Week 6 Reflection

This week I cut out all my top fabric pieces and mark tack them. The mark taking was slow to begin with as I discovered I didn’t have any basting thread and this held me up slightly. I also did not plan enough time for mark tacking and it took me considerably longer than planed. I finished mark tacking mid week and started to prep for the pockets. I spent a long time working on the pockets, as I wanted the pattern match to be as accurate as possible. This proved incredibly stressful especially when it came to the side entry trouser pockets. I am pleased with the pattern match and I feel that I have created a successful match the majority of the time. In the instances where the match is not exact I have chosen to leave it as it is better to be slightly put then ruin the fabric from constantly working it. I will make sure that I allow plenty of time for the jetted pockets as I am sure theses will be even more time consuming. I also spent a lot of time trying to find an appropriate lining fabric and this proved challenging as I wanted something which reflected the 1920’s style, fitting in with the quality of the suit and which was an appropriate lining fabric. I ordered my fabric Friday and hopefully it will arrive early next week so I am not delayed too much. I feel that though I am not keeping completely to my time plan this is due to the fact that I am not pushed for my next fitting as It will be either the 1^st or 2^nd of February. This week I also started work on my PPP unit and I will have to start adding this into my time plan so I keep on track with it.  

Cutting out

I cut out in cloth adding seam allowances and inlays.  Because the cloth has a chalk stripe I had to consider a pattern match when cutting out, I also needed to consider the angle of the stripe to make sure this was always at the same angle. To do this I marked the top of the fabric on the wrong side making sure this all the pattern pieces were led according to this.   the jacket back I have decide to have vents in the side seam. I have taken this detail from the image below.

Blackman, C. (2009).100 Years of Menswear. London: Laurence King  (p.92)

This image is of a late 1920’s gangster suit and I like the image that the vents create to allow for these I had to consider them when cutting out. I started around 4’’ above the waistline and they are 2’’ wide. I have left plenty of fabric as I can cut away the excess. I have also added allowances of 1’’ along the side of the turn-ups and 2’’ below the turn-ups encase there are any alterations which need to be made to the length of the trousers. All the added seam allowances can be seen below in red.

Jacket and waistcoat front

Inlays of 2cm

·      Shoulder

·      Side seam

Seam allowance

·      4cm down the CF following round the hemline.

·      1.5 cm around the neck

·      1.5cm around the armhole

 Jacket and waistcoat back

Seam allowance

·      2.5cm at the Centre back

·      1.5 cm around the neck line

·      1.5cm around the armhole

·      4cm along the hemline

Trousers Front

·      1.5cm at the waistline

·      Allowance around turn-up

Trousers Back

·      1.5cm along the waistline up to the back of the point

·      5cm at the front of the point

·      5cm in the seat tapering to the curve where the is no allowance

·      Allowance around turn-up

Week 6 Plan

Day	Morning	Afternoon	Evening
Saturday	Cut out	Cut out	Mark tack
Sunday	Mark tack	Blog Workbook PPP	Mark tack
Monday	Cut out canvases	Mark tack	Bic : 5.15 - 11
Tuesday	Pocket samples: Welt, jetted with flap, trousers	Lecture: 1.30 – 3.30 Uh001 Alumni Speaker: Sam Langridge Equity Speaker	Pad stitch canvases
Wednesday	Pocket samples	Prep pockets	Pad stitch canvases
Thursday	Digital workshop 10-11	Trouser side entry pockets	Go to Bri’s
Friday	Jacket and waistcoat pockets	IS results Jacket and waistcoat pockets
Saturday	Work book Blog PPP Finishing pockets, pad stitching Prep to start putting together next week.		BIC: 6-11
Sunday

Week 5 Reflection

This week I chose my fabric and ordered it from H. E Box, this was really exciting but also scary as it is a large chunk of my budget. I also had my first calico fitting this week. I created the calico toile, though this is time consuming it is quite a simple process and I completed it reasonably quickly. I then prepped for the fitting. The fitting went really well and I there are mainly only minor alterations. One of these were the pocket positioning and this is part of what makes a calico fitting so important as the pockets go into the jacket first and once they are done these is no going back therefore I would have had to re-cut the waistcoat. I am not keeping up with my original plan and I am going to have to work really hard to make sure I complete on time. 

Pattern Alterations

After the fitting I started to alter my patterns according to the notes taken. The blue lines show how the patterns have been altered and these alterations link directly to the notes taken from the fitting. There were only minor alterations from the fitting, showing that my patterns were almost accurate. However the most important alterations that I have made are the placement of the pockets, this is something which I had to work on from Specialist Practice. I have altered the placement of all the pockets according to the models shape. This is something that is really important to get right early on as once you have put the pocket in there is no altering the placement. All the other alterations could have been made during the first fitting in top fabric due to the seam allowances and inlays. 

Jacket

Waistcoat

Trousers

Fitting

I created calico toiles to test my patterns, as I had not used these instructions before and I wanted to make sure that I had drafted them correctly. The fitting went really well and there were only minor alterations. When taking into consideration the inlays and seam allowances I would have been fine to go strait into top cloth however this was not something that I wanted to risk. This was also the first fitting that I had done alone, with only an assistant to help me. I decided I was confident in this and being a toil fitting was a good opportunity for me to see how I could work independently using purely, my own judgements. 

Jacket

Increase centre back by a total of ½’’

Increase the centre front of jacket by ¾’’ at the bottom, ½’’ at the hip line and tapering up to nothing at the brake line

Take in slightly at the side seam only on the front panel by 1’’ sweeping in to nothing by the chest line

Move the pocket down slightly by 1’’

Scoop out the armhole slightly – leave till first fitting in cloth

Waistcoat

Increase centre back by a total of ½’’

Increase centre front by 1’’at the bottom, ½’’ at the waistline and tapering to nothing at the chest line.

Move the curve of the neck down to the chest line

Move bottom pocket towards the centre front by 1’’

Move top pocket up by ¾’’ and make it start on line with the bottom pocket

Increase the side seam of the front panel by ¼’’

Extend shoulder seam by ¹⁄₈’’ on front and back

Add back dart

Trousers

Raise trouser hems by 7¼’’ 

Otherwise they fit well

Pattern alterations

After the fitting I started to alter my patterns according to the notes taken. The blue lines show how the patterns have been altered and these alterations link directly to the notes taken from the fitting. There were only minor alterations from the fitting, showing that my patterns were almost accurate. However the most important alterations that I have made are the placement of the pockets, this is something that I had to work on from Specialist Practice. I have altered the placement of all the pockets according to the models shape. This is something that is really important to get right early on as once you have put the pocket in there is no altering the placement. All the other alterations could have been made during the first fitting in top fabric due to the seam allowances and inlays. 

Fabric

I have bought the top cloth for my suit, as I was unable to find an exact match of the fabric that would be suitable I have decided to use a chalk stripe. I have chosen a 12/14oz grey 100% wool chalk stripe from H E box. The cost of this has come to £148.50 and I ordered 6 meters due to the height of my model. As I originally budgeted £200 for top cloth I am inside my budget and this can go towards styling the photos shoot.