric and scissors on the table. If you cut where the fabric is hanging off the edge of the table, you will get a very ragged cut.
It may be confusing to have rectangular lengths of black twill of different lengths, which is required to use the absolute minimum of fabric. There is a risk that you will forget which rectangle is which. You can simplify matters by making each rectangular piece of black twill the same length, and try to get as many patterns as possible on each rectangle. If you lay the patterns out this way you can see the length from top to bottom that you need for the rectangle. Make all the rectangles six inches longer than the longest one needs to be. This is because after shrinking they will be shorter, and the cut ends will not exactly line up the way they were when you cut them. If you do not want to bother laying out and measuring the patterns, make four rectangles of black twill, each rectangle two yards long. That should be long enough for the very tallest man.
When the cotton twill cloth is washed, it will not come unraveled along the manufactured edge of the cloth, called the "selvedge", but it will come unraveled along the cut edge unless something is done to prevent it. Make sure the fabric is no longer folded in half lengthwise. Sometimes stores cut lengths of fabric with a wavy cut edge that is not straight. If so, cut the wavy edge off to a straight edge before you zigzag the edge. Sew a zigzag stitch at the cut edge of each length of cloth before you put the lengths of cloth through the washer and dryer. This will prevent unraveling. Most of the zigzag will be on the cloth, but part will be just outside the edge of the cloth. Set the zigzag width to 5mm and the stitch length to 2mm. Zigzag black cloth with white thread and zigzag white cloth with black thread. That way you will be sure of what has been zigzagged.
After zigzagging several pieces, the stitch plate on the sewing machine will need to be raised and the lint under the stitch plate removed.
For shrinking you will need to wash at least two separate loads of fabric because the white and black twill cannot be washed together. Make sure the fabric is not folded in half lengthwise when you put it in the washing machine. Wash and dry with the highest temperature your machines have. If the canvas and muslin are white or natural color they could be washed with the white twill.
The first time you wash and dry new fabric, lots of lint will come off. Be sure to clean the dryer lint filter after every load.
You will need to stay near the dryer as the fabric is drying. You should get the pieces of fabric out of the dryer when the dryer is finished before any wrinkles set in and spread them flat on a bed, on top of each other. Canvas is especially bad about wrinkling. It might be best to only leave canvas in a dryer a short time and take it out before it is dry to iron it.
After spreading the pieces of twill on the bed, you must fold each piece to be stored away for future use. Before folding each length of fabric, you must find the good side, if any. The pieces that are not twill, such as canvas and muslin, have no good side or wrong side. The twill pieces have a good side, the twill side. If you have difficulty seeing which side has the twill pattern, you can feel it by dragging a fingernail across the fabric at the right angle. The good side with the twill pattern will feel rougher than the wrong side. When the garment is worn, the good side will be outside and the wrong side will be inside. The wrong side of twill is smoother and presumably would be more comfortable against the skin.
The reason it is important to fold the fabric good side to good side is so chalk marks will not be made on the good side. Later the patterns will be laid on the folded fabric. The outline of the patterns will be traced on the folded fabric with chalk. Then the folded fabric will be cut on the chalk lines.
You wish to fold each rectangle good side to good side, with the selvedge edges together. After the first fold, hold the folded rectangle up high by one of the ends with zigzagged edges, hanging straight down. Hold it near cut end and shake it to get the wrinkles out. On one side your finger will be inside the fold and pulling against the folded edge. On the other side hold the two selvedge edges together just below the top corners. Adjust the relative heights of the selvedge edges that you are holding, shaking the fabric each time, to get the selvedge edges to match as well as you can all the way down to the bottom. When you have done this, your zigzagged cut edges may not match, but this does not matter. Mismatch of the cut ends simply means that the fabric was delivered to you with a diagonal stretch in the fabric. You have corrected this by getting the selvedge edges to hang together. After you have achieved the first fold without bad wrinkles, lay the folded piece on the bed and continue to fold until you have a convenient sized rectangle for storage.
If black twill gets dust on it, the dust will be obvious. Before you start, clean your table and everything around the sewing machine that the twill might come in contact with during the long process of making the suit.
This is a tutorial on the cutting process. Do not cut anything until you get to the part where you start making the suit.
The "warp" of the fabric is perpendicular to the axis of a roll of fabric. The warp is the long direction of fabric after the roll is unrolled. The vertical orientation of all the patterns should be aligned with the warp of the fabric, except in certain cases where you will be instructed to orient the patterns differently. If the direction of the warp of the fabric is 45 degrees to the vertical direction of a pattern or the length of a strip, the fabric is said to be cut on the bias. Very seldom will you cut on the bias.
You will cut the pattern for each piece along the outer lines on the pattern, whether the outer line is solid or dashed. Where you need to make small holes in the middle of the pattern, crease the pattern and cut a small "V" where you want the hole.
When you cut the pattern out, have only the pattern paper on the table, no fabric. You do not want to cut fabric by accident.
Select the paper patterns that go with one particular length of fabric. If a piece you are not yet ready for is on the same length of fabric with a piece you are ready for, normally you should go ahead and cut them both. But if the piece is complicated and it is not obvious how to interpret the pattern, you may need to read the section that describes that part before cutting that piece, or you will not cut it correctly. The collar, coat front, tail, pant top, pant bottom and vest front are not obvious and you will need to read about them before cutting.
If you have cut a piece that you do not need yet, go ahead and stitch mark it with white thread and lay it aside without separating the two layers until later when you need it.
The back piece has horizontal cuts at the waist that go a quarter inch past the vertical edges above the waist.
In the collar pattern the dashed line within the solid lines is a fold line, not a cut line. It should not be ironed into a crease.
If your front piece has a simple lapel dart, it will have only one line on each side of the dart. The twill will not be cut along those lines. Those will be seam lines where the twill will be sewn. Later the canvas will be cut along those lines. If your front piece has a compound dart, each side of the dart will have two lines. The dart has a small inner part and a large outer part. The small inner part will be cut on the twill. The outer part will be seam lines on the twill. The outer part will later be cut on the canvas. The small circles are reference points for the location of buttons that should be marked at the center of the circle.
On the pant top piece, after the two layers are separated one piece will be cut differently from the other piece along the dashed line in the crotch. The other dashed line only indicates the placement of the pocket facing when the pants are sewn together. The smaller pieces can be cut later. Mark the center of the circles that give button locations for suspenders.
On the pant bottom, the line indicating the rear pocket opening will not be cut. The whole line does not need to be marked, only the two points at the ends of the line. Mark the center of the circle that gives the button location.
On the vest front the dashed line inside the solid lines only indicates where the edge of the vest lapel will go.
Spread the appropriate length of fabric on your cutting desk or table folded in half with the selvedge edges together. Make sure the fabric is folded with the wrong side out, the good sides facing each other. You will always cut folded fabric to make two identical pieces unless specifically directed otherwise. Run your hands over the top layer of the folded fabric to smooth wrinkles. To get rid of wrinkles you may have to fold it again as described in the last paragraph on shrinking. If a wrinkle is too stubborn, steam iron it on the sleeve board.
It is better to point the pin toward the inside of the pattern, not the outside. That way you are less likely to accidentally stab yourself with a pin. When inserting a pin, put the pin down vertically where you want it to go in. Then put your hand under the fabric to lift the fabric around the pin so that the pin penetrates the pattern and both layers of fabric. Then change the angle of the pin so the point is higher than the plastic ball at the other end. Push the pin through both layers of fabric and the pattern. In doing this, the layers will be bulged up and no longer be flat and smooth on the table. Spread everything flat and smooth before you insert the next pin in some other location.
Arrange the appropriate patterns on the fabric. Pin each pattern through both layers of fabric in at least two places. Make sure that each pin goes through both layers of fabric. On large pieces use more pins. The pins should be inside the solid lines, since the inlays marked by dashed lines outside of the solid lines will later be cut off while the pins are still in place. The inlays will be cut off the patterns, not the fabric.
Using the white tailors chalk, mark the cloth to copy any reference marks that are on the pattern. The reference marks are typically short lines perpendicular to the edge to mark a particular point on the edge. These marks are necessary to properly align two pieces before they are sewn together. They are very important. They should be marked with a narrow chalk mark. These marks can be marked on the material outside the pattern, then marked inside the pattern line after the pattern is removed. The locations of buttons and the ends of pocket openings are also reference marks. You will need to make holes in the paper pattern to make some marks.
We will trace the pattern with chalk and then cut along the chalk lines, instead of cutting around the paper pattern. This is because the paper pattern would tend to raise up and obscure the view, resulting in a ragged and uneven cut. We want a smooth accurate cut. Be sure to hold the edge of the pattern paper down near the chalk so the chalk will not go under the edge of the paper. It does not matter how wide the chalk line is. But the edge of the line must be at the edge of the paper. It is probably better to use the broad edge of the chalk to trace around the pattern, saving the narrow edge of the chalk for the reference marks.
Mark around the outer edge of the pattern onto the cloth. If the pattern has inlays indicated by dashed lines outside the solid lines, do not remove the pins yet. After you have traced the outer lines, whether dashed or solid, while the pins are still in, cut off the part of the pattern that is an inlay bounded by an outer dashed line. Each inlay is either in case a seam needs to be let out for a looser fit later or for a hem at the outer edge of a piece where it does not attach to another piece. There will be some cases where a dashed line is within the solid lines. That is not an inlay, and you will need to read the section concerning that piece to interpret it correctly. After the inlays are cut off the pattern, chalk mark the edge of the solid lines where you have just cut the pattern.
Now that the fabric is chalk marked, look each pinned pattern over carefully to make sure that you have have made every mark. It is easy to forget a mark. Remove the pins without disturbing the fabric, then remove the paper patterns. Put the pins back in. The pins will have to be in during cutting, and after cutting during stitch marking, to make sure both layers are treated the same.
Do not discard the patterns, put them in a safe place. Some patterns will be used more than once, and a mistake may require a piece to be made again. It will not matter that the inlays are cut off, because they can be estimated adequately if you have to use the pattern again.
Before you cut the fabric, any reference marks that you marked outside the pattern should now be marked inside the boundaries of the piece where the mark originally was on the pattern.
Now use the scissors to carefully cut out each piece along the outer outline of each piece. Leave the fabric on the table while you cut, to not pick the fabric up and hold it to cut it. Where there is both an outer line and an inner line, you will not cut the inner line, you will mark stitch the inner line later with white thread. If you make a mistake and cut along an inner line, you will have to use the pattern again and do it right the next time. Cut along the edge of each chalk line where the edge of the pattern was. Usually that will be the inside edge of the chalk line, but in the case of darts it will be the outside edge. Save the scraps of cloth left after cutting in a bag, box or drawer. You will need the scraps to make miscellaneous small pieces for which there are no patterns.
Do not remove the pins that fasten the two layers yet. Now it is time to stitch mark the inner chalk lines. Marking is done with white thread so the marks are easy to see on black fabric. Unfortunately, you will have to use white thread also on white fabric, because any black stitch marking that is not removed would stain the white fabric in the wash. The marking thread will be removed before the garment is worn. The chalk marks can only be seen on one side of one one layer of the two layers of fabric. Stitch marks can be seen on both sides of both layers of fabric, which is essential. The technique is called stitch marking, tailor tacking or thread marking. It can be done by hand, the old fashioned way, or by machine with a tailor tack presser foot. I prefer to do it by machine. Be sure to mark stitch the reference marks before mark stitching the pattern outline, or you may forget to mark stitch the reference marks.
When stitch marking, remember which side of the chalk line the edge of the paper was when the line was drawn. That is the side of the chalk line where the stitch marks should go. The only exception is reference marks, where the stitch mark will go in the middle of the chalk line.
First, I will describe stitch marking by hand. Thread a hand sewing needle with white thread. About every 1.5 inches make a quarter inch stitch in and out of both layers of cloth. Make the stitches closer together at corners. On one side will be long threads, on the other short threads. Cut the long threads in half. Remove the pins and separate the two pieces of fabric only enough to leave about a third of each long thread on the top side. Cut the threads in half between the layers of cloth, then separate the layers completely.
Now for stitch marking two layers of cloth with the machine. Use a tailor tack presser foot on the sewing machine. I have achieved satisfactory results with the thread tension set to normal. With this foot set the machine for a plain simple zigzag stitch just wide enough to miss the blade in the foot, maybe 2mm. That is the stitch width, but the stitch length matters too. If you use a short stitch length, 2mm between stitches on alternate sides or 4mm between stitches on the same side of the zigzag, you can separate the layers of fabric enough to easily cut the threads later. If you use a long stitch length you will not be able to separate the layers of fabric satisfactorily. When you get to a corner, stop sewing, raise the presser foot, move the fabric back to remove the stitches from the presser foot, turn the fabric, lower the presser foot and sew. Sew where you want stitch marks.
The 2mm zigzag stitch used with the tailor tack presser foot will result in two rows of stitch marks separated by 2mm. But if the centerline of the foot was at the edge of the chalk line where the edge of the pattern was, then midway between the two rows of stitch marks will be the location that is intended to be marked.
When finished sewing a stitch mark seam, move the fabric backward to untangle the stitches from the presser foot. To turn a corner, untangle the stitches and start the seam in the new direction. Do not attempt a needle down corner the way you would with a straight stitch and standard presser foot.
If you need to mark a single spot, like the end of a pocket or a button location, lower the feed dog before you sew and the fabric will not move while you are sewing. Remember to raise the feed dog when you are finished.
After sewing the stitch marks with the tailor tack presser foot, pull the layers of fabric firmly apart to get the slack out of the stitches, then cut the stitches between the layers using the spring loaded thread cutter. Use the thumb and fingers of one hand to pull the fabric pieces apart, cut the stitch marks with the other hand. Do not use scissors lest you cut the fabric when you do not want to. The advantage of this technique over the hand technique is that it makes a more continuous mark. It is definitely preferable for beginners. The disadvantage of machine marking is that when it comes time to remove the marks much later on, it takes more time.
After the layers are separated, be sure to cut the loose ends of thread at the ends of your tailor tacking. Do this on both sides of the fabric. Otherwise, you might later pull one of these threads and remove some of your stitch marking. This is especially important where you have lowered the feed dogs to sew a point. Pulling loose ends connected to a point stitch mark can easily remove the whole stitch mark.
Whether the marking stitches are applied by hand or by machine, there is some chance that some of the stitches will fall out during the extensive handling required to make the garment. It is not a problem if a few stitches fall out of the middle of a long straight or gently curved line. It is a problem if they fall out of a corner or a short reference line. Therefore, after the two layers of cloth are separated, in each piece of cloth separately, it is wise to use a normal presser foot and straight stitch to sew a mark through the mark stitches at the corners and short reference marks. Where you have marked a point, lower the feed dogs and use the normal presser foot to make a zigzag mark at the point.
After the pieces of cloth are separated from each other each piece will have to have a zigzag stitch sewn around the outer edge to prevent unraveling in the wash. When you zigzagged for shrinking, you could use long stitches because you were only going to wash once. For zigzagging pieces after they are cut out, use shorter zigzag stitches. In both cases you would use 5mm wide zigzag stitches. Sometimes when zigzagging the edge of twill, the fabric will not be drawn through properly by the feed dogs. If this happens a bunch of zigzag stitches will happen in the same place. That is probably because you cannot position the fabric where both feed dogs engage the fabric when zigzagging an edge. To prevent this, pull on the edge of the fabric ahead of and possibly even behind the presser foot, stretching the fabric. This will keep the fabric feeding through properly.
You will nearly always use white thread for zigzagging even on black fabric. The advantage of using white thread on black fabric is that you can easily see which edges have been properly preserved with zigzag stitches. The white zigzag will not show when the garment is finished, it will be inside out of sight. The only exceptions to this are the bottom half of the back piece, all of the tail piece and the collar. These should be zigzagged with black thread, because white would show. You should mark the patterns so you do not forget.
When zigzagging the white cloth of the vest, use white thread. It will be impossible to be sure you have removed all the stitch marks along a hem. Some of them may be trapped in the hem. Black thread would stain the white fabric in the wash.
Remember that the back piece below the waist, and the tail piece, must be zigzagged with black thread.
I cut the back piece and the two sleeve pieces from one rectangle of black twill. I cut the front piece, side piece and tail from another rectangle of black twill. The pant top is cut from a rectangle. The pant bottom is cut from another rectangle. The first time I need a piece off a rectangle I cut all the pieces off that rectangle, even ones I do not yet need. And I save what is left of each rectangle to cut many smaller pieces later on. I stitchmark all the pieces I cut, even ones I will not used until much later. If I will not use a piece now I do not cut the stitchmarks and separate the layers. It is easy to identify stitchmarked pieces later on when they are needed.
DEFINITIONS. First we define a stitch the way it works in hand sewing. A stitch works differently in machine sewing but serves the same purpose. A stitch is where a needle penetrates fabric and draws thread from one side of the fabric to the other side of the fabric, and then penetrates the fabric on the other side and draws the thread back to the first side. Usually the stitch penetrates two layers of fabric for the purpose of joining the two layers. A seam is a line of repeated stitches. Seam allowance is the distance between a seam and the edge of the fabric. The seam allowance must not be too small or the seam would easily pull off the edge of the fabric. The standard seam allowance used in these patterns is a quarter inch. If the edge of the fabric is more than the standard seam allowance from the seam, the extra distance is called an inlay. A hem is when the edge of the fabric is folded under and sewn to the under side of the fabric. This is used because a folded edge looks better and wears better than a cut edge. The width of fabric folded up for a hem is sometimes also called an inlay but is more properly called a turning. Other terms will be defined as needed.
HAND SEWING. We will do most of our sewing with the machine. But first we will describe useful hand sewing techniques. If you have cut the thread with the thread cutter at the end of the machine, the end will be ragged and hard to thread through a needle. If you cut the thread with the spring loaded thread cutter that you hold in your hand, the end will be clean and easy to thread through the needle.
If we knotted one end of the thread to keep it from coming out of the needle we could pull only one thread through the fabric. But we would have to pull the knot through also, which would not work so well. So pull the thread half way through the needle, then the thread will not pull out of the needle when we sew. We will pull two threads through the fabric.
Sometimes thread will knot for no reason when basting. This can halt the basting before the seam is finished. This is less likely to happen if the thread is run over a block of paraffin wax after you thread the needle before basting. A basted seam is made with both pieces of cloth laying flat on the table. The needle will go down through both layers of fabric, 1/4 inch later it will come up through both layers of fabric, 1/4 inch later it will go down through both layers of fabric, and repeat to the end of the seam. The movement of the needle in a basting stitch should be like a porpoise moving in a straight line jumping in and out of the water. Only pull the slack out of the thread on the top side of the fabric. If you do it on both sides you will forget and loop the thread around the outer edge of the fabric, and have to start over. If it is important that the basting be strong and not pull out, repeated stitches will be needed at both ends of the seam. The basting stitches will pull out easily unless the first and last stitches are repeated six times in the same place. To remove hand basting cut the repeated stitches at each end of the seam, then pull all the rest of the thread out in one movement.
For permanent stitching the beginning and end of all types of hand stitches should be secured with repeated stitches at both ends of the seam.
Before sewing machines were invented garments were sewn together with a backstitch. To do backstitching, pierce the seam downward, move forward 3mm, pierce the seam upward, move backward 1mm, repeat for the length of the seam. For a stronger backstitch, move forward 2mm, back 1mm. Here we are describing the term backstitch as used in hand sewing; sometimes the term is misused in machine stitching for something entirely different.
Last, overcasting. Overcasting is used to prevent edges from fraying in the wash. Normally we use the machine zigzag stitch for this. But if in a finished garment an inlay is cut off, removing the zigzagged edge, the resultant raw edge would be protected by an overcasting stitch. The overcasting stitch is a spiral of thread down the edge.
MACHINE SEWING There are two threads to consider, the thread that is threaded through the machine's needle, and the thread that comes up from the bobbin. Before you start a seam with the machine, both threads should be pulled behind the presser foot, and held down with one finger. Otherwise there may be a tangled mess of thread at the start of your seam. After the seam is started you no longer need to hold the thread ends.
On my machine the stitch length of a straight stitch is the number of mm the fabric moves between times the needle penetrates the fabric. The stitch length of a zigzag stitch is the number of mm the fabric moves between times the needle penetrates the fabric. Thus it is the length of a zig or of a zag. The complete zigzag would be twice the length of the zigzag stitch. The width of a zigzag stitch is the distance from side to side the needle moves between successive penetrations.
There is an adjustment for the tension of the top thread on your machine. Make sure you know what normal tension is and how to set it. Most seams will be sewn with normal tension, but a few may not. You will have to remember to reset the tension to normal after sewing these seams.
To zigzag the edge of a cut pattern piece of the material with the machine, select a simple plain zigzag mode, not any fancier mode that might be available. On my machine I select zigzag width of 5mm and a stitch length that has 3 stitches on only one side of the zigzag in 5mm. But this is arbitrary, and you may prefer a different length.
You should take steps to prevent the end of machine stitched seams from unraveling. In the case of an ordinary straight stitch, reverse the direction of stitching about a half inch at both ends of the seam. You may need to raise the presser foot slightly while sewing to do this. Or your machine may have a straight stitch mode that does this for you automatically. In the case of machine sewing, this reversal of direction at the ends of a long seam is called a backtack or a securing stitch, but sometimes it is mistakenly called a backstitch, which is really an hand stitch that is entirely different. In the case of straight stitch where you prefer not to reverse stitch the ends of the seam, there is another way. Leave long threads at both ends of the seam. Thread the loose end on the right side of the material through a hand sewing needle. Use the hand sewing needle to pull the thread through to the wrong side of the fabric. Then at the end of the seam tie the two loose ends of thread together and pull the knot tight against the end of the seam. Do this three times and then cut the loose ends off above the knot. Do this at both ends of the seam. In the case of a zigzag stitch, a way to secure the ends is to temporarily lower the feed dogs so the fabric will not move and sew a few stitches in one place. I do not go to this much trouble for zigzagging edges of fabric.
If your machine has a mode to automatically do a securing stitch at the ends of a seam, it may not work properly for the first few stitches at the beginning of a seam if you have used this mode on the previous seam. If so, you may need to switch briefly back to normal mode and then back to securing mode without doing any sewing between seams.
You may feel the need to stop sewing a seam somewhere in the middle, before you reach the end. Do not do a securing stitch in the middle of a seam. It is quite adequate to start a new seam overlapping the end of the unfinished seam. If you are having trouble you may wish to rip up the seam and start over, and it is very difficult to rip up a securing stitch.
MACHINE BASTING. We have already described the hand basting stitch. Basting with the machine means an ordinary straight stitch with the longest stitch length your machine has, usually 5mm. It is easier to handle and manipulate the fabric with hand basting. The sewing is faster with machine basting, but removing the basting is slower with machine basting. To remove machine basting, use the long narrow blade of the seam ripper to cut every fourth stitch on one side of the seam. This goes very quickly with white basting thread against black twill. Then pull the seam apart and remove the white threads with tweezers.
Remember the right side or good side of the fabric has the twill pattern and will feel rough to the fingernail if you scratch it at the proper angle. When sewing two pieces together the two good sides will face each other. The bottom piece will have the good side up, the top piece will have the good side down. When hemming an edge the two wrong sides of the same piece will be together.
If two edges of twill are the same length, usually it will be satisfactory to pin the pieces together with pins every two or three inches before sewing. The pins will be parallel to the edge and far enough from the edge to make room for the presser foot. But sewing machines differ. If the top piece slips over the bottom piece while sewing, you may need to baste the two edges together before you sew them to prevent slippage. This problem is more likely when sewing two fabrics that are not the same kind, such as twill to canvas or twill to lining. You will not need to hand baste if you have a walking foot to sew the seam.
Where there is a cut edge with no nearby stitch marks, the seam will be sewn 0.25 inches from the edge. That is why it is important that the standard presser foot is 0.5 inches wide. While sewing you will make sure that the edge of the fabric runs along the edge of the presser foot. Where there are stitch marks inside the cut edge, the edge of the other piece of fabric will be laid along the line of stitch marks. The piece with the stitch marks will always be on the bottom, so you can see the edge of the other piece and the line of stitch marks as you sew. You may have to adjust the relative positions of the two pieces of fabric as you sew to keep the edge of the top piece along the edge of the presser foot and the row of stitch marks along the edge of the top piece. If there are no stitch marks on either piece, both edges will run along the edge of the presser foot.
If you are a beginner, sew VERY slowly so you can keep the edges and/or stitch marks along the edge of the presser foot.
You will usually want to press seams open after sewing them. The sleeve board is enough of an ironing board for this. For this purpose you will use the iron so briefly that you might not want to wait for the iron to develop steam from the water in the iron. A quicker way is to dip your finger in a bowl of water, then wipe the water on the seam before you press the seam open. A long seam will require you to dip your finger in the bowl a few times to dampen the whole seam before you press it. Do not leave the iron plugged in when you are not pressing seams.
After sewing seams you will have loose ends of thread attached to the ends of the seam. Cut off these loose ends with the thread cutter and put them in the trash.
BUTT SEAMS IN CANVAS. If two hemmed edges are joined with a zigzag stitch, the seam allowance in each hem will make it a strong seam. But if two raw edges are joined with a zigzag, the seam would be weak because of inadequate seam allowance. But to achieve a smooth seam in canvas a butt seam is essential. To improve the strength each edge to be joined will be given multiple zigzag stitches in a special way before the two edges are joined.
You will use successive zigzag stitches, each 5mm wide. First, with the standard presser foot the edge will be zigzagged with the center of the presser foot at the edge of the canvas. Next, the canvas will be zigzagged with the center of the presser foot at the edge of the previous zigzag. A third zigzag will be done with the center of the presser foot at the edge of the second zigzag. This will be done for both edges to be joined. Finally a zigzag stitch will be used to join the two edges. The edges will be pressed together as you sew with the center of the presser foot at the joined edges of the canvas. Sew this seam very slowly. Carefully manipulate the fabric so the edges come together with no overlap and with the edges under the center of the presser foot.
It is possible that temporary accidental compression of the butt seam could cause lasting overlap. To prevent this, every half inch along the butt seam sew a half inch long straight seam perpendicular to the edges.
Butt seams are only useful if the seam will only be in tension. If the seam were in strong compression, the two layers would overlap as much as the zigzag will allow, which would destroy the geometry of the seam. When strong compression will occur, use a lap seam instead of a butt seam. A lap seam is done by sewing overlapping pieces together where they overlap. If they overlap a half inch, each piece will have a quarter inch seam allowance. A lap seam will not be smooth. A lap seam in canvas under shiny satin would show. Soft material would be required between the canvas and satin to hide the lap seam.
When stitchmarks are no longer needed they must be removed. Remove most of them quickly with thumbnail against forefinger. Remove the rest of them with tweezers.
PAD STITCHING, REAL AND FAKE. Pad stitching serves to force curvature in two layers of fabric. In the lapel fold, it would be a very tight curve with a small radius of curvature. In the flat part of the lapel it would be a very slight curvature to keep the edge of the lapel resting against the body of the coat. Suppose two layers of fabric are bent into a U shape. The sides of the letter U are vertical. The bottom of the U is horizontal. The needle would be horizontal when it goes entirely through the bottom of the U. It would penetrate the outer layer of fabric twice before it came out the other side of the U. It would barely catch the inner layer. This would tend to make the curvature of the two layers of fabric permanent. For the next stitch, move further along the fold and repeat, penetrating the U from the same side each time. Several parallel seams of pad stitching would be used.
These instructions do not call for pad stitching. It would be difficult to do by hand through cotton canvas.
Fake pad stitching is easy to do with an ordinary sewing machine. It can produce a gentle curve in the flat part of the lapel.
It is best to get experience on test pieces before attempting to do it on a lapel. Cut test pieces of twill and canvas. Each should be a rectangle 4 by 8 inches.
First, sew only on the twill by itself. On each twill piece, sew straight white machine basting seams 4 inches long across the width of the piece. The first seam should be one inch from the end of the twill. Sew two such seams with one inch separation between seams. This is easiest if you are using a presser foot that allows a seam guide to be inserted that is adjusted to position a guide pointer one inch from the machine needle.
Lay the twill piece with the white seams on top of a canvas piece. Now we will be sewing twill and canvas together. Use a presser foot that is a half inch wide. Have most of the white seams to the right of the presser foot. The portion with no white seams will be to the left of the presser foot. Use black thread in the machine. The first black seam will be sewn with the edge of the presser foot at the left most white seam. The first black seam can be sewn with the layers of fabric horizontal and flat. The rest of the white seams will still be to the right of the presser foot. Use normal stitch length.
Subsequent black seams will be sewn every half inch. Each black seam will be sewn with either the left or the right side of the presser foot at a white seam. For each black seam after the first both layers of fabric will be raised up at an angle.
The amount of the curvature produced will depend on the elevation angle of the fabric at the location of the previous black seam. Put a finger on the table of the machine to the left of the presser foot under the canvas. Both layers of fabric will ride up over this finger as they feed under the presser foot.
After sewing all the black seams, the two layers of fabric will be curved. If you are using thin canvas, the canvas will bulge between seams. This might show under the satin that will cover the canvas of the lapel. To prevent this, lay both layers of fabric flat on the machine with the canvas on top and sew a seam centered between each of the previous black seams. This will not affect the curvature. You will now have black seams every quarter inch on the canvas.
You should experiment with different positions of your finger to determine where you want your finger to produce the amount of curvature you desire. If the finger is 1/4 inch from the presser foot the curvature will be very great. If the finger is 3/4 inch from the presser foot the curvature will be very slight.
After you finished this procedure on a lapel you would remove the white basting seams from the twill.
An entirely different way to do fake pad stitching is done entirely from the canvas side. Sew a straight seam on the canvas with twill underneath with both lying flat. Insert the bodkin between canvas and twill with the bodkin firmly against the previous seam. Lower the presser foot on the canvas close to the bodkin. Sew another seam parallel to the first. This will not work at all unless you firmly pull the twill, not the canvas, away from the previous seam while you sew. Pull from the side of the bodkin, not from the side of the previous seam. Repeat for as many seams as desired. The seams will be about a half inch apart. When finished the canvas will bulge between seams. To flatten the bulges sew a parallel seam centered between each pair of existing seams with everything flat, no bodkin.
You will make mistakes and have to rip seams. Most seam rippers have a long blade and a short blade. The short blade has a plastic ball on the end. The long blade is for ripping a one stitch at a time. The short blade is for ripping all the stitches of a long seam. You will normally only use the long blade to rip one stitch at a time. Using the short blade risks ripping one or both of the pieces of fabric. If that happens you will have to make a new piece to replace the ripped piece. Be very careful not to stick yourself with the long blade.
Most seams will be black twill sewn with black thread. The seams will be good side to good side. From the good side of the fabric, you will not be able to see the stitches. From the wrong side of the fabric the seam may be pressed open. You still cannot see the stitches. If so, fold the edge in one place so it is no longer pressed open. Then you will be able to see the stitches, if you have bright light and good vision.
If you cut a few stitches one at a time this way for a short length, you will be able to pull the fabric apart in the tiny region where you have cut stitches. Then you can see stitches between the layers of fabric at the ends of where you have cut stitches. It will then be much easier to cut stitches with the long blade of the ripper. If you are not at the securing stitches, you will be able to cut four stitches at a time this way.
Suppose you only need to rip and re-sew a small portion of the seam in the middle of the seam far from the ends of the seam. You will not be able to start cutting by pulling the fabrics apart. Instead, cut a few stitches one at a time on the surface of one of the fabrics. Then you will be able to pull the fabrics apart and cut faster. After you have cut the portion of the seam that you need to cut, you can adjust the fabric, baste if needed, then sew a new seam that extends a half inch beyond where you cut the seam. Use securing stitches at both ends of the seam and you will not need to worry about the cut ends of the old seam.
If you are willing to risk using the short blade, do not use it at the ends of the seam where the securing stitch makes two seams in the same place. To use the short blade, fold the two pieces together so the seam is at the folded edge. Pull down on the folded pieces and pull up on the seam ripper as you push the short blade through the seam. The ball must press firmly against the seam. If you are very lucky, it is just possible you might not damage the fabric.
Suppose you are impatient and frustrated and with the ripper you have made a hole in the twill, say, 3/8 inches in diameter. All is not lost. There are adhesive products that can be used to glue a small patch of twill on the wrong side of the hole to patch it. The patch should be at least a quarter inch beyond the hole all the way around. Assuming the glue is washable you will not need to zigzag the hole or the patch, the glue will prevent both from fraying. The only one I have tried is "HeatnBond ultra hold". It is paper tape with glue on one side. This particular product is applied with an iron. Follow the directions, but use patches of aluminum foil to protect the sleeve board and the iron from the glue.
"Ease stitching" is joining a long piece of fabric to a short piece of fabric so that the fabric ends match at both ends of the seam. Coat patterns require ease stitching where the sleeve is attached to the coat, and usually also along the shoulder seam between the arm and the neck.
Very time consuming elaborate ease stitching procedures are possible. These are justified with some fabrics and some garments. But these complicated methods are not needed to make a tailcoat. We will be ease stitching black cotton twill.
The basic procedure is to lay the long piece over the short piece. At evenly spaced intervals pin the pieces together. First pin where the ends of the seam will be. A quick way to estimate the midpoint is to pull the fabrics wide apart with one finger on each hand. Adjust things so the existing pins are even with each other. Then pin approximately midway between the two ends already pinned. After that pin midway between the new pairs of pins. You will probably then see that the extra length is not evenly distributed. Some pins will have to be removed, the fabric shifted and re-pinned. Then pin again between existing pins. Finally you will be ready to baste and then sew.
When basting the needle will penetrate the fabric every 1/4 inch. Each time the needle goes into the fabric it will go in the same side that the thread came out of the last time. That will avoid the basting stitch looping over the fabric edges. Each end of the basting seam will have a basting stitch repeated 6 times to prevent the presser foot from pulling the fabric so hard it pulls the basting loose as you sew. That would ruin the final black seam.
There will be ripples or wrinkles in the longer piece between the pins. If the difference in lengths is small, a single hand basting with white thread will suffice. The basting will be 1/8 inch or less from the edge of the fabric or from the stitchmarking. As the basting is done, each pin will be removed as the basting reaches that pin. If the difference in lengths is larger, a second basting seam will be necessary. The second basting seam will be at least 3/8 inch from the edge and no more than 5/8 inch from the edge. Then the seam will be sewn with black thread and the standard presser foot. The presser foot will be on top of the longer piece of fabric. The feed dogs will be underneath moving the shorter piece of fabric. The edge of the presser foot will run along the edge of the top piece of fabric, or along stitchmarks where appropriate. The black machine seam will be between the two white hand basting seams. Then the basting will be removed.
From now on we present the steps of sewing a tail suit. It would be best to print this document, and mark where you left off each day so you do not skip any steps.
A suit made of expensive materials is cut out and basted together. Then it is tried on to see what alterations are necessary. Only then are seams sewn. We are using cheap materials. If you are brave, reckless and in a hurry, you can sew it together and then rip any seams that need to be altered. I sewed it together and did not need to rip any seams. But then I do not mind a few wrinkles in cloth so black they are hard to see.
Since the coat from the waist up is the most complicated and difficult part of the whole suit, you might want to use the same kinds of material in any color to make just that part of the coat for practice before you make your final coat using the black materials you have bought.
The above figure shows the approximate relation of the different twill pieces of the coat without the sleeves. No inlays are shown. The parts of each piece that will disappear as seam allowances when the pieces are sewn together are shown. For this reason the relative positions of the pieces are only suggestive and not exact. When you get to the instructions for sewing each seam you be instructed on exactly how each piece relates to the next piece.
The person wearing the suit shown above would be facing to the right. We will describe locations as "front side" or "toward the front" meaning towards the right side of the above figure, or of each piece in the figure. "back side" or "toward the rear" will mean towards the left side of each piece of the figure. The rear edge of the tail piece in the above figure is still the rear edge even if you fold it over toward the front as you manipulate fabric and sew.
What follows is a simplified way of making an inexpensive washable coat with cotton twill and cotton canvas, instead of an expensive non-washable coat of worsted wool and hair canvas.
You should be able to pin the patterns of sleeves and front piece on one two yard piece of twill. Back piece, side piece, tail and collar patterns can be pinned on another two yard piece of twill. The rear edge of the tail should be in the direction of the warp. The large tail pocket will be made of muslin, not twill, so that pattern should not be pinned to twill. The patterns can be pinned , and the pieces laid aside until needed. Do not chalk the outline of the patterns on the twill until the detailed instructions for each piece.
We start by sewing the sleeves together before we need them just to get some sewing practice on the easiest part. The shoulder end of the sleeve is the curved end. The cuff end of the sleeve is the straight end. You probably can trust the sleeve length and go ahead and hem the sleeves before finishing the coat.
Before you start you should decide whether you wish to make the suit as fast as possible, or to be slow and make trial fittings and alterations before you finally sew the suit together. It is so much work to make it without alterations that you would have to be very dedicated to make it with alterations, which would double the work. To make it fast, just sew it together with black thread with the instructions that follow. To make it with alterations first baste it together with white thread. Use either hand basting or machine basting. Then fit it on and make minor alterations as instructed in chapter XXII of Bridgland's volume one. Then sew it together with black thread.
If you are not going to make alterations you may want to remove only two small inlays in the pattern. You might want to eliminate only those two small inlays as they serve no purpose if you are not going to make alterations, and they make attaching sleeves more confusing than necessary. But there is an advantage to the inlays even if you are not going to make alterations. In the absence of inlays you have to carefully match the edge of the sleeve to the edge of the arm hole before sewing on the sleeve. This is very difficult to do through all of the pining and basting required. If the inlays are there it does not matter if you do not exactly match the edge of the sleeve to the line of stitch marks on the inlay. It is easy to maintain a proper quarter inch seam allowance on the sleeve and you need not worry about the seam allowance on the arm hole. Even if you do not remove the inlays there are portions of the arm hole with no inlays where careful edge matching will be required.
Now for the inlays you might want to remove, though I do not recommend it. In the back piece eliminate the inlay in the armhole. In the front piece eliminate only the inlay at the front of the arm hole. Do not eliminate the inlay at the back of the arm hole in the front piece, as it is necessary.
SLEEVES. Cut the sleeve pieces out, stitch mark with white thread, separate the layers, change the presser foot and zigzag the edges with white thread, which will not be seen when the garment is assembled.
If you are not careful you will make two left sleeves instead of a left sleeve and a right sleeve. The sleeves will be sewn together wrong side out. After sewing the seams will be pressed open then they will be turned right side out.
The sleeve bottom piece has a long stitch marked inlay down the rear edge, and the shoulder end has a concave dip shape. The sleeve top piece has no long stitch marked inlay, and the shoulder end has a convex bulge shape. Both pieces have a short inlay at the cuff end. Take one of the sleeve bottoms and lay it on the table good side, twill side, up. The sleeve bottom on the table curves a certain way. In this, and practically every seam in the whole suit, we will sew good side to good side. Since the sleeve bottom is on the table good side up, we want to lay the sleeve top on it with good side down. Select whichever one of the sleeve top pieces that will curve the same way when the wrong side, the smooth side, is up, not down. Lay the sleeve top piece on the sleeve bottom piece. Even though they both curve the same way, they will not match very well. They are now good side to good side.
Start pinning with the edge of the bottom piece that has no inlay. That is the front edge. Start pinning at the shoulder end. Very carefully match the front corner of the top piece with the short angled part of the shoulder of the bottom piece. The first pin will secure this careful match. Put each pin in parallel to the edge about 0.75 inch from the edge to allow room for the presser foot. Make sure the edge of the fabric is flat, not wavy, before you insert a pin. Pin about every 2.5 inches. When you get ready to put the second pin in, check to see if the corners still match near the first pin. Pin so that the edges match all the way from the shoulder to the bottom of the cuff inlay, well past the cuff stitch marks. It will not matter if the cuff ends do not exactly match.
The rear edge is more confusing. The rear corner of the shoulder of the top piece must match the short angled part of the stitch marks, not the edge of the fabric, at the shoulder end of the bottom piece. The top piece is much wider than the bottom piece near the shoulder end. To make the next step easier, temporarily fold the seam you have just sewn about two inches over the sleeve. Pull the top end of the top piece to match the stitchmarks. It is necessary to avoid difficulties much later when the sleeve is attached to the coat. Again you will start pinning at the shoulder end. The rear edge of the top piece must match the stitch marks down the length of the bottom piece, NOT the edge of the bottom piece. Pin past the cuff stitch marks, because the seam must continue all the way to, but not around, the corner at the end of the fabric. The top piece should be smooth along the edges, but it may be wrinkled in the middle, because the width of the top piece does not match the bottom piece. It will not matter if the cuff edges do not exactly match.
Switch to black thread to sew the sleeves together. The standard presser foot will probably work. But if the top layer of fabric slides over the bottom layer of fabric when you sew, you will either need to hand baste with white thread near the seam before you sew with black thread, or switch to the walking foot to sew with black thread.
When sewing the pieces together, the edge of the half inch wide presser foot should be at the edge of the top piece, so the seam is a quarter inch inside the edge of the top piece. You will only sew two long curved seams. The seams will not turn a sharp corner. The most important part of the sleeve is the part near the shoulder, so start each seam at that end. When sewing the top layer of fabric may shift slightly, and the shoulder ends must match exactly. It would not matter if the cuff end shifted, but it would be a disaster if the shoulder end shifted. To make sure the seam includes the edge of the fabric, start the seam slightly before the fabric starts. Be careful to keep the edge of the presser foot at the edge of the fabric at the shoulder end. As you get away from the shoulder end the sewing may be easier if the edge of the presser foot is at the edge of the zigzag, because the zigzag may drag on the presser foot and make the fabric move where it does not belong. Such a small change in seam allowance is not important anywhere but at the shoulder end. When you are finished sewing the sleeve, remove the pins.
Remove the white stitchmarks along the seam you just sewed. Do not remove the cuff stitchmarks at the wrist end of the sleeve or the coat stitchmarks at the coat end of the sleeve. Never, ever remove the white zigzag stitches along any fabric edge.
While the sleeve is still wrong side out, press the seams open with your iron on your sleeve board. The seams will need to be pressed open to allow the cuff end of the sleeve to be hemmed. Pressing the seams open will have the additional advantage that the seams will not be as visible after the sleeve is turned good side out later on.
Now that the two seams are sewn, spread the fabric at the shoulder end of the sleeve on each side of a seam. Notice that the raw edges match at one seam, and the stitchmarks match at the other seam. That is why we were so particular about the shoulder end. The sleeve should be continuous across the seams when we attach the sleeve to the coat later on.
Do not worry if the cuff stitch marks on the two pieces do not exactly match. It is more important that the two pieces match at the shoulder end.
The traditional way of hemming sleeves on a fine suit is with a blind seam, so the seam will not be visible. But we are using black thread on black fabric, so the seam will not be visible anyway. Use a blind seam if you wish, but I prefer a simpler plain seam. The sleeve is still wrong side out. To hem fold the cuff end of the sleeve over the sleeve until the fold line is at the line of stitch marks. The cuff will be folded over the outside of the sleeve. Then slip the cuff end of the sleeve over the lower arm of the sewing machine and sew a quarter inch seam allowance along the zigzagged edge of the cuff.
If the lower arm of your machine is too large to slip the sleeve over, you will have to stitch it by hand. While theoretically you could have hemmed each piece by machine before sewing them together, that would not be a good idea. The two sides would not have matched perfectly at the hem. Also, it would have been harder the alter the sleeve length if that were desired.
The stitchmarks along the shoulder end of the sleeve will be necessary later when the sleeve is attached to the coat. The other mark stitches on the sleeve are no longer necessary. Cut any connection between the mark stitches at the shoulder end of the sleeve and the mark stitches along the seam. With spring loaded tweezers remove all the white stitchmarks along the cuff hem and the seam line, but NOT stitchmarks at the shoulder end of the sleeve or the white zigzag stitches. Now you are ready to turn the sleeves right side out. Put the sleeves in a safe place. You will not need them again for quite some time. You have had practice sewing on the easiest part of the suit.
BACK AND SIDE PIECES. The reason there are two back pieces instead of one is because it is much easier to make the coat in two halves, then sew the halves together. It is difficult even then. It would be impossible to make it all at once.
Cut out the back piece pattern and pin it to two layers of black twill. The back piece is long and slender. The back piece is complicated. The procedure for making the back piece is very unusual.
Above the waist the dashed lines are for inlays to allow for alterations. You will chalk around the pattern then cut off the inlay parts of the pattern and chalk again. Below the waist the dashed lines are extra material for hemming. Below the waist do not cut off the parts of the pattern that indicate half inch wide hems. Do cut off the part of the pattern at the bottom that indicates a large hem. This is because you will later use this part of the pattern to cut a piece of lining to be attached to the back, and you do not need stitch marks to make half inch hems. The presser foot is a half inch wide and can be used as a guide to make half inch hems.
The waist of the pattern is hard to interpret. On the front side of the waist there is a quarter inch long horizontal cut that will be made past the vertical solid line. This is to allow pressing the seam allowance open after sewing a seam to the side piece. The height of this cut is one inch below the natural waist of the person the coat is designed for, and is the "fashion waist" of the coat. This is the waist of the coat. The reason the fashion waist is below the natural waist is to obtain a sharper angle at the silhouette of the back waist. On the rear side of the waist there is a short horizontal dashed line a half inch higher than the fashion waist. Its purpose is to provide a horizontal hem for the overlap portion of the back. The horizontal line makes a sharp 45 degree bend diagonally down then stops at a critical point. The point where it stops is at the level of the fashion waist. There is a vertical solid line above the diagonal portion. The critical point is a quarter inch forward of the vertical solid line. This is to allow pressing the seam open when the two back pieces are joined. The reason for the diagonal portion of the horizontal hem is to prevent a raw edge or a hole where the horizontal hem meets the vertical pressed open seam allowance.
If this diagonal cut seems wrong, in a way it is. It is a commonly used compromise that is the result of a vain cosmetic desire to achieve the impossible: a vertical seam allowance and a horizontal hem that meet at the same point. It should be noted that some 19th century patterns showed a different solution. The back piece was said to be "stumped". This meant it was made in two pieces that were joined with a horizontal seam at the waist.
The best way to chalk the bent line at the back waist is: first, cut pattern along the bent line. Then fold the pattern back as necessary to chalk the bent line on the fabric all the way down to the end of the line.
When the coat is finished the back pieces will be joined with the back seam above the fashion waist. Below the fashion waist the back pieces are wider so they can overlap below the fashion waist. If the back pieces are pulled apart below the fashion waist this would cause the back seam to rip at the bottom where the diagonal cut makes the back seam allowance go to zero. To prevent this, after the back seam is sewn, one or two seams will start at the bottom of the back seam and go down for one inch to fasten the two back pieces together where they overlap for a short distance below the bottom of the back seam. This will keep the back pieces from being pulled apart at the bottom of the back seam.
After the pattern is removed you will put the pins back in the fabric. Make sure there is a pin at the waist level because it is absolutely critical that the two pieces match exactly at the waist when you cut them. Cut the back pieces out. Some tailors keep the small triangular inlay where the sleeve will attach to the back piece. You can if you want. I do not. I cut it off. Make the horizontal and diagonal cut on the back side of the waist and the very short horizontal cut on the front side of the waist. The reason for the cuts is that the back piece edge above the cuts will fold over when we press the seams open, but the edge below the cuts will not fold over because the seams will not extend below the cuts.
The back pieces are still pinned together. Take the back pieces to the machine for stitch marking with white thread.
Separate the two layers, but do not zigzag yet. The back piece must be zigzagged in a different way than most other pieces.
On many of the pieces that you will cut, you can zigzag the edges with white thread because the edges will not be seen when the garment is finished. But this is not the case with the back piece. Above the waist you can zigzag the back pieces with white thread, but below the waist the back pieces will have to be zigzagged with black thread because white thread would show. The bent line should be zigzagged with black thread. Finish zigzagging both back pieces white above the waist and black below the waist before you go on to the next step.
The back piece will have to have a polyester lining below the waist, but definitely not above the waist, because that would make the suit unnecessarily hot to wear when dancing. Lining is so thin it is not easy to tell whether you have four layers or two layers; you want two layers. Use the pattern of the back piece on two layers of black polyester lining to cut lining the shape of the back piece only below the waist. Since you have already cut the bottom hem off the pattern, the lining will be shorter than the twill. The lining does not need to go below bottom the hem line. The lining should not go higher than one inch below the waist.
Use black thread with the overlock presser foot to zigzag the edges of the lining.
Use black thread with the standard presser foot to sew the pieces of lining to each of the back pieces. The lining will be sewn to the wrong side of the twill, the smooth side, not the rough side. Both sides of the lining are the same, it does not matter which side is sewn. The top edge of the lining should be one inch below the waist. The front edge of the twill is below the curved edge that is above the waist. The front edge of the lining should be perhaps 1/8 inch behind the front edge of the twill, so the front edge of the twill will remain visible. Sew with a quarter inch seam allowance to the edge of the lining. The seam allowance to the edge of the twill will be greater. Have the lining on top when you sew. You do not need to pin the lining to the twill. Sew very slowly adjusting the fabric carefully as you sew. Do not pull or stretch the lining as you sew, it should be relaxed on top of the twill. The exact relation of the rear edge of the lining to the rear edge of the twill does not matter. Sew all four sides of the lining to the twill.
Above the waist the rear edge of the back piece is straight and the front edge is curved. But we will be working below the waist. We need to hem the long rear vertical edge of the back piece below the waist level corner. We must use black thread. We will not hem the bottom horizontal hem of the back piece until very much later. The hem on the rear vertical edge below the waist will be a half inch fold. Fold the rear vertical edge over wrong side to wrong side. You will not need to pin it in place, because the hem will be the width of your presser foot. Start the hem at the very top of the fabric at the waist. Just fold as you sew to keep the hem the width of the presser foot, and the seam in the center of the hem. Sew slowly, carefully adjusting the fabric as you sew. Seam all of the way from the waist corner to the bottom edge of the back piece twill fabric even though the line in the pattern did not go all the way to the bottom.
Now that the rear edge of the back piece is hemmed, we need to hem the very short part at the rear side of the waist. This is where we did a horizontal cut that bent down diagonally. Fold the horizontal edge down until the fold reaches all the way to the end of the diagonal cut. You will be guaranteed that the folded edge will be horizontal if the vertical hemmed edges match. The top folded edge will be horizontal after you fold it. Sew it this way with a short horizontal seam a quarter inch below the fold. Start the seam at the outside edges that are hemmed.
There is one final optional thing you might want to do to the back piece before going on to the next step. If you want the option to hide the tails under a jacket or sport coat, you will need to make vertical buttonholes in the back piece part of the tail. The buttonhole will be the size to easily accommodate the 3/4 inch buttons that will later be sewn to the back waist. Make test hole on scrap fabric before doing it on your back piece. Measure the length of the back piece from the waist to the bottom hem stitchmarks. Make a horizontal chalk mark one inch long on the lining on the wrong side of the back piece 2/3 of the length down from the waist. A white rubber eraser will easily erase this mark later on. This will mark the bottom end of the vertical buttonhole. Make sure there is enough thread on the bobbin to finish the buttonhole before you start it. Have the presser foot entirely on the lining, not the hem, but it should be near the hem. Have the lining on top and the twill on bottom when you sew the buttonhole.
We have finally finished be back piece as far as we need to at this stage.
Next we will cut out the side pieces and sew them to the back pieces. When chalking the outline of the side piece at the top corner and the tiny step on the front edge move the chalk from on the paper to on the twill to get small details accurately. With white thread stitchmark the bottom inlay on the side pieces. Separate the layers and zigzag the edges with white thread.
Sewing the side piece to the back piece will be a very unusual seam. When we sewed the sleeves together we sewed two convex curves together and two concave curves together. We could pin them before we sewed. Here we will be sewing a convex curve to a concave curve. We will not be able to pin before we sew. When you sew a long seam you can make the pieces match where the seam starts. But the pieces may not match where the seam ends. I prefer to start sewing the side to the back at the scye end. The seam will end at the waist end, and the pieces may not exactly match. This will not matter because the side piece has an inlay of extra material at the waist. The side will be hemmed at the waist much later in the procedure so the hemmed edge will exactly match the waist of the back piece. For best results in this seam use a presser foot that is exactly 0.5 inches wide.
We will start the coat body by sewing the back pieces to the side pieces. But sewing the two back pieces together down the middle of the back will be very much later.
Select the matching back and side pieces. If matching pieces are on the table with both pieces good side up, the side piece nestles neatly into the arc of the back piece. But to sew them together, the side piece will have to be turned over and laid on top of the back piece, good side to good side. In this configuration the curves do not match at all, but this is the way they will have to be sewn. You will sew with black thread.
Notice which is the short arm hole edge of the back piece and which is the long curved edge of the back piece. Read these three paragraphs before you start. You will use the half inch wide presser foot with black thread. You will be sewing the long curved edge of the side piece to the long curved edge of the back piece. You will sew the seam starting at the top and sew all the way down to just before you get to the waist. The seam must stop before it gets to the waist corner of the back piece. Better to stop a quarter inch too soon than to sew past the waist corner where the back piece has a small cut. Lay the back piece down good side up. Lay the matching side piece on top good side down. Because the two edges curve in opposite directions, you will only be able to match the edges for a distance of about a half inch. The curved edges should match reasonably well for the first half inch. Beyond that they will diverge in different directions. You will not use pins to fasten the two pieces because the angles of the pieces will be constantly changing. The small top end of the side piece should be at the short arm hole edge of the back piece. If you left the inlay on the armhole part of the back piece, the arm hole edge will be indicated by a line of stitch marks. If you did not leave the inlay, it will be the edge of the fabric.
Keeping the pieces pressed together with your fingers put them on the machine oriented so the edge of the presser foot will be at the edges of the two pieces of fabric where the two long curved edges match. You will start sewing just before the needle reaches the fabric, because the arm hole edge must be included in the seam. Sew only 0.5 inch at a time, then lower the needle into the fabric using the hand wheel at the right end of the sewing machine, raise the presser foot, and rearrange both pieces to keep both pieces aligned with the edge of the presser foot. This cannot be done quickly. Go slow, take your time, carefully adjust both pieces of fabric before lowering the presser foot each time. If your machine has a "needle down" capability, set that and you will not have to use the hand wheel. No matter how much the fabric is wrinkled elsewhere, it should be relaxed and flat under the pressure foot. Do not pull in such a way that you are pulling the fabric against the needle. Pull it some other way to get what you want. Do all the pulling and arranging before you lower the pressure foot. Before you lower the presser foot to sew each half inch, ask yourself "do both fabric edges match and are both pieces of fabric flat and relaxed under the presser foot?" As you sew very slowly carefully guide the fabric so both edges of fabric stay at the edge of the presser foot. When you get past the curved part of the side piece you can sew in increments larger than 0.5 inch. Be sure to stop before you get to the waist of the back piece. Do not worry if the stitch marks at the bottom of the side piece do not match the waist cut in the back piece. You will adjust that part correctly much later on when you join the side piece to the front piece and hem both pieces. It does matter that the two pieces of fabric match at the arm hole.
If you now lay what you have sewn on the table, it will not lay flat without wrinkles. The purpose of what you have sewn is to give this portion of the garment a shape that is not a flat shape, so it will not lay flat. You will be sewing non-flat shapes in the work ahead also.
To press the seam open requires a special technique. Wrap a portion of the seam around the rounded end of the sleeve board to press. The seam allowances will be away from the sleeve board. Dip your finger in a bowl of water. With your wet finger spread the seam allowances open. Use the iron to press the seam open against the rounded end of the end of the sleeve board. But only let the iron press against the rounded end of the sleeve board. Do this for the whole length of the seam, one part at a time. The iron must only touch small parts of the seam at any one time. If the iron touches a large area on both sides of the seam at once it would tend to flatten out the shape that you have created by sewing the seam.
Complete the pieces for both halves of the coat before going on to the next step. Now you can put the pieces you have just sewn in storage for use later on.
Next we will do the front piece of the coat body. You will finish both front pieces before going on to the next step. The two front pieces are similar but not identical. Only the front piece that will be on the left side when worn has an outside welt pocket and a buttonhole in the lapel. Only the right front piece has an inside pocket.
The front of a traditional suit has at least three layers: the outer fabric, a middle layer called the interfacing, the interlining or the canvas, and an inner layer called the lining. We want our coat to be as cool as possible, so we will omit the lining. There will be a facing along the front edge only.
We will use the front piece pattern repeatedly, for twill, canvas and art paper forms, so do not discard it the first time you finish with it.
The front piece is the most complicated piece. Cut the pattern along the outer line, whether the outer line is dashed or solid. If you have a simple lapel dart it will be shown by a simple V with only one line on each side. This will be considered an outer V. It will not be cut in the twill, but it will be sewn. To avoid making a mistake and cutting in the twill, do not even cut it in the pattern at this point, it will be done later. If you have a compound dart the dart is marked by a smaller inner V and a larger outer V. The inner V will be used first to cut the cotton twill, the outer V will be used later to cut the cotton canvas. But do not cut fabric yet, we are still working on the pattern, not the fabric. Use a straight edge to draw the inner V out to the outer dashed line. Cut the pattern along the inner V all the way to the outer dashed line. If you have a waist dart it will have both an inner V and an outer V. If you have a bevel that will be dealt with later when we get to the canvas section.
Ignore the four tiny circles on the pattern and the three large circles. We will deal with these after we separate the twill pieces because stitchmarks with the tailor tack foot at a single point tend to fall out and are unreliable.
Pin the pattern to the two layers of twill fabric in at least six places. Chalk mark the twill around the outer edge of the pattern, whether the outer edge is solid or dashed. The chalk marking should go along the cut edge of the dart. Leave the pins in so the pattern will not move over the fabric. Cut the pattern inlays off outside of the solid line. Do not cut the diagonal dashed line. Mark along the new cut edge of the pattern where you cut off the inlays. Do not remove the pins. Do not mark the points at the corners of the welt or the locations of the buttons. They will be marked after the pieces are separated later on.
Above the point where the scye meets the shoulder, there is a short dashed line. You would not cut the fabric along that dashed line unless you chose not to include the inlay in the front of the arm hole. If you do wish to include the inlay at the front of the arm hole, be sure to chalk the arm hole inside the inlay, so you will know where to attach the sleeve. I keep this inlay. It is essential to keep the inlay a the rear of the arm hole.
Reference marks show the ends of the lapel fold line. Make marks on the fabric in the inlay that line up with the fold line. Make a mark on the fabric in the arm hole that lines up with the short mark in the arm hole. Where that mark meets the arm hole indicates the location of the front sleeve pitch point for use in attaching the sleeve later on. The rear sleeve pitch point is not marked on back or side piece, because it will be the seam where the back and side piece join. Mark the twill in line with the ends of the long diagonal dashed line. If you have a compound dart, there will be a short horizontal line midway up the left side of the dart. Mark the fabric in the dart even with that line. Do not remove the pins.
Double check that everything is marked. There are so many things to mark that it is almost impossible not to miss something.
Remove the pins and lay them on the twill outside the pattern. Remove the pattern and re-pin the two layers of twill together.
Continue the end marks of the lapel fold line to where they were on the pattern, inside of the solid line. Do not draw the whole line now. Continue the sleeve pitch mark at the arm hole to where it was on the pattern, inside the solid line. If you have a compound dart, continue the mark in the dart to where it was on the pattern. Continue the marks that lined up with the long diagonal dashed line inside the solid line.
Cut the fabric along the outer line. If you have only a lapel dart shown by a single line on each side of the dart, do not cut the dart in the twill. It will only be a seam line in the twill you will not cut the dart in the twill. If you have a dart or darts with two lines on each side of the dart, cut the darts where the inner lines were. Leave the pins in. Now you have two front pieces pinned together and cut out.
Switch the machine to white thread and the tailor tack presser foot.
Stitch mark the ends of the lapel fold line and the sleeve front pitch mark at the front of the scye. If you have a compound dart, stitchmark the mark at the left side of the dart. Stitch mark the ends of the diagonal dashed line.
Stitch mark the chalk line where the solid line was around the outside of the front piece but inside the inlays that were shown by dashed lines.
Move the front pieces to the table. Remove the pins. After you have pulled to separate the layers as much as the stitch marks will permit, cut the stitch marks and separate the two front pieces.
Put the normal presser foot on the machine. Keep white thread in the machine. You will now be working on each piece separately.
The front piece will get handled quite a lot before it is finished. This might result in some of the stitch marks falling out. So for safety, we will sew some important marks on each front piece separately.
There are some important corners and marks that should be sewn with the machine using the standard presser foot, a plain straight stitch and white thread. You should not use a securing stitch, just a plain straight stitch with normal length stitches. Do not use shorter stitches than the normal default stitch length of your machine, because they would be very difficult to remove later. Sew one inch long marks at the ends of the lapel fold line and the diagonal dashed line. Not the sleeve pitch mark, it will be dealt with differently. If you have a compound dart sew the mark where the dart bends a little. Next sew all corners. Start an inch before each corner. Sew to the corner, turn the corner with the needle down, and sew for another inch beyond the corner. Do this for all of the corners. Be especially precise with the corners at each end of the shoulder seam stitchmarks.
Small holes will need to be cut in the pattern to mark certain points. Crease the pattern and cut a V notch in the crease to cut a hole. Small holes will be needed to mark the very center of the three circles that represent decorative buttons. Small holes will be needed at the four points that represent the corners of the pocket welt.
Spread one of the twill front pieces flat on the table, wrong side up. Lay the paper pattern over it so the edges of the pattern match the front piece. Chalk the front piece through the holes that mark the corners of the welt and the centers of the buttons. Do the same for the other front piece. If you have a simple lapel dart that will not be cut in the twill, now is the time to cut it in the pattern and mark it with chalk on the wrong side of each twill front piece.
Lower the feed dogs and sew several zigzag stitches at the point marks representing the buttons, because the buttons will not be added until much later. Use a wide enough zigzag that it will be easy to remove later on. The buttons will be sewn over the stitchmarks and will hide the stitchmarks. But if the stitchmarks are too thick, the buttons will not lay flat on the front piece. Do the same for the other point stitchmarks that mark the corners of the welt. Even though the welt will only be applied to the left front piece, the marks will be useful on the right piece also. Raise the feed dogs again.
Do all this marking for both front pieces before going on to the next step.
Switch the machine to colored thread. With colored thread sew through the one inch long white stitchmark at the edge of the scye that marks the front sleeve pitch point. Then remove the white stitchmarks along the colored thread leaving only colored thread to mark the front pitch point. This is necessary to avoid confusion very much later on when the sleeve is attached to the coat.
Change the machine back to white thread. At this point you probably have lots of loose threads at the ends of the marks you have sewn. Cut and remove all of these loose thread ends.
Now with white thread zigzag the edges of each front piece, including the edges of any dart that has been cut open.
Switch to black thread. Now we are ready to sew the dart or darts closed. When folding darts the spherical end of a bodkin can help adjust the fold. Your pattern may have a simple lapel dart or a compound dart. First we will describe the simple lapel dart then in the next paragraph the additional information needed for a compound dart.
If you have a simple lapel dart, you will not cut the twill along the dart. The dart is too small to need to be cut. But you will fold the twill good side to good side pin it in place, and sew in such a way that the seam, not the edge of the foot, runs along the edges of the chalk marks of the dart.
If you have a waist dart, carefully fold good side to good side and pin, sew it closed with the edge of the presser foot at the edges of the fabric.
If you have a compound dart, the twill will be cut out along the inner dart. When the inner dart is sewn in the twill the edge of the presser foot will be at the edge of the twill. If you have a compound dart, there will be a stitchmark on one side of the dart which indicates the dividing point between the two sections of the dart. The two seams will be sewn separately, each ending with securing stitches. The fabric will be folded, carefully adjusted and pinned separately for each of the two seams. Sew the inner section of the dart that has the vertex, or point of the dart first. Start the seam at the dividing mark, continue sewing in a straight line past the cut edge almost to the folded edge. Then remove the pins and adjust the fabric and pin to sew the outer section of the dart that reaches the outer edge of the fabric. When adjusting the fabric for the second seam, the fabric will wrinkle. Adjust the wrinkle so the fabric will be smooth where you will sew. The fabric will be smooth after the seam is finished.
For any darts that were cut open, press the dart seam allowances open to flatten the seam. Sew the darts for both front pieces.
If you do not curl the lapel, it will be flat, but the edge of the lapel near the top of the lapel will be far from resting on the coat when the coat is worn. To help the edge get closer to resting on the coat we will curl the lapel a little bit. To do that later after the twill and canvas are joined, you will need to make some temporary white machine basting now. Lay the front piece on the table wrong side up. Lay a yard stick or meter stick on the front piece so it is at the two stitchmarks that mark the ends of the lapel fold line. Imagine a line parallel to the fold line starting at the lapel notch and going down four inches. Use chalk against the yard stick to mark the fold line for four inches parallel to your imaginary line. You will make two white basting seams parallel to the fold line, one is one inch from the fold line, the other two inches from the fold line. Put white thread in the machine. Set your machine for the longest stitch it has for machine basting. Use a seam guide or mark the twill with chalk so you can sew a four inch machine basting seam parallel to the chalk line but an inch forward from it. Sew another four inch seam an inch forward of the previous seam. These two seams will serve as guides for fake pad stitching to curl the lapel.
If you have patterns produced by the computer program at the end of this article, you already have a welt pattern. If you are not using computer generated patterns, you need to know how to make a welt pattern.
There are different methods of making a welt pocket. I believe the method presented here is the easiest to describe and understand. Volume 3 of Bridgland's book p.241 describes a different way of making a welt pocket.
A welt pocket is typically used to hold a handkerchief, but it could also hold a pocket notebook and a pen. To hold a handkerchief the opening of the pocket must be at least 4.5 inches wide. If the welt has only one seam at each end, the welt will be about 4.5 inches wide. But if the welt has two seams at each end it will be 5 inches wide. With only one seam at each end the welt facing and the back side of the welt could be pulled out of the pocket if you wanted to. With two seams this is not possible. With only one seam raw edges would be exposed inside the pocket at each end of the welt. With two seams no raw edges will be exposed inside the pocket opening. The method I use has two seams at each end of the welt.
The method of making a welt pocket described here requires the patterns I use. The pattern I use is shown in below, but not to scale. The square border around the figure is supposed to be 7 inches on each side.
Since the welt pattern is the same size for everyone, it is the only one of the pattern files that is practical to post on the internet. But if you download it and print it, you can only use it if your software allows it to be printed the correct size. The pattern is contained within a border that is a square 7 inches on each size. I have two browsers on my computer. One of them will print it the correct size, the other prints it the wrong size. To download the welt pattern pdf file click here.
What follows is how to make the pattern yourself by hand.
Use a piece of letter sized paper to make the welt pattern. In the beginning you will draw a slanted parallelogram in the middle of the paper that will be the size and shape of the finished welt. Then you will go from there to make the welt pattern.
To draw the parallelogram mark a point. Then 5 inches horizontally to the right of that point mark a second point. Then 1 inch vertically above the left point mark another point. One inch vertically below the right point mark another point. Connect those points with straight lines to form a slanted parallelogram.
You might want to draw cut lines and fold lines before you cut and fold.
Draw a straight line from the upper right corner of the parallelogram diagonally up and to the right side of the paper. Draw a line from the upper left corner of the parallelogram diagonally up and to the left side of the paper. Cut the paper along each of these diagonal lines.
Make vertical folds exactly at the vertical ends of the parallelogram. Fold the left side of the paper forward over the left end. Fold the right side of the paper forward over the right end. Extend both vertical folds up to the diagonal cuts and down to the bottom of the page.
You will not make two vertical folds above the diagonal cuts. Instead you will make a single slanted fold. Fold the top of the paper along the top edge of the parallelogram to the rear side of the paper.
Use each vertical fold as a straight edge to draw a vertical line on the paper that is folded over behind the vertical folds. Unfold the paper and cut the lines you have drawn on the upper part that was previously folded in a slanted fold.
Unfold the paper. Draw a vertical line a half inch to the left of the left fold. Draw a vertical line a half inch to the right of the right fold. Both lines will go from the diagonal cuts to the bottom of the page. Cut the paper along both lines. Then fold the cut edges in half inch wide folds forward over the front of the paper.
Mark each vertical half inch edge at the points where it meets the top and the bottom slanted lines of the parallelogram. You will have two marks on the left half inch portion and two marks on the right half inch portion.
Unfold the half inch portions. Cut from each mark on the edge of the half inch portion to the nearest corner of the parallelogram. This will be four cuts.
Make two marks a quarter inch below the bottom edge of the parallelogram. Draw a line through those two marks parallel to the bottom edge of the parallelogram and a quarter inch from it. Cut the line. Fold this quarter inch wide portion up over the bottom edge of the parallelogram. Make marks on the quarter inch portion where it meets the ends of the parallelogram. Unfold the quarter inch portion. Cut from each of the two marks to the nearest corner of the parallelogram. That will be two cuts.
Make two marks 1.5 inches above the top of the parallelogram. Draw a line through these two points. Cut the line.
This funny shaped piece of paper you have cut is the shape the welt piece before it is made into a proper welt.
Trace the outside of this pattern on a clean sheet of paper. Connect the corners of the parallelogram with dashed lines to indicate that they are fold lines and not cut lines. This is your final pattern for the welt.
In addition to the welt, you will need a welt facing. It is a parallelogram drawn just like the welt. A quarter inch down from the top edge draw a dashed line parallel to the top edge. Cut off the upper left corner of the parallelogram with a short diagonal cut from the left end of the dashed line to the top edge of the parallelogram. This is to prevent this corner from showing after the facing is sewn to the front piece.
Now you have your welt patterns and we can proceed to make the welt pocket.
The canvas will be attached to the front piece after the welt pocket is made because if were attached before the welt pocket was made the canvas would be weakened by cutting the welt pocket. The canvas will be attached to the front piece before the lapel satin because the satin must cover the canvas when the satin is turned in. The inside pocket must be made after the satin is turned in because the satin must not cover the pocket when the satin is turned in or you could not get your hand in the pocket.
Tailsuits traditionally have a welt pocket only on the left front piece. The pocket will be on the left side of the person wearing the suit. The welt stitch marks on the right side will be useful later as reference marks for locating seams, but not for making a welt pocket. The right front piece will have an inside pocket instead of an outside pocket like the left side.
Welt pockets are sometimes described as single welt or double welt. A double welted pocket is more properly called a jetted pocket. The rear pockets on pants are usually jetted pockets. Tailsuit outside breast pockets traditionally use single welt. Single welts are either inside welts or outside welts. An inside welt is a jetting. Inside welts can only rise up to the upper edge of the pocket opening, they cannot rise above the upper edge of the pocket opening, which outside welts can. An outside welt is a true welt, not just a jetting. Tailsuits traditionally use outside welts.
The basic idea of the welt and facing is illustrated with the following figure. The welt and facing are shown separately to avoid confusion. Both are shown on the left as they would be sewn on, and on the right when the muslin pocketing is pulled through the slit. The purpose of the facing is so you will not see the muslin when you look down at the empty pocket.
You should have patterns for the welt and the welt facing. The welt is the complicated pattern, the facing is the simple pattern. Both will be used to cut a single layer of black twill. Since the welt is so small it must be made more precisely than the rest of the garment or it will look sloppy when finished.
If you have a presser foot that is exactly 0.5 inch wide, this would help, but it is not essential. The bottom edge of the welt and the top edge of the facing have a quarter inch seam allowance that will be sewn to the coat front piece. The upper edge of the welt and the bottom edge of the facing will each be sewn to the upper edge of a different one of two pieces of muslin.
While it is OK to read all of these instructions before you start, do not count on remembering them all. Read each paragraph before you do what it says and move on to the next paragraph, or you will forget one of the steps.
If the welt pocket were made on both sides of the coat, the pattern would have to be laid on two layers of fabric. Because the welt pocket will only be made on the left side of the coat, pin the welt and facing patterns on the wrong side of a single layer of black twill fabric. Make sure you are on the wrong side. Make sure the short vertical dashed lines at the ends of the welt align with the warp of the fabric. On the facing the solid lines at either end should align with the warp.
The welt pattern should be fastened with two pins that lie completely within the dashed line parallelogram. Because this piece is so tiny and complicated, we will use a slightly different procedure than usual. Do not slide the chalk on the twill at the edge of the pattern. With the fingers of the other hand press the pattern very firmly against the twill as near as possible to where you use chalk. The chalk should start on the pattern and slide off the pattern onto the twill. Do this at many places around the edge of the pattern to outline the pattern on the twill.
Leave the pins in place. Then pick up the welt with the pattern pinned to it. Fold the fabric away from the paper pattern. Without cutting the fabric, cut the paper pattern along the ends and top of the dashed parallelogram, but not the bottom. As before chalk the edge of the pattern on the twill.
Cut the welt out along the appropriate chalk marks.
Now you need to hand baste white thread for temporary marking around ends and top of where the dashed parallelogram was on the pattern. You do not need to do this for the quarter inch seam allowance, just the other three sides. With white thread and a needle hand baste a stitch mark around the edge of the chalk line. Use quarter inch stitches on the two ends and half inch stitches along the top. This is only for temporary marking. This stitch marking is absolutely required for very precise folding of the welt later on. If the white line were sewn by machine it could not be sewn as precisely and would be more difficult to remove later on. You do not want to stitch the side of the welt piece where the quarter inch seam allowance is, only the other three sides. If you stitch marked the seam line the white stitch marking would be very difficult to remove after the seam was sewn later on with black thread.
To make the facing, pin the pattern, chalk the edges, remove the pattern and cut the facing. The facing has a large part and a small part. The large part is the facing, and the small part is a seam allowance for sewing the facing on. The seam will run along where the dashed line is on the pattern, where the two parts join. Since the seam allowance is beveled at one end, there is no need to cut the pattern and chalk the seam allowance.
Using black thread zigzag the top edge of the welt and the seam allowance at the bottom. Zigzag edge of the facing on the opposite side from the seam allowance and zigzag the seam allowance. The other edges of the two pieces will be enclosed so they will not need to be zigzagged.
You need to make a pattern for the cotton muslin that will be used to make the pocket. On a sheet of paper mark a point. Go to the right horizontally five inches then down vertically one inch and make a second mark. Draw a slanted line between the two marks. Now make the straight slanted line longer on each end until it is 7 inches long. Then from the right end of the slanted line, draw a vertical line down 6 inches. From the bottom end of that line draw a horizontal line to the left far enough to be under the left end of the slanted line. Draw a vertical line down from the left end of the slanted line to intersect the horizontal line. Check that your drawing is almost 7 inches wide. Now you have a paper pattern for the muslin needed to make the pocket.
Pin the pattern to two layers of muslin. With black marker mark around the muslin pattern on the two layers of cotton muslin. Cut the pieces out. Switch to the overlock presser foot to zigzag the edges of each piece of muslin because the muslin is so thin. It will prevent the edge of the muslin from curling. Use black thread. After your are finished zigzagging both pieces of muslin switch back to the normal presser foot.
Mark the wrong side of both welt and facing with chalk so it is clear which is the wrong side.
The welt and facing will be sewn separately on separate pieces of muslin. Read this carefully, it is complicated and confusing. It is easy to miss an important detail.
First, for the welt, lay a piece of muslin on the table so the square side is toward you and slanted side away from you. The higher end of the slanted side is to your LEFT. Then lay the welt wrong side up so the edge opposite the quarter inch seam allowance is centered at the slanted edge of the muslin. Pin it in place allowing room for the presser foot to sew a quarter inch seam allowance along the slanted edge. Do not sew yet.
Next for the facing. Lay a piece of muslin on the table so the square side is toward you and the slanted side is away from you. The higher end of the slant is to your RIGHT. Lay the welt on the muslin wrong side up so the side opposite the quarter inch seam allowance is centered at the slanted edge of the muslin. Pin in place. Do not sew yet.
In the following step small pieces of twill and muslin will be sewn together. When different kinds of fabric are sewn together there is an increased chance that the top piece will slide over the bottom piece while being sewn. This will ruin the seam. There are three different ways to reduce the chance that this will happen. You could use several pins perpendicular to the edges of the fabric that you will pull out one at a time as you sew. You could hand baste the pieces together before you sew. You could use a walking presser foot.
Use black thread. Sew a seam along the edge of each piece of where the edges matches with the usual 0.25 inch seam allowance. The seam should begin and end beyond the ends of the twill to make sure all of the twill is sewn.
Get the left coat front piece. This will be the front piece that will have the good side, the twill side on the left outside when the coat is worn. Lay it on the table wrong side up. There should be four stitchmarks indicating the corners of the welt. Put the straight edge of a piece of paper so that it is at the two stitchmarks that indicate the bottom of the welt. Chalk the twill to clearly mark the location of the edge of the paper. The chalk mark need not go past the ends of the welt indicated by the stitchmarks. Put white thread in the machine. With the half inch wide presser foot at the edge of the chalk mark sew a seam that will be a quarter inch above the edge of the chalk mark. Do not use securing stitches. The white seam need not go closer than 1/8 inch from the ends indicated by the stitchmarks. Make sure there is no extra white thread at either end of the seam on either side of the twill. Change the machine back to black thread.
It will be too late to zigzag the cut that we will make later along the white thread after we make the cut. So we must zigzag before we make the cut. Using black thread and the normal presser foot make a zigzag stitch only about 3mm wide so that the edge of the zigzag is about 1 mm from the white thread. Do this on both sides of the thread. This will prevent fraying after we cut the slit along the white thread later on. Now there is zigzagging both above and below the white thread before we make the cut. We will make the cut later, not now.
We will now sew the good sides of welt and facing to the good side of the left front piece. These small pieces of fabric will have a tendency to shift while sewing. Pins alone will not be adequate to prevent this. There are two ways to prevent this. You could hand baste them in place with white thread before sewing with the half inch wide foot. Or you could pin the pieces then use the walking foot, which has marks for a quarter inch seam allowance.
Place the left coat front good side up on the table. Be sure it is spread out flat so part of it is not folded under. We will work first with the welt, not the welt facing. Spread the welt and the muslin that is already sewn to the welt apart so they do not lay on top of each other, but they are sewn together at the edge. The welt should be toward the top of the front piece, the muslin toward the bottom of the front piece. The welt has a quarter inch seam allowance on the side away from the muslin. Place the welt good side down on the coat front so that the raw edge of the seam allowance part of the welt is even with the white marking thread line between the zigzag stitches. The length of the seam allowance part of the welt may not exactly match the distance between the ends of the parallelogram. This does not matter, just center the seam allowance relative to the ends of the parallelogram. The muslin should be pulled down out of the way. The edge of the presser foot will be at the top edge of the welt piece near the white thread between the zigzag seams. Put it on the machine and make sure none of the front piece has folded under where you will sew. Sew the seam with black thread, with a quarter inch seam allowance from the edge of the welt. The seam should not be quite as long as the length of the fabric edge. It should not get closer than 1/8 inch to the ends of the fabric.
You may now remove the four point marks on the front piece that mark the corners of the welt. But do not remove the marks on the other front piece yet.
Spread the front piece on the table good side up. Spread the facing away from the muslin it is sewn to. Place the facing good side down with the edge at the the white stitched marking between the two zigzagged seams on the front piece. The facing muslin should be up toward the top of the front piece. You will barely see the white line between the edge of the welt and the edge of the facing. Put it on the machine and make sure none of the front piece has folded under where you will sew. Sew a seam with a quarter inch seam allowance from the edge of the facing that is between the two zigzags. Get no closer than 1/8 inch to the ends of the fabric.
Press the two seams open so you can see the region between the two seams and so you will not cut the seam allowances on the welt and facing. Leave the iron plugged in, you will be using it more soon. Make a cut in the front piece along the white thread like the figure below with the two forked ends on each end 1/4 inch from the ends of the parallelogram. The figure is not drawn to scale. It is OK if the forks cut the zigzag. Make sure the forks to not reach the seam line for the welt or the facing.
Remove what is left of the white thread where you cut. Do NOT remove the white thread along the fold lines of the welt.
Grasp the muslin attached to the facing, NOT the muslin attached to the welt. Pull the facing muslin and the facing through the slit firmly all the way. The facing will tend to bulge at the seam. To make it lay flat, with the iron press the facing seam from the good side of the coat. Keep the iron plugged in.
Lay the front piece flat on the table good side up. Fold the ends, not the top, of the welt in exactly along the white stitch marks on the welt. Fold wrong side to wrong side. The folds will need to be basted 1/8 inch from the fold. Later permanent seams will be sewn on either side of this hand basting. The basting stitches must penetrate the main part of the welt, but they cannot penetrate the coat front piece, because the welt must fold up when the muslin is pulled through the slit. Hand baste the folded ends snugly and firmly in place with white thread. The basting cannot come loose in the handling that will follow.
Pull the welt muslin half way through the slit to the wrong side of the front piece. From the wrong side of the front piece put the ball end of the bodkin through the slit you have cut. Then pull most of the the welt muslin through the slit. Put the ball end of the bodkin against the white stitchmark on the welt that is the top edge of the parallelogram. The ball end of the bodkin will keep the white line on the welt at the fold of the welt. Both pieces of muslin should be pulled through the slit. Adjust everything until the white stitch line on the welt is along three folded edges of the welt.
When the two pieces of muslin are pulled down they should be almost parallel. One may be a half inch to the left or right of the other, that does not matter. But if they are two inches apart at the bottom, you have done something wrong. You should carefully remove all the stitches and start over with sewing the pieces of the welt pocket together.
The top corners of the two muslin pieces should be pulled through the slit. Pull the opposite top corners of each piece of muslin apart to make everything as flat as possible.
You may notice that the top part of the welt that is attached to the muslin is wrinkled a little where it is pulled through the slit. This is because the slit is not as wide as the welt. This is an advantage because it keeps the edge of the top part of the welt slightly away from the left and right folded edges of the welt. That way the raw edge will not be seen under the folded edge when the folded edge is sewn down to the front piece.
First press the bottom seam of the welt where it attaches to the front piece. Then press the folds at each end and along the top of the welt. The welt is so small that pressing it significantly affects its dimensions. This is important because after the ends are sewn no amount of pressing will help. It is now or never. When finished you may unplug the iron.
After you have pressed the welt, the white stitch marks around the edges of the welt must be removed. But not the white stitchmarks that keep the ends of the welt folded in. It might be impossible to remove the white stitchmarks around the edge of the welt after the ends of the welt are sewn.
From the good side of the front piece pin the bottom of both layers of muslin to the front piece so the muslin will stay out of the way. Do not pin the muslin with tension pulling down the welt. Pin the folded top edge of the welt to the front piece, leaving room for the presser foot to make vertical seams at each end.
If you have not used the edge stitch presser foot recently, you should practice sewing a folded edge to scrap twill before you use it on your welt. You want a seam very near the folded edge of the welt.
Put the front piece on the machine. Use black thread and an edge stitch presser foot. Make sure no part of the front piece is folded under. Use black thread. Shift the needle off center 2 or 3 mm as necessary to firmly hold down the folded edge. The welt folded ends will be along the edge of the edge stitch foot. Start each seam just before the welt and end it just after the welt. Be sure to hold down the long loose end of the needle thread before you start sewing so the thread does not tangle at the start of the seam.
You have been using the edge stitch foot, so the machine needle may be off center. Move it back to center and switch to the half inch wide presser foot. With the half inch presser foot sew vertical seams a quarter inch from each end of the welt. Remove the white basting that kept the folded ends in place.
The welt is finished. Now for the pocket. Pull both pieces of muslin down toward the bottom of the front piece. The two pieces of muslin may not line up exactly at the sides or at the bottom, but they are wider than necessary, so it will not matter.
With the coat on the table wrong side up and both pieces of muslin pulled down, put a pin through the two pieces of muslin about an inch above the middle of the bottom of the muslin. The pin will not go through the front piece. This will fix the relation of the two pieces of muslin the way the pocket will be hanging down when the coat is worn.
From the good side of the front piece put pins through the front piece and muslin just below each of the inner seams on the welt so you can see from the wrong side where the inner seams are. Use a straight edge and a black marker to mark vertical lines on the muslin below the inner vertical seams in the ends of the welt. This is where the front and back seams of the pocket will be sewn. Do not be tempted to spread the lines farther apart than this. Remove the pins just below the welt, but not the pin near the bottom of the muslin. Later when the coat front piece is joined to the canvas, additional seams will be sewn just beyond the pocket seams. Draw a horizontal line near the bottom of the muslin between the two vertical lines about a quarter inch above which ever bottom edge of muslin is higher.
Grasp the bottom edges of the muslin. Using the bottom edge of the muslin pick up the coat front off the table. The coat front will hang down, the muslin will be held up. Use black thread. At the machine sew the two pieces of muslin together with the seam running along the black lines you have drawn in the muslin. Remove the pin. You have finished the welt pocket.
It is easy to shrink 10oz canvas. It is hard to shrink #1 canvas. So if you are using #1 canvas it would be best to cut a test strip about 2 inches wide and 20 inches long for a test. Measure it carefully, then run it through the washer and dryer to see if it shrinks. If it does not, then you do not need to shrink your #1 canvas. Some #1 canvas I bought did not shrink.
If you have not shrunk the canvas yet, do it now. If you are using 10oz canvas, you can cut it into large pieces to shrink. The #1 cotton canvas is too stiff for it to be safe for your machines to wash and dry a large sheet of it, it must be cut down. Cut it into three rectangular pieces. Two of the pieces need to be large enough that the front piece pattern can be laid on a rectangle and the edge of the rectangle will be at least 2 inches away from the pattern all the way around. The first two rectangular pieces will be used to make front piece canvases. The third piece about the same size will be large enough to cut out small canvas pieces needed for the pants and the vest. It would be easier to see the zigzag if you used black thread. If you were going to shrink white twill at the same time, you might be worried about it being stained by being washed at the same time as black thread. No more black thread than would be used I doubt it would be a noticeable problem. It would not matter if there were staining on the canvas edge where the canvas is zigzagged. Wash them in the washing machine and dry them in the drying machine at high heat.
If the canvas is very badly wrinkled from shrinking, cut it out except for the dart before ironing the wrinkles out. That will reduce the amount of ironing that will be required.
We will now use the front piece pattern again. But we must modify the pattern before we use it. If you have a simple lapel dart no modification is needed to the pattern there. But for darts that had double lines on each side in the original pattern, more must be done. Cut the pattern for the front piece along the outer V of the darts, which is where the darts in the canvas will be cut. The dart cuts will be larger in the canvas than they were in the twill. This is because a different method will be used to close the dart in the canvas.
With other fabrics we would pin and cut two layers of fabric at the same time. This would not work with thick canvas. Even with thin canvas it is best to use the pattern separately on each piece of canvas, one at a time. The canvas has no good side or wrong side. The canvas will not be seen in the finished garment, so the canvas does not need to be marked temporarily with chalk, it can be marked permanently with a black marker.
Put a yard stick or meter stick on the canvas, lined up with either the warp, or the weft, of the canvas. Put the pattern over the yard stick. Move the pattern so the lapel notch and the mark at the bottom of the fold line are at the edge of the yard stick. Hold the pattern in place and remove the yard stick.
Pin the pattern to a layer of canvas. We have cut inlays off the pattern. But we will add crude approximate inlays when we draw around the outside of the pattern. Ignore the dart when you draw around the pattern. Mark the canvas to show inlays all around of approximately 1 inch, it is not important to be exact. Add an inlay that is approximately one inch all the way around the inside of the arm hole even though the pattern never had one. Even though the canvas will eventually be cut along the diagonal dashed line, that will be much later. We need it cut along inlays around the whole pattern now for alignment purposes when we join the twill to the canvas. The first cutting of the canvas will only be preliminary. After the canvas is joined to the twill the inlays on the canvas will be cut off precisely using stitch marks on the twill as a pattern.
If the canvas is wrinkled, remove the pattern. Wipe the canvas with a very damp terrycloth cotton rag. This will provide enough moisture for effective ironing. Iron the canvas flat and smooth on the sleeveboard.
When the canvas is dried out, pin the pattern back on the canvas.
Here is where we exactly trace small parts of the pattern. Mark the canvas along the edges of the darts in the pattern, where the dart will be cut. Continue the dart in straight lines out to the edge of the one inch inlay. Mark the top rear and bottom rear corners of the pattern itself, not the inlays beyond the pattern. Mark on the canvas where the pattern neck point is and where the lower front corner of the pattern is. The neck point is were shoulder and neck meet. These will be useful in aligning the twill to the canvas when the twill is laid on top of the canvas. If the pattern has a compound dart, mark inside the dart where the dividing line is between the two sections of the dart. You do not need to mark any other reference marks on the canvas.
We will not mark the diagonal dashed line in the pattern because it will be more accurate to do it later after the twill is attached and it will be more accurate to align the twill with the canvas before the canvas is cut along the diagonal line. This is because the rear of the canvas will not be modified when the dart is closed the way the front will be.
Remove the pattern. We will use the pattern again soon to make art paper forms. If you have a compound dart, extend the mark in the dart to outside the dart so it will not be lost when the dart is cut out. measure with a cloth tape measure the distance between the mark you made on the canvas at the neck point of the pattern, and the mark on the canvas at the lower front corner of the pattern. Write this measurement down on the canvas.
Cut the canvas around the outer lines you have drawn. You can be pretty sloppy in your cutting around the outer edge but you must be very precise when cutting the darts. Cut the darts.
We will not need to zigzag the outer edges of the canvas, because the outer edges will be cut smaller after we join the canvas to the twill.
Close all the darts with butt seams. See the sewing section for a detailed description of this complicated procedure. Start each zigzag at the vertex of the dart. When closing the dart starting at the vertex, raise the canvas up behind the presser foot to make it easy to bring the canvas edges of the dart close together. If you have a compound dart, close the inner section with the vertex before closing the outer section.
Before we can attach the twill to the canvas, we must make two forms of stiff paper. Put a large sheet of art paper on the table. Put the front piece pattern on top of the paper. Use drafting tape to keep the pattern in place. Mark the art paper exactly the way you did the canvas, slowly and accurately drawing the darts, rapidly and crudely drawing a line approximately one inch outside the border of the pattern. You will do each sheet separately. Use a straight edge to trace the darts all the way out to the edge of the inlays. Mark the bottom corners, neck point and top rear corner to help align things later on. For one piece of art paper, the pattern should be with the printed pattern lines up. For the other sheet the printed pattern lines should be down against the art paper. This is needed for the marking.
Remove the pattern, but save it because it will be needed later. Cut the art paper, and close the darts in the art paper with duct tape. One sheet will have the darts closed so that it bulges the way the right front side of the coat will, the other will have the darts closed so that it bulges the way the left front side of the coat will. The tape will go on the side of the paper that is to bulge out. To do this, have the dart to be closed on the table, hang the part of the paper below the vertex off the edge of the table so the vertex is off the edge of the table. Then it will be possible to close the dart with the paper flat on the table. If you have a compound dart, close the part with the vertex first. Closing the darts will very accurately give the desired shape. The art paper forms will be used repeatedly, so do not discard them the first time you finish with them.
It is best to join the twill and canvas on the left front piece first because it has the welt pocket, then do the same for the right front piece. Before going any further, from the good side of the left front piece, pin the bottom center of the welt pocket muslin to the twill front piece, so it will not be sewn out of place when the machine basting is sewn.
Now that you have two art paper forms with the darts closed, select the paper that will go with the left front piece. Lay it on the table with the vertex bulging up off the table. Lay a piece of canvas over the paper. Align the marks on the canvas with the marks on the art paper. Measure the distance from the neck point mark on the canvas to the front corner mark on the canvas using a flexible cloth measuring tape. Notice that the distance has not changed a lot from when you measured it flat. This measurement is not really needed, it is only for your understanding of what happens when a dart is closed.
Next we need to lay the matching front piece on the canvas and temporarily machine baste it to the canvas with white thread. The purpose of this temporary basting is to insure that when the edges of twill and canvas are joined, the twill and canvas will not be separated in the middle away from the edges. We are not ready to sew yet, but here is the plan. The seam will be a bent seam in two straight line segments, with a knee bend in the middle. One end will be two inches below the shoulder line of stitch marks on the twill and half way between the arm hole on the twill and the neck stitch marks on the twill. From that end the seam will go in a straight line to a point about a half inch in front of the pocket welt. This will make it about an inch in front of the pocket seam in the muslin. At that point the seam will bend. It will continue in a line straight down in front of the welt pocket to three inches above the bottom stitch marks on the front piece. The seam will be parallel to the edge of the muslin and the vertical seam in the muslin. The seam may run over the muslin of the welt pocket, but only outside of the seam in the muslin that defines the inside of the pocket.
The seam for the right front piece will be similar to the seam for the left front piece, but the welt pocket does not exist on the right front piece.
Put the left twill piece, with the welt pocket, on top of the canvas, wrong side down good side up. Make sure the dart in the twill is over the dart in the canvas. The marks on the twill should be over the marks on the canvas, or very close. If the corner marks are on the wrong side of the canvas, put a pin through each of the marks so you can put the marks on the side of the canvas where they are needed. Remember the corner marks on the twill are at the stitch marks, not the edge of the fabric. Smooth the twill over the canvas as much as possible. Pulling opposite edges of the twill is useful for smoothing.
Pin the twill to the canvas at the neck point and lower front corner so it will not shift during the next pinning operation. The pins will not go through the art paper. The fabric will shift over the art paper during the pinning operation, so try to keep the fabric properly positioned on the art paper.
Pin the twill to the canvas with a line of pins one inch to the rear of where the seam will go. Point each pin toward the pin you have just pinned, not toward of the next pin you have not yet pinned. That way you will be less likely to stick your hand on a pin. You will need something flexible to go over the bulge so stretch a cloth tape measure over the twill where the seam will go so you can use it as a guide. The pins should be parallel to the seam that does not yet exist and about 2.5 inches apart.
Now you are finally ready to sew. Make sure there is white thread in the machine. Leave the twill and canvas pinned together but remove them from the art paper. Put the walking foot on the machine, and select a straight stitch. Make it the longest stitch your machine has, probably 5mm. This is temporary, you will not need a securing stitch at each end of the seam. After you have sewn the seam you must remove all of the pins. The seam will keep the twill anchored to the canvas.
If you have finished with the left front, now go back and do the right front. Remember to start by pinning the neck points and lower front corners. You will no longer have the welt pocket to refer to, but the welt stitchmarks should still be there. Make this seam approximately the same as for the left front.
Put the front piece on the table, twill on top, canvas on bottom. On the front piece pattern there is a diagonal dashed line across the lower rear of the pattern. The ends of that dashed line should be stitchmarked on the twill. At the ends of the stitchmarks put a pin through the twill into the canvas. Raise the canvas and mark the canvas where the pin sticks the canvas. With a yard stick, draw a straight line on the canvas between those two points all the way to both edges of the canvas. Fold the rear corner of the black twill away from the canvas and cut the canvas, not the twill, along that line.
Now that the canvas is anchored to the front piece, we need to trim the edge of the canvas. The trimming of the edge has been delayed until now because it depends critically on the relative positions of the canvas and the twill front piece. The canvas will be trimmed even with the stitch marks on the twill. The zigzagging on the twill is white thread and the stitch marks marking the inlay are white thread. We will trim the canvas to the stitch marks.
Place the front piece flat on the table twill on top, canvas on bottom. Pull the opposite sides of the canvas. Pull the top and bottom of the canvas to make sure the canvas is not badly wrinkled. Do the same for the twill. We will now mark the canvas where we need to cut it back to the mark stitches on the twill. This will be adequate to mark the canvas for trimming.
Put a pin through the inlay stitchmark on the twill so that it sticks in the canvas under the twill. Lift the twill up keeping the pin stuck in the canvas. Make a small mark on the canvas, no longer than a quarter of an inch, where the pin is stuck in the canvas. The mark should be approximately in line with the direction of the twill stitch marking. Do this around the edge of the canvas, bottom, front and top. Make marks about every 1.5 inches on the canvas, more where the stitchmarks curve. Make more marks than you need, so that if there is a mistake in one mark, it will be obvious because it will be out of line with the other marks. Where there are no stitchmarks at the edge of the armhole, mark the canvas along the edge of the armhole.
At the shoulder between the armhole and the neck, draw on the canvas a new line a half inch lower, further inside the front piece, parallel to the shoulder line you have already drawn. You will cut the canvas at the shoulder on this shifted line. This is true for both 10 oz canvas and #1 canvas. It is not terribly important where the top edge of the canvas is, and we need a half inch clearance from where we will later be hand basting for ease stitching along the shoulder seam. Even though we could hand baste through 10oz canvas, we prefer not to if we do not need to.
With 10oz canvas we will trim it to match the armhole stitchmarks in the twill even though hand basting through the canvas will be required. If you have preserved the arm hole inlay in the front piece, do not remove the arm hole stitch marks after trimming the canvas. These stitch marks will help you see what you are doing later when you are preparing to attach the sleeves.
You will have to trim the canvas differently if you are using thick #1 canvas. Hand basting of the armhole will be required later for ease stitching when the sleeve is attached. It is extremely difficult to hand baste through #1 canvas. So, unless you are willing to subject yourself to very difficult basting, mark the canvas a half inch further from the armhole than the armhole stitchmarks in the twill.
Lay the front piece on the table twill side up. Fold back the twill from the edge of the canvas. Cut the canvas along the marks that you have drawn on the canvas, but do not cut the twill.
The neck region is critical. Make sure the neck region is cut back as far as the stitch marks.
The bevel pieces for the bottom of the front piece are optional. If you are going to use them, you have some more marking and cutting to do. Do not cut the pattern. Measure vertically up one inch from the front corner of the canvas and make a horizontal mark. Measure vertically up one inch from the rear corner of the canvas where the diagonal cut is, and make a horizontal mark. With a ruler draw a very straight line through those marks all the way between the front and rear edges of the canvas, just like the dashed line on the pattern. It is essential that this line be straight with no bend or curve for the bevel to have the effect that it is calculated to have. Then draw a vertical line up from the rear corner that rises up above the horizontal line just like on the pattern. Cut the canvas along the horizontal line, but do not cut the vertical line, it will never be cut, it is a mark needed to position the bevel later on. This is the end of bevel instructions for now, more will come later.
change the machine to black thread and the standard presser foot. Put the front piece on the machine, twill on top, canvas on bottom. Now peel back the edge of the twill so you can finally at long last zigzag the edge of the canvas all the way around.
CURL LAPEL. The procedure described in this section is to curl the lapel so the top corner of the lapel will rest on or near the coat when the coat is worn. The last thing described in the sewing section is fake pad stitching. If you have previously made two white machine basting seams on the black twill lapel, now is when they will be used. You will be sewing the twill to the canvas. Each seam will be only four inches long. The fake pad stitching will stiffen the lapel. For that reason we do not want to pad stitch too close to the lapel fold line. We want the fold line flexible so the collar can control the fold. If you have practiced on scrap pieces, now is the time to fake pad stitch the lapel.
Most of the front piece will be left of the presser foot and off the end of the machine. Only the lapel will be under the presser foot or to the right of the presser foot. The first four of the black seams will be with the twill on top, canvas on bottom. There are two white basting seams an inch apart, so there will be four black seams when finished with this part. One black seam every half inch. The first black seam will be a quarter inch closer to the fold than the first white basting seam. The first seam can have the fabric flat and horizontal. For subsequent black seams your finger will be to the left of the presser foot under the canvas. This will raise the fabric next to the presser foot with the previous black seam to a vertical orientation. With your finger next to the presser foot it will be tricky to guide the seam, so go slowly and carefully. Subsequent black seams will be sewn with one side or the other of the presser foot at a white seam. Make sure the last black seam does not cross the inlay stitchmarks.
Remove the white machine basting seams in the lapel, but not the white basting in the middle of the front piece. Then you will turn the front piece over with the canvas on top and make black seams between the existing black seams. The fabric can be horizontal and flat for these seams on the canvas side. When finished you will have seven black seams.
BEVEL The next several paragraphs describe a procedure to attach the bevel at the bottom of the front piece to force curvature. The bevel procedure only works with thick #1 canvas. If you are not going to use a bevel skip the the paragraph with the heading CONTINUE.
The bevel only works with thick canvas. If you have thin canvas do not attempt to use the bevel. If you are using a bevel, now is the time to cut out the bevel pieces and sew them to the bottom edge of the canvas. Cut out the bevel pattern. Trace the pattern on two places on the canvas. Make sure the middle of the pattern is not on the bias. Remove the pattern. Then very carefully and accurately cut off the half inch wide inlay on the pattern. Lay the pattern on the two tracings you have already drawn, then trace the solid line on the pattern where you have just cut the pattern. Then cut out the bevel pieces of canvas and zigzag the edges.
More on the bevel. You drew the inlay on the side of the canvas that is a large arc. The curved edge of the side of the canvas that is a small arc will be subjected to tension in use. To prevent stretching, on the opposite side of the canvas from where you drew the inlay it would be a good idea to sew half inch wide cotton twill tape along the small arc. The edge of the tape will be at the edge of the canvas and the tape will be entirely on the canvas. The seam will be in the center of the tape. After that, sew securing stitches across the width of the tape perpendicular to the edge about every inch along the length of the tape. It will definitely not stretch after all of this.
More on the bevel. Now it is time to sew the bevel to the bottom of the front piece canvas. The half inch wide inlay on the bevel will overlap the bottom of the front piece canvas. The overlay will be under the twill and over the front piece canvas. It will be most convenient to sew if the front piece extends to the left of the presser foot, and the bevel to the right. This means the seam will be front to rear on the left front piece, and rear to front on the right front piece. It will be best to start with the left front piece, the one with the welt pocket. Have twill on bottom, canvas on top. Fold the bottom of the twill up and pin it out of the way. Put the bevel on the machine. Put the bottom edge of the front piece canvas overlapping the bevel so the edge is at the inlay line that you drew on the bevel. You will not be able to pin, you will adjust the pieces as you sew. When you start the seam, the front end of the bevel will be even with the front edge of the front piece canvas. The edge of the presser foot will be at the bottom edge of the front piece canvas. Sew slowly and carefully, adjusting the bevel so the inlay line is always exactly at the bottom edge of the front piece canvas. It will not be possible to sew continuously. Periodically stop to adjust front piece and bevel. When finished, measure the distance from the front of the bevel to the rear of the bevel. When you sew the bevel on the right front piece you will start that far back from the front edge and sew forward. Mark the front piece canvas where you will start. It would be best to sew two more seams very close to the ones you just sewed on each of the front pieces to insure against seam failure of one of the seams. This time you will not have to adjust the fabric. This is the last of the bevel paragraphs.
CONTINUE. Historically, old fashioned tailcoats would have fluffy material sewn to the lapel of the canvas at this point. Its purpose was probably to smooth over lap seams in the canvas. We will use smoother butt seams in the canvas, not lap seams. But I doubt fluffy material would stay flat with washing. We will skip that step and rely on the thickness of the satin and the smoothness of the butt seam to prevent ripples in the satin.
Some of the stitchmarks on the front edge of the front piece were made with the standard presser foot. Some were made with the tailor tack foot. Remove the ones made with the tailor tack foot from the top of the canvas at the front edge to the bottom front corner, but no where else. The only stitchmarks made with the standard foot that should be removed now are at the lapel peak and notch. Do not remove stitchmarks made with the standard foor to show the neck point. Do not remove stitchmarks showing the ends of the lapel fold. Remove only stitchmarks along the front edge, nowhere else.
In the next step we will fasten the front edge of the canvas to the twill starting at the top of the neck curve where it meets the shoulder edge of the canvas.
Now with the canvas on top we will prepare to sew the front edge of the canvas to the twill along the neck curve, around the peak and down to the bottom of the front edge of the canvas. This is a long seam on the edge of the canvas over twill and the canvas will have a tendency to shift over the twill. Sewing twill edge to twill does not present much risk of fabric shifting while you sew. But sewing canvas edge to twill presents a certainty of fabric shifting unless precautions are taken. If the fabric shifts significantly while you sew permanent wrinkles near the front edge will result. Pinning is not adequate to prevent shifting unless you have a walking presser foot. If you use a walking foot, shifting will not be a problem. If you do not have a walking presser foot the fabric is almost certain to shift unless you hand baste the edge with white cotton thread penetrating both layers of fabric every quarter inch before machine sewing. If you do not have a walking foot make the basting stitches an eighth of an inch from the edge of the canvas. The seam you sew with the machine will be a quarter inch from the edge of the canvas or slightly greater if your walking foot has trouble with a quarter inch seam allowance. Do not sew until you read the next paragraph.
Put the front piece on the machine with the canvas on top. On one front piece it will be most convenient to start at the top and sew to the bottom. On the other piece it will be most convenient to start at the bottom and sew to the top. If you have a bevel, the seam will include the bevel. Using a straight seam, sew the front edge of the canvas to the twill with a seam a quarter inch inside the edge of the canvas. Keep the needle down when you raise the presser foot to turn the sharp corners at the lapel notch and the lapel peak. Do NOT sew a seam along the bottom edge of the canvas, along the shoulder edge, or along the diagonal cut in the canvas.
Next, we sew the edge of the canvas to the twill along the arm hole. If you are using 10oz canvas, the edge of the canvas is at the edge of the arm hole. If you are using #1 canvas the edge of the canvas is a half inch from the arm hole stitch marks. These stitch marks must be preserved until the sleeves are sewn on very much later. Sew the edge of the canvas to the twill where the edge of the canvas is near the arm hole. Use a quarter inch seam allowance from the edge of the canvas, or slightly larger allowance if your walking foot has trouble with a quarter inch allowance. The seam will stop at the point where the edge of the canvas leaves the arm hole. Again, hand basting is in order unless you have a walking foot.
We will not yet remove the white basting in the middle of the front piece. It is no longer needed to attach the twill to the canvas, but it will be needed as a marker to cut the satin.
The very most expensive tailoring traditionally sewed the facing on by hand. But we will sew it on by machine. The advantage of doing it by hand is that the lapel peak would come to a sharper point, and the lapel notch would be less likely to have a small wrinkle. When sewing by hand the twill would be hemmed over the edge of the canvas first. Then the edge of the lapel would be folded under and the very folded edge would be sewn to the hemmed edge of the twill. But sewing by hand would not be practical if the canvas went all the way to the edge. It is too hard to sew through thick canvas. So when the twill was hemmed over the edge of the canvas it would be done so in a way that the folded edge of the twill was slightly beyond the edge of the canvas. That way the edge of the satin could be sewn to the edge of the twill without going through the canvas. But we are lazy and do it a different way so we can sew the satin quickly by machine.
The satin facing will now be installed. Some may worry that the twill and canvas have a lapel dart, but the satin facing covers this dart with no dart in the satin. If the satin extended far beyond the vertex of the dart in all directions the way the canvas and twill do, it would require a dart. But it will extend at most only a short distance behind the vertex, and can get by without a dart. If there is a wrinkle, we could force the wrinkle to be behind the dart vertex where it will not be seen and can be folded and sewn flat. In practice this problem will not arise and we will not have to worry about it.
The facing material and the lining material look so similar they might get confused. The lining will look the same on both sides. The facing will be smooth and shiny on one side and rough and perhaps dull on the other side. The smooth side is the good side. The facing should be much thicker and heavier than the lining.
The edge of the canvas has been sewn to the twill with a seam a quarter inch from the edge of the canvas. If this seam has not been sewn, you have not finished the section where the twill was attached to the canvas. We are not yet ready for the twill inlay to be folded over the edge of the canvas.
Place a folded piece of polyester satin on the table. Make sure the wrong side, the rough side of the satin is on the outside. Your original paper pattern has an open dart. We need a closed dart, so we will use a front piece that we have been working on for a pattern. Place a front piece on the satin twill side up so you can see the white machine basting and the white stitchmarks showing the ends of the lapel fold. The lapel fold should be indicated by two short white stitchmarks on the twill. The lapel fold line should be parallel with the warp of the satin.
Chalk mark the satin around the twill along the front edge inlay. This will be well beyond the edge of the canvas. Do not touch the twill with the chalk, keep the chalk slightly outside of the edge of the twill. Press the satin against the table near the chalk to make sure it does not slip. Continue the mark along the top and bottom edges only as far back as to be in line with the white machine basted seam holding the twill and canvas together. When finished with this, press your finger down on the front piece at the bend of the white machine basted seam. Then lift up the rear of the front piece so you can make a chalk mark on the satin that is just behind the bend in the white seam. Remove the front piece leaving the satin on the table. With a yard stick draw a chalk line on the satin from the rear end of the top chalk mark to the bend mark, then from the bend mark to the rear end of the bottom mark.
Pin the two layers of satin together. Cut out the two layers of satin along the chalk mark. Remove the pins. Separate the two layers.
Use the overlock presser foot to zigzag the edge of each piece of satin with black thread. Have the slick shiny side up when you do this. The rough dull side will grip the feed dogs better, and the smooth side will slide more easily under the presser foot.
Pick up the front piece. Put a pin through the black twill at the edge of the canvas at both ends of the lapel fold line. These ends should still be marked with straight white stitch marks. At a point a half inch higher than the top of the fold line make a black mark on the canvas perpendicular to the edge of the canvas. This will be the upper limit of where the satin and twill will be sewn together. At a point two inches lower than the bottom of the lapel fold line, make a similar mark on the canvas to mark the lower limit of where the twill and satin will be sewn together. Make another mark perpendicular to the edge of the canvas at the lapel notch in the canvas. This is necessary to precisely turn the corner with the needle down when sewing the satin to the twill. Do this for both front pieces before proceeding further.
Lay the satin flat on the table with the shiny side up. Make sure the smooth slick shiny side is up. Lay the matching front piece over it twill side down, canvas side up, so that the front edge of the satin extends slightly beyond the front edge of the twill.
There is a seam holding the front edge of the canvas to the twill. If we pin the twill to the satin beyond the edge of the canvas we can attach all three layers together without the difficulty of pinning through the canvas. We must pin at the very edge of the twill, far from the edge of the canvas. If we pinned too close to the canvas, ripples caused by the pins would be permanently sewn into the satin. Press each pin down vertically through both layers of fabric to the table before lifting the fabric to push the pin back through the fabric. Pin the two ends first, then the middle, then in between to make sure things do not shift while you are working. When you are finished, pin heads should be spaced every two inches. That may not be possible at the notch.
If you will not be using a walking foot, hand basting a quarter inch from the edge of the canvas would insure against wrinkles due to fabric slippage. Hand basting will not ripple the fabric as much as pins. As a precaution to prevent wrinkles, you might want to use white thread to sew a temporary hand basting of twill and satin a quarter inch out from the edge of the canvas.
We are preparing to sew twill and satin together beyond the edge of the canvas. But that seam will not go higher than a half inch above where the top of the fold line meets the neck line. That is because we do not want to fold the satin over the edge of the neck line above that point. We will not cut the satin off above that point, we will just fold it out of the way. Much later on we will machine stitch the twill of the collar to the twill of the neck line. That would be difficult to do precisely if billowing satin were covering the twill of the neck line. The machine stitching between collar and neck will be above the fold line. Where the satin is folded over the neck line the collar will be sewn on by hand. Fortunately that will be a short distance.
In a similar way, the seam will not go lower than two inches below the bottom of the lapel fold. The satin will be folded back from the edge below that. That is because when we hem the bottom front corner of the front piece we will use a double folded corner. That will be very thick with only twill to fold. With both twill and satin to fold it might be too thick for your sewing machine to handle, because the seam will go through the canvas also.
Now you are ready to plan how to sew the front edge with black thread with the canvas on top, satin on bottom. When the seam is sewn, it will be spaced out from the edge of the canvas about 3mm. The seam will only sew the twill to the satin. It is especially important that the seam not get too close to the canvas above the notch. That will make it possible to hand sew the collar without the collar seam showing in the satin. When sewing one front piece it will be most convenient to start at the top and sew to the bottom. When sewing the other front piece it will be most convenient to start at the bottom and sew to the top. You could use a walking foot or a standard foot and visually guide the seam to keep proper spacing from the canvas edge. Or you could use an edge foot with the needle offset the proper amount. Read the next paragraph before sewing.
The seam will run between the marks you have made on the canvas to mark the top and bottom of the seam. Be very slow and careful at the lapel notch and the lapel peak. Use the needle down and presser foot up to turn the corners at the notch and peak of the lapel. Remember, do not sew past the black marks on the canvas. Now sew the seam.
Before we can turn the front and facing right side out, we must make some cuts. The cuts will go through both satin and twill. The figure below shows the lapel seam line as a dark solid line. The outer fine line is the outer edge of the front piece inlay and the satin facing right after the seam was sewn. The dashed lines must be cut, but not yet.
This is IMPORTANT. You must have the satin, not the canvas, on top when you make the cuts so you can see the seam in the satin. The cut at the peak should not get closer than a 3/8 inch to the seam at the peak. The cut at the notch should not go closer than 3/16 inch to the seam. If the cut is too close to the seam, a hole will develop later in the satin and the twill will show a fuzzy plume through the hole in the satin. It may not be necessary to zigzag these cut edges since they will be completely enclosed. If you wish to, they can be zigzagged together with black thread with the standard presser foot.
After the dashed lines are cut, the facing is turned to the other side of the coat front. The twill inlay and facing are turned inside of the seam line as shown by the inner fine lines in the figure.
The hard part is turning out the peak of the lapel. Be slow and careful. This will take time. Look inside the folded material to make sure where the peak is. Push out the peak as well as you can with your finger. Then try the ball end of the bodkin.
You will not get a very sharp peak. It might not be possible to prevent a small wrinkle at the notch.
Now we need to anchor the rear of the satin. Have the front piece on the table twill side up. Fold the lapel so the ends of the fold are at the stitchmarks that show the desired ends of the fold. Make sure the satin is loose and not pulling at the front edge where the seam is. If the satin pulls at the front edge it will make the edge look sloppy. Use two clothespins, one near each end of the fold, to keep the lapel folded. One clothespin in the middle would not work because the fabric would not be relaxed in the middle. Turn the front piece over with the canvas side up. The rear edge of the satin is cut with a bend in the edge. With a black marker trace that bend on the canvas. That is where you want the rear edge of the satin when you sew the rear edge of the satin to the front piece. With white thread hand baste a short stitchmark on the satin perpendicular to the rear edge of the satin at the bend. Make a short black mark on the canvas in line with this white mark. These marks will help you position the edge of the satin before sewing.
Remove the clothespins and unfold the lapel. Put everything on the table canvas side up. Adjust the satin so bend in the rear edge of the satin is at the black mark you traced on the canvas. Make sure the white mark on the satin lines up with the short mark on the canvas. Pin the satin to the front piece near the white mark. Put the standard presser foot on the machine. Put the front piece on the machine with the canvas side up. Sew only at the bend in the edge of the satin with a quarter inch seam allowance. Only use a short securing stitch to sew the rear edge of the satin to the front piece. We will not sew a long seam on the rear edge of the satin. This seam will not be seen when the coat is worn because the folded lapel will cover it.
The seam at the front of the satin ends a half inch above the top of the lapel fold line. The inlay of the twill is only folded over up to that point. We need to make preparations to fold and sew the twill inlay above that point. This portion of the gorge is curved, so it cannot be folded over without some cuts in the twill. Hold the satin out of the way. Each cut in the twill will be perpendicular to the edge of the canvas and will stop a 1/8 inch before the cut reaches the edge of the canvas. Make at least 2 or 3 cuts. Since you still have black thread in the machine, zigzag the edges of the cuts with black thread.
With the cuts you have divided the curved part of the twill into parts. These small flaps should be folded over the edge of the canvas so that the edge of the canvas remains flat and the fold is at the edge of the canvas. Hold the satin out of the way. Sew each part with a separate seam a quarter inch from the folded edge. Fold by hand and sew without pins. The top part includes some canvas but extends all the way to the top of the twill. Fold the top part and sew all the way to the top of the twill.
In a similar fashion below the lower end of where the satin is sewn to the twill, the twill has not yed been hemmed. The twill should be folded over the vertical edge of the canvas, pinned in place and sewn. The seam will continue to the bottom front corner even if there is a bevel.
At the top and bottom ends of the satin, the satin is not sewn to the twill. These loose parts of the satin should be carefully folded in a diagonal fold to get the loose part back from the front edge of the front piece. At the top the purpose is to get the satin away from the hemmed edge of the canvas where the collar will be attached by machine. At the bottom the purpose is to get the satin away from the lower front corner of the front piece. This is because the lower front corner will be very thick to sew with a double fold later when the bottom of the front piece is hemmed. With black thread anchor these folded back parts of the satin to the front piece with short securing stitches. Do not pull them tight. They must be very loose so the satin does not pull on the front edge of the front piece.
This will not completely anchor the satin, but it will be enough.
Now when the lapel is folded along the fold line the rear of the satin will be adequately fastened down and the satin will not have any serious wrinkles.
Now you are ready to remove the white machine basting stitch that joins the twill and canvas in the middle of the front piece. But do not remove the stitchmarking at the top, bottom and rear of the front piece. The bottom stitchmarking will be needed for a long time.
Even though only the left front piece has the welt, there are point stitchmarks on the right front piece showing the welt location. If you have finished the facing on the right front piece these can be removed now. Do not remove any other stitchmarking.
Tailsuits traditionally have a buttonhole in the lapel of the left front piece to wear a small white flower, typically a carnation, on the left lapel for festive occasions. That is the front piece with the welt pocket. If you want a hole in the lapel to insert the stem of an artificial white flower, now is the easiest time to make the hole. Even if you doubt you would ever want it, the hole will not be a very noticeable blemish.
Some sewing machines are capable of making a circular hole. This might seem appropriate since the flower stem is circular. But when the flower is not worn, a gaping open hole would be unsightly. An ordinary button hole is closed, not open, when nothing is in it. A button hole is neater and more appropriate.
You will probably use a block of wood and a chisel 0.5 inches wide that is sold for opening buttonholes after they are sewn. You will want the hole to be a tiny bit longer than 0.5 inches so the chisel does not cut the threads at the end of the hole. For instance if you make the buttonhole 5/8 inch, or 1.6cm, the hole will be slightly wider than the chisel, so the chisel will not damage the seams at the end of the buttonhole.
The white stitchmarks that show the ends of the lapel fold line should still be in the twill. But the twill will not be on top when you sew the buttonhole. So be careful when you turn the front piece over and put it on the sewing machine so it will be oriented so the buttonhole will be perpendicular to the fold line.
You will sew a horizontal buttonhole on the face of the lapel about 1.5 inches below the notch. By horizontal we mean perpendicular to the lapel fold line. The end of the buttonhole closest to the edge of the lapel will be 0.75 inches from the edge of the lapel. The buttonhole will be 1.6 cm long. There is never a hole in the right lapel. Remember, the left front piece is the one with the welt pocket.
Check to see that your bobbin has enough thread to finish the buttonhole before you start the buttonhole. Now you are ready to make a buttonhole in your lapel.
Have the satin on top, canvas under the satin, twill under the canvas. Make sure the hole will be perpendicular to the lapel fold line, not to the edge of the lapel. Leave the satin where it wants to be before you start sewing. If you pull or tug it before you sew, you are likely to have a permanent wrinkle in the satin after you sew.
Buttons are needed on both front pieces. The buttons must be attached to the right side front piece before the inside pocket, because they would interfere with the pocket if they were attached after the pocket. So this is where they will be added to the coat making process. The buttons will not interfere with the welt pocket on the left front piece because the button locations were specified with that in mind.
Shiny black plastic buttons about 0.75 inches or 19 mm in diameter need to be added. There are no corresponding button holes for the three front buttons on each side, because the buttons are purely for decoration.
Three buttons go on the front pieces on each side. In case there are extra stitch marks on the front of the coat, make sure you know which are for the three buttons. You can put the buttons on by machine.
Make sure the satin is not pulling on the front edge of the front piece before you sew on the buttons. From the good side of the twill put pins through twill, canvas and satin to prevent the satin from being pulled away from the front edge of the front piece while you are positioning the front piece to sew a button. Make sure you pin both layers of folded satin.
Lower the feed dogs before using the buttonhole presser foot to make sure nothing moves while you are sewing on the button. Shift the fabric so the stitch mark is under the presser foot before you put the button under the presser foot. You do not need to use a match stick to sew on these buttons, because nothing will ever be slipped under the button. You want these buttons sewn close against the fabric.
Note that you cannot put an inside pocket in the left front piece, it would require sewing through the welt pocket making the welt pocket unusable. The inside pocket had to wait until after the buttons or the buttons would have interfered with the pocket.
Traditional tail coats have a pocket on the inside of the right front piece. It will have a vertical opening like the opening of the side pocket of the pants. The opening will be behind the fold line out of sight.
Cut a single piece of muslin 12 by 13 inches. Mark the edges "12" and "13" so you can remember which is which. Zigzag the edges all around with the overlock presser foot and black thread.
Turn two 12 inch sides up and over on the same side of the muslin and with the standard presser foot sew 0.5 inch wide hems on each side with quarter inch seam allowance. Turn the piece over so the hems are against the table. Then fold the piece so the two hemmed sides overlap. The two hems will now be away from each other, folded in opposite directions.
The muslin piece should be in front of you with the hemmed edges on the left side, the folded edge on the right side. Pull the top hemmed edge back a half inch from the hemmed edge underneath. This is so the bottom hemmed edge can later be sewn to the front piece without sewing the pocket closed. The part nearest to you will be the bottom of the pocket. The top part of the hemmed edges will be the pocket opening. Make a small mark on the hem 5 inches up from the bottom. Because of the private tack that will be added after, this next seam will need to be sewn with a quarter inch seam allowance. Sew the lower 5 inches of the top hemmed edge to the layer beneath it with a seam a quarter inch from the hemmed edge of the top piece. We will not yet sew the bottom of the pocket closed.
Now we have a folded rectangle 12 inches high. The top and bottom ends of the rectangle are still open.
In use the seam at the bottom of the pocket opening would be subjected to stress when you put your hand in the pocket. It needs to be reinforced. We will now prepare to sew a special reinforcement seam called a private tack using a satin stitch, a narrow zigzag 1.5mm wide with very short stitch length of 0.5mm. This private tack will go from the top of the seam that joins the two hems to the folded edge of the top hem. This seam will only be a quarter inch long.
Place the right front piece on the table canvas side up. The right front piece is the piece that does NOT have the welt pocket. To position the pocket on the right front piece you need to know the orientation of the lapel fold line. On the canvas make small black marks 7 inches behind the top and bottom of the fold line. Then with a yard stick draw a line through those marks all the way to the bottom of the canvas. The pocket will need to be parallel with this line.
Place the pocket on the right front piece parallel to the lapel fold line. The folded edge of the pocket will be near the rear of the front piece. The hemmed edges will be near the front of the front piece. The bottom rear corner of the pocket should be at least a half inch above the bottom edge of the canvas. The bottom front corner of the pocket should be at least one inch behind the front edge of the front piece. The bottom of the pocket will be sewn to the front piece, so it is important that this seam not go over either button. By pressing the front piece down against the table you can feel where the buttons are. Depending on the measurements that the pattern was drawn to, the top rear corner of the pocket may reach the arm hole, this does not matter. When you are satisfied pin the pocket to the canvas in 2 places, leaving room for seams along the bottom of the pocket, and the front edge of the pocket. Do not sew the seam yet.
Sew the front edge of the bottom layer of the pocket to the front piece with the seam 3 or 4 mm behind the front edge of the pocket. Sew slow and watch the edge of the pocket. If the muslin edge pulls away from the presser foot blade, stop and raise the presser foot to get the muslin edge back where it belongs.
Remove the pins. Sew the bottom of the pocket to the front piece before you sew the top.
Put a wallet in the pocket all the way to the bottom before you sew the top of the pocket. That will pull down the top edge of the upper layer a bit. The top edges of the two layers will no longer match. If you do not do this it will be unnecessarily difficult to put thick things in the opening of the pocket. Adjust the top layer of the pocket so the front edges of the two layers have the same relation at the top that they have at the bottom. Sew the top edge of the top layer of the pocket to the bottom layer of the pocket and to the front piece. The seam should stop when it gets a half inch from the edge of the canvas at the arm hole even if the top rear corner of the muslin goes past the edge of the canvas. Do not sew the length of the rear folded edge to the canvas. It is not necessary and to do so might limit the thickness of things you could put in the pocket. Now you are finished with the pocket.
Complete both front pieces up to this point before going on to this step.
A long time ago we joined the back piece to the side piece. Now join each front piece to its corresponding side piece. We must do that before we hem the bottom edge of the front piece so the hem will be continuous where the back and side pieces join.
Lay a front piece on the table with the good side, the button side, up. Lay the corresponding back-side pieces on top with the wrong side up. The lining in the bottom of the back piece should be up.
Since the front piece has the vertical inlay with the rear line of stitch marks, lay the side piece and back piece over the front piece, good side to good side. The fabric edge of the side piece should be at the vertical line of stitch marks on the front piece. Referring back to the pictures of the coat pieces at the beginning of this article, notice that on the front edge of the side piece there is a small corner a few inches below the top of the side piece. There is also a small corner at the top end of the rear inlay stitchmarking on the front piece. These two small corners should match. Adjust the fabric so the edge of the side piece matches the stitch marks on the front piece all the way before you start pinning. Pin the side piece to the side piece with pins parallel to the edge of the side piece and 3/4 inch from the edge. Read the next two paragraphs before sewing.
The top end of the seam will be slightly above the top edge of the small corner in the side piece. The bottom end of the seam should stop at the waist line stitch marks. The seam should not go past the stitch marks because the angle of the hem on front and side pieces might be different enough to cause wrinkles when hemmed if the vertical seam went all the way to the bottom. For one side of the coat it will be convenient to start the seam at the top, for the other side it will be convenient to start the seam at the bottom.
Spend some time arranging the pieces so the fabric lays flat on the machine before you are ready to start sewing. Now that you are sewing the coat together, the fabric will be heavy and tend to drag and pull as you sew, especially if pins, pockets or buttons catch on something. So lift the coat up to guide the seam without any dragging and pulling. Sew the seam with black thread and the standard presser foot. Remove the pins. Press the seam open. Pressing is necessary for a neat hem, which will be the next step.
Remove the stitchmarks at the rear of the front piece where it is sewn to the side piece. Do not remove stitchmarks at the arm hole or at the waist.
The back piece is at the rear of the side piece. The front corner of the back piece just below the waist line will not be sewn to the coat. It will be left loose and unattached for now. If it were sewn to the coat it would be impossible to properly sew it to the tail piece later on.
Now we are ready to fold up the bottom edge of the coat. The stitch marks at the bottom of the side piece are not important and can be removed now. But do not remove the bottom hem stitchmarks on the front piece.
Lay the back, side and front pieces on the table wrong side up. Fold the bottom rear of the side piece up so the fold is at the waist cut in the back piece and pin it in place. Fold the bottom front of the side piece up so the fold is even with the waist stitchmarks in the front piece. Fold the bottom rear of the front piece up so the hem stitchmarks are on the fold, and pin it in place. If you did not use the bevel, the bottom of the front piece canvas will nearly match the hem stitchmarks. But if you did use the bevel, the bottom of the bevel canvas will extend well below the hem stitchmarks. As you move forward on the bottom of the front piece, fold to the stitchmarks where you can, or to the canvas when you get to the canvas. If you have a bevel, there will be an extended portion where the fold is below the stitchmarks but you have not yet reached the bevel canvas. But leave the hem line stitchmarks in the front piece because they will be essential much later when fitting the tail to the coat.
The first thing to sew will be the lower front corner of the front piece, before you sew the rest of the seam. The twill should already be hemmed at the front edge of the front piece down to the bottom of the twill at the lower front corner. Fold the bottom of the twill up over the bottom edge of the canvas. Now you can see the folded edge of the inlay at the front edge of the front piece. This looks bad. Now take the corner of the inlay that is already folded up. Fold the corner diagonally down and to the rear, but not at an angle that the raw edge is below the folded edge at the bottom. Now the folded up edge of the inlay is no longer at the front corner of the coat. Sew it folded down with a very short securing seam before you sew the rest of the folded edge. This will be the thickest thing you will have to sew in the entire coat.
It will be best to hem the front piece and side piece with separate seams. Each seam will be a quarter inch from the bottom folded edge. The seam on the side piece will not get all the way to the rear of the side piece; it must not get onto any of the back piece. Make sure that the long part of the back piece below the waist is not folded under the parts above the waist before you start sewing. For one half of the coat it will be easiest to sew from front to rear, for the other half from rear to front.
Complete this step for both halves of the coat before going on to the next step.
The tail angle should result in the tail pleats being the same distance apart at the bottom as they are at the top when the coat is worn. I have relied on a formula for tail angle based on the seat and chest measures. This formula works for me and I hope it works for everybody. But I have never made coats for anyone else and cannot guarantee it will work for you.
All of the permanent sewing on the tails will be with black thread, because white thread would show. This includes zigzagging edges. The temporary stitchmarking will be done in white thread.
The length of the tails is fixed by the length of the rear edge of the tails. The length of the front edge of the tails determines the tail angle needed to make the two tails hang parallel.
To simplify terminology, when we say front edge of the tail, we include where the front edge curves around to a horizontal bottom edge.
The tail must be sewn to the bottom of the coat and to the front of the back below the waist. It is essential that the coat seam be sewn before the back seam. This is because the coat seam determines the angle and length of the tail. If the back seam were sewn first, it would not be clear exactly how high or low on the back the tail should be attached, and if not exactly correct would result in incorrect tail hang or unwanted wrinkles after the coat seam was sewn.
The procedure for making, fitting and attaching the tails is complicated, involving many steps.
The front dashed line of the tail pattern is a hem line. The rear dashed line is not a hem line, it is a pleat line, the only pleat line in the whole garment. The hem inlay is one inch, the pleat inlay is 1.5 inches. The rear edge of the tail should be in the direction of the warp of the fabric. Do not use the lining on twill yet, first we will use it on lining.
Put two layers of lining on the table and pin the pattern complete with inlays over the lining. Later when the lining covers the tail we want the lining to be loose, not tight, so that it will not affect how the tails hang. The top edge of the lining will not be sewn to the top edge of the tail, it will be hemmed and sewn to the bottom of the coat above where the tail will later join the coat. The top edge of the lining will not trace the top edge of the tail. it will be 2.5 inches above the top edge of the tail. There will be no dart in the lining. Do not cut off the pattern inlay and pleat when using the pattern on the lining. The only place you need to chalk the lining is 2.5 inches above the top edge of the tail. Elsewhere cut the lining around the inlay and pleat of the pattern without getting close enough to the pattern to risk cutting the pattern. Cut the lining, zigzag each piece with the overlock presser foot and black thread. Put the lining pieces aside for now.
Put the tail pattern on two layers of black twill. Chalk and cut in the usual way.
Put white thread in the machine and the tailor tack presser foot. With white thread stitch mark the chalk marks for inlay and pleat.
Cut the stitchmarking and separate the pieces.
With black thread and the standard presser foot zigzag the entire edge of the tail. The zigzag should go down into the dart.
Put the tail on the table. Fold the tail along the dart so the twill is good side to good side. Make sure the top edges of the tail a on each side of the dart match after you fold the dart. That is more important than exactly matching the edges of the dart. Carefully adjust the fold far from the dart before you pin. Pin the fold. Sew the dart with a straight seam a quarter inch from the cut edge of the dart. The seam should not go all the way to the folded edge. The seam should stop where the cut edge of the dart stops. The dart angle is very large, and if we sewed all the way to the fold the dart would bulge out too much. A small wrinkle is less unsightly than a large bulge. Press the dart seam open. Now you will see the top of the tail has changed its shape.
Lay the tail on the table, wrong side up. The zigzagged edges of the dart should be up. Next fold the front edge of the tail all of the way around across the bottom of the tail. The hem stitch marks should be at the fold. The pins will go into the zigzagged edge and be almost parallel to the edge. The head of each pin will not quite be over the folded edge. The edge of the presser foot will be at the fold where the stitch marks are. Since the folded edge is curved the zigzagged edge will not lay flat between pins. Where there is lots of curvature there will be very bad wrinkles that will later be covered by the lining. The wrinkles do not matter since they will be on the wrong side of the tail. Do not worry about wrinkles, worry about keeping the white stitchmarks at the folded edge. Do NOT do anything to the pleat yet. The hem fold will go past the pleat line to the rear bottom corner of the tail. Sew the hem closed with a quarter inch seam allowance from the folded edge. Remove the hem line stitch marks on the tail, but leave the pleat line stitch marks in place.
When you have finished sewing the tail hem, the top end of the hem will poke up above the top of the tail. Cut it off even with the tail and zigzag the two layers together.
Now we have finished the twill part of the tails and are ready to attach each tail to the corresponding half of the coat. But this is complicated by the fact that we want each tail to have the traditional pocket in the tail and that the wrong side of each tail is to be covered by black lining material. These complications mean that we have to devise a workable order of the steps to completion. The good side of the tail will be sewn to the bottom edge of the coat body and the good side of the front edge of the back piece. The pocket and lining will be sewn to the wrong sides of those things.
The steps we will use are: 1. Make the muslin pocket with rear edges hemmed. 2. Hem the top and rear edges of the lining with half inch hems. 3. Pin the pocket open one way and sew the hemmed rear edge to the hemmed rear edge of the lining. 4. Sew the top edge of the twill tail to the bottom edge of the coat body. 5. Sew the good side of the rear edge of the twill tail to the good side of the front edge of the back piece. 6. Pin the pocket open a different way and sew the hemmed edge of the pocket opening to the front edge of the back piece. Below the pocket opening sew the hemmed edges of lining and pocket to the front edge of the back piece. 7. Sew the front edge of the lining folded under to the hem of the twill tail. 8. Sew the top of the pocket and lining to the bottom of the coat body.
1. There will be a pocket in each tail. The use of the pattern will be different than normal. It will not be used simply on two layers, but on a single piece of muslin that is folded into two layers, with the fold being used in the process. The pocket will be hidden between the twill and the lining. These are called pleat pockets. But that is misleading, the pocket opening will be under the pleat but not in the pleat. The opening will be on the wrong side of the tail where the lining will be. The pleat is on the good side. The original use for these pockets was to hold the man and the lady's white cotton gloves when they were not being worn. The lady's ballgown did not have pockets. The man will carry any little extras that might be needed at the ball. If you are making your own patterns you will need to know the dimensions of the pleat pocket pattern. The long vertical rear edge is 17 inches. The tick mark on the rear edge is 6.25 inches up from the bottom. The width of the top of the pattern is 7 inches. When reaching down into the pocket while wearing the coat the opening must be long to easily get the hand into the pocket. Cut out the pattern for the pleat pocket. The pocket has long front and rear sides and short top and bottom sides. The bottom side is slanted, the top has a dart. The rear side, where the pocket opening will be is longer than the front side. Hang the muslin over a yard stick to get it folded and smooth. Lay the folded muslin on the table. Pin the pattern to a folded piece of muslin. The front side of the pattern should be at the fold. The front side has a curved bottom corner. That way the front side of the pocket will not have to be sewn, it will be a fold. Also pin where there is no pattern. That way when you remove the pattern there will be no chance that the fold line shifts before you re-pin and cut. Use a black felt tip marker to trace the pattern on the muslin. There is a short mark on the rear side of the pattern which marks the bottom of the pocket opening. Mark the muslin with a similar mark. Remove the pattern, re-pin and extend the pocket opening mark 1.5 inches onto the pocket. Wide enough that it will still be visible after the edges are hemmed. Cut out the two layers of muslin. This is for only one pocket. Remove all of the pins, including the ones that were not where the pattern was. You will do the same for the other pocket. Unfold the pocket to one layer. Use the overlock presser foot to zigzag the muslin with black thread. Hem the two long rear edges with half inch hems that fold in such a way that the hems will not be in the pocket opening when you put your hand in the pocket. Sew the two darts closed in a way that the open edges of the darts will not be inside the pocket. You will not need pins up to this point. Press the dart seams open. Do NOT press the hem seams open. Put the pocket on the table. One side of the pocket is already closed because it is a fold. Fold the pocket so darts and hems are outside the pocket. Adjust things so the two hemmed edges match, and the bottom edges match all the way back to the curve. Pin in place. Now to close the bottom of the pocket with a quarter inch seam allowance. Start the seam at the mark on the hemmed edges that is 6.25 inches above the bottom. Sew with a quarter inch seam allowance down to the corner. Turn the corner with the needle down. Continue the seam along the bottom and around the curve. End the seem at the folded edge. Sew a short private tack only a quarter of an inch long from the start of the seam to the hemmed edges of the pocket. Do NOT sew the top of the pocket closed because it must be possible to open it wide for future procedures. Now the pocket is finished. One of these pockets will be a left pocket, the other a right pocket, but they will be made the same. Which one is left or right will be determined later.
2. Lay the two tail linings on the table with the back sides of the two linings close together and the top ends of the two linings in the same orientation. One will be used for the right tail, the other for the left tail. You will do the same thing to each tail. Fold one end of the rear edge of the lining up and over to make a hem a half inch wide. Take the lining to the machine and sew this hem the full length of the back edge of the tail. Fold the top edge up and over the same way and sew a half inch wide hem in the top of the lining. Do not hem the front edge. Do this for both linings.
3. In the finished tail the pocket will be between the wrong side of the tail and the lining. The opening of the pocket will be at the rear of the lining and the front edge of the back piece. The pocket opening has two layers, each with a hemmed edge. Lay the lining on the table spread out flat with the hem side up. The top of the lining rises higher forward of the rear of the lining. Put the closed pocket on the lining so the hemmed edges of the pocket coincide with the rear hemmed edge of the lining, and the top edge of the pocket is everywhere at or beyond the top hemmed edge of the lining. Later both the top of the lining and the top of the pocket will be sewn to the coat body. The top edge of pocket and lining must both be included in the seam. The body of the coat will support whatever weight might be carried in the pocket. Without moving the pocket relative to the lining, open the pocket. Fold the top layer of the pocket to open the pocket all the way down to the private tack in the pocket. Pin it this way without the pin going into the lining. The hemmed edge of the pocket should be shifted so that the edge of the lining protrudes slightly beyond the hemmed edge of the pocket. That way the black lining will hide the edge of the pocket in the finished coat. The lining edge should be no more than 1/8 inch beyond the pocket edge or the pocket might not be included in a later seam. If the top edge of the pocket fold is at the top of the lining, the rest of the top of the pocket will be above the lining. This is because the top of the lining slopes upward toward the front of the lining. With a single pin fasten the pocket hem to the lining hem. The pin should be far enough below the top of the lining to allow room to start the seam at the top of the lining with a securing stitch.
Take everything to the machine. Start sewing the edge of the pocket hem to the lining hem at the top of the lining. After the initial securing stitch is finished you will remove the pin holding the pocket to the lining, but not the pin holding the pocket open. Guide the fabric as you sew to keep the edge of the lining hem slightly beyond the edge of the pocket hem. Sew very slowly and carefully. The seam should be as close as you comfortably can to the folded edge of the pocket hem. We will not be using our usual quarter inch allowance here. Stop the seam just before you get to the bottom of the pocket opening. Now you can remove the pin holding the pocket open. With a separate seam sew the double hemmed edge of the pocket below the opening of the pocket no more than 1/8 inch from edge of the lining. You will need to use two separate seams to avoid messing up the pocket opening. After you finish both left and right linings and pockets, put the linings and pockets aside for a while.
4. Now we will sew the top edge of the tail to the bottom edge of the coat, good side to good side. Or to the coat bottom stitchmarks if you used a bevel. There may still be stitchmarks on the front piece that show where the bottom rear of the canvas was cut off. If so, remove these stitchmarks, but not the bottom hemline stitchmarks on the front piece.
Lay the coat on the table good side up. The bottom of the coat should be at the edge of the table in front of you. The back piece below the waist will be hanging off the edge of the table. The coat will be spread out flat. Lay the tail over the coat good side down with the bottom of the tail up over the top of the coat, and the top of the tail at the bottom of the coat. Adjust the tail so the very top end of the pleat line is at the very bottom end of the back-side seam. Do not get confused and put the pleat line at the front-side seam instead of the back-side seam. The pleat inlay behind the stitchmarks will be laying over the back piece. The pleat line will be at an angle to the back-side seam. The wrong side of the tail is on top. You will use one pin to fix the relation of the pieces to start the seam, then adjust the pieces to continue the seam. Put the pin through the tail at the top of the pleat line into the back-side seam, then approximately parallel to the pleat line and back up through coat and tail.
Now take everything to the machine. Use the standard presser foot. For the coat and tail to be hanging off the end of the machine, the tail will be on top for one piece and the coat will be on top for the other piece. Take considerable time to arrange fabric before you sew. It is easy for the back piece to get folded under. Pull out wrinkles and make sure nothing is folded under where it does not belong. The seam will be a quarter inch from the edges of the tail and side piece. The edge of the presser foot will be at the edges of tail and side piece. Start the seam just past the pin so the pin is not included in the seam.
If you did not use a bevel, the front piece hemline stitchmarks will probably be at the bottom edge of the front piece. If you did use a bevel, the stitchmarks will not be at the bottom edge. In either case, the edge of the tail will match the hemline stitchmarks forward of the side-front seam in the coat.
Be careful, go very slow and keep adjusting the fabric as you go. When you get to the side-front seam, stop to adjust, because the edges bend there. Make sure the coat does not catch on the edge of the machine as you sew. When sewing the piece with the tail on top and the coat on the bottom, it is very easy for the edge of the canvas to catch on the machine. Make sure the presser foot does not catch on the hem at the front of the tail. Sew slightly past the front edge of the tail.
Do not press the seam open when you finish. This seam will never be pressed open or pressed flat. You can now remove the coat front piece hemline stitchmarks. Do not remove the tail pleat stitchmarks. Do not remove the stitchmarks at the bottom end of the back piece that define the back hem.
5. Prepare to sew the rear edge of the twill part of the tail piece to the front of the back piece, good side to good side. Lay the half coat on the table good side up, with the back piece closest to you. Fold the back piece at the back-side seam over the side piece. The back piece will lay on top of the side piece, wrong side upt. Spread the tail good side up below the coat. Lay the back piece below the waist wrong side up on top of the rear of the tail. Grasp the front and rear of the tail at the waist and pull to make it lay flat. Notice that at the waist the rear of the tail extends beyond the back piece that is wrong side up. Here we are concerned with the edge of the twill on the back piece, not the edge of the lining. Mark a small paper card to indicate how large this distance is. Then adjust the back piece so the edge of the back piece is at the correct distance from the edge of the tail all the way down. Then pin back piece to tail, leaving enough room for a presser foot on top of the back piece where the presser foot will have one edge at the edge of the back piece. Start pinning just below the waist. The top ends of back and tail may not be the same distance from the waist, this does not matter, they do not need to match. Continue pinning this way all the way to the end of the tail, keeping the distance between the edges the same.
The distance between the bottom of the tail and the bottom hem stitchmarks in the back piece may not be the same between the two tails. Do not worry about this. Later when we hem the back pieces after the halves of the coat are joined we will make adjustments to camouflage any difference in the length of the tails.
Now we are ready to prepare to sew a seam between the back piece and the tail to the bottom of the tail. The front edge of the back piece will be on top, the rear edge of the tail piece will be on bottom. The rear edge of the tail piece will extend beyond the front edge of the back piece. The edge of the presser foot will run along the front edge of the back piece so the seam will be a quarter inch from the twill edge of the back piece. By edge of the back piece, we mean the back piece twill, not the back piece lining, in case they do not match. Only the edges will be under the presser foot. The rest of the width of the back piece and the width of the tail will be to the side of the presser foot. If you sewed from top to bottom, a lot of material would be hanging over the back of the machine, and might catch on the machine as you sew. You will have more control over the material if most of it is in your lap. For this reason sew from the bottom up to the waist. Sew slowly and carefully to be accurate. We will NOT press this seam open or press it flat because it is a pleat seam.
To prepare for the next step we need a temporary machine basting seam with white thread that is a half inch from the front edge of the back piece. The fabric will be arranged the same as for the previous seam. Switch the machine to white thread. Set the longest stitch length your machine has for a basting seam. There are already seams in the lining a quarter inch from the edge of the back piece. Be sure you can tell which seam is a quarter inch from the edge of the twill. With the edge of the presser foot against seams a quarter inch from the back piece, sew a white machine basting seam that will be a half inch from the edge of the back piece. If you have an adjustable seam guide that attaches to your presser foot that will make it easier to assure that the seam is a half inch from the twill edge of the back piece. Do not use securing stitches at the ends of the seam. This will be used as a guide for placing the edge of the lining in the next step.
6. Switch the machine back to black thread.
Next, we will sew the pocket and lining to the front edge of the back piece. We will keep the back piece over the tail as in the previous seams. We will again sew a seam that will be a quarter inch from the front edge of the back piece below the waist. The appearance of the pleat is determined by these seams. If a permanent seam was added that was more than a quarter inch from the front edge of the back piece it would alter the appearance of the pleat, so we must be careful not to do that. The purpose of the temporary white seam we sewed in the previous step is to permit the next seam to be a quarter inch from the front edge of the back piece even though we will not be able to see the front edge of the back piece while we are sewing the seam.
Above the waist hand sew a white stitch mark across the wrong side of the back piece one inch above coat at the back-side seam. Way below the waist near the bottom of the back piece and tail hand sew an inch long white stitch mark on wrong side of the back piece two inches above the bottom of the tail. This will be considerably more than two inches above the bottom of the back piece.
You need to select the correct lining to go with the coat half you are working with. Hand sew a white stitchmark on the lining to show where the bottom of the pocket opening is.
Lay the half coat on the table with the back piece wrong side up, most of the coat right side up. Keep the back piece over the tail. Lining will be on top, the pocket underneath. Only the edge of the lining will be over the edge of the back piece. Most of the lining will not be over any part of coat or tail. The rear edge of the lining will be at the front edge of the back piece which is already sewn to the rear edge of the tail.
Place the pocket and lining so it just barely overlaps the front edge of the back piece. This is the edge sewn to the tail. The rest of the lining will not overlap the back piece or the tail. The top edge of lining should be at the stitch mark one inch above the tail. If the pocket extends above the lining at the rear edge, the pocket will be higher than the white stitch mark. Do not get confused and put the top of the pocket at the one inch mark. Do not pin it. The bottom of the lining will extend lower than the bottom of the tail. At the bottom of the tail adjust the edge of the lining to be at the white machine basting, but leave the machine basting visible. Pin the edge of the lining to the back piece and tail. This will fix the vertical relation of the lining relative to the back piece until you start sewing.
Take everything to the machine. Have the coat body in your lap. Start the seam even with the white hand basted horizontal stitchmark on the back piece two inches above the bottom of the tail. Most of the lining will be on one side of the presser foot and most of the back piece and tail will be on the other side of the presser foot. Sew very slowly. As you sew keep the edge of the lining and the edge of the presser foot at the white machine basting so the machine basting is barely visible. Keep the edge of the presser foot at the machine basting whether or not you always keep the edge of the lining there. Note that this will make the seam a quarter inch from the twill edge of the back piece even though that edge is hidden by the lining. End the seam just before you get to the pocket opening. Open the pocket to get the lining out of the way above the pocket opening. Above the pocket opening adjust the hemmed edge of bottom layer of the open pocket so it is 1/8 inch from the white machine basting. Start a new seam just above the pocket opening. Keep the edge of the presser foot at the white machine basting. End the seam just before you get to the waist.
Take everything back to the table. Remove the white machine basting seam in the back piece. Do not remove the pleat stitchmarks because they will make it easier to see how the tails hang after the coat is finished.
You have now finished sewing pocket and lining to the front edge of the back piece. The bottom end of the pleat must fastened. Pick up everything by the rear edge of the tail. Lay everything on the table so the good side of back and tail are up, and the lining is under the tail, not under the back piece. Pin the bottom of the lining up away from the bottom of the tail. You do not want the lining included in the next seam. At the bottom of the tail adjust the pleat so the pleat fold is at the pleat stitch marks and against the back piece. Pin it in place. A short horizontal seam must be sewn a quarter inch above the bottom of the tail to keep the bottom of the pleat folded in this way. The seam will be perpendicular to the pleat stitchmarks and parallel with the hem stitchmarks near the bottom of the back piece. This is to match the top end of the pleat. Later when the lining is sewn around the edge of the tail a seam will be sewn here. Sewing this now will insure that the lining seam does not fasten the bottom of the pleat where it does not belong.
7. In the following procedure the pocket and lining will be spread over the tail and pinned ready for sewing. The top of lining will be pinned roughly an inch above the bottom edge of the coat. This is because later a seam will be sewn about a half inch above the bottom of the coat to secure the top edge of pocket and lining. The lining is wider than necessary and the excess width will be folded under and pinned all around the front edge of the tail to make a hemmed edge when sewn.
Keep in mind that the twill part of the tail is intended to follow its natural shape without being pulled on by the lining. So the lining must be loose on the twill and not stretched when we are finished sewing. To accomplish this you need two tennis balls, pickle balls or cotton athletic socks each folded into a wad about the size of a tennis ball.
Put the half coat on the table with coat and tail wrong side up. Make sure the back piece is wrong side up all the way to the bottom. Make sure the coat and tail are spread out flat. Put a ball or wadded sock in the pocket all the way to the bottom of the pocket. The pocket must be closed in such a way that the lining hides the pocket with no chance that the pocket muslin will show. If the top rear corner of the lining together with the top layer of the pocket is pulled a half inch to the rear of the edge of the bottom layer of the pocket this will be sufficient. This will result in the hemmed edge of the pocket that is sewn to the lining overlapping the back piece further than the hemmed edge of the pocket that is sewn to the back piece. Pin the top edge of the lining at the rear of the lining to the front piece.
The tail has a dart to allow for the contour of the body at the hip. The lining does not. So we will allow for hip contour in a different way. Put a ball or wadded sock under the lining on the folded front edge of the pocket centered 4 inches below the bottom of the front-side seam. Pin the very edge of the lining to the coat at the front-side seam one inch above the bottom of the coat.
Above the front edge of the tail fold the front edge of the lining under so a half inch of the tail hem shows. There will be lots of lining to fold under. Adjust the top folded corner of the lining to be one inch above the bottom edge of the coat. Pin the top edge of the corner to the coat. You now have three pins along the top edge of the lining. That is enough for now.
Finally, starting at the top, fold the front edge of the lining under so the fold is about a half inch back from the folded edge of hem of the twill tail. Pin leaving ample room for a presser foot at the folded edge with pins parallel to the front edge of the tail. There should not be any tension in the lining between this first pin in the hemmed edge and the pin already in place at the top front corner of the lining. Continue to pin the rest of the lining all the way back to the bottom rear of the tail.
No matter how you do this, it will not look neat. But it is black and will mostly be hidden from view, so the result will be satisfactory.
Temporarily remove the center pin at the top edge of the lining. Reach under the lining and remove the top tennis ball. Replace the pin at the top edge of the lining. Reach into the pocket and remove the ball in the pocket.
We will sew the front edge of the lining now, the top of the lining later. With the standard presser foot sew the folded edge of the lining to the hem of the tail. Do not sew closer than one inch to bottom edge of the coat. The seam should be as close to the folded edge of the lining as is easy to sew.
Remove the pins along the front edge of the lining, but not the pins along the top edge of the lining.
8. Now we will sew the top of the lining in place. We will sew from the good side of the coat using the edge stitch foot against the folded top edge of the tail. The seam will be almost invisible.
When we sew, the pins will need to be on the good side of the coat. We already have the top edge of the lining pinned in place from the wrong side of the coat. From the good side of the coat you can see the three pins that are already in from the wrong side. One pin at a time, from the good side of the coat put a pin next to the existing pin. Put the pin through the coat only once so you can see it protruding on the wrong side of the coat. Make sure the new pin is near the top edge of the lining. Then pull out the existing pin. Then manipulate pin and fabric so the new pin goes back through the coat. Do this for all three pins already in from the wrong side. Then add another pin between each pair of the existing pins. This is because the lining might shift during sewing, which might put tension on the twill tail.
Spread the coat out good side up on the table. Roll the tail up until the roll is a few inches from the top of the tail. Take it to the machine.
This next seam is tricky. On the good side of the coat use the edge stitch presser foot to sew a seem close to the folded edge of the tail but not catching the folded edge, blade of the presser foot against the fold. Have the needle off center 2 mm to insure that the seam does not go into the tail. The seam will go in the coat, not the tail. The seam should not cross the back-side seam and get onto the back piece. The front piece will be off the end of the machine, the tail will be rolled up under the upper arm of the machine. It is very important that you pull the twill of the tail near the seam away from the seam so it will be clear where the tail is sewed to the body of the coat. If you don't, the top edge of the tail will roll up on the body of the coat and your seam will wander far off course. When you get to the front side seam the seam you are sewing will bend. Be very careful to avoid the front piece canvas from getting hung up on your machine as you sew.
The top of the pleat is now puffy because of the natural fold of the pleat. Later we will sew a button there. Now that area should be flattened. Remove the pleat stitchmarks only at the top where the button will go. Do not remove the pleat stitchmarks below that. Switch to the standard presser foot. Center the machine needle. Make sure the back piece is not folded under where you will be sewing. The seam should only extend a half inch on to the tail. Start the seam on the tail and sew slightly past the top of the pleat onto the back piece. That will not seriously interfere with the pleat pocket opening. It would be most convenient to sew the button now, but we will not. Sewing the bottom end of the back seam requires care and precision, and the buttons might make that more difficult.
The tail is finished with lining and pocket. Put your hand in the side opening of the pocket to make sure that it works. It is probably best to leave the pleat line mark stitches in until the coat is completely finished and ready to try on. That way you can see in the mirror how well the tails hang parallel. The hem at the bottom of the back piece has not been sewn yet and will not be until after the sleeves are attached and the halves of the coat are permanently joined.
The patterns are cut so that a good looking shoulder is achieved without shoulder pads. This is the way tailsuits were made a long time ago before shoulder pads became popular. This way was chosen not just for historical accuracy but also because it is simpler and easier to make. The lack of shoulder pads makes it less likely that the shoulders of the coat will raise when the arms are raised into dance position. The seam is not on the top of the shoulder or the front of the shoulder like modern patterns, but slants down the back of the shoulder.
The top of the back piece has a neck inlay with stitchmarks and a shoulder edge with no inlay except perhaps at the end where the arm hole will be. The shoulder edge will be sewn on top of the front piece shoulder good side to good side. But first we must establish exactly where the ends of the seam will be. This will prevent a hole in the coat at one end of the seam after the sleeve is attached, and hole in the coat at the other end of the sleeve after the collar is attached.
20th century practice was to draw the patterns to allow both ends of the seam to be adjusted separately before sewing. The back piece neck point on the pattern was 1/6 scale forward of the rear edge of the back piece, ignoring the inlay. Considerable shifting of the fabric was necessary to make the neck hem perfectly continuous at the shoulder seam. This required ease stitching the shoulder seam. But Thornton was a 19th century tailor. The same distance is a half inch less. That does not allow for ease stitching. The neck hem will not be continuous at the shoulder seam. A plain seam will be sewn. This will be quicker and easier than ease stitching. Only the sleeve end of the shoulder seam will be carefully positioned before sewing. That may result in a tiny hole at the collar end of the shoulder seam, but it will be easily hidden by the turned down collar. Both 19th century and 20th century patterns resulted in the same neck width in the finished coat.
On the front piece the seam will end at the neck hem. The back piece neck has not yet been hemmed. The back piece neck stitchmarks must be retained for now. If the front piece shoulder inlay was not cut off, the stitchmarks are still there and they must be retained. Any remaining neck stitchmarks on the front piece are no longer of use and can be removed.
Get a rectangular paper card about like a business card. Draw a line on the card parallel to a long edge of the card but exactly a quarter inch from the long edge. Have the back piece on the table wrong side up. Put the long edge of the card at the shoulder edge of the wrong side of the back piece. The arm hole on the back piece will be a line of stitchmarks if you preserved the back piece inlay, or a raw edge if you did not. If you did not preserve the stitchmarks, the line on the card should end at the raw edge. If you did preserve the stitchmarks the line on the card will end at the arm hole stitchmarks. Chalk off the short end of the card to make where the seam will end more visible when sewing. This will be slightly closer to the sleeve hole than the shoulder edge of the back piece.
Lay the coat on the table good side up. Fold the back piece over the front piece. Now the front piece will be good side up and the back piece will be wrong side up. To make it easier to pull the fabric into place to match the shoulders, fold up the bottom of the front piece. The shoulder edge of the back piece is a straight raw edge. The shoulder of the front piece is marked by a line of stitchmarks that is slightly curved. Match the raw edge of the back piece to the shoulder stitchmarks of the front piece. The back piece should be adjusted so the sleeve end of the back piece shoulder matches the small bend at the sleeve end of the front piece shoulder stitchmarks. Pin this end of the back piece to the front piece.
Pin the back piece to the front piece, twill to twill, in many places to make the straight edge of the back piece match the curved line of shoulder stitchmarks of the front piece. The pins should be almost parallel to the seam line, and pointing in the opposite direction from the direction the seam will be sewn. The pins will be removed one at a time as you sew.
Take the coat to the machine and sew the shoulder seam with black thread with the edge of the presser foot at the shoulder edge of the back piece. One end of the seam will be the front piece neck hem under the back piece. The other end of the seam will be the chalk mark on the back piece. The coat will be hanging off the edge of the machine. For one half coat, the seam will start at the sleeve end. For the other half coat, the seam will start at the neck end.
If the front piece arm hole stitchmarks were retained, be sure not to remove them. Do not remove back piece stitchmarks. Remove the shoulder stitchmarks on the front piece.
This is a curved seam, so it would be best to press open small portions of the seam at a time at the end of the sleeve board. So much of the garment is sewn together that it would be easy for the iron to touch another part. Do not let the iron touch any polyester material, which should not be exposed to a hot iron.
We have already made the sleeves, now we need to insert them into the coat. Inserting the sleeves is a very slow and tedious procedure. It is necessary to use a time consuming, reliable process or you will have a seam that looks so bad that you will not wear the coat.
Be sure to use the correct sleeve for the side of the coat where you are working. The sleeves are slightly bent. The wrist end of the sleeve should be forward of the elbow of the sleeve when the sleeve is attached to the shoulder of the coat. At the top end of the sleeve, the side that is lower is closer to the body when worn and is sewn to the lower part of the arm hole. The side that is higher will be sewn to the top of the shoulder.
Both the coat and the sleeve have large inlays where the sleeve will be attached to the coat that have been pressed open. Where each large inlay crosses the stitchmarking pin the zigzagged edge of the inlay to the coat or sleeve. Then from the good side of the coat or sleeve hand baste with white thread through the stitchmarking and the inlay under the stitchmarking. That will keep the inlay in its proper place later when basting the sleeve to the coat. Equally important, it will also make the location of the stitchmarking visible in the inlay. At the top of the side/front seam on the coat is a small irregularity in the stitchmarking. Ignore the irregularity and baste straight across it.
While the sleeve is being sewn to the coat the coat will be wrong side out, the sleeve good side out. If you are using thick canvas, the edge of the canvas is cut back a half inch from the scye, so the canvas will not be included in the seam. The reason for this is to make hand basting easier. If you are using thin canvas, the edge of the canvas will be at the scye.
When the sleeve is attached to the half coat, the sleeve seams will be at the sleeve pitch points on the coat. The front sleeve pitch point has already been marked in the twill with colored thread. It is necessary that the pitch point be visible from the canvas side. From the twill side with colored thread hand sew through twill and canvas to mark it on the canvas side. The rear pitch point is where the curved back-side seam reaches the scye. It is not near canvas and does not have an inlay pressed open at the seam. Only the quarter inch seam allowance is pressed open at the seam. Do not get confused and mark the shoulder seam, which is not far from the back-side seam. It is essential to use colored thread at both pitch points so it will not be confused with the many white threads that will be used elsewhere.
The sleeve is larger than the arm hole in the coat where it will be attached. The top and bottom portions of the arm hole are shorter than the top and bottom portions of the sleeve. Prepare to ease stitch the sleeve into the coat. Review the section on ease stitching. The ease stitching will be done in two separate seams, one for each half of the sleeve.
The seam on the sleeve that ends high on the sleeve and has an inlay matches the back-side seam on the coat. The other sleeve seam matches the coat front pitch mark. Once you have determined which seam goes to which pitch point, turn the coat wrong side out and have the sleeve good side out.
Insert the sleeve into the coat. The seam on the sleeve that has an inlay goes to the back-side seam on the coat. The back-side seam in the coat is the curved seam marked with colored thread that has no canvas near the edge of the armhole and has no inlay. In some places you will match the edge of the sleeve to the edge of the coat. In some places you will match the edge of the sleeve to stitch marks in the coat. In other places you will match the edge of the coat to stitchmarks in the sleeve.
When you insert pins in the sleeve, penetrate the sleeve and the coat, then back through the coat and sleeve. That way the pin points will be inside the sleeve and you will be less likely to have your hand stuck on a pin when you are basting. Just barely insert the first penetration enough to permit the second penetration. After the second penetration insert the pin all the way as far as it will go. After the pin is fully inserted you do not want the pin head to protrude outside of the arm hole. That will help to prevent basting thread from hanging up on the heads of the pins.
If you left the coat inlays in there will be some places where you will match edge to edge, but you will be matching edge to stitchmarks or stitchmarks to stitchmarks more than edge to edge.
Pin at both pitch points before you insert any other pins. The pitch points are where the sleeve seams should be. Instead of a perfect match, it would be better to have the sleeve edge slightly inside the coat edge so the coat edge extends just barely beyond the sleeve edge. When the permanent seam is sewn the edge of the presser foot will be at the edge of the sleeve. That will guarantee the sleeve has a quarter inch seam allowance but it will not gurarntee that the coat has a quarter inch seam allowance. To guarantee the coat has a quarter inch seam allowance the edge of the coat must either match the edge of the sleeve or extend slightly beyond the edge of the sleeve. You do not have to be too precise in matching edges with the pins, because if necessary you will remove a pin to match the edges just before the basting gets to the pin. Where it is difficult to push the needle through the fabric, use the thimble.
After the pitch points are pinned, you need to determine where the half way points are to pin between the pitch points. Pull the middle of the edges of the coat and sleeve apart as far as you can. Be sure the pins already inserted on at the pitch points are even with each other and close together. Now you know the half way points on the sleeve and on the coat. Bring these halfway points together and pin them. As a check, after pinning pull adjacent pairs of pins apart to see if the sleeve looseness seems equal between each pair of pins. Next pin the middles of the sections between the existing pins. Adjust the fabric so approximately equal extra sleeve is on either side of the midpoint and pin the midpoints. Now you have four sections on one half of the arm hole. Repeat this process to end up with eight sections on one half of the arm hole. Now you are ready to start basting.
There will be a lot more looseness on the upper front half of the arm hole than on the lower rear half. You should have seven pins between the pitch mark pins on the upper half.
After pinning, before basting, double check to see that edges or stitchmarks match edges or stitchmarks as appropriate all of the way around.
The next few paragraphs describe basting. Do not start basting until you have read them. The first basting seams will be close to the edge of the sleeve. During the basting the pins will be removed. The pins will not be needed for the second basting seams that will be farther from the edge.
These are long basting seams. After you thread the needle grasp the two thread ends together and tie them into a knot to prevent the thread from accidentally pulling out of the fabric when you start. Rub the full length of the threads over a block of wax to prevent knots forming in the thread while you are basting. Do not get absent minded, be aware of what you are doing. You never want a basting stitch to loop over the edges of coat and sleeve. When you put the needle in the fabric, always put it in the same side of the fabric that the thread came out of the last time. Put the needle in a quarter inch from where the thread came out.
Have the coat in your lap when you are basting.
You will be hand basting the sleeve end to the coat scye with white thread. Basting should start and stop at the pitch points where the sleeve seams are. Each basting seam must start and stop with the same complete stitch repeated 6 times. When you make a bad basting stitch, you cannot put the needle back through the fabric and undo the stitch. Each time you make a mistake, you will need to pull out the basting seam and start over. You will make so many mistakes that it is not wise to attempt long basting seams. Subdivide the distance between two pitch points with two or three basting seams. Basting sleeves is the most tedious part of making the whole coat.
If you see that you do not have enough basting thread left to go as far as you intended, end the seam with the same stitch repeated 6 times and start a new seam to go the rest of the way.
When the basting reaches a folded inlay where a seam has been pressed open, the inlay must be included in the basting and basted down flat.
The basting will fix the relative positions of the fabrics that will be sewn later. You will make two parallel basting seams. The first basting seam should be 1/8 inch from the edge of the sleeve. Align the edges and pinch the fabric in place before inserting the needle. Pull each stitch flat against the fabric. In each section of the sleeve, hand baste seams with no more than a quarter inch between each penetration of the fabric. You will not be able to avoid ripples in the sleeve. Several small ripples are better than one large ripple. Try to spread ripples in the sleeve evenly as you pin.
Here the gathering is large enough that two basting seams are needed. Finish the basting seam 1/8 inch or less from the edge all the way around the sleeve before you start the second basting seam. The first basting seam will have more importance in determining the final appearance of the sleeve attachment than the second basting seam or the final machine stitching. This is where you must be especially careful.
Now you have finished the first basting all the way around the arm hole, and the pins have been removed. Before you start the second basting, turn the half coat and sleeve good side out. Examine the seam where the seam joins the coat and make sure there are only many small wrinkles, and no large wrinkle. If there is no problem, keep the basting in and go to the next step. But if there is an unacceptably large fold or wrinkle, you need to see what the problem is. Remove the basting and baste it again. Examine every inch of the sleeve and coat all the way around the arm hole. If the coat edge or coat stitchmarks do not extend very slightly beyond the sleeve edge or stitchmarks, you will need to rebaste the first basting before you start the second basting.
The second basting seam in each section will be at least 3/8 inch from the edge, but no more than 5/8 inch. Before inserting the pin be sure the two layers of fabric are adjusted flat against each other. The second basting will be quick and easy, because the wrinkles will have already been evened out and there will be no pins left to catch the thread.
Remove the colored threads on coat and sleeve before sewing.
Switch the sewing machine to black thread. Turn the coat wrong side out, but not the sleeve. The sleeve is wrinkled, not the coat. You want the coat on the bottom against the feed dogs when you sew because the coat is not wrinkled. You do NOT want to slip the arm hole over the lower arm of the machine.
If your machine has a part that must be removed to slip things over the lower arm, remove it even though you are not going to slip anything over the lower arm. You need all the room you can get to arrange the coat while you sew.
Even though the basting was done separately on each section of the sleeve, this seam can be continuous around the whole sleeve. The sleeve will be under the presser foot as you sew. Use the edge of the sleeve or sleeve stitch marks to guide the edge of the presser foot. You will have to sew very, very slowly. Stop after every inch of sewing and adjust the coat. Adjust the fabric that is off the end of the machine and is underneath and out of sight as well as what is visible and under the presser foot. Pay attention to what is at the edge of the presser foot.
When you finish the permanent seam, examine it carefully on both the sleeve and the coat all of the way around. Make sure you did not run out of thread half way around. Do not worry about tiny wrinkles at the seam, no one will care about that. You may see that most of it is good, but in one or two places you have sewn a big ugly fold into the fabric. You do not have to rip everything out and start all over. Examine the problem to see whether the sleeve or the coat was folded badly when you sewed the seam. Just remove the seam where the fold is. On that small part only, baste and sew again. Make sure that the securing stitches at either end of the new seam overlap the ends of the old seam.
After the sleeve is sewn all of the way around the arm hole, remove the white basting threads. Do not remove the zigzagging along the edges. Be careful and do not damage the twill or the permanent seam of black thread. The seam ripper, bodkin and tweezers will all be useful to remove the basting.
Examine the seam of black thread inside the coat. Check to see that the seam allowance is nearly a quarter inch or even more. If there is a small region where the seam allowance is inadequate, check to see whether it is because the edges are badly mismatched or because the seam got too close to both edges. If the edges are matched, it is not necessary to pull out the seam there. Sew an additional seam that will have at least a quarter inch allowance.
It is optional whether you press the seam open. I prefer not to.
Complete this step for both halves of the coat before going on to the next step.
Now we are ready to join the two back pieces with a vertical seam in the center of the back of the coat. This is an unusual seam where we will be joining two edges with stitch marks, instead of two cut edges or a cut edge and an edge with stitch marks. This is difficult because so much of the coat is together and will have to be moved around while sewing the seam.
Match the edges of the two back pieces, good side to good side. With both hands grasp both ends of the two back pieces together. Pick the coat halves up off the table and lay them back down with the back pieces close to you. Get the back pieces of both coat halves to lay as flat as possible on the table, one on top of the other. You will have to hold one coat half while you pull on the other coat half to get the two back pieces as flat as possible. You will probably have to do this several times. It will not be possible to get the rest of the coat halves flat, but the back pieces should be flat. The most critical part is the very short diagonal cuts at the waist. The two pieces must match exactly at the short diagonal cuts at the waist. This is necessary even if the short horizontal hemmed edges below the diagonal cut do not exactly match.
The seam will run from the neck stitchmarks on the back pieces down to the bottom of the short diagonal cut at the waist level. When the seam is sewn the pins will be in the inlay, but the presser foot will not be in the inlay. Put pins in the inlay a quarter inch behind the stitch marks every two inches along the inlay. It is probably best to pin the ends first, to make sure they will match when you are finished.
After you pin near the diagonal cut, check the fabric from both sides to make sure of an exact match. You will probably have to re-pin a few times to achieve perfection at the diagonal cut. No where else is such a perfect match necessary.
When you sew the seam the edge of the presser foot will be against the line of stitch marks and the seam will be a quarter inch in front of the line of stitch marks. When you sew, one of the back pieces will be on top, the other on bottom. The back piece on the bottom will tend to wrinkle as you sew. You do not wish to sew a wrinkle. To prevent this, put another row of pins far enough forward of the back seam to miss the presser foot. You cannot see the bottom layer, but you can feel it by pressing down on the top layer. Make sure the bottom layer is flat before inserting each pin. You should also pin the back pieces together a short way below the waist as a precaution to keep the diagonal cuts matched while you manipulate the coat.
If you have the coat halves off the end of the machine, only the back edges will be on the machine as you sew. That way you can hold up the two coat halves with one hand while you guide the fabric with the other hand. That will prevent problems of fabric hanging up on the machine as you sew. It is critical that the coat not hang up on the machine as you sew. The seam must go slightly past the stitchmarks all the way to the exact bottom end of the diagonal cut. Sew the seam. Do not remove the pins until you read the next paragraph.
Now that you have sewn the back seam all the way down to the bottom of the diagonal cut, you must be very careful not to pull the tails apart. The seam allowance goes to zero at the bottom of the diagonal cut and it will remain very weak until a seam is sewn later on. It will tear very easily. You do not want to tear the fabric at the weak spot.
Remove the pins.
We will now sew seams to prevent stress on the weak bottom of the back seam.
Lay the coat spread out good side up on the table. Have the tails parallel to each other for several inches below the waist. It will not be possible to have them parallel all the way down while they are flat on the table. The tails are slightly curved. Hopefully they will hang parallel all the way down when worn. The left back piece should overlap the right back piece just below the waist. Pin the overlapping portion of the back pieces together 3 inches below the bottom of the back seam. That will prevent stress on the weak spot while moving the coat.
We will now sew three short seams to prevent the weak bottom of the back seam from tearing. It is almost certain that these seams will cause ugly wrinkles unless special precautions are taken. Because space is so limited below the back seam, we will not use more pins. We will sew temporary white thread zigzag stitches to keep the pieces in place later when we sew the short seam. Change the machine to white thread. Lower the feed dogs so the fabric will not move when we sew. It will be easiest to manage the coat if you have the coat body in your lap and the tails on the other side of the machine. Put the coat on the machine good side up. We will use the standard presser foot to sew zigzag stitches instead of using pins.
The short horizontal hemmed edge of the left back piece at the waist overlaps the right back piece. You will need to remove the pin three inches below the waist to adjust the back pieces. Make sure when you press down on the top back piece that you can feel the hem of the bottom back piece underlapped the top back piece by the same amount the top overlaps the bottom. Make sure the back pieces are flat with no wrinkles at the bottom of the back seam at the waist. Make sure there is no tension in the fabric. Make sure the coat is not caught on the machine. Again, make sure the feed dogs are lowered. An eighth to a quarter inch below the center of this short overlapped hemmed edge sew a wide horizontal zigzag with white thread. This will be the same zigzag you would use to sew on a button. The horizontal hemmed edge of the right back piece is hidden from view so you cannot see it. But you can estimate where it is. Sew a similar wide zigzag that should be below the hidden hem. Caution, all these zigzags will be sewn on top of the left back piece. Do not make the mistake of shifting over to the right back piece. Then one inch below each of these two zigzag stitches sew another wide zigzag under each. These seams will temporarily protect the weak spot.
Remove the coat from the machine. Where these zigzags are sewn cut and remove the loose white thread ends from both sides of the coat. Raise the feed dogs. Put black thread into the machine. Put the coat back on the machine good side up.
The back seam joins the back pieces from the neck to the waist. You will now sew seams on the back pieces below the waist. Either one short vertical seam or two short diagonal seams should be sewn upward and ending at the bottom end of the back seam. The seams should be at least a half inch long and no longer than 0.75 inches.
The hemmed corner of the left back piece is visible at the waist where it overlaps the right back piece. A short seam should be sewn on the left back piece ending near the corner of the piece. If the white zigzag is very near the top, this seam can be sewn diagonally. Otherwise sew it vertically. That will fasten the left back piece to the right back piece under it. A similar seam will be needed below and to the left of the back seam. It is so hard to estimate the position of the hemmed edge of the bottom piece it will be best to turn the coat wrong side up to sew a similar seam to fasten the corner of the bottom piece.
The seams you have just sewn will prevent stress on the weak part of the back seam, and keep the corners of the back piece in place. Remove the coat from the machine. Remove the white zigzag stitches.
Above the waist on the wrong side of the coat remove only the vertical lines of stitchmarks on either side of the back seam above the waist. Do not remove the horizontal line of stitchmarks at the neck. Press the back seam open.
Lay the coat wrong side up on the table. Prepare to hem the inlays at the back neck. Pull the sleeves apart so the center of the back will lay flat before you fold the inlays down so the stitch marks are visible on the edge. Pin the folded inlays to the back. Hem each inlay separately. Sew a seam a quarter inch under the stitch marks. Do not continue the seam closer than a half inch to where the back piece joins the front piece. Where the back and front meet at the neck will look a little messy now, but it will be fixed when we attach the collar. Remove the neck stitch marks.
At this point it is a good idea permanently mark the complete set of measurements that produced the patterns for this garment. Use a black permanent fine tipped marker pen to write the measurements on a visible part of the canvas inside the left front piece where there is no inside pocket. If you later decide to get new patterns it is essential that you remember the measurements for the old garment. Record the amount of ease that is included in the measurements. Indicate whether the pattern included a compound dart, dancing sleeves, or a bevel. Since you may keep this garment for years, it would be best to record the year and month too. It might occur to you to record the data on a cloth patch in the center back of the coat, but this would be a bad idea, because the back must be as cool as possible because that is where you loose heat the most when dancing.
Do not remove the mark stitches that mark the ends of the lapel fold line.
It is time to hem the bottom of the back piece. The tail pieces are already hemmed. We must hem the back pieces to match. The stitchmarks near the bottom of the back pieces may not be exactly where we want to hem, so we will use a different method to locate the hem. Remove the hem stitchmarks.
Lay the coat on the table wrong side up. Grasp the center of the neck, pull the bottom end of the back and tail pieces straight. Fold each back piece up at the bottom so that the front is even with the tail hem, and the rear is even with the other back hem. Pin them in place this way.
From the good side of the tail, put a pin through the tail at the fold of the pleat so that from the wrong side of the tail you can see where the pleat is.
Put the tail on the machine with the wrong side up. Sew the rear half of the folded up edge with a seam a quarter inch down from the zigzagged edge of the back piece, far above the folded bottom edge. You do not want to run the risk of going all the way to the pleat with the seam, which would mess up the appearance of the pleat. But this only hems the rear part of the back piece. If the front part of the back piece is not hemmed, it will eventually fold down and look very bad when the tail is viewed from the side. At the same height sew a short half inch long securing seam at front edge of the back piece which will not include the pleat. One end of this short seam will be on the back piece, the other end will be off.
Two black 3/4 inch buttons are always sewn on the back waist for decoration. Remove the top one inch of the vertical line of white pleat stitch marks before sewing on the buttons. Remember to lower the feed dogs. If you have sewn buttonholes in the back pieces, put a wooden match stick over the middle of the button while you sew it on, there will be enough space under the button that you can button the tails. Sew two black buttons centered over the back-side seam even with the top of the tail.
At this point the sleeves have been attached and the back seam has been sewn. Now you are ready for the collar. Do not remove the collar fold line stitchmarks until told to at the end of the very last step.
The shape of the collar pattern has a strong influence on where the bottom end of the fold line of the lapel falls. The collar is a critical part of a coat that does not button in the front.
Caution, there are three ways we will deviate from our usual procedure when we make the collar pieces. The pattern will be have a special orientation relative to the fabric, we will not exactly cut along the pattern lines at the front of the collar, and we will zigzag with black thread.
The collar pattern is for half of the collar. Two halves will be cut then sewn together to make the whole collar. This is so each half will have the same orientation relative to the fabric and therefore stretch and fold in the same way so the lapels will not be different from each other.
The part of the collar that rises up from the coat is called the stand of the collar, and the part that bends down on the outside is called the leaf of the collar. The dimensions of the stand and the leaf vary at different places around the collar. The only place where they are usually specified is at the very back of the collar. The most common value for the stand at the back of the collar is one inch. The stand rises about 1 inch above the top of the coat, the leaf is about 1.625 inches in the back of the neck. The stand and leaf will vary forward of the back of the neck.
Before you start cutting, examine the solid lines of the collar pattern. The top of the collar is a long straight line. The bottom of the collar is long and more curved. The front of the collar is a short straight line. The rear of the collar is a medium straight line.
The pattern will be used on folded twill fabric to cut two identical pieces twice. The fabric will be folded wrong side out. The fold line in the pattern is the dashed line in the middle of the pattern. Place the pattern on the fabric so the rear bottom corner, not the inlay, is on the same warp line of the fabric as the front bottom corner of the collar. This will be done with all the layers of fabric used to make the collar. This should enhance the stiffness of the colar in the direction needed to control the lapel fold.
The pattern shows solid lines and dashed lines. Chalk the outer dashed lines. While the pattern is still pinned, the outer portion of the pattern will be cut off along the solid lines. Chalk where the solid lines are, which will mark where the stitch marks will go. Do not cut the pattern on the fold line, which is the dashed line through the center of the collar. Chalk mark only the ends of the fold line on the twill. After the pattern is removed, use a straight edge to mark the fold line from end to end. The fold line is straight because the lapels are long. If the lapels were short the fold line would be curved. Replace the pins.
Cut out the twill collar pieces. But when you cut the small tabs at the end of the collar, the cuts should stop 1/4 inch before they reach the corner. That is four cuts that will stop 1/4 inch before the corner. That will leave a small tab of cloth still attached. Raise it up and cut it off in such a way that the corner will be a small diagonal part, and not exactly square. That will prevent exposed raw edge after the collar is finished.
Switch the machine to white thread and the tailor tack presser foot. With pins still in stitch mark the twill pieces with white thread. Stitch mark the middle fold line, and the bottom line. It is not necessary to stitchmark the top line.
Switch to the standard presser foot and black thread. You will be using black thread for the rest of the collar operations. Separate the layers and zigzag all of the outer edges of these large collar pieces with black thread.
Now all three inlays have been cut off the pattern and the pattern has been trimmed to the solid line. Use the pattern with the same orientation to the warp of the fabric to cut a smaller pair of twill pieces without inlays. Do not remove the pins yet on the smaller pieces. Put the small pieces aside for now.
Now you have large twill pieces and smaller twill pieces. No stitch marking will be done on the small pieces. The small pieces do not need to be zigzagged because their edges will be completely enclosed.
Canvas pieces will be made with the pattern now that it has been cut down smaller. If you are using thin 10oz canvas, you can cut two layers at a time. If you are using thick #1 canvas, the canvas is too thick to cut two layers.
Mark the canvas with a black marking pen. Use the same orientation to the warp of the fabric. After you finish marking the canvas, remove the pattern, replace the pins. Cut the canvas pieces out. The rear edges of the two pieces of canvas will be joined by a butt seam, different from the way the twill pieces will be joined. We need to compensate for this difference. Draw a line parallel to the rear edge a quarter inch forward of the rear edge. Then cut along that line. It will make the canvas pieces a quarter inch shorter. They do not need to be zigzagged because they will be completely enclosed.
The small twill pieces are still pinned together. Pin each pair of large twill pieces back together the same way they were when you cut them out, good side to good side. After pinning examine the rear edges from both sides of the fabric to make sure they match.
Assembling the collar is a complicated process. First join the rear edge of each pair of twill pieces good side to good side with a quarter inch seam allowance. Press the seams open after sewing.
Join the canvas pieces at the rear edge with a butt seam as described in the section on sewing.
Now the rear edges of each of the three pairs of pieces are joined. One twill pair is the same size as the canvas pair. Lay that twill pair on the canvas pair. The wrong side of the twill should face the canvas. That is the side with the open seam. You will be sewing the bottom edges together, the edges that are curved. An exact quarter inch seam allowance is not necessary. To prevent the fabric from wrinkling as you sew, have the edge of the presser foot slightly away from the edge of the fabric. It is best to use two seams, both starting where the back edges join and going out to the ends. Only sew the bottom edge. Do not sew any of the other edges yet. It is not necessary that the edges match perfectly because they will be covered by a hem later.
Put the large twill collar piece wrong side up. The open seam will be facing up. Put the two pieces that have already been sewn together canvas side down on the large piece. The stitch marks on the larger piece should match the bottom edge of the other pieces. You will be pulling the bottom edge of the twill up over the two smaller pieces as you sew, but not so firmly as to curl the edge of the canvas. When you first pull the center over make sure the center seams match. Carefully fold so that the stitchmarks of the large piece are at the folded edge, and the fold is against the edge of the small pieces. Slow a small portion, stop and adjust the fabric before sewing the next small portion. This will be difficult at the curve, sew very slowly and carefully. Sew two seams, each starting near the middle of the collar and sewing toward the ends. Do not worry when the folded twill wrinkles as you sew. This is the wrong side of the collar which will not be visible on the finished coat. What does matter is that the twill is folded against the other two edges.
Remove all of the collar stitchmarks except the line of stitchmarks which is not near the edge of the collar that shows the collar fold line .
The bottom edge of the collar is now sewn together. The collar fold line is the middle line of stitch marks that runs only about half the length of the collar. Fold the bottom of the collar up wrong side to wrong side so the line of stitch marks that marks the fold line is on the outside edge of the fold. This fold will cause the layers to shift over each other which is what we want. Use six spring loaded wooden clothes pins to keep the collar folded.
Fold the top edge of the larger piece over the top edge of the other pieces. Pull the twill over the edge of the canvas as you sew. Then sew two separate seams along the top edge from just past the center. The edge of the presser foot will be at the folded edge.
Remove the clothes pins. At the ends of the collar the twill ends may not match the canvas ends. The canvas ends are important here. Fold the end flaps over the canvas ends of the collar and sew them with the edge of the presser foot at the end of the collar.
Do not remove the fold line stitchmarks, but do remove all the loose ends of black thread.
Now you are ready to sew the collar to the edge of the coat. If there are still white stitchmarks on the coat where the back pieces were hemmed at the neck, remove those now.
The instructions for sewing the collar continue for several paragraphs. Read them all before you start sewing.
More than half of the length of the collar will be sewn on quickly by machine. The rest will have to be sewn on slowly by hand, because the machine would make ugly creased stitch marks in the smooth shiny satin of the lapel.
The collar will be sewn to the coat with a black thread zigzag stitch between the center of the back of the coat and to within a half inch of the lapel fold line. There should still be white stitch marks on the twill that show the top ends of the lapel fold line on both sides of the coat. Your zigzag seam should not get closer than a half inch to the top ends of the fold line that are marked on the coat. The satin was only sewn to the twill up to a point a half inch higher than the fold line stitch mark. At this point with your hand sewing needle and white thread, sew a white stitch mark wrapped around the hemmed edge of the coat. The needle only needs to penetrate the twill. With care you can miss the canvas. Loop around the edge to make sure it does not fall out. Make sure it can be seen from both the good side and the wrong side of the coat. Now you have a stitch mark to show where your zigzag seam should stop.
Hand sew a white thread mark on the coat at the center of the coat neck to mark the location of the back seam. Hand sew a white thread mark on the bottom curved edge of the collar to mark the location of the center seam of the collar.
Make sure you sew the bottom edge, not the top edge, of the collar to the coat. The bottom edge is the edge close to the fold line on the collar, and is the edge that is most curved. Do not sew yet.
You will sew the collar to the coat with zigzag seams. Do not sew yet.
The zigzag seam should not include the satin. That was the reason the satin was not sewn to the coat much above the fold line. The satin should be folded back from the neck edge of the coat where the satin is not already sewn to the neck edge. It will not be a disaster if satin is included in the seam above your end of seam stitchmark, but the seam would be neater and stronger if the satin is not included. Do not sew yet.
The collar will seem to be backward when it is sewn on. If the wrong side of the coat is facing up, the good side of the collar will be facing up. The bottom of the collar, the more curved side, is what you will sew to the coat. Do not sew yet.
You will start the seam near the center of the back. The body of the coat will be to your left, hanging off the end of the machine, the collar to your right. When sewing in one direction from the center, the coat will be wrong side up. When sewing the other direction from the center, the coat will be good side up. In both cases, the collar will be the other way. Thus, if the coat is good side up, the collar will be wrong side up. Do not sew yet.
When the wrong side of the coat is down, the coat will catch on the machine unless you stop sewing and adjust the coat frequently. Do not sew yet.
Before you sew, make sure the shoulder seam inlay is pinned in the pressed open position with a pin parallel to the neck edge of the coat but about a half inch down so as not to interfere with the presser foot. When the good side of the coat is up, this pin will be inserted from the good side of the coat. When the wrong side of the coat is up, this pin will be inserted from the wrong side of the coat. Do not sew yet.
When the zigzag seam gets to the mark stitch you made on the coat a half inch before the lapel fold line, stop. You will not zigzag beyond this point. This is VERY important. Do not sew yet.
Select a wide zigzag, probably 4 or 5mm. Do not zigzag beyond the point when you are a half inch from the fold line. Normally a quarter inch seam allowance is needed for strong seams to raw edges. That is not the case here because both edges are hemmed edges, not raw edges. Do not sew yet.
When sewing a straight seam, you could temporarily reverse the direction of sewing to secure the ends of a seam so the seam would not unravel in the wash. When zigzagging, lower the feed dogs at each end of the seam and sew a few stitches in one place to secure the ends of the seam. Use the standard presser foot. Do not sew yet.
When doing the zigzag stitch be very slow and careful sewing. Use your fingers to keep edges of coat and collar flat on the machine so the edge of the collar is pressed against the edge of the coat with no gap between collar and coat. Make sure the two edges join exactly at the center of the presser foot. There should be no overlap of the two edges. Do not sew yet.
When the zigzag gets to the shoulder seam, it will not be possible to get the hemmed edges together. Just keep on sewing past the shoulder seam to where you can get the edges together.
To get ready to sew have the coat good side up hanging off the end of the machine with the center of the neck near but not under the presser foot. Have the collar wrong side up with the curved bottom edge of the collar against the coat edge. Adjust coat and collar so the white thread marks on coat and collar are in line. Lower the feed dogs. Bring the pieces toward you so the center seams of coat and collar are visible and not hidden by the presser foot. Lower the presser foot. Sew about 6 stitches in place. Raise the presser foot. Now you have a few stitches that will keep the center seams lined up.
Now push the pieces away from you just enough to start a seam just a bit closer to you than the center seams. The feed dogs are still down. Sew few stitches. Raise the feed dogs. Continue the zigzag until you get to the white thread just before the coat fold line. At that point, stop sewing with the presser foot still down. Lower the feed dogs and sew a few stitches.
Turn the coat wrong side up and sew the other side the same way. Finish the zigzag on both sides before going on to the next step.
To sew the collar the rest of the way to the neck of the coat could be done with hand sewing to avoid any blemish in the edge of the shiny satin, or it could be done by machine. If you do it by machine reduce the width of the zigzag to 3mm to catch as little of the satin as possible.
Now we will describe the hand sewing option. Use black thread. Put the coat on the table good side up. Hand sew the edge of the collar to the twill edge of the coat. When sewing by hand you can make the stitches mainly get the twill. You want to get none of the canvas and little or nothing of the satin. This would not be possible by machine. The neck edge of the coat should be up off the table. The collar should be pinched flat against the coat. The edges of coat and collar should be even with each other. Have the thimble on the middle finger of your hand as you sew, to push the needle through without discomfort. This will be a spiral stitch, not a zigzag stitch. After you pull the needle through, you may have to hold the loop of thread with one hand while you pull the needle all the way with the other hand to avoid the thread knotting or tangling. Repeat the stitches at both ends of the seam six times. You will not relish this tedious hand sewing, but it will give you an appreciation for how fortunate you are to have the machine do the rest of the sewing for you.
Now that you are through sewing the collar to the coat, turn your attention to the rear center of the collar. We have not used pad stitching to force the collar to fold exactly where we want it to. Put the coat in you lap wrong side up with the collar on the machine. The stand of the collar in the center back is supposed to be one inch. The folded edge should be one inch above where the collar is sewn to the coat. The stitchmarks will be on the fold if they are still there. Have the coat good side up. About a half inch either side of the center seam of the collar, sew vertical seams from just below the fold. This should keep the collar from riding up in the back in an unsightly manner.
The tail pleats will probably not have exactly the same separation at the bottom as they do at the top. If they are too far apart at the bottom, that would be difficult to fix without removing lots of seams and making new tails. If they are too close together at the bottom, that should be much easier. Unstitch the top front corner of the tail lining. Fold it down out of the way. Unstitch the front portion of the seam that attaches the seam to the coat. Do not unstitch past the tail dart, and you probably will not need to go that far back. Instead of the top edge of the tail matching the bottom edge of the coat, the top edge of the tail will need to be lower than the bottom edge of the coat. Machine baste with white thread, pin the lining back up. Do this for both tails, put the coat on and see how the tails hang. You may need a few iterations to get it right before you sew permanent seams.
If your waist is a lot smaller than your chest, a common alteration is added waist darts. I have never done this myself. Wear the coat. At points above the tail, but forward of the side-front seam and behind the rear edge of the canvas, pinch the coat into a small fold on both sides. The folded edge will be vertical. You must pinch both sides at the same time to avoid pulling the coat off center. Do not pinch so much that the front pieces separate more. Pinch enough to draw the fabric in against your body. Estimate how much you have pinched, how high and how far forward on the body of the coat. Unfortunately, you are now pinching the fabric wrong side to wrong side. To sew darts we need it pinched good side to good side.
Take the coat off. From the inside of the coat fold the same locations that you did when wearing the coat. Pin the folds with enough extra material folded to leave room for the presser foot. Sew the folds to duplicate the same amount you folded when wearing the coat. No fabric will be cut. If you later gain weight and no longer want these darts, you can let them out.
The pants have front pieces normally called the pant top, and back pieces normally called the pant bottom. The bottom pieces are the ones with the large inlays. The top edge of the bottom piece comes to a point with a button indicated under the point. This is where the rear suspender will be attached. Pants like this have not been common since about 1940, but they are a logical design where a belt is not an option. These pants look strange in the back, but no one will ever see the back while you are wearing the tailcoat. In addition to the pant top and pant bottom, patterns for some smaller pieces are given. You will need to cut some simple rectangular pieces of muslin, twill and canvas later on for which no patterns are given.
The pattern for the pant top includes the pant top, the side pocket, the side pocket facing and the fly piece.
We will now explain how to lay out and cut the pant tops. The fabric will be folded wrong side out. The chalk marks will go on the piece that will make the right front. This is significant for this piece in a way that does not apply to any other piece in the suit. First cut the pattern along the outer line. Cut holes in the center of the button circles. Pin the pattern to the fabric. Trace the pattern with chalk, being sure to mark the reference marks outside of the pattern and buttons through the holes in the pattern. While the pattern is still pinned to the fabric, make more cuts in the pattern. Cut the pattern to remove the inlay at the bottom, and cut the pattern along the inner dashed line above and below the crotch until it joins the solid line. Chalk the fabric along the portions of the pattern that you just removed. Now remove the pattern and re-pin the fabric. With chalk extend the short reference lines to where they were on the pattern. Cut the fabric along the outer line all the way around. Mark stitch the reference marks and buttons and put in the mark stitching at the bottom inlay. You do not need to mark stitch the inner chalk line at the crotch. Now remove the lower piece and set it aside, it is complete the way it is. Now cut the front of the upper piece only along the inner chalk line near the crotch. The reason the right and left pant tops are not the same in the crotch is that the pants must be pulled up tight on only one side of the crotch by the suspenders so the waist height will be definite and unchanging. This is because the relative heights of the waist of the pants, the waist of the coat, and the waist of the vest are critical to the appearance of the suit.
There is one final piece of stitch marking to do on both the pant tops. It could not be done when the two top pieces were pinned together because the crotches of the pieces are cut differently. Notice that the fly piece in the shape of a "J" has a small reference mark an inch from the lower end. A similar reference mark must be stitch marked perpendicular to the edge on both pant tops at a position exactly two inches up along the curved edge from the point of the crotch. It could be hand stitched or stitched by machine with a plain straight stitch. When the pants are finished all three of these reference marks will be together.
Zigzag both top pieces with white thread.
The two top pieces were slightly different, but the two bottom pieces are the same. The back pocket opening is shown as a line for clarity. You do not need to stitch mark the whole line, just put point marks at each end of the line. To make this easier, draw small circles around the ends of the line, and cut holes in the pattern in the center of the circles. When finished marking, cutting and stitch marking, zigzag the edges with white thread.
Next, make the back pockets on the pant bottom pieces.
Draw a 7 inch by 10 inch rectangle on a piece of paper. Cut it out and use it for a pattern. Fold the muslin 4 layers thick. Pin the pattern on and trace it with a black marker. Remove the pattern and re-pin. Do not discard the pattern yet, you will use it later. Cut the 4 layers at the same time. Muslin is so thin and light that you should use the overlock presser foot to zigzag the edges. Use black thread.
Switch back to the normal presser foot.
Draw a 4 inch by 7 inch rectangle on a blank piece of paper. Cut it out and use it for a pattern. Cut four 4 inch by 7 inch rectangular pieces of black cotton twill for pocket facings, and zigzag the edges with white thread.
On each of the facings, along only one of the 7 inch edges, fold the edge over about 0.25 inch wrong side to wrong side and press the creased edge, but do not sew.
Have the pant bottom good side up on the table. Find the two stitch marked points on the bottom pant piece that define the line of the back pocket opening. These were stitched by the sewing machine. How far apart these two points are depends on whether or not you had a dart to sew up between them. We want the pocket opening to be on a line between these two points, but we want the opening to be only five inches long, centered between the two points. We will not cut the opening yet.
In the following procedure the two point stitch marks will be covered up by the 4 by 7 twill facings so we cannot see them. We want vertical and horizontal lines extending from the two machine stitch marks so we know where they are after we cover them up.
Put white thread in the machine, and the normal presser foot. Use a straight stitch with the longest stitch length your machine has so it will be easy to remove. Start at each point stitch mark. Make white stitch mark lines 1.5 inches long in line with the two point stitch marks. The lines should not be between the two point stitch marks, but in the other direction. Again start at the two point stitch marks. Make lines 2.5 inches long toward the top of the pant piece that are perpendicular to the lines you have just sewn. Now when the two point stitch marks are covered up you can still see where they are.
Put the pant piece on the table good side up. Put one of the 4 by 7 facings on the good side of the pant piece, the facing good side down, centered over the two point stitch marks. The edge of the facing that we have already creased should be toward the bottom of the pants. The facing should extend equal amounts vertically and equal amounts horizontally beyond the two point stitch marks. You can no longer see the point stitch marks because the facing is covering them up, but the line stitch marks lets you know where the point stitch marks are. Pin the facing in place with pins near the four corners of the facing.
Put a straight edge on the facing lined up with the two horizontal stitch marks that should be protruding out under the ends of the facing. Draw a narrow chalk line on the wrong side of the facing along the straight edge. Then one inch from each end of the twill facing, draw a short line crossing the previous line and extending 0.5 inch above and below the previous line. Since the twill facing is 7 inches long the two short lines are 5 inches apart. These lines will later be used to define the pocket opening.
Turn the pant piece over so that the wrong side is up. Put the rectangular piece of paper that you used as a pattern to cut the muslin so the top narrow edge is against the two stitch marks. The edge should be centered relative to the two stitch marks. You will use this to orient a piece of muslin that you want to attach to the pant piece. This will give the orientation of the muslin, but not the position. Put the muslin over the paper, but slide the muslin up higher than the paper keeping it lined up with the paper. Whichever top corner of the muslin that is closest to the top edge of the pant piece should be 0.5 inches from the top of the pant piece. Remove the paper. The other end of the muslin will be far below the mark stitches. The long dimension of the facing will be horizontal. The long dimension of the muslin will be vertical. Be sure the facing is on the good side of the pant piece, the muslin on the wrong side of the pant piece. Pin the four corners of the muslin to the pant piece. But the pins would be on the bottom when sewing and might hang up on the machine. So turn the pant piece over so the muslin is on bottom and put in pins from the top near the pins that are on the bottom. Remove the pins on the bottom as they are no longer needed.
Put the pant piece on the machine with the good side up. The twill facing will be on top and the muslin out of sight underneath. With black thread and a straight stitch use the machine to sew a rectangle that will enclose the line where the pocket opening will be. Be sure to start and end this seam in the middle of one of the long horizontal seams. You do not want the securing stitches at the beginning and at the end of the seam near the ends of the rectangle, because the facing might not pull through properly later on. The seam will be a quarter inch above the center of the horizontal chalk line and a quarter inch below the center of the horizontal chalk line. When sewing the long horizontal seams the edge of the presser foot will be at the center of the horizontal chalk line. Keep the needle down and the presser foot up to turn the corner. When the seam gets to the vertical chalk lines, the seam should go through the center of the vertical chalk lines. The presser foot will be centered over the vertical chalk lines. The seam will go through three layers, pocket, pant, and facing.
Make horizontal black thread zigzag seams within the rectangular seam above and below the chalk line just like we did for the welt pocket. The zigzag should not be wide enough to reach the center of the horizontal chalk line or the straight horizontal seams.
Make sure the pant bottom piece is not folded under and in the way before you cut. Cut along the center of the horizontal chalk line through all three layers. Use the same kind of cut used on the welt pocket. The forks at the end of the cut should go near the corners of the rectangular seam. Do not cut the rectangular seam you have just sewn.
Remove the pins holding the facing, but leave the pins holding the muslin. Pull the facing through the slit you have cut so that as much as possible of it is on the wrong side of the pant piece. After the facing is through the slit, grasp the ends of the facing in line with the slit. Pull the ends of the facing apart very hard to make sure the ends are through the slit as far as they will go.
Have the pant piece on the table with the good side up. Reach your hand under the pant piece to adjust the facing. Ideally you would adjust it so that when viewed from the good side of the pant piece the bent parts of the facing, which are called jettings or pipings, are pushed against each other in a neat and even way. If this is too difficult, do not worry about it. The back pocket will be covered by the coat, and not ordinarily seen. The other facing that will be applied later will make sure that only black will be seen through the opening. Make sure that if you open the slit you can see the table through the slit.
We want to sew a rectangular seam around the jettings similar to the rectangular seam we just sewed. We need to pin the facing in place to do this. The best way is to pin the four corners of the facing in such a way that the jettings are the way we want them. The easiest way to pin the four corners would be from the wrong side of the pant bottom, but we cannot do that. We must sew from the good side of the pant bottom to see how to sew the rectangular seam.
You can press down on the pant piece and feel the edges of the facing under the pant piece. Pin through the pant piece to pin the edges of the facing in place to preserve the neat jettings you have achieved. It will probably work best to pin the four corners of the facing in place with pins diagonal at the corners.
With the pant bottom good side up sew a rectangular seam all the way around on the outside of the jettings. If you use a normal presser foot, sew just barely outside of the jettings. If you wish the seam to be invisible, use an edge stitch foot and sew in the crease between the jettings and the pant bottom piece.
Remove the pins holding the facing and the muslin.
Grasp the bottom end of the muslin and pick up everything so the pant bottom is hanging down below. Now the muslin is one way and everything else is the other way. Put it on the machine this way. Sew the folded crease edge of the facing to the muslin with the smallest possible seam allowance. The seam will only go through the facing and muslin, not through the pant bottom.
Lay the pant piece on the table good side down. Lay second piece of muslin over the piece that is already sewn on so that the edges match all the way around. Lay a second facing piece on top of it wrong side down so the top edge of the second facing matches the top edge of the first facing. The crease of the facing should be at the bottom. Pin the middle of both ends of the second facing to the second muslin without catching anything else.
Remove the second muslin and facing from the pant piece and sew the bottom creased edge to the muslin with the smallest possible seam allowance. Sew the top un-creased edge of the facing to the muslin with a quarter inch seam allowance. Remove the pins.
Back at the pant piece put the second muslin over the first muslin with the second facing down so it could be seen through the pocket opening. Both facings should be hidden from view, sandwiched between the two layers of muslin. This is critical, get it right.
The edges of the two pieces of muslin should match as exactly as possible. In the next paragraph we are going to sew a quarter inch seam allowance around the edges of the muslin with the pant on top and the muslin on bottom. At the table have the pant piece on top, the muslin pieces on bottom. Lift up the edges of the pant piece to pin the two pieces of muslin together so the edges of the muslin match all the way around. Leave room for the presser foot.
Put the pant piece on the machine. Have the pocket on the bottom and the pant on top. Pull the pant away from the edge of the pocket. Sew a quarter inch seam allowance joining the two pieces of muslin and facing along the full length of the sides of the pocket and the bottom of the pocket, but not the top of the pocket. This will require carefully managing the pant piece to avoid catching it in the seam. If the muslin edges do not exactly match, keep the seam at least a quarter inch away from the edge of both. Remove the pins.
From the good side of the pant piece sew a straight horizontal seam just above the top of the pocket jetting. Make sure the muslin is not folded under. Sew only above the jetting, not the sides or bottom. Sew over the already existing seam. This is to fasten the second facing to the pant piece.
Now you are finished with the back pocket. Remove the white stitch marks at the ends of the pocket mouth, but be careful not to remove the white stitch mark that marks where the top of the side pocket will be later on. Put your wallet in the pocket to see that it fits. Finish the back pockets on both pant bottom pieces before going on to the side pockets.
Cut out the pattern for the side pocket and the pocket facing.
The two side pockets will be made of 4 pieces of muslin and 4 pieces of twill.
Fold the muslin into 4 layers. Pin the large pocket pattern to the 4 layers. Trace the pattern with a black marker. Mark the two short reference marks under the pattern on the top layer of muslin. Remove the pattern, re pin the 4 layers. Cut the 4 layers of muslin. Before removing the pins, mark the reference marks on each of the 3 lower layers of muslin.
Zigzag the edge of each piece of muslin with black thread using the overlock presser foot.
The reference marks on both pocket and facing show the location of the pocket opening where your hand will go in the pocket.
The facing pieces will be made from black twill. We cannot fold the twill in 4 layers because we need to stitch mark the reference marks. Fold the twill double the usual way. Pin, trace and mark reference marks. Use the small facing pattern twice because 4 pieces are needed. Cut the facing pieces. Stitch mark the reference marks with white thread. Zigzag the edge of each piece of facing with black thread. Yes we said black thread.
Fold the long straight edge of each piece of twill facing over a quarter inch wrong side to wrong side and press it.
The muslin has no good and wrong side, but the facings do. Lay all four pieces of muslin on the table separately. The top end of each piece of muslin has a short straight edge; the bottom is curved. One long side is straight; the other curved. The bottom of each piece should be toward you, the top away from you. Two of the pieces should have the curved side on the left, the other two should have the curved side on the right. Each piece of facing should be placed good side up on a piece of muslin. The reference marks on the facing should align with the reference marks on the muslin. The curved edge of the facing should be shifted 1/2 inch beyond the curved side of the muslin. This is because we do not want the muslin to be included in the side seam so it will not show from the outside. You will have to turn the pieces over so the muslin is on top of the twill to adjust and measure the 1/2 inch shift. Then turn the pieces over so the twill is on top to pin them in place. Pin each piece of facing on the muslin with three pins down the middle of the facing.
Use black thread. Put the muslin and facing on the machine with the facing on top. Sew the folded straight edge of the facing to the muslin with the smallest possible seam allowance. It will be easiest with the edge stitch foot. Remove the pins. If you used the edge stitch foot and offset the needle from center, re-center the needle.
Use the normal presser foot. Sew the small top and bottom straight edges of the facing to the muslin with a quarter inch seam allowance. Turn the muslin over so the facing is on bottom. Sew the curved edge of the facing to the curved edge of the muslin with a quarter inch seam allowance from the edge of the muslin. The facing will extend beyond the muslin a half inch.
Get a corresponding pant top and pant bottom. Lay the top and bottom on the table side by side. The top ends should be at one end of the table, the bottom ends at the other end of the table. Both should be good side up. The side seam edge of the pant top piece should be against the side seam edge of the pant bottom piece. The crotch of each piece should be a long way from the crotch of the other piece. The crotch of each piece has a pointed cusp. If one piece is wrong side up, you have the wrong piece, get the other similar piece.
In the next step we will lay a pocket piece on the pant bottom and a different pocket piece on the pant top. We will have to carefully select which pocket pieces match which pant pieces.
Have the pant pieces good side up. On the pant top the pocket facing will match the edge of the pant top. On the pant bottom the pocket facing will match the line of stitch marks. Lay the pocket piece down on the side seam edge or side seam stitch marks of the pant piece so that the black twill facing is down on the pant top piece. The muslin will be on top, then the facing, then the pant piece underneath. The pocket and facing will be on the pant piece, not off to the side. The reference marks on the muslin and the facing should lay over the reference marks on the pant piece. Between the reference marks the edge of the facing should be at the edge of the top pant piece, but at the line of stitch marks on the bottom pant piece. Put pins through all layers just far enough from the edge to miss the presser foot. Pin about every two inches being very careful to get the edge lined up.
Put each pant piece on the machine with the pocket on top. We will sew the facing to the pant piece. Sew the seam with the edge of the presser foot along the edge of the facing. Sew the whole length of the facing, well past the reference marks. Remove the pins.
Pull each pocket piece off the pant piece to open the seams you have just sewn. We are going to press seams in an unusual way. Usually we press the seam allowances open. That is not what we are going to do here. Here we are going to press the seam allowances closed, and press the other side of the seam. We only need to press the seams in the small regions above and below where the pocket opening will be. There are reference marks that mark the top and bottom of the pocket opening. With the pant piece good side up and the pocket pulled away from the pant piece, press a crease at the seam where the facing is folded over the seam. The pant seam allowance will remain flat. This is tricky for the top piece, because the pant seam allowance is only a quarter inch. Make sure the seam allowance is flat and the facing is folded over it. Press the facing over the seam allowance.
We now prepare to sew the side seam. Lay the pant bottom on the table good side up. Pull the side pocket that you just finished sewing on out to the side so that it no longer lays on the pant bottom. Lay the pant top good side down on top of the pant bottom. Pull both pocket pieces out to the side, so they are no longer between the pant pieces. Do not worry if the pocket pieces do not exactly line up.
The side edge of the pant top should line up with the line of side inlay stitch marks on the pant bottom all the way to the bottom of the pant. The top of the pant bottom and the top of the pant top will only match at one point, the top end of the side edge of the top piece and the top end of the side inlay stitch marks on the pant bottom. We are only going to pin along the side seam, not any other seam. The side seam will be both above and below the pocket reference marks. The side seam will skip the part between the pocket reference marks, or you would not be able to put your hand in the pocket. Do not forget this. The seam will go all the way to the top and bottom edges of the pant pieces.
Hold the bottom piece down on the table and pull the top piece in different places to get the edge of the top piece to match the stitch marks on the bottom piece all the way down. Get the reference marks on both pieces to line up before you start pinning. First pin the top end, hip and knee reference marks, and the bottom cuff hemline marks. Then pin the parts in between. Be exact. The fabric may not naturally line up. You may have to tug the fabric to get it to line up. If the fabric is wrinkled between pins, pull the fabric at the pins to stretch the part flat between the pins then insert the new pin midway between the previous pins. You do not need to pin between the pocket reference marks because the side seam will not be sewn there.
You can see the reference marks on the pant top that mark the opening of the pocket. Since they look just like other reference marks that you will sew past, make large chalk marks so you will not sew past those marks. This is a very long seam. If you press the top layer of fabric down ahead of the presser foot it may eliminate any tendency of the fabric to shift while sewing. You will have to repeatedly move your finger to keep it away from the presser foot. If you cannot control the tendency of the fabric to shift, either baste before you sew or use a walking foot.
Put the pant leg on the machine, pant bottom underneath, pant top on top. Make sure the pant bottom side inlay has not folded under the edge of the pant top at any place. Make sure the pockets are pulled out to the side. Sew a standard quarter inch seam with the edge of the pant top running along the edge of the presser foot. Be sure to skip the pocket opening. Remove the pins. Press the side seam allowances open.
Some people recommend sewing seams parallel to the pocket opening in front of and behind of the pocket. I think this causes more problems than it solves. So I do not recommend it.
Some people suggest cutting the pant bottom inlay at the pocket reference marks so the portion at the opening can fold over the pant top. This is to make the seams lay flatter at the pocket opening. Since this garment may be worn only once a year at a ball, it may last a lifetime. Most people get fatter as they get older. So it is likely that alterations will be needed. Cutting the inlay would preclude alterations. I do not recommend cutting the inlay. The seam is flat enough that it has never been a consideration for me.
Pick everything up by the edges of the two side pocket pieces. Lay the pant leg on the table with the pant bottom piece on top. Pull both side pocket pieces one way, the pant pieces the other. Pin the pocket pieces to match up the outside edges as much as possible. Do not worry if this forces the muslin to wrinkle. Pull the pant bottom inlay back away from the pocket. Seam the two pocket pieces together around the edge. You do not have to sew the top edge of the pocket. Sew the curved part up to the stitch mark that marks the bottom of the pocket opening.
Remove the pins. Test the pocket by putting your hand in the pocket. With a finger feel just below the pocket opening to make sure there is no hole there. Remove the stitch marks that mark the pocket opening, and the two reference marks down the side seam, but not the hem marks at the bottom of the pant leg.
Finish the side seams and side pockets for the other pant leg before going on to the next step.
Now with strong synthetic waistbands it is more common to have suspender buttons inside the pants. But at the time these pants were popular black suspender buttons were outside the pants, and black suspenders were worn. The suspenders will not be seen while the coat is worn. Layers of reinforcement were added to strengthen the button attachments that are not needed with synthetic waistbands. Your local fabric store probably does not sell synthetic waistbands. These instructions do it the old way.
The top and bottom pant pieces are already sewn together at the side seam. Make sure the side seam is pressed open from the top edge down to the pocket opening. Lay the pants on the table wrong side up. The pant bottom inlay should be over the pant bottom. The side pocket should be over the pant top. The top edge of the top piece is one straight line. The top edge of the bottom piece is two straight lines. Measure the total distance along all of these straight lines together and add six inches for the length to cut your canvas. Cut the cotton canvas along the straight grain of the canvas 1.5 inches wide. It does not matter whether the canvas strip is cut along the warp of the canvas or perpendicular to the warp. If you fold the canvas double you can cut the strips for both legs at once. Do not zigzag the canvas yet.
Make sure the canvas extends beyond the pants on both sides of the pants at both ends of the canvas and covers the tops of the pockets. Pin the canvas 0.5 inches below the top edge of the pants. When you get to the bend at the side seam the canvas will bulge more on the top side of the canvas. When you get to the bend at the top of the bottom pant piece the canvas will bulge more on the bottom side of the canvas. At each bend even the side with the smallest bulge should be bulged up 0.75 inches or more so there will be adequate overlap after the bulges are cut. With black marker put the same number on each side of a bulge. Number the bulges 1 and 2. That way you will know which ends match after the bulges are cut.
The cut will be approximately perpendicular to the top edge of the pants. Cut the canvas along the top of these bulges completely through so the canvas can lay flat and overlap where the bulges were, and there are now three pieces of canvas. Where the pieces of canvas overlap at the peak on the pant bottom the corners of the canvas will be closer to the top edge of the pant bottom than 0.5 inches. Cut the corners to keep the distance between the canvas and top edge to 0.5 inches. The canvas will extend past the pant bottom inlay stitch marks where the center seam will go, even with the edge of the pant bottom. The canvas will not extend all the way to the crotch edge of the pant top. It will be trimmed back a half inch before it reaches the edge of the pant top.
Unpin the pieces of canvas, and zigzag them with black thread.
The side pockets could lay on the pant top or on the pant bottom. They should be laying on the pant top. Put the canvas pieces in place back on the pant. Make sure the tops of the pockets are under the canvas and stretched out flat, and that the pant bottom inlay at the side seam is over the edge of the back pocket.
Shift the canvas pieces if necessary so that you can fold the top edge of the pants down 0.5 inch over the canvas. First pin the canvas in place in the middle of the width of the canvas before you fold the twill over the canvas. This is necessary so the canvas will not shift while you fold the twill. Make sure you can still fold the twill 0.5 inch or slightly more over the canvas everywhere along the top edge. You could pin the twill or just fold it by hand as you sew. When you get to the sharp bend at the top of the back piece just double over the fold of the twill. At the crotch edge of the top piece the canvas does not reach the edge, but continue to fold the twill down over itself where there is no canvas. Take the pants to the machine and sew a seam a quarter inch down from the top of the pants.
The top of the side pocket should be under the canvas at the top of the pant top piece. Sew a horizontal seam in the middle of the canvas across the top of the side pocket to hold up the pocket. Sew this seam before the vertical seams described next. The back pocket needs no such seam because both facings are already attached to the twill.
Sew vertical seams through pants and canvas where the canvases overlap and where the canvases end at the edge of the pants. But the seam in the middle is near the pocket opening. Make sure the middle seam does not interfere with the pocket opening.
You need three each one inch by two inch rectangles of black twill. These will reinforce the inside of the pant top where the suspender buttons will go on the outside of the pant top. Fold each in half and while folded, zigzag the edges with black thread.
Find the stitch marks for the suspender buttons near the top edge of the pants. There should be three button locations on each pant leg. Put the folded edge of a reinforcement square just below the top of the pants on the canvas on the opposite side from the button stitch marks. The squares go on the wrong side of the pants, the inside. Hold them in place until you sew the first seam along the edge of the patch, then sew the other three edges. Use needle down at the corners. Sew them through canvas and pants to reinforce the spots where the buttons will be sewn on.
After the reinforcement squares are sewn on, the white stitch marks are no longer needed to see where the buttons need to be sewn on. Remove the white stitch marks.
Make sure you use black buttons the right size for your suspenders. Probably 3/4 inch. Sew buttons on the good side of the pants, the outside, centered over where the reinforcements are on the inside. Two buttons on the pant top and one on the pant bottom. Whether sewing by hand or by machine put a wooden match stick over the center of the button to make sure there is slack in the stitches to make room for the thickness of the suspender tab. If sewing by machine, use the button sew-on presser foot and lower the feed dogs before you sew. If your machine is computerized, it may have a button sew-on program that you can select. There are 4 holes in the button. When sewing by machine sew the front pair of holes, do not remove the match stick. Pull everything a tiny bit forward to get ready to sew the rear pair of holes. Push the match stick further back so that it is between the rear pair of holes. Sew the rear pair of holes. Then remove the match stick.
Finish the top edge of both pant legs before you go on to the next step.
Different people sew zippers in by different procedures. This is the procedure I like.
Do not worry about some parts near the fly opening being sewn on even with the top edge of the pants. You do not have to worry about things showing, because the front top edge of the pants will be covered by the vest when the pants are worn.
Cut out the paper rectangle with the J in it. This is going to be different than other pattern use, so pay attention. Pin the pattern to two layers of black twill. Draw the rectangle on the fabric. Leaving the pattern still pinned, cut out the J and trace the J on the same fabric. Be sure to mark the reference mark at the bottom inside of the J. Remove the pattern, re-pin, cut out the rectangle. Un-pin, separate the two pieces. On the top piece that has the chalk marks, cut out the J. Mark the reference mark with white thread. you have a rectangular piece and a J piece, both only one layer of twill.
Fold the rectangular piece so the long edges are together. Sew all the raw edges together. After sewing, the edges probably do not exactly match, so trim the edges until the edges match exactly. Then zigzag the rectangle with black thread.
Zigzag the edges of the J piece with black thread. Then mark the reference mark with white thread.
At this point we have right and left pant legs with the side seams sewn on both. Get the right pant leg. This means the pant leg that will be on your right side when you are wearing the pants. The piece with the two buttons on top is the pant top which is the front piece. The front piece will be on your right side.
The next few paragraphs are an explanation of what we will do before we actually do it. Do not do anything until you see "now we are ready to start".
We could fold the crotch edge of the pant top under a quarter inch before sewing the folded edge to the zipper. This would allow complete freedom to choose the distance between the folded edge and the zipper teeth. But it would be impossible to make the distance exactly the same for the whole length of the zipper. I prefer to sew the zipper to the pant top before folding the edge of the pant top. If the presser foot is against the zipper teeth while the seam is sewn, the distance between the teeth and the seam will be exactly the same the whole length of the zipper. If the zipper is folded under after the seam is sewn, then the distance between the folded edge and the teeth will be the same the whole length of the zipper.
With my zipper foot against the zipper teeth, the farthest I can adjust the needle from the teeth will result in a seam 1/8 inch from the teeth. After the zipper is folded under the fold will clear the teeth far enough that the zipper slider will not rub against the fold.
When sewing twill to twill, there I have no problem with the layers of cloth slipping. But when sewing twill to the zipper tape, there is a serious problem of the layers slipping while I sew. Therefore the zipper must be basted to the twill before sewing.
After the zipper is basted to the top piece, we will be ready to sew the seam. But since we want the zipper presser foot against the teeth while we sew, we will want the zipper zipped up all the way to the top before we sew. That way the zipper slider will be out of the way of the presser foot. We will later cut the top of the zipper off to the length we need, but this will not be convenient until after we have sewn the seam because of the requirement to get the slider out of the way while the seam is sewn.
The seam will stop 1.5 inches below the top of the pants. This will keep the zipper loose above the seam where we want to cut the top of the zipper. After we have sewn the seam, we will fold the zipper under and sew a seem a short way back from the folded edge to keep the edge folded. This will be easiest with an edge stitch presser foot. This seam will also stop 1.5 inches below the top of the pant.
After the fold seam, we can lower the zipper slider to unzip the zipper to a point far below the top of the seam. Then we can put a small safety pin enclosing the teeth of the zipper at least a half inch below the top of the seam. This is required before we cut both sides of the zipper off one inch below the top of the pant. If we did not put the safety pin on before we cut the zipper there would be a danger that the zipper slider would go off the top of the zipper, which would be a disaster, because we could not get it back on.
Before you start, test your zipper foot to see where your seam will be on the zipper tape when you sew the back side of the zipper, the side opposite from the slider.
Now we are ready to start.
Lay the right pant leg on the table good side up. Notice the stitch mark exactly two inches above the point of the crotch of the pant top. Put both sides of the zipper entirely on the pant top with the zipper handle down against the good side of the pant top. The wrong side of the zipper will be up.
At the bottom of the zipper just below the bottom teeth on the zipper will be a barrier to prevent the slider from going off the bottom of the zipper.
Put the zipper on the pant top with the the bottom of the barrier at the closed end of the zipper at the stitch mark. Both halves of the zipper are on the pant top. The edge of the zipper closest to the fly edge of the pant top is what will be sewn to the fly edge. The other half of the zipper will be even further from the fly edge.
Do not attempt to pin it in place for the whole length of the zipper. This is a difficult seam to sew properly, it must be basted in place before sewing. Before basting, you should determine the proper position of the zipper relative to the fly edge of the pant top.
Your goal is to baste the zipper so that when the seam is sewn the seam will be a quarter inch from the edge of the twill. If you have determined where the seam will be on the zipper tape when using your zipper foot, put a pin through the zipper tape where the seam will be. Put the point of the pin on the twill a quarter inch from the edge of the twill. Slide the zipper tape down the pin onto the twill. Now you see where the edge of the zipper tape should be relative to the edge of the twill when you baste the tape to the twill.
It is best to hand baste it with white thread with stitches that penetrate both layers every quarter inch. A single seam of basting should be sufficient. The basting should be located so that it will not be where the seam will be sewn later on. I basted very near the edge of the twill. Put a single pin to fix the position of the zipper tape for the first basting stitch at the bottom of the zipper that will be repeated in place six times. Then remove the pin and continue basting until you have basted to a point 1.5 inches below the pant top. The last basting stitch will be repeated six times.
Put the zipper foot on your machine. Zip the zipper up all the way to the top to get the zipper slider out of the way of the presser foot. The bottom end of the zipper seam should be at the crotch stitch mark. The top end of the zipper seam should be 1.5 inches below the top of the pant. Use black thread. Sew the seam with the zipper foot.
Remove the white basting thread along the zipper. Now that the zipper is already sewn on, turn the zipper over away from the pant top. The zipper should be pulled away from the pant top. The seam allowance you have just sewn should be folded flat against the wrong side of the pant top. On the good side of the pant top sew along the folded edge of the pant top to keep it folded. The seam should be about 2mm behind the fold. This will be easiest with the edge stitch foot. This seam should not go higher than 1.5 inches below the top of the pant. The seam should not go past the white stitch mark at the bottom of the zipper. Go slow and keep the zipper pulled and the edge blade against the fold as you sew.
The right pant top is folded under a quarter inch where you have sewn the zipper. Fold the top of the zipper back out of the way. Now fold the rest of the twill edge above the zipper seam under a quarter inch and sew it.
Unzip the zipper. Put a small safety pin across the zipper teeth at the seam you have just sewn about 2 inches below the top of the pant. Cut off both sides of the zipper one inch below the top of the pant. This will be 0.5 inches above the top of the seam. Whatever happens do not remove the safety pin until much later on when a cloth patch is sewn over the top of the zipper later on to prevent the slider from going off the top.
Get the other pant leg, the left pant leg and the J shaped fly piece. Lay it on the table good side up. Place the fly piece good side down against the fly edge of the pant top. Do not get confused and put it against the pant bottom. Make sure the reference mark on the fly piece is on top of the corresponding reference mark on the pant top. The top end of the fly piece will go above the pant top. Cut it off so that it is even with the pant top. Zigzag the end.
Put the fly piece good side down with the edge of the fly piece matching the fly edge of the top piece. Use plenty of pins. Check from both sides to see that the edges match before you sew. Make sure that the pockets underneath do not catch on the machine and drag as you sew. Sew the fly edge of the fly piece to the pant top good side to good with a quarter inch seam allowance. The seam should go down to the crotch stitch mark. After you have finished, check again that the edges match.
On the right pant leg with the zipper we sewed the seam allowance against the wrong side of the pant top. But for the left pant leg without the zipper we will pull the fly piece away from the pant and sew the quarter inch seam allowance to the fly piece. Use the edge stitch foot and make the seam 2mm from the existing seam. Sew from the good side and feel the quarter inch seam allowance through the fabric to make sure it is under the fly piece, not under the top piece. This will be tricky in the curve, the fly piece will have to be carefully pulled away from the seam or it will fold under the seam.
Now we sew the inseams of both pant legs. We will do this for each leg separately. Each pant leg will be wrong side out when we sew the inseam. Lay the pant leg good side up. Fold the pant top over so that it is good side down on the pant bottom. The inseam edge of the pant top from the crotch point down to the bottom of the pant leg should be at the row of stitch marks on the pant bottom inlay. Pin near the crotch point, at the knee stitch marks and the bottom hem line first. Then pin in between. If one piece is too loose, stretch both pieces before putting a pin midway between pins already in place. Pin about every 3 inches. You may need to baste or use a walking foot. Sew the seam between crotch point and bottom edge of the pants. Do this for both pant legs.
With the pant legs wrong side out, press the inseams open.
Turn both pant legs right side out. Grasp each pant leg by the top of the inseam and shake it, so the top of the inseam is above everything else. Bring the tops of the two inseams together, so they are pressed against each other. We want to pin and then sew the crotch of the pants. Make sure you match the two crotches good side to good side. It is possible to make a mistake and match them good side to wrong side.
We now want to sew the pants together for two inches on either side of the inseams. This is to fix the relative position of the two pant legs before we sew the zipper to the other side of the pants. We must not sew more than two inches on either side of the inseams because we need an opening on the back side of the pants to sew the zipper to the other side of the pants.
We want a two inch seam on each side of the inseam, not a four inch seam that would go across the inseam. This is because we do not want to include the back piece inlays in the seam. When we sew each seam, we will have the inlay folded out of the way of that seam. We should sew the two inch seam to the rear of the inseam first, because that is the easier one. The seam in front of the inseam is confusing because the fly piece is between the edges of the pant top pieces making it hard to line up the edges of the pant top pieces. A further complication is that the zipper is turned in on the right front piece. The left front piece is a raw edge for the whole two inches. The right front piece is a raw edge near the inseam, but a folded edge near the zipper. Match the raw edge of the left front piece to the edge of the right front piece, whether the edge is raw or folded. Sew the two seams with a quarter inch seam allowance.
We now need to mark the right front top piece behind the zipper to show how much we want the left top piece to overlap the right top piece when the zipper is zipped. We do not want to mark with chalk on the good side of the fabric, so we will use white thread. It should be a quarter inch behind the folded edge at the bottom of the zipper, and 3/8 inch beyond higher up. At the top of the right front piece use a ruler to hand stitch a small white stitch 3/8 inch back from the folded edge that the zipper tape protrudes out from under. Put white thread in the machine. Set the longest stitch length your machine has. Use a straight stitch with no securing stitches at the ends. Put the presser foot so it is centered on the hand stitch mark. Note how far the edge of the presser foot is from the folded edge. Sew from the top down to where the white stitch mark is at the bottom of the zipper. As you approach the bottom move the presser foot so the edge of the presser foot is at the folded edge. You now have a white stitch mark the length of the zipper that shows how much the pants will overlap.
Now that the right top piece is marked, fold the J shaped fly piece under the left top piece so that the folded edge shows the seam where the fly piece is sewn on. At the edge two folded edges are already sewn together. Then pull the left pant top over the right pant top so that the folded edge of the left pant top is at the stitch mark on the right pant top. Make sure the two sides are the same height at the top of the pants. Pins will not help here, you will have to position the pieces by hand as you sew. With white thread in the machine use the edge stitch foot to temporarily sew the edge of the left front top piece to the right front top piece. Use the longest stitch length for machine basting. You will remove this stitching later on. You will not need a securing stitch at each end. Start the seam at the top to make sure the top edges of the pants match. Sew very slowly to make sure the edge matches the stitch marks. Make sure the pant bottoms are pulled out of the way so they do not get caught in the seam. Do not sew more than an inch at a time, stop, lower the needle, raise the presser foot, make sure the fly is folded so the seam is at the edge, that the edge is at the stitch marks, that nothing is hanging on the machine.
Move the zipper slider up to the safety pin.
Put black thread in the machine. Turn the pant legs wrong side out. Where the zipper is zipped up, it should lay against the fly where it needs to be sewn. But it is not possible to zip the zipper all of the way up because of the safety pin. Put the pants on the machine. With the J shaped fly piece and zipper to one side, and everything else to the other side, use the zipper presser foot to sew the zipper to the fly. The fly piece will be underneath the zipper. Start the seam at the bottom of the zipper teeth. When you get to where the slider is stop the seam with a securing stitch, you will finish the seam later. Leave the white basting in when you are finished with this seam, you are not yet ready to remove it.
Turn the pant legs right side out.
The J shaped fly you have just sewn the zipper to is already sewn to its left pant top piece along one edge of the J. Now it needs to be sewn to its left pant top piece along the other edge of the J. Switch to the standard presser foot.
Put one pant leg under the upper arm of the machine to get started. Arrange the fabric so the fly and pant are smooth where you will start to sew. Do not start the seam any lower down on the fly piece than where you can keep the fabric smooth. Have the edge of the standard presser foot at the edge of the fly piece. Sew the seam from the lower part of the fly piece up to the top.
Remove the machine basting that holds the left top piece to the right top piece. Do this by cutting every fourth stitch with your seam ripper. Now you can unzip the zipper and use the zipper foot to finish sewing the zipper to the pant top pieces above where the previous seam stopped.
Move the safety pin from the right side of the zipper to the left side of the zipper. Keep it at least a half inch below the top of the zipper. We are going to work on the right side of the zipper.
We have now sewed both edges of the J shaped fly piece to the left pant top. Now we will sew a folded rectangle to the right pant top to cover the zipper. The purpose of this piece is to protect your body from the zipper. When we made the fly piece we also made a long rectangular piece almost 2.5 inches wide. One long edge is a neat fold, the other is a two layer zigzag. Have the zipper area of the pants wrong side up. Unzip the zipper completely, otherwise the seam you are going to sew might sew the two pant top piece edges together. Lay the long rectangle over the zipper on the right side of the pants, the side that does not have the safety pin, now that we have moved the safety pin. The top end of the rectangle should be even with the top of the pants. The zigzag edge of the long rectangle should be even with or covering over the edge of the zipper. We will not use pins, we will control the fabric by hand as we sew. Start the seam at the top. Go slow and keep the edges lined up as you sew. When you get to the bottom it will be impossible to keep the fabric smooth and keep stray folds out of the way. It would be best not to sew by machine all the way to the bottom. We will fasten the loose bottom end of the rectangular piece another way.
The crotch is curved, not flat. So hold the crotch up off the table, wrong side up, and smooth the loose bottom end of the rectangular piece against the inside of the crotch. One corner of the rectangular piece is on the zigzagged side of the rectangular piece, the other corner is on the folded side of the rectangular piece. Pinch the folded corner of the rectangular piece against the crotch. Take it to the machine and sew the corner to the crotch with a short securing stitch. This should fasten the bottom end of the rectangular piece in a satisfactory manner.
Now we are ready to sew a patch over the top end of the zipper so we can remove the safety pin. Unzip the zipper. Move the safety pin to a place at least 4 inches down from the top of the pants. Cut two layers of black twill 3 inches by 3 inches. Separate the pieces. Fold each so the folded edge is 3 inches long and the other dimension is 1.5 inches. Zigzag the edges with black thread.
Put one of the patches you have sewn over the top corner of the left front piece. The zipper teeth are visible on the inside, or wrong side of the left front piece. The folded edge of the patch should be at the bottom and will cover the top of the zipper. The zipper slider will hit the bottom edge of the patch. That is the reason the folded edge should be at the bottom. The other edges should match the top and front edges of the top piece. Sew a standard quarter inch seam allowance on the three sides that are zigzagged. On the bottom folded edge, sew right close to the folded edge. If the zipper has plastic teeth, it might be permissible to sew across the zipper. But if the zipper has metal teeth do not sew across the zipper as this would break the needle. If the zipper has metal teeth use the zipper foot to sew a vertical securing stitch as close as possible on either side of the zipper teeth. Now you can remove the safety pin.
The other patch should be put on the right front piece. It is not needed to keep the zipper from coming off the top. It is needed to provide thickness where the button will be sewn on. It could be put on the front, over the zipper, or behind. If put in front it would also serve to keep the zipper on, but would be visible after the pants were zipped up. The vest would hide it. If it were put behind it would still serve the essential function of reinforcing the place where a button will be sewn on. I put it behind.
You will use a black 3/4 inch button to fasten the top of the pants above the zipper. Because the material is very thick, a buttonhole with a 1 inch opening would make it easier to button and unbutton. Practice making buttonholes on scrap cloth before you do it on your pants. Making buttonholes on very thick fabric may work differently from thin fabric. So make a test piece with one layer of canvas sandwiched between three layers of twill. On my machine the bobbin should be threaded in a non-standard way for making buttonholes. Your machine may be different.
The buttonhole will be horizontal 3/4 inch below the top edge of the pants on the left front piece. The part of the buttonhole closest to the fly edge of the left front piece should be no closer to the front edge than one inch. The button will not be exactly centered on the front of the pants. This is because we are using a zipped fly on an old pattern intended for a buttoned fly. This will not matter because it will be covered by the vest. The zipper should be on top when you make the buttonhole. If the zipper were on the bottom it might catch on the machine and prevent the fabric from moving. Make sure there is plenty of thread on the bobbin before you start your buttonhole.
After making the buttonhole, zip up the pants, put a needle with white thread through the end of the buttonhole nearest the fly edge, push the needle and white thread through the reinforced part of the rectangular strip sewn to the front of the right front piece. This will mark where the button needs to be sewn on. Sew the button on using the button sew on foot with a wooden match stick over the button to make the thread loose enough that there will be space enough under the button for the thick fabric.
The next step is to finish sewing up the center seam on the back of the pant seat. The canvas waistband probably covers up some stitch marks at the top of the rear inlay. Hand stitch black thread from the white stitch marks on the good side of the twill through the twill and canvas so the stitch marks can be seen on the canvas. The seam will be a quarter inch from this line of stitch marks. The seam will not go up the top edge of the pants toward the buttons. The seam will only be parallel to the line of stitch marks.
Have the pants wrong side out. Make sure to sew the fabric good side to good side. Most of the seam will be along stitch marks. You will have to pin the two pieces of fabric together so the edges match so the hidden stitch marks will match. The pins will go in the inlay since the presser foot will not go in the inlay. On the small part of the seam where there is no inlay, the pins will be far enough from the edge of the fabric to make room for the presser foot to run along the edge. Sew the seam, then press the seam open.
Review the procedure used to hem the sleeves. Use the same procedure to hem the pant legs. You should first use a blind seam for the hem. A blind seam is much easier to remove if you decide to raise or lower the hem after some experience dancing with the pants. You may later wish to use a plain seam for the hem because a plain seam is stronger.
You are finished with the pants. Attach the suspenders. Before you try on the pants, be forewarned that they have a higher waist than you have ever worn before. You must pull them all the way up, snug against the right side of your crotch, or they will not fit.
Remove all the mark stitches. Most of the mark stitches are only accessible when the pants are turned wrong side out.
Since the vest is white and in the front of the suit, imperfections in the vest are more obvious than imperfections in any other part of the suit. Be careful in making the vest. Before we get started, we will have a few paragraphs about the vest. Do not do anything until you see "now we get started".
The vest will only be seen through the opening in the front of the tailcoat, so the vest will be backless. A backless vest is cooler than a vest complete with a back. My experience is that you do more sweating and cooling from the back than from the front with athletic dancing, so it is especially important to keep your back cool.
Some people sew the front of the vest together and use a cummerbund buckle on the belts or straps in the rear. I do not think this is wise. A cummerbund buckle is satisfactory on a cummerbund because you can tell immediately if the buckle comes undone while your are dancing. The cummerbund will fall off, and you will notice immediately. But with a vest, you have no way of knowing if the buckle comes undone, only the straps fall down for all to see, and you feel nothing. It is better to have the straps permanently sewn together in the back, and use buttons and buttonholes in the front to put on and take off the vest.
The vest will need vertical buttonholes in the vest over the front suspender buttons that are on the pants. You might worry that if the buttonholes are not located perfectly the front of the vest might not be perfectly centered. Do not worry. If you do not have the buttonholes, the vest will shift two inches to the left or right while you are dancing. The buttonholes are necessary to keep the vest reasonably well centered. The vest will have a total of 5 buttonholes. Three small buttonholes in the front and two large buttonholes, one on either side of the front.
The vest is also called a waistcoat, the terms are synonymous. The vest is made of white cotton twill or denim, so we will use colored chalk to trace the patterns. We would not be able to see white chalk marks. When marking canvas or muslin we could use a black marker, but we dare not use it here because it would show through the white cloth and it would not wash out the way the colored chalk marks will. The colored chalk will not show through the white twill even if it is not washed out. You will have to press hard and rub vigorously to get visible lines with the colored chalk.
A small piece of the vest is canvas. Natural cotton color canvas will be satisfactory. It is the small pattern shaped like the lower front corner of the front piece.
Stitch marking would be more visible with black thread, but we must use white thread. This is because any black stitch marks that become trapped in a hem might stain the fabric later when the vest is washed. Very little stitchmarking is necessary, because most of the hems are half inch. Half inch hems can be folded and sewn without stitchmarks because your presser foot is a half inch wide, and can be used as a guide to fold the hem as you sew.
After mark stitching we will use white thread to zigzag the edges. When we zigzagged black cloth we could safely use white thread to zigzag. But we cannot use black thread to zigzag white cloth because the black dye might stain the white cloth when we wash the garment.
Each half of the vest is made of three pieces: front piece, canvas and lapel. A neck piece is also shown which will join the two halves of the vest. First the canvas will be sewn to the front piece. Then the pieces will be hemmed according to the stitch marks with exceptions noted in the following paragraph. The buttonholes and buttons will be inserted. The lapel pieces will be joined to the front pieces. The neck piece will be joined to the front pieces. The edges where the pieces will be joined will not be hemmed. Straps will be attached to the back of the vest.
Most of the mark stitching represents half inch hem lines. Since it is time consuming to remove mark stitches later on, you might want to omit mark stitching the half inch hem lines, and only mark stitch one dashed line on the lapel. You can sew half inch hems without mark stitches as explained later.
The one place that should be mark stitched is the front edge of the lapel. The wide hemline there is not a hemline at all. It is a fold line. That part will be sewn to the wrong side of the front edge of the vest and then folded over the front of the vest. But the rear and bottom edges of the lapel piece will be hemmed normally and do not need to be mark stitched.
The dashed line behind the front edge of the front piece does not need to be mark stitched. It is only to show you where the edge of the lapel will be after it is sewn on and folded back.
Now we get started. Cut out the pieces. Mark stitch the one line on the lapel that looks like an extra wide hem. Separate the layers and zigzag the edges with white thread.
Put the canvas piece on the wrong side of the front lower part of the front piece, leaving a half inch of twill extending beyond the canvas that will be folded over the canvas. Fold the edge of the front piece over the edge of the canvas. Pin the canvas in place on the twill. The back edge and the top edge of the canvas will not have twill folded over them. Sew the back edge and the top edge of the canvas to the twill. Then fold the twill over the other edges of the canvas and sew it to the canvas in a half inch hem. Hem the rest of the front piece except the top edge where the neck piece will be joined. Use your presser foot as a guide to make a half inch hem.
Hem only the rear and bottom edges of the lapel pieces. Hem only the top and bottom curved edges of the neck piece. Even though you have cut two neck pieces, you only need one. It is difficult to hem the curved edges of the neck piece. Sew only a short distance, then adjust the fold for the next short distance.
Next we will do the buttonholes and buttons. The buttonholes go on the left front of the vest, the buttons on the right front. The buttons and buttonholes will be evenly spaced at the short vertical front edges of the vest pieces. Because the folded hem of twill is not smooth at the corners of the short vertical edge, your buttonhole foot may not work properly at the corners. So the top and bottom buttonholes should not be quite as far up and down the vertical edge as the corners. We will sew the buttonholes first so we can use them to mark exactly where the buttons will go. But before you sew the buttonholes, cut and sew two layer patches of white twill and canvas to practice on. You will be using half inch diameter white buttons. You must experiment to see how long the buttonholes need to be for it to be easy to fasten and unfasten the buttons. If you are using a buttonhole presser foot, the foot is probably marked in centimeters, not in inches. On my machine the bobbin should be threaded in a non-standard way for making buttonholes. Your machine may be different.
The stitching for both the buttonholes and the buttons will not get closer than a quarter inch from the front edge of the vest. The black stitch marking to locate the buttonholes and the buttons will have to be on the very front edge of the vest. This is because if the black stitchmarking gets caught in the stitching for the buttonhole or for the button, it will be impossible to get out. To make the black stitchmarking, put the needle through the wrong side of the front edge of the vest, then put the needle through the right side of the front edge of the vest very close to where the thread comes out. Pull the thread to bring the loop of thread on the right side of the vest down against the vest. Cut the loose ends of the black thread on the wrong side of the vest very short so there is no chance they will get caught in the stitching for the buttonhole or for the button.
Mark the height of each buttonhole with a black stitch mark at the front edge of the short straight edge. The buttonholes should be evenly spaced along the short vertical edge of the small rectangle. The end of each buttonhole should be a quarter inch from the edge of the vest. Sew the three buttonholes on the left vest front. Cut each buttonhole by pressing your buttonhole chisel against a wooden block.
Now we must mark the button positions on the right vest front. Lay the front piece with no buttonholes wrong side up on the table. Lay the front piece with buttonholes right side up on top of the other piece. Have the top piece shifted back so the small front vertical edge of the bottom piece can be seen. Make a black stitch mark at the front of the short vertical edge of the right vest front that is at the same height as the corresponding buttonhole on the left vest front. Do this for the three button locations. Sew the three half inch diameter white or mother of pearl buttons at those locations. The center of each button should be a quarter inch back from the edge. When sewing each button use a wooden match stick over the button to give some slack in the thread.
Lay the two front pieces good side up on the table. The bottom of each piece should be near you. The front of each piece should be close to the front of the other piece. Place a lapel piece good side up on each front piece. The stitchmarked fold line of the lapel should be just beyond the front edge of the front piece so that when the front of the lapel is folded over the front of the front piece, the stitch marks will be on the folded edge. But do not fold yet.
Consider the front piece with buttons. The bottom edge of the lapel should be at least 1/8 inch above the top of the top button. Where the bottom edge of the lapel crosses the front edge of the front piece it should not be lower that the top corner of the vertical edge of the front piece. But it can be higher. Once the lapel is adjusted for the front piece with buttons, adjust the lapel for the other front piece to be the exact same height. Pin each lapel in place with a pin at each end of the lapel.
Fold the lapel over the front piece. Look at the wrong side of the front piece. The bottom front corner of each lapel may be where it would overlap the buttonhole and make it hard to put the button through the buttonhole. Cut off the folded edge where it would overlap the buttonhole. Unpin the lapels and zigzag the small cut you have made on each lapel.
Put a front piece on the table wrong side up. Place a lapel good side up so only the rear part of the lapel behind the stitch marks is over the front edge of the lapel. Pin the lapel to the front piece with one pin about two inches above the bottom end of the lapel. The point of the pin should be pointing at the bottom end of the lapel. Fold the lapel over the front piece. Look at the good side of the front piece and see if the lapel is where you want it. If not, try again. When satisfied, take the front piece with lapel pinned to it to the machine, front piece wrong side up. With the lapel not folded, sew the rear edge of the lapel to the front piece with a quarter inch seam allowance. When the seam gets started, remove the pin, and sew the rest of the seam keeping the line of stitch marks with the same alignment relative to the front edge of the front piece. You cannot see the front edge of the front piece, but you can feel it under the lapel.
Remove the mark stitches.
Fold each lapel neatly over against the front edge of the vest. Pin it in place with a pin at the bottom of the lapel and at the top of the lapel. Sew a short securing stitch over the existing hem seam at the rear bottom corner of the lapel to keep it fastened to the vest. Sew a similar seam at the top of the lapel.
One inch wide cotton belting needs to be sewn to the rear extension of the vest pieces. Measure the distance from the short front vertical edge of a vest front piece to the rear end of the front piece. Subtract this distance from half of your waist measurement. This is the distance from the rear of the vest to the center of your back. Add 3 inches to this distance. This is how long your cotton belts should be. Cut two cotton belts this long. Zigzag the ends.
Each piece of cotton belt will be sewn to the wrong side of the rear end of a vest front piece. Even though the short vertical edge of the front piece is a long way from the rear end, it will be used as a reference for the angle of the cotton belt. The cotton belt should be perpendicular to the short vertical edge at the front of the front piece. It should overlap the rear end of the front piece one inch. It should be sewn to the rear end with two vertical seams across the width of the cotton belt. One seam should be a quarter inch from the rear of the belt, the other a quarter inch from the rear of the front piece. We are not ready yet to sew the two belts together.
Next, we sew the neck piece to the top of the two front pieces. Put one end of the neck piece at the top of one of the front pieces, good side to good side. The raw edge of the end of the neck piece should line up with the raw edge of the top of the front piece. Depending on which end of the neck piece you choose, the neck piece will either extend toward the rear of the front piece, or out in front of the front piece. You want to choose the end of the neck piece that will make the neck piece extend out in front of the front piece. Sew the seam. Then attach the other end of the neck piece good side to good side to the top of the other front piece. Press the seams open.
Now we are ready to fasten the cotton belts in the back. Put the neck piece over your head and behind your neck just below your collar. Button the center button on the front of the vest. Grasp the rear ends of both front pieces. Slide your fingers along both belts to where they overlap in the center of the back of your waist. Pinch the belts together with one hand. With the other hand unbutton the button. While keeping the belts pinched together, take the vest off. This is awkward, but you can do it. Take it to the sewing machine and sew one seam across the belts in the center of where they overlap.
If you have already finished the pants, you are ready to finish the vest. Put the pants you have made on. Make sure the pants are all the way up as high as they will go. Pull them up on both sides, not high on one side and low on the other. Put the vest on. Make sure the neck piece is not twisted. Make sure the vest is centered in the front. Put on the coat. The top edge of the pants should be hidden behind the buttoned front part of the vest. The bottom edge of the vest should not show below the bottom edge of the coat. It is very unlikely that either of these problems will arise if you have made everything from these patterns. If the height of the vest is right, go on to the next step. If it is not right, rip out the seams where the neck piece joins the front pieces of the vest. Either sew the neck piece lower down on the front pieces or add an extender strip to lengthen each side. When the height is right, go on to the next step.
Feel through the vest to where the front suspender button is on both sides of the vest. Make a mark at the center of the front suspender button on both sides. Take the vest off. Make a vertical buttonhole on each vest front piece large enough for the suspender button. The bottom end of each buttonhole should be where the mark is that you made. Put the vest back on and make sure you can button the buttons. Now you have finished the vest.
The shirts sold for use with tailsuits in your local tuxedo shop are not the traditional kind of shirts used with tailsuits.
The traditional shirt that will come with an expensive tailor made tailsuit will have the front of the shirt only made of very expensive cotton birdseye pique or marcella. The collar will be a detachable wing collar. The collar will appear to be made of white plastic with fabric in it. The collar will attach with two special fasteners, one for the front and a different one for the back. The shirt will fasten with expensive gold metal studs with white or mother of pearl facings.
The only wing collar shirts you will find in local stores will have pleated fronts appropriate for tuxedos, not for tailsuits. The wing collars will be too short for use with the high collar of the type of tailsuit we have made.
The purpose of this project is to make a good tailsuit at the lowest possible cost. We will modify an ordinary inexpensive white long sleeved shirt so that from a distance it will look like a proper shirt for a tailsuit.
Shop around until you find a shirt that specifies neck size and sleeve length. Small, medium and large is not specific enough. A button down collar will be easier to modify than a plain collar. The plain collar will have a plastic stiffener that will have to be removed. The shirt will be cooler if 100% cotton. It should have plain cuffs, not folded back french cuffs, which would catch on the coat sleeves when you raise your arms to dance.
We will turn the collar up, fold the top edge to the inside of the shirt so that the collar is two inches high. The two inches is measured from where the collar attaches to the shirt.
When you are ready, pin the folded collar in place and sew it in place. Use white thread. Now that the collar has been sewn in a fold, the front top corner can be folded in a diagonal fold to give an impression similar to a wing collar, even though it will not actually be a wing collar. Fold only the upper part of the collar. The corner will be folded to the good side, the outside of the collar. The rear edge of the folded portion should be vertical, the lower edge horizontal. The folded edge will be diagonal. Sew it in place.
The collar will be worn turned up with the white bow tie around it.
If you experience a problem with the shirt creeping up when you dance you might want to put in a trouser tab. Do not go to the trouble of putting in a trouser tab unless you really need it.
The following paragraphs will explain the procedure. The trouser tab cannot pull the wrinkles out of the shirt unless it is elastic. If it is not elastic, it can only limit how far the shirt creeps up. If it is not elastic and you lean back, yawn and stretch, the tab will rip off unless it is fastened very high.
First use black thread to sew a white button on the inside of the pants on the right side. The button should be 1/2 or 5/8 inches in diameter. It will be sewn on the rectangular folded piece of cloth that protects your body from the zipper. It will be sewn on the side of that piece that is against your body. When the pants are unzipped, it extends beyond the zipper in to the fly opening. Sew the button about two inches above where the zipper slider is when the slider is all the way down. The zipper is on the outside of this rectangular piece of cloth, the button will be sewn on the inside of the piece. The button will be sewn midway between the zipper and the vertical edge of the rectangular piece.
The trouser tab will be made of tape a half inch wide. If you want a tab that is not stretchy, use cotton twill tape from twilltape.com. If you want a tab that is stretchy, use elastic tape. When worn it will be vertical connecting the shirt and pants. Start with a piece of tape about ten inches long. It will be cut shorter later. At least a quarter inch up from the lower end of the tape sew a vertical button hole. You will not be able to sew it with a buttonhole presser foot without a special procedure because the tape is too narrow for the machine feed dogs to grab it properly. To solve this problem, first sew the lower end of the tape to a patch of twill an inch wide. Use a seam along each edge of the tape very near the edge. Now you can sew a buttonhole through both the tape and the twill patch. When finished, cut the twill patch even with the edge of the tape.
Now put the shirt on, put the pants on, and button the trouser tab to the button that you have sewn into the pants. Pull the shirt down and the pants up. About three inches up the trouser tab is where you want a horizontal buttonhole in your shirt. Mark the shirt at that point. Take the shirt off and use white thread to make a horizontal buttonhole in the shirt on the same side of the shirt that has vertical buttonholes for the buttons. The new horizontal buttonhole should be in line with the existing vertical buttonholes. It should be wider than the half inch wide cloth tape so that it will be easy to push the end of the tape through the buttonhole.
Put the shirt back on. Pull the shirt down and the pants up. Pull the trouser tab up. Use a black marker to mark the trouser tab where it is at the same height as the horizontal buttonhole. Remove the shirt. Unbutton the trouser tab from the pants. Put the shirt on the table. Button the shirt button that is above the horizontal buttonhole. Use the black marker to mark through the buttonhole to the other side of the shirt where buttons are sewn on. Unbutton the shirt. Put the trouser tab on the side of the shirt where buttons are sewn on. It should be in line with the buttons. The mark on the trouser tab should be over the mark on the shirt. The bottom end of the trouser tab with the buttonhole should be down toward the bottom of the shirt. Sew the trouser tab to the shirt with a horizontal seam where the marks are, and another horizontal seam above that. The seams must have very short stitches, no more than 0.5mm, to be strong enough to hold.
Now put on the shirt. Thread the trouser tab through the horizontal buttonhole. Button the lower end of the trouser tab to the button inside the pants. Now you should not have the problem of the shirt riding up as much and wrinkling as bad in the front.
If the trouser tab is too tight or too loose, it is easier to put the button in a different place than to make the strap longer or shorter.
You do not want to wear an undershirt when dancing, because you must be as cool as possible. An undershirt makes a big difference.
Put on the shirt and tie first. Pull the trouser tab on the shirt through the horizontal buttonhole in the shirt. Put on the pants next. Fasten the trouser tab inside the pants. Then put on the vest. Finally the coat.
Putting on the vest can be a bit tricky. The neck piece should lay flat on your back. It should not be up against the back of your neck like a collar. If it does this, you probably have one side of the vest twisted over completely. This is easy to do. Untwist whichever side you need to to get the neck piece to lay flat before you button the front of the vest.
The pants will automatically be centered when you put them on. But be careful that the shirt and vest are centered or it will look sloppy. Buttonholes in the vest and a trouser tab in the shirt will keep both centered.
The tie strap should be near the bottom of the collar.
Put a white cotton handkerchief in the welt pocket, which can be seen. There are different ways of putting a handkerchief in the pocket. The way I prefer is to lay the handkerchief spread out flat on the table. Grasp the center of the handkerchief between thumb and forefinger. Pull the handkerchief through a loop formed by the other hand to gather it into a bundle. Fold the center of the handkerchief up near the gathered end. Put it in the pocket with about one inch of the gathered end showing out the top of the pocket.
In the 1800's when cleaning clothes was more of a problem, dancers wore gloves to avoid getting their partner's clothes dirty. Now gloves are seldom worn. I never wear them at balls. White kid leather gloves are the most expensive and elegant to wear to non-dancing events, but they are not suitable for dancing. Sweat soaks through them and looks very bad. Cotton gloves are preferable if you choose to wear gloves to a ball. Elegant dressy cotton gloves are hard to find these days. Cotton gloves can be stored in the pleat pockets in the tail when not in use.
You can fold this suit and fit it into a small carry-on sized suitcase along with a pair of dance shoes and a netbook computer or a digital tablet. To fold the coat lay it wrong side down on a bed or table. Fold the shoulders to the center while putting your hand under the shoulder to keep wrinkles out of the back of the coat. One edge of each sleeve should run down the center of the coat. Fold the already folded edges of the lapels to the center. Fold one side of the coat over the center line over the other side of the coat. Fold the tails up over the body of the coat. Now it should fit into a carry-on.
Since all edges are zigzagged, the suit should be washable. The vest and shirt should be washed separately from the coat and pants so they will stay white.
The pants should be zipped up and buttoned above the zipper before they are put in the washing machine. This will avoid the remote possibility that the zipper would be damaged in the washing machine.
If you used thin canvas, it should be possible to machine wash the coat. But if you used thick canvas it would be better to hand wash the coat.
It would be preferable to dry the coat and pants on a hangar over the bathtub or shower. The canvas will wrinkle in a tumble dryer. This will be avoided by drying on a hangar.
The cotton material will dry wrinkle free on a hangar. The coat has darts and curved seams whose purpose is to impart shape to the garment that is not a flat shape. Pressing with the large presses used by dry cleaners would tend to flatten it and reduce some of the shape that was achieved at much labor. If it must be ironed, iron it by hand in such a way as not to flatten the darts.
If the suit has been wrinkled in a suitcase, the best way to get the wrinkles out is not to iron it but to steam it in the bathroom. Put about four inches of hot water in the bottom of the bathtub. Hang the suit on hangars in the bathroom. Close the bathroom door. Four hours later the suit will not have a wrinkle in it.
Below is the source code of the computer program. It is written in oberon-2 and compiled with the oo2c compiler as described at waltzballs.org/other/prog.html. It will only run on Ubuntu linux operating system. See the article at this website installing linux on a netbook. It gives an example of how to install Ubuntu linux on a computer yourself or where to buy a computer that already has it installed.
To learn to use linux see the article at this site how to use the linux terminal. Also the articles how to use the vi editor and how to program a computer. In this last article follow the instructions down to where it tells how to create the oocm script and install it in /usr/local/bin.
By the time you have done all this you will have a directory ~/wkspc/scratch. In that directory issue the command "wget waltzballs.org/other/clothes/tails.html". Then you will have tails.html in the directory. But since the file is html the program source code will not be in a useable form. Then issue the command "unhtml tails.html > tails.text". In the file tails.text the program will be in a useable form.
With the vi editor open tails.text. While at the top of the file enter the command "d /MODULE thorn8". That will delete everything down to the program. Enter ":wq" to save the result and exit the editor. Next issue the command "cp tails.text ~/wkspc/prog/src/thorn8.Mod". That will make a copy of the program in the directory ~/wkspc/prog/src and give it the name thorn8.Mod.
In ~/wkspc/prog, the directory above where the program is, issue the command "oocm thorn8". Leave off the "Mod". Now the program is compiled and ready to use. If you have created a file of your measurements called perhaps "medata" in ~/wkspc/prog, then in that directory issue the command "bin/thorn8". That will run the program. The program will ask you questions. For large patterns you want full scale. For patterns to sew with you want inlays and turnings. When it asks for a filename enter "medata" or whatever you called it. For a complete set of patterns enter "batch". One of the files created will be file1.pdf. To see the pattern in this file enter "gv file1.pdf". The pattern will be much larger than your screen. A small popup window will be in the screen. Use your cursor in the popup window to scroll around the pattern.
When running the program, after entering the input data file, the program will print on the screen the way it interpreted the file. If this does not agree with your intentions, you have an error in the data file. The program is not forgiving of any irregularities in the data. All items must be present and must be in the order shown in the example in the measurement section of this article.
The source code of the program follows:
MODULE thorn8;
(*copyright 2021 donald daniel. This program is free software:
you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option)
any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General
Public License along with this program. If not, see
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/. *)
IMPORT In,Out,Msg,Files,TextRider,
OS:ProcessManagement,rm:=RealMath,IntStr,Strings,Object;
CONST pi=rm.pi; degtorad=pi/180.0; radtodeg=180.0/pi;
seam=0.25;stand=1.0;(*collar stand*)
wltwd=5;wltdp=1;wltdrp=1;(*welt width, depth, drop*)
wd=1;(*vertical distance between fashion waist
and natural waist*)
numcoords=320;er=0;q=1;load=2;drawv=3;
print=4; backv=5;sidev=6;frontv=7;tailv=8;prtcrd=9;
collarv=10;test=11;slv=12;vst=14;pantt=15;
pantb=16;dist=17;batch=18;ang=19;bdr1=20;bdr2=21;bdr3=22;
ctlabv=23;slvlabv=24;vstlabv=25;cot=26;ptlabv=27;
weltv=29;collabv=30;tailabv=31;
last=32;
move=1;draw=2;
(*coat origins*)
xcorg=14.49;ycorg=57.96; xcorgl=3;ycorgl=65;
(*pant origins*)
xporg=24;yporg=40; xporgl=24;yporgl=40;
(*coords named tempcoord are for user. temporary coords
for tools must be assigned positions only by each tool.*)
tempcoord1=270;tempcoord2=271; tempcoord3=272;
tempcoord4=273; tempcoord5=274;reflectcoord=275;
(*281 to 286 used by testproc*)
ntrsct1=288;ntrsct2=289; arccenter=290;
arccoord1=291;arccoord2=292;arccoord3=293;arccoord4=294;
pmcoord1=295;pmcoord2=296;mdacoord1=297;mdacoord2=298;
mdacoord3=299;mdacoord4=300;mdacoord5=301;shift11=302;
shift12=303;shift21=304;shift22=305;arcangcd=306;
labcoord=307;arcline1=308;arcline2=309;
(*slc1=310;slc2=311;slcc=312;slt1=313;slt2=314;*)
TYPE cstr=ARRAY 10 OF CHAR; str=ARRAY 40 OF CHAR;
coord = RECORD x,y:REAL END;
VAR user:str;cmdara:ARRAY last+1 OF cstr; filename:str;
command,coordv,choice:LONGINT;
str1:str;invar,outvar:Files.File;resw:Msg.Msg;
infile:TextRider.Reader; outfile:TextRider.Writer;
cd:ARRAY numcoords OF coord;
nw(*natural waist, distance from the base of the neck to
the small of the silhouette of the back*), fl(*full length:
nape of neck to bottom of tail*), cuff(*sleeve length
on shirt label*), chst(*chest circumference measured
over bare skin plus 1.5 inches*), wst(*circumference
of waist over bare skin plus 1.5 inches measured at the
level of natural waist*), seat(*circumference of seat 3
inches above crotch measured over skin plus 1.5 inches*),
cs(*chest scale*), scyd(*scye depth*), ws(*waist scale*),
ss(*seat scale*), sdsm(*side seam*), insm(*inseam*),
wh(*height of natural waist above floor standing in
bare feet*), kh(*knee height, height of top of calf
muscle at the bottom of the back of the knee above
floor standing in bare feet*), knee(*circumference of
finished pants 1 inch above half inseam, knee height for
pants is intentionally very different than knee height
for coat*), bot(*circumference of bottom of pants*),
dartlpl, dartchst, dartwst, rise(*body rise, height
of natural waist above flat surface you are sitting
on*), temp1,temp2,temp3,(*temp4,*)xorg,yorg,pdisp,
scale,dashv,widthv,dxorg,dyorg,(*the following
variables should only be modified by arc procedure*)
th1,th2,arcradius,fifth,foldang,lplarc:REAL;
small,inlays,forward,lpldart,chstdart,wstdart,
dcsleeve,bevel:BOOLEAN;
PROCEDURE initvar;
BEGIN
cmdara[er]:='er';
cmdara[q]:='q';
cmdara[load]:='load';
cmdara[cot]:='ct';
cmdara[drawv]:='draw';
cmdara[ctlabv]:='ctlab';
cmdara[collabv]:='collab';
cmdara[tailabv]:='tailab';
cmdara[slvlabv]:='slvlab';
cmdara[vstlabv]:='vstlab';
cmdara[ptlabv]:='pantlab';
cmdara[backv]:='back';
cmdara[sidev]:='side';
cmdara[frontv]:='front';
cmdara[weltv]:='welt';
cmdara[tailv]:='tail';
cmdara[print]:='print';
cmdara[prtcrd]:='prtcrd';
cmdara[dist]:='dist';
cmdara[ang]:='ang';
cmdara[collarv]:='collar';
cmdara[test]:='test';
cmdara[slv]:='sleeve';
cmdara[vst]:='vest';
cmdara[pantt]:='panttop';
cmdara[pantb]:='pantbot';
cmdara[batch]:='batch';
cmdara[bdr1]:='border1';
cmdara[bdr2]:='border2';
cmdara[bdr3]:='border3';
cmdara[last]:='last';
dxorg:=0.0;dyorg:=0.0;
END initvar;
PROCEDURE determine(VAR cmdvar:LONGINT);
CONST bell=7;
VAR i:LONGINT;str1:cstr;
BEGIN
Out.String('enter command');Out.Ln; cmdvar:=er;
In.Identifier(str1);
FOR i:=q TO last DO
IF (cmdara[i]=str1)THEN cmdvar:=i;END;END;
IF cmdvar=er THEN
(*the line below must be modified to look the way it looks
when seen in your browser*)
Out.Char(CHR(bell));Out.String('<--<< error');
Out.Ln;END; END determine;
PROCEDURE initfile;
BEGIN
outvar:=Files.New('temp1',{Files.write},resw);
outfile:=TextRider.ConnectWriter(outvar);
outfile.WriteString('%!PS');outfile.WriteLn;
END initfile;
PROCEDURE width(w:REAL);
BEGIN
outfile.WriteRealFix(w,8,2);
outfile.WriteString (' setlinewidth'); outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('stroke');outfile.WriteLn;
END width;
PROCEDURE dash(w:REAL);
(*it is assumed that width will be called
right after dash, because dash has no 'stroke' *)
BEGIN
outfile.WriteString('[ '); outfile.WriteRealFix(w,8,2);
outfile.WriteRealFix(w,8,2);
outfile.WriteString(' ] 0 setdash'); outfile.WriteLn;
END dash;
PROCEDURE getdata;
PROCEDURE tf(x:REAL;VAR z:BOOLEAN);
BEGIN
IF x > 0.5 THEN Out.String('TRUE'); z:=TRUE;
ELSE Out.String('FALSE'); z:=FALSE; END;
END tf;
BEGIN
(*User units are in inches. One inch is 2.54 centimeters.
Plots will be drawn as postscript files. 72 postscript
units is one inch on the page. In batchproc postscript
files will be converted to pdf files.*);
Out.String('enter 1 for small scale, 2 for full scale');
Out.Ln;In.LongInt(choice);
IF(*scale*) choice=2 THEN small:=FALSE;
scale:=72.0; widthv:=2.8;dashv:=3;
ELSE small:=TRUE;scale:=11.18;
widthv:=1;dashv:=2;END(*scale*);
Out.String('enter 1 for plain, 2 for inlays and turnings');
Out.Ln;In.LongInt(choice);
IF(*inlays*) choice=2 THEN inlays:=TRUE; ELSE inlays:=FALSE;
END(*inlays*);
Out.String('enter filename');Out.Ln; In.Identifier(filename);
invar:=Files.Old(filename,{Files.read},resw);
infile:=TextRider.ConnectReader(invar);
infile.ReadString(user);infile.ReadLine(str1);
infile.ReadReal(chst); infile.ReadLine(str1);
cs:=chst*0.5;
Out.RealFix(chst,6,2);Out.String(' chst');Out.Ln;
infile.ReadReal(scyd); infile.ReadLine(str1);
Out.RealFix(scyd,6,2);Out.String(' scyd');Out.Ln;
infile.ReadReal(wst); infile.ReadLine(str1);
ws:=wst*0.5;
Out.RealFix(wst,6,2);Out.String(' wst');Out.Ln;
infile.ReadReal(seat); infile.ReadLine(str1);
ss:=seat*0.5;
Out.RealFix(seat,6,2);Out.String(' seat');Out.Ln;
infile.ReadReal(wh); infile.ReadLine(str1);
Out.RealFix(wh,6,2);Out.String(' wh');Out.Ln;
infile.ReadReal(rise);infile.ReadLine(str1);
Out.RealFix(rise,6,2);Out.String(' rise');Out.Ln;
infile.ReadReal(nw); infile.ReadLine(str1);
Out.RealFix(nw,6,2);Out.String(' nw');Out.Ln;
infile.ReadReal(kh); infile.ReadLine(str1);
Out.RealFix(kh,6,2);Out.String(' kh');Out.Ln;
infile.ReadReal(cuff); infile.ReadLine(str1);
Out.RealFix(cuff,6,2);Out.String(' sleeve');Out.Ln;
infile.ReadReal(temp1); infile.ReadLine(str1);
tf(temp1, lpldart);
Out.String(' lpldart');Out.Ln;
infile.ReadReal(temp1); infile.ReadLine(str1);
tf(temp1, chstdart);
Out.String(' chstdart');Out.Ln;
infile.ReadReal(temp1); infile.ReadLine(str1);
tf(temp1, dcsleeve);
Out.String(' dcsleeve');Out.Ln;
infile.ReadReal(temp1); infile.ReadLine(str1);
tf(temp1, wstdart);
Out.String(' wstdart');Out.Ln;
infile.ReadReal(temp1); infile.ReadLine(str1);
IF wstdart THEN temp1:=0;END;
tf(temp1, bevel);
Out.String(' bevel');Out.Ln;
invar.Close;
Out.Ln;
knee:=0.5*seat;bot:=0.42*seat;
dartlpl:=6.5*degtorad;dartchst:=10.0*degtorad;
dartwst:=10.0*degtorad;
insm:=wh-rise-1;(*bottom inch above bottom of foot*)
fl:=nw+wh-kh+2.4; (*full length of coat*)
sdsm:=wh+0.5;(*one inch taken off bottom and
1.5 added to top*)
Out.RealFix(fl,6,2);Out.String(' fl');Out.Ln;
Out.RealFix(sdsm,6,2);Out.String(' sdsm');Out.Ln;
Out.RealFix(insm,6,2);Out.String(' insm');Out.Ln;
pdisp:=wst-(seat-6);IF pdisp < 0.01 THEN pdisp:=0.01 END;
Out.Ln;
END getdata;
PROCEDURE printcoord(i:LONGINT);
BEGIN
Out.String('coord '); Out.LongInt(i,4);
Out.RealFix(cd[i].x,12,2);
Out.RealFix(cd[i].y,12,2);Out.Ln;
END printcoord;
PROCEDURE setcoord(coord:LONGINT;x,y:REAL);
BEGIN cd[coord].x:=x;cd[coord].y:=y;END setcoord;
PROCEDURE moveto(crd,md:LONGINT);
VAR x,y:REAL;
BEGIN
x:=cd[crd].x;y:=cd[crd].y; x:=xorg+scale*x;y:=yorg+scale*y;
outfile.WriteRealFix(x,10,2); outfile.WriteRealFix(y,10,2);
IF md=move THEN
outfile.WriteString(' moveto');
ELSE outfile.WriteString(' lineto');END;
outfile.WriteLn; END moveto;
PROCEDURE angle(c1,c2:LONGINT):REAL;
(*angle of vector from c1 to c2 in radians. The angle
is positive only, thus -10 degrees is reported as
plus 350 degrees, but in radians.*)
VAR x,y,ax,ay,at:REAL;
BEGIN
x:=cd[c2].x-cd[c1].x;y:=cd[c2].y-cd[c1].y;
ax:=ABS(x);ay:=ABS(y);
IF y >= 0 THEN
IF x >= 0 THEN
IF ay < ax THEN at:=rm.arctan(ay/ax);
ELSE at:=0.5*pi-rm.arctan(ax/ay);END;
ELSE
IF ay < ax THEN at:=pi-rm.arctan(ay/ax);
ELSE at:=0.5*pi+rm.arctan(ax/ay);END;
END;
ELSE
IF x <= 0 THEN
IF ay < ax THEN at:=pi+rm.arctan(ay/ax);
ELSE at:=1.5*pi-rm.arctan(ax/ay);END;
ELSE
IF ay < ax THEN at:=2*pi-rm.arctan(ay/ax);
ELSE at:=1.5*pi+rm.arctan(ax/ay);END;
END;
END;
RETURN at END angle;
PROCEDURE distance(c1,c2:LONGINT):REAL;
(*straight line distance between two points*)
VAR dx,dy:REAL;
BEGIN
dx:=cd[c1].x-cd[c2].x;dy:=cd[c1].y-cd[c2].y;
RETURN ABS(rm.sqrt(dx*dx+dy*dy)); END distance;
PROCEDURE newcoord(oc,nc:LONGINT;th,ln:REAL);
(*new coord at angle and distance from old coord.
If you want the opposite direction of an angle,
do not negate it, but subtract pi.*)
BEGIN
cd[nc].x:=cd[oc].x+ln*rm.cos(th);
cd[nc].y:=cd[oc].y+ln*rm.sin(th); END newcoord;
PROCEDURE midpoint(c1,c2,cm:LONGINT;fract:REAL);
(*new coord along line from c1 to c2 fraction of way*)
VAR cx,cy:REAL;
BEGIN
cx:=(cd[c2].x-cd[c1].x)*fract+cd[c1].x;
cy:=(cd[c2].y-cd[c1].y)*fract+cd[c1].y;
cd[cm].x:=cx; cd[cm].y:=cy; END midpoint;
PROCEDURE rotate(ctr,oc,nc:LONGINT;dth:REAL);
(*coord rotated about ctr at angle dth*)
VAR cx,cy,r,th1,th2:REAL;
BEGIN
r:=distance(ctr,oc);th1:=angle(ctr,oc);
th2:=th1+dth;
cx:=cd[ctr].x+r*rm.cos(th2); cy:=cd[ctr].y+r*rm.sin(th2);
cd[nc].x:=cx;cd[nc].y:=cy; END rotate;
PROCEDURE mirror(other,center,offset,mirpt:LONGINT);
(*mirror offset about center for arc. other,center
on line, offset,mirpt ends of arc tangent to line*)
VAR dist,lineang,offsetang,perpang,mirang,diffang:REAL;
BEGIN
dist:=distance(center,offset);
lineang:=angle(other,center);
offsetang:=angle(center,offset);
perpang:=lineang-pi/2;
diffang:=offsetang-perpang;
IF ABS(diffang) > pi/2 THEN
perpang:=perpang-pi;
diffang:=offsetang-perpang;END;
mirang:=perpang-diffang;
newcoord(center,mirpt,mirang,dist);
END mirror;
PROCEDURE intersect(p11,p12,p21,p22,i:LONGINT);
(*i is the coordinate that is the intersection
of two straight lines, p11 to p12, and p21 to p22.
The interesection point will be calculated even
if the lines are too short to reach the intersection*)
VAR x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3,x4,y4,n1,d1,n2,d2:REAL;
BEGIN
x1:=cd[p11].x;y1:=cd[p11].y;x2:=cd[p12].x;y2:=cd[p12].y;
x3:=cd[p21].x;y3:=cd[p21].y;x4:=cd[p22].x;y4:=cd[p22].y;
n1:=((x1*y2-y1*x2)*(x3-x4))-((x1-x2)*(x3*y4-y3*x4));
d1:=((x1-x2)*(y3-y4))-((y1-y2)*(x3-x4));
n2:=((x1*y2-y1*x2)*(y3-y4))-((y1-y2)*(x3*y4-y3*x4));
d2:=((x1-x2)*(y3-y4))-((y1-y2)*(x3-x4));
cd[i].x:=n1/d1;cd[i].y:=n2/d2;
END intersect;
PROCEDURE tangentarc(ang:REAL;ofst,p1,p2,pt:LONGINT);
(*Find tangent point pt on line p1-p2 that will connect
with arc to offset point. The arc will leave ofst at angle
ang. The direction from p1 to p2 is the direction of the
end of the arc at the tangent point. Later mirror can be
called to mirror ofst about pt. *)
VAR ang2,dist:REAL;
BEGIN
newcoord(ofst,pmcoord1,ang-pi,10);
(*pi is 180 degrees, pmcoord1 and ofst are on same line
with angle ang*)
intersect(pmcoord1,ofst,p2,p1,pmcoord2);
ang2:=angle(p1,p2);dist:=distance(ofst,pmcoord2);
newcoord(pmcoord2,pt,ang2,dist);
END tangentarc;
PROCEDURE circle(c1:LONGINT;r:REAL);
VAR cx,cy:REAL;
BEGIN
r:=r*scale;
outfile.WriteRealFix(widthv,8,2);
outfile.WriteString (' setlinewidth'); outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('stroke');outfile.WriteLn;
cx:=xorg+scale*cd[c1].x;cy:=yorg+scale*cd[c1].y;
outfile.WriteRealFix(cx,14,3);
outfile.WriteRealFix(cy,14,3);
outfile.WriteRealFix(r,14,3);
outfile.WriteString(' 0 360 arc'); outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteRealFix(widthv,8,2);
outfile.WriteString (' setlinewidth'); outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('stroke');outfile.WriteLn;
END circle;
(*PROCEDURE cross(c1:LONGINT;r:REAL);
BEGIN
moveto(c1,move);newcoord(c1,arccoord1,0.25*pi,r);
moveto(arccoord1,draw);
moveto(c1,move);newcoord(c1,arccoord1,0.75*pi,r);
moveto(arccoord1,draw);
moveto(c1,move);newcoord(c1,arccoord1,1.25*pi,r);
moveto(arccoord1,draw);
moveto(c1,move);newcoord(c1,arccoord1,1.75*pi,r);
moveto(arccoord1,draw);
END cross;*)
PROCEDURE arc(c1,c2,c3,range,md:LONGINT);
(*c1,c2,c3 coords define arc. They must be in order of
ccw movement around arc. range=13 means arc from c1 to
c3, 12 from c1 to c2, 23 from c2 to c3. After invoking
this procedure cd[arccenter] will be the center of the
arc. th1 and th2 will be the angles from the arc center
to the beginning and end of the arc. arcradius will be
the radius of the arc. *)
VAR ang12,ang23,dist,cx,cy,r:REAL;
BEGIN
ang12:=angle(c1,c2)-pi/2;
ang23:=angle(c2,c3)-pi/2;
dist:=distance(c1,c2);
IF distance(c2,c3) > dist THEN dist:=distance(c2,c3);END;
midpoint(c1,c2,arccoord1,0.5);
newcoord(arccoord1,arccoord2,ang12,dist);
midpoint(c2,c3,arccoord3,0.5);
newcoord(arccoord3,arccoord4,ang23,dist);
intersect(arccoord2,arccoord1,arccoord4,arccoord3,arccenter);
cx:=cd[arccenter].x;cy:=cd[arccenter].y;
r:=distance(arccenter,c1);
arcradius:=r;
r:=scale*r;cx:=xorg+scale*cx;cy:=yorg+scale*cy;
IF (range=12)OR(range=13)THEN moveto(c1,move)
ELSE moveto(c2,move);END;
IF md=draw THEN
outfile.WriteRealFix(cx,12,2); outfile.WriteRealFix(cy,12,2);
outfile.WriteRealFix(r,12,2);END;
IF range=13 THEN
th1:=angle(arccenter,c1); th2:=angle(arccenter,c3);
ELSIF range=12 THEN th1:=angle(arccenter,c1);
th2:=angle(arccenter,c2);
ELSIF range=23 THEN
th1:=angle(arccenter,c2); th2:=angle(arccenter,c3);
ELSE Out.String('range out of range');Out.Ln;
HALT(1);END;
IF md=draw THEN outfile.WriteRealFix(th1*radtodeg,12,2);
outfile.WriteRealFix(th2*radtodeg,12,2);
outfile.WriteString(' arc'); outfile.WriteLn;
END(*if md*);
END arc;
PROCEDURE cwccw(t1,t2:REAL):REAL;
(*returns -1 if angle t2 cw from t1, +1 if ccw*)
BEGIN
IF ABS(t2-t1) > pi THEN
IF t2 > t1 THEN t2:=t2-2.0*pi ELSE t1:=t1-2.0*pi END;END;
IF t2-t1 >= 0.0 THEN RETURN 1 ELSE RETURN -1 END;
END cwccw;
PROCEDURE avgang(t1,t2:REAL):REAL;
(*the average of two angles. we want the acute
angle between two points on a circle. thus the
average of 0 and 1.5*pi is 1.75*pi, not 0.75*pi.
this proceedure assumes both angles are positive,
and neither is greater than 2*pi*)
BEGIN
IF ABS(t2-t1) > pi THEN
IF t2 > t1 THEN t2:=t2-2.0*pi ELSE t1:=t1-2.0*pi END;END;
RETURN (t1+t2)*0.5;
END avgang;
PROCEDURE midarc(p1,p2,p3,md:LONGINT;f:REAL); (*line
from p1, arc with p2 in the middle, line to p3. Order of
points must trace arc ccw. f is fraction of the largest
radius of arc that can be used. This invokes arc, so
arccenter, th1, th2 will be useable after invocation.
After finish mdacoor1 and mdacoord2 store position of arc
ends, mdacoord3 stores arc center.*)
VAR r,r1,ang1,ang3,ang14,ang34,ang12,ang32,ang1x,ang3x,
angt,ang21,ang23,ang24,d21,d23,d41,d43,d1x,d3x:REAL;
p4,p1x,p3x:LONGINT;
BEGIN
ang21:=angle(p2,p1);ang23:=angle(p2,p3);
ang24:=avgang(ang21,ang23);
d21:=distance(p2,p1);d23:=distance(p2,p3);
IF d21 < d23 THEN
angt:=ang21-pi/2;r1:=0.4*d21;
midpoint(p2,p1,mdacoord4,0.5);
newcoord(mdacoord4,mdacoord5,angt,r1);
ELSE angt:=ang23+pi/2; r1:=0.4*d23;
midpoint(p2,p3,mdacoord4,0.5);
newcoord(mdacoord4,mdacoord5,angt,r1);
END;
p4:=mdacoord3;
newcoord(p2,p4,ang24,r1);
intersect(mdacoord4,mdacoord5,p2,p4,p4);
midpoint(p2,p4,p4,f);
r:=distance(p2,p4);
d41:=distance(p4,p1);d43:=distance(p4,p3);
d1x:=rm.sqrt(d41*d41-r*r);
d3x:=rm.sqrt(d43*d43-r*r);
ang1:=rm.arcsin(r/d41);
ang3:=rm.arcsin(r/d43);
ang14:=angle(p1,p4);ang12:=angle(p1,p2);
ang34:=angle(p3,p4);ang32:=angle(p3,p2);
ang1x:=ang14+cwccw(ang14,ang12)*ang1;
ang3x:=ang34+cwccw(ang34,ang32)*ang3;
p1x:=mdacoord1;p3x:=mdacoord2;
newcoord(p1,p1x,ang1x,d1x);
newcoord(p3,p3x,ang3x,d3x);
IF md=draw THEN moveto(p1x,draw);
arc(p1x,p2,p3x,13,draw); moveto(p3,draw);
ELSE moveto(p1x,move);
arc(p1x,p2,p3x,13,move); moveto(p3,move); END;
END midarc;
(*PROCEDURE bezier(ctrl1,ctrl2,endpt:LONGINT);
(*startpoint is current point*)
VAR x,y:REAL;
BEGIN
x:=xorg+scale*cd[ctrl1].x;y:=yorg+scale*cd[ctrl1].y;
outfile.WriteRealFix(x,12,2); outfile.WriteRealFix(y,12,2);
x:=xorg+scale*cd[ctrl2].x;y:=yorg+scale*cd[ctrl2].y;
outfile.WriteRealFix(x,12,2); outfile.WriteRealFix(y,12,2);
x:=xorg+scale*cd[endpt].x;y:=yorg+scale*cd[endpt].y;
outfile.WriteRealFix(x,12,2); outfile.WriteRealFix(y,12,2);
outfile.WriteString(' curveto'); outfile.WriteLn;
END bezier;*)
PROCEDURE ntrsctarc(ctr,o1,o2,i1:LONGINT;r:REAL);
(*first intersection point i1 found of line from o1 to
o2 with circle at ctr of radius r. Order of o1 and o2
matters. Triangle formula where one angle and two sides
known. Use quadratic key: a*x*x+b*x+c=0 . o1 cannot
be repeat of ctr*)
VAR sda,sdb,sdc,ang,angc,a,b,c:REAL;
BEGIN
IF o1=ctr THEN
Out.String('o1 cannot be ctr in ntrsctarc');Out.Ln;
HALT(1);END;
ang:=angle(o1,o2); sdc:=r;angc:=angle(o1,ctr)-ang;
sda:=distance(o1,ctr); a:=1;b:=-2*sda*rm.cos(angc);
c:=sda*sda-sdc*sdc; sdb:=(-b-rm.sqrt(b*b-4*a*c))/(2*a);
newcoord(o1,i1,ang,sdb); END ntrsctarc;
PROCEDURE ntrsct2arc(ctr1,ctr2:LONGINT;r1,r2:REAL);
(*two intersection points of two circles found by triangle
formula c^2=a^2+b^2-2ab(cos(c)). r1 goes with ctr1, r2
goes with ctr2, Resulting points are ntrsct1 and ntrsct2.*)
VAR d,ad,ac,a,b,c:REAL;bad:BOOLEAN;
BEGIN
bad:=FALSE;
d:=distance(ctr1,ctr2); IF d > (r1+r2)THEN
Out.String('ntrsct2arc abort centers too far apart');Out.Ln;
HALT(1);END;
IF r1 > (d+r2)THEN
Out.String('ntrsct2arc r1 too great');Out.Ln;HALT(1);END;
IF r2 > (d+r1)THEN
Out.String('ntrsct2arc r2 too great');Out.Ln;HALT(1);END;
ad:=angle(ctr1,ctr2);
c:=r2;a:=d;b:=r1;
ac:=rm.arccos((a*a+b*b-c*c)/(2*a*b));
newcoord(ctr1,ntrsct1,ad+ac,r1);
newcoord(ctr1,ntrsct2,ad-ac,r1);
END ntrsct2arc;
PROCEDURE reflect(c1,c2,o1,o2,r1,r2:LONGINT);
(*reflect line c about line o to produce line r *)
BEGIN
newcoord(o1,reflectcoord,angle(o2,o1)-pi/2,10);
mirror(reflectcoord,o1,c1,r1);
mirror(reflectcoord,o1,c2,r2);
END reflect;
PROCEDURE shiftright(c1,c2,i:LONGINT;s:REAL);
(*create temporary coordinates "shiftxx" shifted
to the right a distance s from the coordinates c1,c2.
i is 1 or 2 to designate shift1x or shift2x so two
sets of temporary shift coordinates can exist at the
same time, for calculating the intersection of shifted
lines. WARNING: if you get mixed up about whether the
first or second digit is determined by i, your program
may blow up!*)
BEGIN
IF (i=1) OR (i= 2)THEN ELSE Out.String('shiftright i wrong');
Out.Ln;HALT(1);END;
IF i=1 THEN
newcoord(c1,shift11,angle(c1,c2)-pi/2,s);
newcoord(c2,shift12,angle(c1,c2)-pi/2,s);
ELSE
newcoord(c1,shift21,angle(c1,c2)-pi/2,s);
newcoord(c2,shift22,angle(c1,c2)-pi/2,s);END;
END shiftright;
PROCEDURE tangentline(ctr,ofst,tp:LONGINT;r:REAL;left:BOOLEAN);
(*find tangent point tp on circle with center ctr and
radius r that will connect with straight line to offset
point ofst. As seen from ctr looking at ofst, if tp is on
left side of circle then left is true, otherwize tp is on
right side of circle.*)
VAR ang,dist:REAL;
BEGIN
dist:=distance(ctr,ofst);
ang:=rm.arccos(r/dist);
IF left THEN ang:=-ang;END;
newcoord(ctr,tp,angle(ctr,ofst)-ang,r);
END tangentline;
PROCEDURE arcang(ang1:REAL;c1,c2,md:LONGINT);
(*draw arc that starts at c1 at angle ang1, and ends at
c2. c1 and c2 may be specified in any order, but arc will
finish at ccw end. *)
VAR ang2,ang3,dist,angdiff:REAL;
BEGIN
forward:=TRUE;
dist:=distance(c1,c2);
ang2:=angle(c1,c2);
angdiff:=ang1-ang2;
ang3:=ang1-pi;
newcoord(c1,arcangcd,angdiff+ang3,dist);
IF cwccw(ang1,ang2) < 0 THEN forward:=FALSE;
moveto(c2,move);arc(c2,c1,arcangcd,12,md)
ELSE moveto(c1,move);arc(arcangcd,c1,c2,23,md) END;
END arcang;
PROCEDURE arcline(ang1,frac:REAL;c1,c2,md:LONGINT);
(*Draw arc that starts at c1 at angle ang1. At
approximately the fraction frac of the straight line
distance from c1 to c2 it smoothly transistions to a
line to c2. arcline2 is point where arc meets line. The
fractional approximation is only good for small angular
differences between the arc and the straight line from c1
to c2. arccenter and arcradius will be left over*)
VAR diff,dist:REAL;
BEGIN
frac:=0.5*frac;
diff:=ang1-angle(c1,c2);
dist:=frac*distance(c1,c2);
newcoord(c1,arcline1,ang1,dist/rm.cos(diff));
tangentarc(ang1,c1,arcline1,c2,arcline2);
arcang(ang1,c1,arcline2,md);
moveto(arcline2,move);
moveto(c2,md);
END arcline;
(*PROCEDURE sline(c1,c2:LONGINT;r1,a1,r2,a2:REAL);
(*draw s curve to connect points c1 and c2. Curve will be
two arcs with straight line segment between. Arcs leave
points c1 and c2 at specified angles a1, and a2. Radii
of arcs are specified to be r1 and r2. Centers of arcs
are computed to be slc1 and slc2. Point slcc is on line
between slc1 and slc2 at point where straight line segment
will cross. Ends of straight line segment will join arcs
at tangent points slt1 and slt2. As seen from c1 looking
at c2, if arc leaves c1 to left then left is true.*)
VAR ac1,ac2,ang,dist:REAL;left:BOOLEAN;
BEGIN
ang:=angle(c1,c2);
IF cwccw(ang,a1)=1 THEN left:=TRUE ELSE left:=FALSE;END;
IF (cwccw(ang,a1)*cwccw(ang+pi,a2))=-1 THEN
Out.String('the proceedure sline is specified as C curve,');Out.Ln;
Out.String('it must be an S curve');Out.Ln;
Out.Ln;HALT(1);END;
IF left THEN ac1:=a1-pi/2;ac2:=a2-pi/2;
ELSE ac1:=a1+pi/2;ac2:=a2+pi/2;END;
newcoord(c1,slc1,ac1,r1);newcoord(c2,slc2,ac2,r2);
dist:=distance(slc1,slc2);
IF dist < (r1+r2) THEN
Out.String('in procedure sline r1+r2 too great');
Out.Ln; HALT(1);END;
midpoint(slc1,slc2,slcc,r1/(r1+r2));
tangentline(slc1,slcc,slt1,r1,left);
tangentline(slc2,slcc,slt2,r2,left);
moveto(c1,move); arcang(a1,c1,slt1,draw);
moveto(slt1,move);moveto(slcc,draw);
moveto(slt2,draw);moveto(c2,move);
arcang(a2,c2,slt2,draw);
END sline;*)
PROCEDURE dart(c1,c2,c3:LONGINT);
(*Three coordinates of dart seam in ccw direction.
Cut lines drawn a quarter inch inside
seam lines. Warning: if seam vertex not in right
place, order of coordinates is reversed. c2 is vertex.*)
BEGIN
moveto(c1,move);moveto(c2,draw);moveto(c3,draw);
IF distance(c1,c3) > 2.2*seam THEN
shiftright(c2,c1,1,seam);shiftright(c3,c2,2,seam);
intersect(shift11,shift12,shift21,shift22,arccoord1);
moveto(shift12,move);moveto(arccoord1,draw);
moveto(shift21,draw);END;
END dart;
PROCEDURE zerocoords;
VAR i:LONGINT;
BEGIN
FOR i:=0 TO numcoords-1 DO
cd[i].x:=0.0;cd[i].y:=0.0;END;
END zerocoords;
PROCEDURE outint(i:INTEGER);
BEGIN
outfile.WriteString('(');
outfile.WriteInt(i,2);
outfile.WriteString(')');
outfile.WriteString(' show');
outfile.WriteLn;
END outint;
PROCEDURE label(coord,location:INTEGER);
VAR ang,ln:REAL;
BEGIN
ang:=location*pi/4;
ln:=0.7;
newcoord(coord,labcoord,1.2*pi,0.6);
newcoord(labcoord,labcoord,ang,ln);
moveto(labcoord,move);
outint(coord);
circle(coord,0.1);
END label;
PROCEDURE border1;
BEGIN
zerocoords;
IF small THEN
xorg:=xcorg*scale;yorg:=ycorg*scale;ELSE
xorg:=xcorgl*scale;yorg:=ycorgl*scale;END;
setcoord(0,-3,6);
setcoord(1,32,6);
setcoord(2,32,-51);
setcoord(3,-3,-51);
moveto(0,move);moveto(1,draw);moveto(2,draw);
moveto(3,draw);moveto(0,draw);
newcoord(3,tempcoord1,0,1);moveto(tempcoord1,move);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,pi/2,1);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(2,tempcoord1,pi,1);moveto(tempcoord1,move);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,pi/2,1);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(1,tempcoord1,1.5*pi,2);moveto(tempcoord1,move);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(2,tempcoord1,pi/2,2);moveto(tempcoord1,move);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
END border1;
PROCEDURE border2;
BEGIN
zerocoords;
IF small THEN
xorg:=xporg*scale;yorg:=yporg*scale;
ELSE xorg:=xporgl*scale;yorg:=yporgl*scale;END;
setcoord(0,-9,-36);(*border2*)
setcoord(1,-9,23);
setcoord(2,25,23);
setcoord(3,25,-36);
moveto(0,move);moveto(1,draw);moveto(2,draw);
moveto(3,draw);moveto(0,draw);
newcoord(0,tempcoord1,0,1);moveto(tempcoord1,move);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,pi/2,1);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(3,tempcoord1,pi,1);moveto(tempcoord1,move);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,pi/2,1);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(2,tempcoord1,1.5*pi,2);moveto(tempcoord1,move);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(3,tempcoord1,pi/2,2);moveto(tempcoord1,move);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
END border2;
PROCEDURE border3;
BEGIN
zerocoords;
IF small THEN
xorg:=xcorg*scale;yorg:=ycorg*scale;ELSE
xorg:=xcorgl*scale;yorg:=ycorgl*scale;END;
setcoord(0,-3,6);
setcoord(1,32,6);
setcoord(2,32,-36);
setcoord(3,-3,-36);
moveto(0,move);moveto(1,draw);moveto(2,draw);
moveto(3,draw);moveto(0,draw);
newcoord(3,tempcoord1,0,1);moveto(tempcoord1,move);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,pi/2,1);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(2,tempcoord1,pi,1);moveto(tempcoord1,move);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,pi/2,1);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(1,tempcoord1,1.5*pi,2);moveto(tempcoord1,move);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(2,tempcoord1,pi/2,2);moveto(tempcoord1,move);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
END border3;
PROCEDURE coat;
(*0:origin-D;1:scye depth I; *)
CONST thick=1.25;
roll=0.25;
VAR phi:REAL;
BEGIN (*coat*)
IF small THEN
xorg:=(xcorg+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorg+dyorg)*scale;ELSE
xorg:=(xcorgl+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorgl+dyorg)*scale;END;
setcoord(0,0,0);(*D*)
setcoord(1,0,-(nw+wd));(*B*)
newcoord(1,2,0,0.75);(*below F*)
newcoord(0,3,angle(0,2),scyd);(*O*)
setcoord(4,cs/3+1.5,cd[3].y+cs/3);(*LL*)
setcoord(5,cs/6-0.5,+0.5);(*G*)
newcoord(4,6,270*degtorad,2);(*N*)
newcoord(4,7,angle(5,4),0.25);(*L*)
newcoord(3,8,0,0.5*cd[6].x);(*P*)
newcoord(2,9,0,2);(*below Q*)
newcoord(3,10,0,2*cs/3);(*R*)
newcoord(10,11,180*degtorad,0.5);(*T*)
newcoord(11,12,90*degtorad,cs/12);(*U*)
newcoord(12,13,0,cs/24);(*Y*)
newcoord(11,14,0,cs/6);(*V*)
setcoord(15,cd[14].x,0.5);(*C or neck point*)
newcoord(15,16,angle(15,4),distance(5,7));(*X*)
setcoord(17,cd[6].x,cd[3].y);(*M*)
newcoord(17,18,45*degtorad,cs/12);(*W*)
setcoord(19,cd[6].x+0.5,cd[6].y);(*Nx*)
setcoord(20,cd[9].x+(cs/12),cd[9].y-1.0);
(*start seam at scye*)
newcoord(17,21,0,cs/12); (*MM*)
temp1:=cd[21].x-cd[18].x;
newcoord(18,18,315*degtorad,1.4*temp1);
(*W shifted diagonally to top of seam*)
temp1:=cd[10].x-cd[3].x-(0.5*ws+5*seam);
temp2:=temp1-(cd[20].x-cd[9].x);
(*how much rear part of pattern is larger than
rear half of waist*)
temp3:=0.0;
IF temp2 < 0.0 THEN temp3:=-temp2;temp2:=0.0;END;
(*temp3 is how much greater rear half of waist is
than rear part of pattern*)
setcoord(22,cd[21].x-0.5*temp2,cd[9].y);(*below TT*)
setcoord(23,cd[21].x+0.5*temp2,cd[9].y);(*below EE*)
setcoord(24,cd[10].x+0.5*ws+thick+2*temp3,cd[2].y);(*below SS*)
(*temp3 is excess of half waist, not whole waist.
cd[26] will move less than cd[24] because it is
between cd[24] and cd[25]. cd[26] is all that is important*)
newcoord(3,25,0,cs+5*seam+thick);(*J*)
newcoord(0,tempcoord1,270*degtorad,nw-3);
(*this will put lapel bottom even with bottom of
vest lapels*)
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,0,100);
intersect(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,24,25,tempcoord3);
newcoord(tempcoord3,26,0,0.75); (*lapel bottom*)
tangentline(15,26,27,stand,TRUE);(*top of fold line*)
foldang:=angle(27,26);
arcline(pi/2,0.75,13,16,move);
cd[28]:=cd[arcline2];(*top of scye front curve*)
setcoord(tempcoord1,0,-0.25*cs);
(*approx depth of lapel notch*)
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,0,10);
ntrsctarc(arccenter,tempcoord2,tempcoord1,tempcoord3,arcradius);
(*tempcoord3 is point on scye*)
intersect(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,27,26,tempcoord4);
(*tempcoord4 is point on fold line*)
temp1:=rm.cos(angle(26,27)-0.5*pi);
fifth:=temp1*distance(tempcoord3,tempcoord4)/5;
newcoord(15,tempcoord1,1.5*pi,cs/6);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,0,10);
shiftright(26,27,1,fifth+roll);
intersect(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,shift11,shift12,31);
(*31 is lapel notch*)
cd[34]:=cd[31];(*stored location*)
(*coords 29, 30 skipped*)
phi:=55*degtorad;
(*angle between gorge at notch and fold*)
newcoord(31,tempcoord1,angle(26,27)+phi,10);
intersect(26,27,31,tempcoord1,37);
(*37 is where gorge crosses fold*)
temp1:=distance(31,37)-roll;
newcoord(31,32,angle(37,31)+60*degtorad,temp1);
(*32 is peak*)
newcoord(31,tempcoord1,angle(27,26),cs/10);
newcoord(tempcoord1,33,angle(26,27)+0.5*pi,roll+2*fifth);
(*33 is lapel dart vertex*)
midpoint(37,31,35,0.2);(*dart top*)
lplarc:=angle(27,26)-angle(32,26);
rotate(33,32,tempcoord1,-dartlpl);
setcoord(tempcoord2,cd[10].x+0.5*ws,cd[1].y-ws/9);
(*the above line is a deviation from thornton's
that drops the coat lower. thorntons version would
be:
setcoord(tempcoord2,cd[10].x+0.5*ws,cd[1].y-(0.25+ws/12));
but would result in vest bottom showing with changes
in posture unless the vest points were raised. the
alternative version could be substituted with no
other change necessary*)
arcang(angle(tempcoord1,26)+lplarc,32,26,move);
ntrsctarc(arccenter,tempcoord2,23,48,arcradius);
(*bottom front corner of front piece*)
IF ~lpldart THEN dartlpl:=0;END;
rotate(33,35,36,-dartlpl);(*dart open*)
rotate(33,31,31,-dartlpl);(*rotated notch*)
rotate(33,32,32,-dartlpl);(*rotated peak*)
setcoord(38,cd[1].x,-fl);
(*rear bottom corner of back*)
newcoord(9,39,0,0.5);
(*front corner of back waist*)
setcoord(40,cd[39].x,cd[38].y);
(*front bottom corner of back*)
tangentarc(270*degtorad,13,10,3,41);
(*bottom of scye*)
arcang(1.5*pi,13,41,move);
setcoord(tempcoord1,0,cd[3].y+0.0375*cs);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,0,cs);
ntrsctarc(arccenter,tempcoord2,tempcoord1,42,arcradius);
(*front pitch point*)
setcoord(43,cd[13].x+1.25,cd[3].y+1);
(*upper rear welt corner*)
setcoord(44,cd[43].x+wltwd,cd[43].y-wltdrp);
setcoord(45,cd[44].x,cd[44].y-wltdp);
setcoord(46,cd[43].x,cd[43].y-wltdp);
(*end of welt*)
setcoord(tempcoord1,cd[10].x,cd[1].y);
setcoord(tempcoord2,cd[10].x+0.5*ws,cd[1].y-ws/9);
newcoord(15,tempcoord1,1.5*pi,10);
intersect(23,48,15,tempcoord1,tempcoord2);
newcoord(tempcoord2,49,angle(23,48),1);
(*bottom rear corner of canvas*)
IF chstdart THEN
(*this is not done earlier so the forward shift
of point 26 can be estimated to keep point 48
fixed*)
temp1:=angle(48,26);temp2:=angle(26,32);
newcoord(3,tempcoord1,0,cs-1);(*Z-1*)
newcoord(tempcoord1,50,1.5*pi,0.1*cs);
rotate(50,33,51,-dartchst);(*lapel dart vertex*)
rotate(50,36,36,-dartchst);(*lapel dart opening*)
rotate(50,31,31,-dartchst);(*lapel notch*)
rotate(50,32,32,-dartchst);(*lapel peak*)
IF cs < 23 THEN rotate(50,44,44,-dartchst);(*welt right end*)
rotate(50,45,45,-dartchst);(*welt right end*) END;
temp2:=temp2-angle(26,32);temp2:=temp1-temp2;
temp3:=(cd[26].y-cd[48].y)*((1/rm.tan(temp2))-(1/rm.tan(temp1)));
temp3:=0.7*temp3;
newcoord(26,26,0,temp3);
END;
newcoord(10,tempcoord1,1.5*pi,10);
intersect(tempcoord1,10,23,48,tempcoord2);
newcoord(tempcoord2,52,angle(23,48),ss/6);
cd[53].x:=cd[20].x; cd[53].y:=cd[1].y-0.5;
temp1:=distance(20,22)+distance(23,52)+0.75;
newcoord(53,tempcoord1,0,temp1);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,0.5*pi,10);
intersect(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,23,48,54);
temp1:=distance(1,38)+2*seam;
temp3:=270-22*(seat-0.69*chst)/chst;
temp3:=degtorad*temp3;
newcoord(53,55,temp3,temp1);
temp1:=angle(53,55)+0.5*pi;
newcoord(55,56,temp1,cs/4);
temp1:=angle(55,56)+0.75*pi;
newcoord(56,57,temp1,1.75);
midpoint(54,23,58,0.7);
END coat;
PROCEDURE ctlab;
PROCEDURE initfont;
BEGIN
outfile.WriteString('/Latin-Modern-Roman findfont');
outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('11 scalefont'); outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('setfont');outfile.WriteLn;
END initfont;
BEGIN
coat;
IF small THEN
xorg:=(xcorg+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorg+dyorg)*scale;ELSE
xorg:=(xcorgl+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorgl+dyorg)*scale;END;
initfont;
label(0,4); label(1,3);label(2,6);label(3,4);label(4,5);
label(5,6);label(6,3);label(7,0);label(8,3);label(9,6);
label(10,7);label(11,6);label(13,0); label(14,6);
label(15,5); label(16,3); label(17,6); label(18,2);
label(19,0);label(20,4);label(21,7); label(22,3);
label(23,1); label(26,4); label(27,1); label(28,5);
label(31,6);label(32,1);
label(37,5); label(38,1);label(39,1);
label(40,3); label(41,5); label(42,3);
label(48,7); label(52,1);label(53,1);label(54,5);
label(55,7);label(56,7);label(57,3);
label(58,6);
(*label(93,4);label(94,2);label(95,3);*)
IF lpldart THEN label(33,3);label(35,2);
label(36,2); END;
IF chstdart THEN label(50,0);label(51,0);END;
(*label(70,0);label(71,0);label(72,0);label(73,0);
label(74,0);label(75,0);label(76,0);label(77,0);
label(78,0);label(79,0);label(80,0);label(81,0);
label(82,0);*)
width(widthv);
END ctlab;
PROCEDURE back;
(*70,71:waist cuts;72:up 135 degrees from 70;
73:half inch up from 1, 74:intersection of
0-2 line with 70-72 line*)
BEGIN
zerocoords;coat;
IF small THEN
xorg:=(xcorg+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorg+dyorg)*scale;ELSE
xorg:=(xcorgl+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorgl+dyorg)*scale;END;
(*start drawing*)
newcoord(2,70,0,seam);
newcoord(70,72,0.75*pi,rm.sqrt(2)*0.5);
newcoord(1,73,0.5*pi,0.5);
intersect(0,2,70,72,74);
moveto(0,move);moveto(74,draw);
moveto(70,move);moveto(1,draw);
moveto(38,draw);moveto(40,draw);moveto(39,draw);
moveto(9,draw);moveto(8,move);
arcline(angle(8,2),0.25,8,9,draw);
arcang(angle(2,8),8,6,draw);
moveto(6,move);
moveto(7,draw);moveto(5,draw);moveto(0,move);
arcang(0,0,5,draw);
newcoord(9,71,pi,seam);
moveto(9,move);moveto(71,draw);
(*inlays start here*)
IF inlays THEN
outfile.WriteString('gsave');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('newpath');outfile.WriteLn;
moveto(70,move);moveto(72,draw);moveto(73,draw);
moveto(7,move);newcoord(7,tempcoord1,0,1);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);moveto(6,draw);
moveto(5,move);newcoord(5,tempcoord1,pi/2,cs/20);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
newcoord(0,tempcoord2,135*degtorad,cs/14);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(2,tempcoord1,pi,cs/20);
intersect(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,72,73,tempcoord1);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
newcoord(73,tempcoord1,pi,2*seam);
moveto(73,move);moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
setcoord(tempcoord2,cd[tempcoord1].x,cd[38].y-cs/10);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
setcoord(tempcoord1,cd[40].x,cd[tempcoord2].y);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(40,draw);
dash(dashv);width(widthv);
outfile.WriteString('grestore');outfile.WriteLn;
END; END back;
PROCEDURE side;
BEGIN
zerocoords;coat;
IF small THEN
xorg:=(xcorg+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorg+dyorg)*scale;ELSE
xorg:=(xcorgl+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorgl+dyorg)*scale;END;
(*line below copied from back*)
arcang(angle(2,8),8,6,move);
temp1:=angle(6,7)-(th1-0.5*pi);
arcang(angle(2,8),8,19,draw);
temp2:=(th1-0.5*pi)-temp1;
moveto(19,move);
newcoord(19,70,temp2,seam/rm.sin(temp1));
moveto(70,draw);
newcoord(18,tempcoord3,pi,seam);
arcang(1.5*pi,70,tempcoord3,draw);
moveto(tempcoord3,move);moveto(18,draw);
moveto(21,draw);moveto(22,draw);moveto(20,draw);
arcline(angle(8,2),0.25,8,20,draw);
(*inlays start here*)
IF inlays THEN
outfile.WriteString('gsave');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('newpath');outfile.WriteLn;
newcoord(20,tempcoord1,1.5*pi,cs/20);
newcoord(22,tempcoord2,1.5*pi,cs/20);
moveto(20,move);moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);moveto(22,draw);
dash(dashv);width(widthv);
outfile.WriteString('grestore');outfile.WriteLn;
END (*inlays*); END side;
PROCEDURE front;
CONST angbod=40*degtorad;comp=1.0;
(*in retrospect, comp should be less than 1.0,
maybe 0.75 or 0.5*)
VAR angpat,rpat:REAL;
BEGIN
zerocoords;coat;
IF small THEN
xorg:=(xcorg+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorg+dyorg)*scale;ELSE
xorg:=(xcorgl+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorgl+dyorg)*scale;END;
moveto(37,move);
arcang(angle(35,37),37,15,draw);
moveto(37,move);
moveto(35,draw);moveto(36,move);
moveto(31,draw);moveto(32,draw);
arcang(angle(32,26)+lplarc-comp*dartlpl,32,26,draw);
moveto(23,move);
moveto(21,draw);moveto(18,draw);
newcoord(18,tempcoord1,0,seam);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);moveto(41,move);
arcang(pi,41,tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(41,move);arcang(0,41,13,draw);
newcoord(42,tempcoord1,angle(arccenter,42),1);
moveto(42,move);moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(13,move);
temp1:=angle(5,7)-angle(7,6);
temp2:=angle(15,16)+temp1;
newcoord(16,70,temp2,seam/rm.sin(temp1));
arcline(0.5*pi,0.75,13,70,draw);
moveto(16,draw);
arcline(angle(16,15)+20*degtorad,0.5,16,15,draw);
(*welt*)
circle(43,0.1);circle(44,0.1);
circle(45,0.1);circle(46,0.1);
(*dart*)
IF chstdart THEN
moveto(35,move);moveto(33,draw);
moveto(36,move);moveto(51,draw);
IF distance(33,51) > 2.2*seam THEN
shiftright(33,35,1,seam);
moveto(shift11,move);moveto(shift12,draw);
shiftright(36,51,1,seam);
moveto(shift11,move);moveto(shift12,draw);
END;(*distance*)
dart(33,50,51);
moveto(33,move);
newcoord(33,tempcoord1,pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
ELSE
IF lpldart THEN dart(35,33,36);END;(*lpdart*)END;(*chstdart*)
IF wstdart THEN
setcoord(72,cd[3].x+cs-1,-0.9*nw);
temp1:=angle(48,23)+0.5*pi+0.5*dartwst;
newcoord(72,tempcoord1,temp1,10);
intersect(48,23,72,tempcoord1,73);
temp1:=angle(48,23)+0.5*pi-0.5*dartwst;
newcoord(72,tempcoord1,temp1,10);
intersect(48,23,72,tempcoord1,74);
dart(73,72,74);
newcoord(48,48,angle(23,48),distance(73,74));
END;(*wstdart*)
(*buttons*)
temp1:=distance(1,3);
setcoord(111,cd[45].x+cs/20,cd[3].y-0.5*temp1);
temp2:=0.5*(angle(48,23)+angle(48,26));
newcoord(48,112,temp2,0.2*temp1);
midpoint(111,112,113,0.5);
circle(111,3/8);circle(112,3/8);circle(113,3/8);
newcoord(37,tempcoord1,angle(37,26),1);
moveto(37,move);moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
newcoord(26,tempcoord1,angle(26,37),1);
moveto(26,move);moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(26,move);moveto(48,draw);moveto(23,draw);
outfile.WriteString('gsave');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('newpath');outfile.WriteLn;
IF (~lpldart & ~chstdart) THEN
moveto(26,move);moveto(27,draw);
ELSE
moveto(37,move);moveto(27,draw);
END;
dash(dashv);width(widthv);
outfile.WriteString('grestore');outfile.WriteLn;
(*start inlays*)
IF inlays THEN
outfile.WriteString('gsave');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('newpath');outfile.WriteLn;
newcoord(70,tempcoord1,angle(28,16),1+seam);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,angle(15,16),1);
moveto(tempcoord1,move);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
arcang(angle(70,28),tempcoord2,13,draw);
newcoord(15,tempcoord2,0.25*pi,1.4);
moveto(70,move);moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
arcline(angle(tempcoord1,tempcoord2)+20*degtorad,
0.5,tempcoord1,tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(37,tempcoord1,0.25*pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord2,move);
arcang(1.5*pi,tempcoord2,tempcoord1,draw);
newcoord(35,tempcoord2,0.4*pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(36,tempcoord2,0.4*pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
shiftright(31,36,1,1);
shiftright(32,31,2,1);
intersect(shift11,shift12,shift21,shift22,tempcoord1);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
temp1:=avgang(angle(31,32),angle(26,32));
newcoord(32,tempcoord1,temp1+20*degtorad,1.5);
newcoord(32,tempcoord2,temp1-20*degtorad,1.5);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(26,tempcoord1,0,1);
arcang(angle(32,26)+lplarc-dartlpl,
tempcoord2,tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(tempcoord1,move);
IF bevel THEN
newcoord(48,tempcoord1,angle(26,48),1.4);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord1,angle(26,48)+0.5*pi,1);
newcoord(23,tempcoord2,angle(21,23),1.4);
newcoord(tempcoord2,tempcoord2,angle(21,23)-0.5*pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
ELSE
newcoord(48,tempcoord1,angle(26,48),1);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord1,angle(26,48)+0.5*pi,1);
newcoord(23,tempcoord2,angle(21,23),1);
newcoord(tempcoord2,tempcoord2,angle(21,23)-0.5*pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
END;
newcoord(18,tempcoord1,0.75*pi,1.4);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
newcoord(18,tempcoord2,0.25*pi,1.4);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
moveto(41,draw);
moveto(11,move);moveto(49,draw);
dash(dashv);width(widthv);
outfile.WriteString('grestore');outfile.WriteLn;
IF bevel THEN
newcoord(49,71,1.5*pi,5);
angpat:=angbod*rm.sqrt(2);
rpat:=distance(49,48)/angpat;
newcoord(71,60,1.5*pi+0.5*angpat,rpat);
newcoord(60,61,0.5*pi-0.5*angpat,rpat);
newcoord(60,62,0.5*pi-0.5*angpat,rpat-1.4);
newcoord(60,63,0.5*pi-0.5*angpat,rpat+0.5);
newcoord(60,64,0.5*pi+0.5*angpat,rpat-1.4);
newcoord(60,65,0.5*pi+0.5*angpat,rpat+0.5);
moveto(64,move);moveto(65,draw);
moveto(62,move);moveto(63,draw);
moveto(64,move);arcang(angle(60,64)-0.5*pi,64,62,draw);
moveto(71,move);arcang(angle(60,71)-0.5*pi,71,61,draw);
outfile.WriteString('gsave');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('newpath');outfile.WriteLn;
moveto(65,move);arcang(angle(60,65)-0.5*pi,65,63,draw);
shiftright(48,49,1,1);
intersect(shift11,shift12,11,49,tempcoord1);
intersect(shift11,shift12,26,48,tempcoord2);
moveto(tempcoord1,move);moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(49,tempcoord1,angle(49,48)+0.5*pi,2);
moveto(49,move);moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
dash(dashv);width(widthv);
outfile.WriteString('grestore');outfile.WriteLn;
END;
END;
END front;
PROCEDURE welt;
CONST fold=0.5;
PROCEDURE wbord;
BEGIN
(*IF small THEN
xorg:=xcorg*scale;yorg:=ycorg*scale;ELSE
xorg:=xcorgl*scale;yorg:=ycorgl*scale;END;*)
setcoord(70,-1,-2);
setcoord(71,-1,5);
setcoord(72,6,5);
setcoord(73,6,-2);
moveto(70,move);moveto(71,draw);moveto(72,draw);
moveto(73,draw);moveto(70,draw);
END wbord;
BEGIN
zerocoords;
IF small THEN
xorg:=(xcorg+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorg+dyorg)*scale;ELSE
xorg:=(xcorgl+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorgl+dyorg)*scale;END;
wbord;
setcoord(1,0,-seam); setcoord(2,0,cd[1].y+wltdp);
setcoord(3,wltwd,cd[2].y-wltdrp);
setcoord(4,wltwd,cd[1].y-wltdrp);
outfile.WriteString('gsave');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('newpath');outfile.WriteLn;
moveto(1,move);moveto(2,draw);moveto(3,draw);
moveto(4,draw);moveto(1,draw);
dash(dashv);width(widthv);
outfile.WriteString('grestore');outfile.WriteLn;
newcoord(1,tempcoord1,0,fold);
newcoord(2,tempcoord2,0,fold);
intersect(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,2,3,tempcoord3);
intersect(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,1,4,tempcoord4);
reflect(tempcoord3,tempcoord4,2,1,tempcoord3,tempcoord4);
cd[5]:=cd[tempcoord4];cd[6]:=cd[tempcoord3];
newcoord(4,tempcoord1,0,-fold);
newcoord(3,tempcoord2,0,-fold);
intersect(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,2,3,tempcoord3);
intersect(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,1,4,tempcoord4);
reflect(tempcoord3,tempcoord4,3,4,tempcoord3,tempcoord4);
cd[7]:=cd[tempcoord4];cd[8]:=cd[tempcoord3];
moveto(1,move);moveto(5,draw);moveto(6,draw);
moveto(2,draw);
moveto(3,move);moveto(8,draw);moveto(7,draw);
moveto(4,draw);
reflect(1,4,2,3,9,10);
newcoord(9,9,angle(2,9),2*seam);
newcoord(10,10,angle(3,10),2*seam);
(*logically one seam would be enough, but experience
shows it is not*)
moveto(2,move);moveto(9,draw);moveto(10,draw);
moveto(3,draw);
reflect(2,3,1,4,11,12);
newcoord(1,11,angle(1,11),seam);
newcoord(4,12,angle(4,12),seam);
moveto(1,move);moveto(11,draw);moveto(12,draw);
moveto(4,draw);
setcoord(13,0,3.25);setcoord(14,0,cd[13].y+1);
setcoord(15,wltwd,cd[14].y-wltdrp);
setcoord(16,wltwd,cd[13].y-wltdrp);
newcoord(14,17,1.5*pi,seam);
newcoord(14,18,angle(14,15),seam);
moveto(13,move);moveto(17,draw);moveto(18,draw);
moveto(15,draw);moveto(16,draw);moveto(13,draw);
newcoord(15,19,1.5*pi,seam);
outfile.WriteString('gsave');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('newpath');outfile.WriteLn;
moveto(17,move);moveto(19,draw);
dash(dashv);width(widthv);
outfile.WriteString('grestore');outfile.WriteLn;
END welt;
PROCEDURE tail;
CONST halfdart=0.8;pht=17;pleat=1.5;
VAR rearang:REAL;
BEGIN
zerocoords;coat;
IF small THEN
xorg:=(xcorg+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorg+dyorg)*scale;ELSE
xorg:=(xcorgl+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorgl+dyorg)*scale;END;
midpoint(53,55,tempcoord1,0.5);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,angle(55,53)+0.5*pi,0.5);
arc(53,tempcoord2,55,13,draw);
rearang:=(th1+0.5*pi)-angle(53,55);
tangentarc(angle(56,57)+0.5*pi,57,56,55,tempcoord1);
arcang(angle(56,57)+0.5*pi,57,tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(tempcoord1,move);moveto(55,draw);
tangentarc(angle(56,57)-0.5*pi,57,56,54,tempcoord1);
arcang(angle(56,57)-0.5*pi,57,tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(tempcoord1,move);
moveto(54,draw); moveto(58,draw);
arcang(angle(54,58),58,53,draw);
newcoord(22,90,angle(22,arccenter),1.5);
temp1:=angle(arccenter,22)-0.25/1.5;
newcoord(90,91,temp1,1.5);
temp1:=angle(arccenter,22)+0.25/1.5;
newcoord(90,92,temp1,1.5);
moveto(91,move);moveto(90,draw);moveto(92,draw);
(*xyz*)
(*inlays start here*)
IF inlays THEN
outfile.WriteString('gsave');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('newpath');outfile.WriteLn;
shiftright(53,55,1,pleat);
moveto(53,move);moveto(shift11,draw);
shiftright(55,56,2,1);
intersect(shift11,shift12,shift21,shift22,tempcoord1);
temp1:=angle(53,55)+rearang;
arcang(temp1,shift11,tempcoord1,draw);
shiftright(56,54,1,1);
newcoord(57,tempcoord2,angle(57,56),1);
tangentarc(angle(56,57)+0.5*pi,tempcoord2,shift22,shift21,tempcoord3);
arcang(angle(56,57)+0.5*pi,tempcoord2,tempcoord3,draw);
moveto(tempcoord1,move);moveto(tempcoord3,draw);
tangentarc(angle(56,57)-0.5*pi,tempcoord2,shift11,shift12,tempcoord1);
arcang(angle(56,57)-0.5*pi,tempcoord2,tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(shift12,draw);moveto(54,draw);
(*xyz*)
dash(dashv);width(widthv);
outfile.WriteString('grestore');outfile.WriteLn;
(*start pocket*)
setcoord(79,cd[55].x-2,cd[55].y+7);
newcoord(79,78,0.5*pi,pht-1);
newcoord(78,76,pi,7);
newcoord(76,77,1.5*pi,pht);
midpoint(76,78,tempcoord1,0.6);
newcoord(tempcoord1,81,0,halfdart);
newcoord(tempcoord1,80,pi,halfdart);
newcoord(tempcoord1,82,1.5*pi,4.5);
moveto(76,move);moveto(80,draw);moveto(82,draw);
moveto(81,draw);moveto(78,draw);
newcoord(79,tempcoord1,0.5*pi,1.5);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
tangentarc(1.5*pi,tempcoord1,79,77,tempcoord2);
arcang(1.5*pi,tempcoord1,tempcoord2,draw);
moveto(tempcoord2,move);moveto(77,draw);
moveto(76,draw);
newcoord(77,tempcoord1,0.5*pi,6.25);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,0,0.5);
moveto(tempcoord1,move);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
(*end pocket*)
END (*inlays*);
END tail;
PROCEDURE tailab;
PROCEDURE initfont;
BEGIN
outfile.WriteString('/Latin-Modern-Roman findfont');
outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('11 scalefont'); outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('setfont');outfile.WriteLn;
END initfont;
BEGIN
coat;
IF small THEN
xorg:=(xcorg+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorg+dyorg)*scale;ELSE
xorg:=(xcorgl+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorgl+dyorg)*scale;END;
initfont;
label(41,3);label(42,4);label(43,4);label(44,2);
label(70,2);label(71,3);label(72,4);label(73,5);
label(74,6);label(75,1);label(76,3);label(77,5);
label(78,2);label(79,6);label(80,2);label(81,2);
label(82,6);label(83,0);label(84,0);label(85,0);
width(widthv);
END tailab;
PROCEDURE collab;
PROCEDURE initfont;
BEGIN
outfile.WriteString('/Latin-Modern-Roman findfont');
outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('11 scalefont'); outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('setfont');outfile.WriteLn;
END initfont;
BEGIN
coat;
IF small THEN
xorg:=(xcorg+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorg+dyorg)*scale;ELSE
xorg:=(xcorgl+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorgl+dyorg)*scale;END;
initfont;
label(70,3);label(71,2);label(72,3);label(73,3);
label(74,1);label(75,3);label(76,4);label(77,0);
label(78,1);label(82,6);
width(widthv);
END collab;
PROCEDURE collar;
CONST toplay=1.25;botlay=0.75;colang=10*degtorad;
BEGIN
zerocoords;coat;
IF small THEN
xorg:=(xcorg+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorg+dyorg)*scale;ELSE
xorg:=(xcorgl+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorgl+dyorg)*scale;END;
temp1:=distance(37,27)+distance(0,5);(*collar fold length*)
temp1:=temp1+3/8;(*added because shoulder not ease
stitched*)
moveto(37,move);
newcoord(37,70,angle(26,27)+colang,temp1);
(*rear of collar fold line*)
shiftright(70,37,1,stand);
(*34 is stored notch before darts*)
tangentarc(angle(34,37),37,shift12,shift11,71);
(*end of straight bottom edge of collar*)
cd[72]:=cd[shift11];
(*bottom rear of collar*)
newcoord(70,73,angle(72,70),1.625);
(*top rear of collar*)
cd[74]:=cd[37];
newcoord(34,75,angle(34,37),0.25);
(*75 is front bottom corner of collar*)
newcoord(75,76,angle(74,75)+0.38*pi,0.72*distance(31,32));
(*76 top front corner of collar*)
(*start drawing*)
moveto(71,move);moveto(72,draw);moveto(73,draw);
moveto(76,draw);moveto(75,draw);moveto(74,draw);
arcang(angle(75,74),74,71,draw);
outfile.WriteString('gsave');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('newpath');outfile.WriteLn;
moveto(70,move);moveto(74,draw);
dash(dashv);width(widthv);
outfile.WriteString('grestore');outfile.WriteLn;
IF inlays THEN
outfile.WriteString('gsave');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('newpath');outfile.WriteLn;
shiftright(76,73,1,toplay);
cd[77]:=cd[shift11];cd[78]:=cd[shift12];
moveto(76,move);
moveto(77,draw);moveto(78,draw);moveto(73,draw);
shiftright(72,71,1,botlay);
cd[79]:=cd[shift11];cd[80]:=cd[shift12];
moveto(72,move);moveto(79,draw);
moveto(79,move);moveto(80,draw);
shiftright(74,75,1,botlay);
cd[81]:=cd[shift11];cd[82]:=cd[shift12];
moveto(81,move);moveto(82,draw);
moveto(81,move);arcang(angle(79,80),80,81,draw);
moveto(82,move);moveto(75,draw);
shiftright(75,76,1,1);
moveto(75,move);moveto(shift11,draw);
moveto(shift12,draw);moveto(76,draw);
dash(dashv);width(widthv);
outfile.WriteString('grestore');outfile.WriteLn;
END (*inlays*);
END collar;
PROCEDURE testproc;
(*small scale is 11.18 units moves one inch. origin is
two inches to right, two inches down from upper left corner
of screen; positive directions right, up*)
BEGIN
newcoord(53,93,0.5*pi,0.5);
newcoord(54,94,angle(48,23),1);
temp1:=distance(53,55);temp2:=distance(54,55);
ntrsct2arc(93,94,temp1,temp2);
cd[95]:=cd[ntrsct2];
circle(95,0.1);
moveto(93,move);moveto(94,draw);moveto(95,draw);
moveto(93,draw);
END testproc;
PROCEDURE sleeve(tb:LONGINT);
(* if tb=1, sleeve top , if tb=2 sleeve bottom.*)
(*sleeve angle 30 degrees for dancing made sleeve
circumference same as scye, no gathering needed. had no
effect when raising arms. This design for sleeve
hanging down.*)
CONST cfnly=2.0;
VAR h,du,dl,rearang,frontang,sl,xb:REAL;
BEGIN
zerocoords;coat; xb:=cd[4].x; sl:=cuff-xb;
h:=cd[6].y+seam-cd[42].y;
du:=distance(6,7)+distance(16,28)+distance(28,42);
dl:=distance(6,18)+distance(18,41)+distance(41,42)+1.0;
zerocoords;
IF small THEN
xorg:=(xcorg+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorg+dyorg)*scale;ELSE
xorg:=(xcorgl+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorgl+dyorg)*scale;END;
setcoord(0,17,-4);newcoord(0,1,1.5*pi,h);
newcoord(0,tempcoord1,pi,cs);
ntrsctarc(1,tempcoord1,0,2,du);
newcoord(1,3,pi,0.5*distance(0,2));
newcoord(3,4,0.5*pi,0.25*cs);
ntrsctarc(2,1,0,6,sl);
midpoint(1,6,tempcoord1,0.5);
setcoord(7,cd[1].x-0.05*cs,cd[tempcoord1].y+0.5);
newcoord(7,8,pi,0.433*cs);
midarc(1,7,6,move,0.5);
newcoord(6,9,angle(4,6)-0.5*pi,0.33*cs);
ntrsctarc(1,2,0,10,dl);
arcang(pi,4,2,move);(*duplicated below*)
rearang:= angle(8,2)-(th2-0.5*pi);
IF dcsleeve THEN
temp1:=distance(1,2);
shiftright(1,3,1,1);
ntrsctarc(2,shift11,shift12,1,temp1); END;
arcline(0,0.4,4,1,move);(*duplicated below*)
frontang:=th1+0.5*pi-angle(7,1);
newcoord(1,11,angle(7,1)+frontang,seam/rm.sin(frontang));
newcoord(10,12,angle(8,10)-rearang,seam/rm.sin(rearang));
(*start drawing*)
IF tb=1 THEN
moveto(1,move);
midarc(1,7,6,draw,0.5); moveto(9,draw);
moveto(2,move);midarc(2,8,9,draw,0.5);
moveto(4,move);arcang(pi,4,2,draw);
moveto(4,move);
arcline(0,0.4,4,1,draw);
ELSE
moveto(11,move);moveto(1,draw);
midarc(1,7,6,draw,0.5); moveto(9,draw);
moveto(10,move);midarc(10,8,9,draw,0.5);
moveto(10,move);moveto(12,draw);
moveto(11,move);arcang(pi,11,12,draw);
ntrsctarc(arccenter,3,4,5,arcradius);
END;
IF inlays THEN
outfile.WriteString('gsave');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('newpath');outfile.WriteLn;
IF tb=1 THEN
shiftright(6,9,1,cfnly);
intersect(shift11,shift12,7,6,tempcoord1);
intersect(shift11,shift12,8,9,tempcoord2);
reflect(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,6,9,tempcoord1,tempcoord2);
moveto(6,move);moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);moveto(9,draw);
ELSE
newcoord(10,tempcoord2,0.25*pi,0.05*cs);
newcoord(10,tempcoord3,0.75*pi,0.05*cs);
moveto(5,move);moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
moveto(tempcoord3,draw);
newcoord(8,tempcoord1,pi,0.0375*cs);
newcoord(9,tempcoord2,angle(6,9),0.0375*cs);
moveto(tempcoord3,move);
midarc(tempcoord3,tempcoord1,tempcoord2,draw,0.5);
shiftright(6,tempcoord2,1,cfnly);
intersect(shift11,shift12,7,6,tempcoord3);
intersect(shift11,shift12,tempcoord1,tempcoord2,tempcoord4);
reflect(tempcoord3,tempcoord4,6,tempcoord2,tempcoord3,tempcoord4);
moveto(6,move);moveto(tempcoord3,draw);
moveto(tempcoord4,draw);moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
END;
dash(dashv);width(widthv);
outfile.WriteString('grestore');outfile.WriteLn;
END (*inlays*); END sleeve;
PROCEDURE slvlab;
PROCEDURE initfont;
BEGIN
outfile.WriteString('/Latin-Modern-Roman findfont');
outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('11 scalefont'); outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('setfont');outfile.WriteLn;
END initfont;
BEGIN
IF small THEN
xorg:=(xcorg+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorg+dyorg)*scale;ELSE
xorg:=(xcorgl+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorgl+dyorg)*scale;END;
initfont;
label(0,0); label(1,7); label(2,3); label(3,7); label(4,2);
label(5,1); label(6,0); label(7,4); label(8,0); label(9,6);
label(10,4); label(11,1);label(12,1);
width(widthv);
END slvlab;
PROCEDURE vest;
CONST bakbot=70;curvbot=71;curvtop=72;curvmid=73;
frntctr=74;frnttop=75;frntbot=76;botpnt=77;
lplbotr=78;topr=79;lp2botf=80;lp2botr=81;
lp2topr=82;lp2topf=83;cntopf=84;cntopv=85;
cnbotv=86;cnbotp=87;cnbotr=88;cntopr=89;
nktr=90;nktl=91;nktm=92;nkbr=93;nkbl=94;
nkbm=95;lplstrt=96;lpltopr=97;botmid=98;
VAR fbotang:REAL;
BEGIN
zerocoords;coat;
IF small THEN
xorg:=(xcorg+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorg+dyorg)*scale;ELSE
xorg:=(xcorgl+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorgl+dyorg)*scale;END;
(*vest*)
setcoord(frntctr,cd[26].x,1-nw);
IF ws < cs THEN temp1:=cs/20 ELSE
temp1:=cs/20+(ws-cs)*rm.tan(10*degtorad);END;
newcoord(frntctr,frnttop,0.5*pi,temp1);
newcoord(frntctr,frntbot,1.5*pi,temp1);
newcoord(15,lplstrt,angle(15,frnttop),0.1*cs);
newcoord(15,topr,angle(15,16),0.1*cs);
newcoord(lplstrt,curvtop,angle(frnttop,15)+0.5*pi,0.1*cs);
newcoord(lplstrt,lpltopr,angle(frnttop,15)+0.5*pi,cs/20);
newcoord(23,bakbot,0.5*pi,cs/20);
setcoord(botmid,cd[13].x,cd[bakbot].y);
newcoord(bakbot,curvbot,0.5*pi,cs/20);
temp1:=0.15*distance(curvbot,curvtop);
temp2:=angle(curvtop,curvbot)+0.5*pi;
midpoint(curvbot,curvtop,tempcoord1,0.5);
newcoord(tempcoord1,curvmid,temp2,temp1);
arc(curvbot,curvmid,curvtop,13,draw);
newcoord(frntbot,botpnt,1.25*pi,3*cs/20);
moveto(curvbot,move);moveto(bakbot,draw);
moveto(botmid,draw);
arcang(0,botmid,botpnt,draw);
fbotang:=th1+pi/2;
moveto(botpnt,move);
moveto(frntbot,draw);
moveto(frnttop,draw);moveto(15,draw);
moveto(topr,draw); moveto(curvtop,draw);
outfile.WriteString('gsave');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('newpath');outfile.WriteLn;
newcoord(frnttop,lplbotr,170*degtorad,3.5*cs/20);
moveto(lplstrt,move); moveto(lpltopr,draw);
moveto(lplbotr,draw); moveto(frnttop,draw);
dash(dashv);width(widthv);
outfile.WriteString('grestore');outfile.WriteLn;
IF inlays THEN
(*lapel*)
newcoord(bakbot,lp2botf,1.25*pi,0.2*cs);
temp1:=angle(frnttop,lplbotr);
temp2:=distance(frnttop,lplbotr);
newcoord(lp2botf,lp2botr,temp1,temp2);
temp1:=angle(lplbotr,lpltopr);
temp2:=distance(lplbotr,lpltopr);
newcoord(lp2botr,lp2topr,temp1,temp2);
temp1:=angle(frnttop,lplstrt);
temp2:=distance(frnttop,lplstrt);
newcoord(lp2botf,lp2topf,temp1,temp2);
moveto(lp2botf,move);moveto(lp2botr,draw);
moveto(lp2topr,draw);moveto(lp2topf,draw);
moveto(lp2botf,draw);
(*canvas*)
newcoord(botpnt,cntopf,1.25*pi,0.2*cs);
temp1:=angle(15,frnttop);
newcoord(cntopf,cntopv,temp1,cs/20);
temp1:=angle(frnttop,frntbot);
temp2:=distance(frnttop,frntbot);
newcoord(cntopv,cnbotv,temp1,temp2);
temp1:=angle(frntbot,botpnt);
temp2:=distance(frntbot,botpnt);
newcoord(cnbotv,cnbotp,temp1,temp2);
temp1:=angle(botpnt,bakbot);
newcoord(cnbotp,cnbotr,temp1,0.2*cs);
setcoord(cntopr,cd[cnbotr].x,cd[cntopf].y);
moveto(cntopf,move);moveto(cntopv,draw);
moveto(cnbotv,draw);moveto(cnbotp,draw);
temp1:=angle(botpnt,botmid);
temp2:=distance(botpnt,botmid);
newcoord(cnbotp,tempcoord1,temp1,temp2);
arcang(fbotang,cnbotp,tempcoord1,move);
ntrsctarc(arccenter,cntopr,cnbotr,cnbotr,arcradius);
moveto(cnbotp,move);
arcang(fbotang,cnbotp,cnbotr,draw);
moveto(cnbotr,move);moveto(cntopr,draw);
moveto(cntopf,draw);
(*neck piece*)
newcoord(15,nktr,pi,0.3*cs);
temp1:=2*cd[5].x-cd[0].x;
newcoord(nktr,nktl,pi,temp1);
temp2:=cd[5].y-cd[0].y;
midpoint(nktl,nktr,tempcoord1,0.5);
newcoord(tempcoord1,nktm,1.5*pi,temp2);
arc(nktl,nktm,nktr,13,draw);
newcoord(nktr,nkbr,angle(5,7),0.1*cs);
temp1:=distance(arccenter,nkbr);
newcoord(arccenter,tempcoord1,0,cs);
mirror(tempcoord1,arccenter,nkbr,nkbl);
newcoord(arccenter,nkbm,1.5*pi,temp1);
arc(nkbl,nkbm,nkbr,13,draw);
moveto(nkbl,move);moveto(nktl,draw);
moveto(nkbr,move);moveto(nktr,draw);
outfile.WriteString('gsave');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('newpath');outfile.WriteLn;
(*vest*)
shiftright(bakbot,botpnt,1,2*seam);
newcoord(botmid,tempcoord1,1.5*pi,2*seam);
moveto(shift12,move);
arcang(fbotang,shift12,tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(tempcoord1,move);moveto(shift11,draw);
shiftright(botpnt,frntbot,1,2*seam);
moveto(shift11,move);moveto(shift12,draw);
shiftright(frntbot,frnttop,1,2*seam);
moveto(shift11,move);moveto(shift12,draw);
shiftright(frnttop,15,1,2*seam);
moveto(shift11,move);moveto(shift12,draw);
arc(curvbot,curvmid,curvtop,13,move);
temp1:=angle(curvbot,arccenter);
newcoord(curvbot,tempcoord1,temp1,2*seam);
temp1:=angle(curvmid,arccenter);
newcoord(curvmid,tempcoord2,temp1,2*seam);
temp1:=angle(curvtop,arccenter);
newcoord(curvtop,tempcoord3,temp1,2*seam);
arc(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,tempcoord3,13,draw);
newcoord(topr,tempcoord1,angle(15,16),2*seam);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
shiftright(curvbot,bakbot,1,2*seam);
moveto(shift11,move);moveto(shift12,draw);
(*lapel*)
shiftright(lp2topf,lp2topr,1,2*seam);
moveto(shift11,move);moveto(shift12,draw);
shiftright(lp2topr,lp2botr,1,2*seam);
moveto(shift11,move);moveto(shift12,draw);
shiftright(lp2botr,lp2botf,1,2*seam);
shiftright(lp2botf,lp2topf,2,3*seam);
intersect(shift11,shift12,shift21,shift22,tempcoord1);
moveto(shift11,move);moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(shift22,draw);
(*neck piece*)
arc(nktl,nktm,nktr,13,move);
temp1:=angle(nktl,arccenter);
newcoord(nktl,tempcoord1,temp1,2*seam);
temp1:=angle(nktm,arccenter);
newcoord(nktm,tempcoord2,temp1,2*seam);
temp1:=angle(nktr,arccenter);
newcoord(nktr,tempcoord3,temp1,2*seam);
arc(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,tempcoord3,13,draw);
temp1:=angle(arccenter,nkbl);
newcoord(nkbl,tempcoord1,temp1,2*seam);
temp1:=angle(arccenter,nkbm);
newcoord(nkbm,tempcoord2,temp1,2*seam);
temp1:=angle(arccenter,nkbr);
newcoord(nkbr,tempcoord3,temp1,2*seam);
arc(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,tempcoord3,13,draw);
dash(dashv);width(widthv);
outfile.WriteString('grestore');outfile.WriteLn;
END (*inlays*); END vest;
PROCEDURE vstlab;
PROCEDURE initfont;
BEGIN
outfile.WriteString('/Latin-Modern-Roman findfont');
outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('11 scalefont'); outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('setfont');outfile.WriteLn;
END initfont;
BEGIN
IF small THEN
xorg:=(xcorg+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorg+dyorg)*scale;ELSE
xorg:=(xcorgl+dxorg)*scale;yorg:=(ycorgl+dyorg)*scale;END;
initfont; label(15,1);
label(70,4); label(71,4); label(72,5); label(73,4); label(74,0);
label(75,1); label(76,0); label(77,6); label(78,5); label(79,4);
label(96,1);label(97,3);
width(widthv);
END vstlab;
PROCEDURE pants;
(*all seam allowances will be entirely allowed for
by extending the width of pantbot, not panttop. In
addition, later when pantbot is drawn, all inlays
for later expansion will be only in pantbot.
70:6 shifted, 71:10 shifted, 72:lower pocket opening,
73:upper pocket opening, 74:lower opening shifted,
75:upper opening shifted,76:top of crotch
arc*)
CONST pshftx=5;fshftx=19;fshfty=-14;
seatang=degtorad*12.42;
BEGIN
zerocoords;
newcoord(0,1,0.5*pi,rise+2);
(*top of pant 1.5 above nw plus 0.5 top hem*)
newcoord(1,2,1.5*pi,2);
newcoord(0,3,0.5*pi,ss/6);
newcoord(0,4,0,ss/6);
newcoord(0,5,0,ss/2+0.5);
newcoord(3,6,0,ss/2+0.5);
newcoord(2,7,pi,pdisp/6);
newcoord(1,8,0.5*pi,pdisp/4);
newcoord(8,9,pi,0.5*pdisp/6);
newcoord(2,10,0,wst/4);
newcoord(1,11,0,(wst/4)+0.25);
newcoord(0,12,pi,ss/6);
newcoord(4,13,1.5*pi,wh-rise-1);
(*bottom of pant 1 above bottom of foot*)
newcoord(4,14,1.5*pi,0.5*(wh-rise)-1);
(*knee height defined differently for pant and coat*)
newcoord(13,15,0,0.25*bot);
newcoord(13,16,pi,0.25*bot);
newcoord(14,17,0,0.25*knee);
newcoord(14,18,pi,0.25*knee);
midpoint(0,12,19,0.5);
newcoord(19,tempcoord1,0.5*pi-seatang,30);
intersect(0,1,19,tempcoord1,20);
shiftright(6,3,1,1.5);
intersect(0,7,shift11,shift12,76);(*top of crotch arc*)
arcang(angle(7,0),76,12,move);
ntrsctarc(arccenter,6,3,tempcoord5,arcradius);
temp1:=distance(tempcoord5,6);
ntrsctarc(20,6,3,21,temp1+4*seam+1.5);
(*four seams plus 1.5 for flexing and movement.
next we calculate height of point 22*)
newcoord(11,tempcoord1,0,4*seam);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,pi-(0.5*pi-angle(19,20)),10);
intersect(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,0,1,tempcoord3);
temp1:=distance(tempcoord3,1);
intersect(19,20,1,11,tempcoord1);
newcoord(tempcoord1,22,angle(19,20),temp1);
newcoord(22,23,angle(20,19),2);
ntrsctarc(23,10,2,24,distance(7,10)+4*seam+3/8);
(*3/8 for shift of point 23 yet to come.
one seam on each half of pant for zipper or fly,
two for side seam and one for rear seam.
we are not allowing an extra inch to compensate for
a dart because we are omitting ususal dart.*)
ntrsctarc(22,11,1,25,distance(7,10)+4*seam+0.25);
(*four seams plus 0.25 spring out*)
newcoord(23,23,angle(20,21),3/8);
newcoord(22,26,angle(22,25),2);
newcoord(26,27,angle(22,25)+0.5*pi,1.5);
temp1:=2.5/distance(18,12);
rotate(18,12,31,temp1);
newcoord(18,32,pi,4*seam);
(*two for inseam, two for side seam*)
newcoord(16,33,pi,4*seam);
newcoord(27,28,1.5*pi,1.25);(*pantbot button*);
shiftright(8,11,1,1);
newcoord(shift12,29,angle(shift12,shift11),2.75);
newcoord(shift12,30,angle(shift12,shift11),5.75);
(*panttop buttons. our suspenders only spread 3 in.*)
arcang(angle(5,6),6,10,move);
newcoord(6,70,0,pshftx);(*6 shifted*)
newcoord(10,71,0,pshftx);(*10 shifted*)
setcoord(tempcoord1,cd[4].x,cd[1].y-9.5);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,0,4);
IF forward THEN
ntrsctarc(arccenter,tempcoord2,tempcoord1,72,arcradius);
ELSE intersect(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,6,10,72);END;
(*lower pocket mark*)
setcoord(tempcoord1,cd[4].x,cd[1].y-3.5);
(*0.5 hem, 2.5 band, 0.5 clearance=3.5*)
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,0,4);
IF forward THEN
ntrsctarc(arccenter,tempcoord2,tempcoord1,73,arcradius);
ELSE intersect(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,6,10,73);END;
(*upper pocket mark*)
newcoord(72,74,0,pshftx);
newcoord(73,75,0,pshftx);
(*pocket marks shifted*);
setcoord(77,cd[9].x+fshftx,cd[9].y+fshfty);
setcoord(78,cd[7].x+fshftx,cd[7].y+fshfty);
setcoord(79,cd[76].x+fshftx,cd[76].y+fshfty);
setcoord(80,cd[0].x+fshftx,cd[0].y+fshfty);
setcoord(81,cd[12].x+fshftx,cd[12].y+fshfty);
newcoord(79,82,0,2.5);
setcoord(83,cd[82].x,cd[77].y);
arcang(angle(78,79),79,81,move);
temp1:=1.0/arcradius;
temp2:=2.0/arcradius;
newcoord(arccenter,84,
angle(arccenter,81)+temp1,arcradius);
newcoord(arccenter,85,
angle(arccenter,81)+temp1,arcradius+1);
newcoord(arccenter,86,
angle(arccenter,81)+temp2,arcradius);
newcoord(arccenter,87,
angle(arccenter,81)+temp2,arcradius+0.5);
width(widthv);
END pants;
PROCEDURE pantlab;
PROCEDURE initfont;
BEGIN
outfile.WriteString('/Latin-Modern-Roman findfont');
outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('11 scalefont'); outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('setfont');outfile.WriteLn;
END initfont;
BEGIN
pants;
IF small THEN
xorg:=xporg*scale;yorg:=yporg*scale;ELSE
xorg:=xporgl*scale;yorg:=yporgl*scale;END;
initfont;
label(0,6);label(1,1);label(2,1);label(3,1);
label(4,2);label(5,5);label(6,4);label(7,4);
label(8,1);label(9,3);label(10,4);label(11,7);
label(12,5);label(13,1);label(14,1);label(15,1);
label(16,1);label(17,1);label(18,1);label(19,6);
label(20,1);label(21,0);label(22,3);label(23,7);
label(24,0); label(25,0);label(26,6);label(27,2);
label(28,2);label(29,7);label(30,6);label(31,4);
label(32,4);label(33,4);
(*label(70,0);label(71,0);*)label(72,0);label(73,0);
(*label(74,0);label(75,0);label(76,4);label(77,4);
label(78,0);label(79,0);label(80,0);label(81,0);
label(82,0);label(83,0);label(84,3);label(85,5);
label(86,0);label(87,0);*)
END pantlab;
PROCEDURE panttop;
VAR fcang:REAL;
BEGIN
pants;
IF small THEN
xorg:=xporg*scale;yorg:=yporg*scale;ELSE
xorg:=xporgl*scale;yorg:=yporgl*scale;END;
circle(29,3/8);circle(30,3/8);
moveto(7,move);arcang(angle(0,7),7,9,draw);
moveto(7,move);moveto(76,draw);
arcang(angle(7,0),76,12,draw);
moveto(12,move);moveto(18,draw);
moveto(16,draw);moveto(15,draw);
moveto(17,draw);moveto(6,move);
arcline(1.5*pi,0.25,6,17,draw);moveto(6,move);
arcang(0.5*pi,6,10,draw);moveto(10,move);
fcang:=th1+0.5*pi;(*for later use with pocket
facing*)
moveto(11,draw);moveto(8,draw);
moveto(9,draw);
newcoord(72,tempcoord1,pi,1);
moveto(72,move);moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
newcoord(73,tempcoord1,pi,1);
moveto(73,move);moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(5,move);newcoord(5,tempcoord1,pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(17,move);newcoord(17,tempcoord1,pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(18,move);newcoord(18,tempcoord1,0,1);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
outfile.WriteString('gsave');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('newpath');outfile.WriteLn;
newcoord(12,tempcoord1,0,3/4);
moveto(76,move);
arcang(angle(7,0),76,tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(tempcoord1,move);
moveto(18,draw);
dash(3*dashv);width(widthv);
outfile.WriteString('grestore');outfile.WriteLn;
(*inlays start here*)
IF inlays THEN
arcang(fcang,70,71,move);
shiftright(75,73,1,1);
ntrsctarc(arccenter,shift11,shift12,tempcoord3,arcradius);
shiftright(75,73,1,-3);
ntrsctarc(arccenter,shift11,shift12,tempcoord2,arcradius);
shiftright(74,72,1,-1);
ntrsctarc(arccenter,shift11,shift12,tempcoord1,arcradius);
moveto(tempcoord1,move);
arc(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,tempcoord3,13,draw);
(*curved edge of pocket facing*)
newcoord(tempcoord3,tempcoord2,pi,3);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord3,1.25*pi,4);
moveto(tempcoord3,draw);moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(74,move);newcoord(74,tempcoord1,pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(75,move);newcoord(75,tempcoord1,pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
(*end of facing*)
moveto(79,move);moveto(78,draw);
arcang(angle(79,78),78,77,draw);
moveto(77,move);moveto(83,draw);moveto(82,draw);
arcang(angle(78,79),79,84,draw);
moveto(84,move);moveto(85,draw);
moveto(86,move);moveto(87,draw);
arcang(1.5*pi,82,85,draw);
outfile.WriteString('gsave');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('newpath');outfile.WriteLn;
moveto(83,move);
setcoord(tempcoord1,cd[83].x,cd[85].y);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
setcoord(tempcoord1,cd[84].x,cd[85].y);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
setcoord(tempcoord1,cd[84].x,cd[77].y);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(83,draw);
dash(3*dashv);width(widthv);
outfile.WriteString('grestore');outfile.WriteLn;
(*end of fly*)
setcoord(88,15,-17);
newcoord(88,89,0,7.5);
newcoord(88,90,1.5*pi,13);
newcoord(89,tempcoord1,1.5*pi,8);
newcoord(90,91,0,3);
tangentarc(0,91,tempcoord1,89,92);
arcang(0,91,92,draw);
moveto(90,move);moveto(88,draw);moveto(89,draw);
moveto(92,draw);moveto(90,move);moveto(91,draw);
newcoord(89,tempcoord1,1.5*pi,2);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord1,move);moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(89,tempcoord1,1.5*pi,8);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord1,move);moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
outfile.WriteString('gsave');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('newpath');outfile.WriteLn;
moveto(16,move);newcoord(16,tempcoord1,1.5*pi,2);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
newcoord(15,tempcoord2,1.5*pi,2);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
moveto(15,draw);
dash(dashv);width(widthv);
outfile.WriteString('grestore');outfile.WriteLn;
END (*inlays*);
END panttop;
PROCEDURE pantbot;
BEGIN
pants;
IF small THEN
xorg:=xporg*scale;yorg:=yporg*scale;ELSE
xorg:=xporgl*scale;yorg:=yporgl*scale;END;
circle(28,3/8);
moveto(22,move);moveto(23,draw);moveto(20,draw);
shiftright(6,3,1,1.5);
intersect(shift11,shift12,22,20,tempcoord1);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
arcang(angle(22,20),tempcoord1,31,draw);
moveto(32,move);arcang(angle(33,32),32,31,draw);
moveto(32,move);moveto(33,draw);moveto(15,draw);
moveto(17,draw);moveto(21,draw);
arcang(angle(19,20),21,24,draw);
(*pocket*)
midpoint(22,25,tempcoord1,0.5);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,angle(25,22)+0.5*pi,3.5);
(*rear pocket 3.5 below top. 0.5 hem plus 2.5 band
plus 0.5 clearance*)
newcoord(tempcoord2,tempcoord3,angle(22,25),10);
ntrsctarc(arccenter,tempcoord3,tempcoord2,tempcoord4,arcradius);
newcoord(tempcoord4,tempcoord1,angle(25,22),2.25);
(*distance from side seam*)
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,angle(25,22),5.5);
(*pocket width*)
moveto(tempcoord1,move);moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
moveto(24,move);
moveto(25,draw);moveto(27,draw);
moveto(22,draw);
newcoord(17,tempcoord1,pi,1);
moveto(17,move);moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
newcoord(32,tempcoord1,0,1);
moveto(32,move);moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
intersect(4,5,17,21,tempcoord1);
newcoord(tempcoord1,tempcoord2,pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord1,move);moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
(*inlays start here*)
IF inlays THEN
outfile.WriteString('gsave');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('newpath');outfile.WriteLn;
newcoord(22,tempcoord1,pi,1);
newcoord(20,tempcoord2,angle(24,23),1);
moveto(22,move);moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
shiftright(6,3,1,1.5);
intersect(shift11,shift12,22,20,tempcoord3);
arcang(angle(22,20),tempcoord3,31,move);
ntrsctarc(arccenter,6,3,tempcoord4,arcradius);
moveto(tempcoord2,move);moveto(tempcoord4,draw);
moveto(31,move);newcoord(31,tempcoord1,pi,1);
newcoord(32,tempcoord2,pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
setcoord(tempcoord1,cd[33].x-1,cd[33].y-2);
setcoord(tempcoord2,cd[15].x+1,cd[15].y-2);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(17,tempcoord1,0,1);
newcoord(21,tempcoord2,1.9*pi,1);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);moveto(tempcoord2,draw);
newcoord(25,tempcoord1,0,2);
moveto(tempcoord1,draw);
moveto(25,draw);
dash(dashv);width(widthv);
outfile.WriteString('grestore');outfile.WriteLn;
END (*inlays*);
END pantbot;
PROCEDURE endfile;
BEGIN
outfile.WriteRealFix(widthv,8,2);
outfile.WriteString (' setlinewidth'); outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('stroke');outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('showpage'); outfile.WriteLn;
outvar.Close; END endfile;
PROCEDURE viewplot;
VAR i:LONGINT;
BEGIN
Out.String('press enter to view plot, then ');Out.Ln;
Out.String('enter quit to finish viewing plot');Out.Ln;
In.Line(str1);
i:=ProcessManagement.system("gs -sDEVICE=x11 temp1");
END viewplot;
PROCEDURE printplot;
VAR i:LONGINT;
BEGIN
i:=ProcessManagement.system("lpr temp1");
(*lpr is assumed to send file through
Ghostscript to printer*)
Out.String('sent to printer');Out.Ln; END printplot;
PROCEDURE crdproc;
BEGIN
Out.String('enter number of coordinate');Out.Ln;
In.LongInt(coordv);printcoord(coordv);In.Line(str1);
END crdproc;
PROCEDURE distproc;
VAR c1,c2:LONGINT;d:REAL;
BEGIN
Out.String('enter numbers of two coordinates');Out.Ln;
In.LongInt(c1); In.LongInt(c2); In.Line(str1);
d:=distance(c1,c2);
Out.RealFix(d,8,2);Out.Ln;
END distproc;
PROCEDURE angproc;
VAR c1,c2:LONGINT;a:REAL;
BEGIN
Out.String('enter numbers of two coordinates');Out.Ln;
In.LongInt(c1); In.LongInt(c2); In.Line(str1);
a:=angle(c1,c2)*radtodeg;
Out.RealFix(a,8,2);Out.Ln;
END angproc;
(*PROCEDURE botlab(x,y:REAL);
PROCEDURE initfont;
BEGIN
outfile.WriteString('/Latin-Modern-Roman findfont');
outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('11 scalefont'); outfile.WriteLn;
outfile.WriteString('setfont');outfile.WriteLn;
END initfont;
PROCEDURE outreal(r:REAL);
BEGIN
outfile.WriteString('(');
outfile.WriteRealFix(r,8,2);
outfile.WriteString(' ');
END outreal;
PROCEDURE outstring(s:str);
BEGIN
outfile.WriteString(s);
outfile.WriteString(') show');
outfile.WriteLn;
END outstring;
PROCEDURE outstring2(s:str);
BEGIN
outfile.WriteString('(');
outfile.WriteString(s);
outfile.WriteString(') show');
outfile.WriteLn;
END outstring2;
PROCEDURE list;
BEGIN
outstring2(user);
outreal(chst);outstring('chst');
outreal(wst);outstring('wst');
outreal(seat);outstring('seat');
outreal(wh);outstring('wh');
outreal(rise);outstring('rise');
outreal(nw);outstring('nw');
outreal(kh);outstring('kh');
outreal(cuff);outstring('cuff');
END list;
BEGIN
IF ~small THEN setcoord(tempcoord1,x,y);
moveto(tempcoord1,move);
initfont; list;END;
END botlab;*)
PROCEDURE batchproc;
VAR str1,str2:str;i,pat:LONGINT;str3:STRING;
BEGIN
FOR pat:=1 TO 7 DO
initfile;
CASE pat OF
1:dxorg:=-1;back;dxorg:=11.0;dyorg:=1;tail;
dxorg:=4.0;dyorg:=-1;collar;
dxorg:=6;dyorg:=5.0;side; border1;dxorg:=0.0;dyorg:=0.0;
(*botlab(5,-50);*) |
2:front; border3; dxorg:=0.0;dyorg:=0.0;(*botlab(5,-35);*)|
3:dxorg:=-6.0;dyorg:=6.0;sleeve(1);dxorg:=10.0;sleeve(2);
border3;dxorg:=0.0;dyorg:=0.0; (*botlab(5,-35);*) |
4:panttop; border2;dxorg:=0.0;dyorg:=0.0;(*botlab(-15,-3);*)|
5:pantbot;border2;dxorg:=0.0;dyorg:=0.0;(*botlab(-15,-3);*)|
6:vest;border3;dxorg:=0.0;dyorg:=0.0;(*botlab(5,-35);*)|
7:welt;|
END(*case*);
endfile;
(*to make ps files comment out next 4 lines*)
i:=ProcessManagement.system
("pstoedit -f fig temp1 temp1.fig");
i:=ProcessManagement.system
("fig2dev -L pdf -b 20 temp1.fig temp1.pdf");
(*to make ps files remove .pdf in next line*)
str1:="mv temp1.pdf file";
IntStr.IntToStr(pat,str2);
Strings.Append(str2,str1);
(*to make ps files change .pdf to .ps next line*)
str2:=".pdf";Strings.Append(str2,str1);
str3:=Object.NewLatin1(str1);
i:=ProcessManagement.system(str3);
END(*for*);dxorg:=0.0;dyorg:=0.0;END batchproc;
PROCEDURE drawproc;
BEGIN
initfile;
Out.String('back, side, front, tail, collar, vest');
Out.Ln;
Out.String('sleeve, panttop, pantbot, welt');Out.Ln;
Out.String('ctlab, slvlab, vstlab, pantlab, collab, tailab');Out.Ln;
Out.String('border1, border2, border3, test, q');
Out.Ln;
LOOP
determine(command); IF command=q THEN EXIT;END;
CASE command OF er:|backv:back;|sidev:side;|frontv:front;
|tailv:tail;|collarv:collar;|ptlabv:pantlab;
|ctlabv:ctlab;|collabv:collab;|slv:sleeve(1);sleeve(2);
|slvlabv:slvlab;|tailabv:tailab;
|vst:vest;|vstlabv:vstlab;|pantt:panttop;|pantb:pantbot;|
|bdr1:border1;|bdr2:border2;|bdr3:border3;
|test:testproc;|weltv:welt;|END(*case*);
END(*loop*);endfile;viewplot;END drawproc;
PROCEDURE ctproc;
BEGIN
initfile;coat;endfile
END ctproc;
BEGIN
initvar;getdata;
LOOP Out.String('draw, prtcrd, dist, ang, print, batch, ct, q');
Out.Ln;
determine(command); IF command=q THEN EXIT;END;
CASE command OF er:|cot:ctproc;|drawv:drawproc;|prtcrd:crdproc;|
dist:distproc;|ang:angproc;|print:printplot;|batch:batchproc;
END(*case*); END(*loop*);END thorn8.
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