pink coat::day 9

You know what I love?  Scissors.  A really sharp pair of good, heavy scissors and a length of gorgeous fabric to cut.  Oooh, I just shiver.  *Snick.*

Let's get to that point, shall we?  We can cover all the remaining minutiae today, and then we'll be able to get ahold of those scissors.  That fabric.  Mmm.  

The last pattern piece that we need is the capelet. 

We'll create the capelet pattern the same way that we made the collar pattern on day 7.  Only differences here are that we won't overlap the shoulder seam (because we don't want it to roll) and we'll make it about 10" long from the neck. 

I've cut it a little back from the center front there.  I think the center edge of it can just hide under the collar. 

Now we need to write a list of the pattern pieces we need in each fabric, and puzzle them around on paper. 

Coat Fabric:
Back (1 on fold)
Front (2)
Sleeve (2)
Front facing (2)
Capelet (1 on fold)
Collar (1)
Hem ruffle (1)

So it looks like we'll need 44" of coat fabric. I decided, after much soul-searching, that I could move the collar pattern up over there to the right of the side front, thereby saving myself 8" of fabric.  44" is just shy of 1 1/4 yards.  

Now we need to to do the same thing for the lining.

Lining Fabric:

Back (1 on fold)
Front (2)
Sleeve (2)
Side back (2)
Side front (2)
Collar lining (2)
Capelet (1 on fold)
Pockets (4)

We also need four pocket stand pieces, and ruffles for the sleeve and capelet hems.  We'll stick the sleeve stands in wherever there's a little space, since they're pretty tiny, and add 1/4 yd for the ruffles.  So, we end up needing just shy of 1 3/4 yards. 

Now, I think the rough outline for sewing this beast together goes something like this:

(Don't you love how sometimes what we're sewing is our "baby", other times it's a "beast"?  Pretty much the truth about sewing, isn't it?)

1)  Get all the little bits ready-Collar, ruffles, buttons, pockets and pocket stands
2)  Sew all the princess seams, inserting the pockets.  Sew facings to lining.
3)  Shoulder seams
4)  Armhole seam
5)  Join the lining and coat body
6)  Side seams
7) Capelet
8)  Finishing-topstitching, buttonholes, buttons, and possibly a scrappy flower pin

There.  That doesn't look so hard, does it?  It'll be an adventure.  We'll do it together. 

Next week-we sew!

Reaching out for my scissors,
~Erin~

pink coat::day 8

Hello, everybody!  Welcome back.

Yesterday we got as far as finishing the collar pattern.  Today we'll start with the collar lining.  Here we go. 

The collar itself will be cut in one piece, and end up looking like a big, rounded rainbow.  The collar lining will be cut in half at the center back and the following modifications made:

-1/8" shaved off the outer edge, starting at center back and tapering out as it comes around the front curve.

-1/8" shaved off the inner edge of the center back as shown, tapering out at the outer collar edge.

These little shavings will ensure that our collar rolls under in both directions. 

Now we need to fiddle with the...

Closure

Drafting a double-breasted closure is simply a matter of taping two bodice fronts together (or tracing one front and flipping it over) and marking the new edge.   

I'll also flatten out that point that the new edge and the neckline made. 

Style Lines

This is sort of a catchall list item, where we consider any seams that aren't strictly functional, and any little bits that don't go anywhere else.  Such as our pockets. 

Now, in order to know where our pockets can go, we need to look at where our buttons are going to go.  If we're going to do that, we're going to need to know where our facing is going to go.  Because in a double-breasted coat, the facing needs to be deep enough so that all the buttons will grab it.  You follow?

So.  Backing up. 

Here's what our coat front looks like now that we've claimed some of the right coat front to make it double-breasted. 

The facing should start at the shoulder seam, and should take up about 1/3 of that seam.  Then it curves down toward the hem.  I put the buttons on there where I want them, distributed evenly from the waistline up to the neckline, and evenly on either side of the center front. 

 

Now I can see where I'll put the pocket.  When I grab my child and hold the pattern up against her, I discover that her hand will rest comfortably in a pocket that begins at the waistline. 

I'll lay a piece of paper over my pattern at that level and draw in the shape for the pocket. 

So now we've accomplished a couple of things.  We've got the pocket pattern and placement, we've got the button placement, and we've got the facing pattern.  We need to trace the facing pattern onto a separate piece of paper and label it.  What's left of the front becomes the lining pattern. 

Because we're going to sandwich a ruffle between the lining and coat fabric at the sleeve edge and hem, I'm going to make the lining and the coat the same length.  If we weren't, the lining would be shorter (by the hem width) than the coat.

Now we'll put a little scrap of paper under the seam there and draw our pocket stand.  Its outer edge is parallel to the princess seam, its short edges matching the pocket opening. 

Skirt

The "skirt" for our coat is just a deep ruffle.  It'll need to be 6"+1/2" for a hem, + seam allowance on the top edge.  I'm not sure how much the fleece will gather, or how ruffly we actually want it, so we'll have to play with the length.  We'll start out, I think, with a strip that's 1.5 times the length of the coat hem and go down from there. 

Seam and Hem Allowance

Now the only thing that remains is to carefully add seam allowances to all our pieces and mark them.  Since we're not technically hemming the coat, but only adding a ruffle, the coat and lining each just need a seam allowance at the bottom.  Sleeves, ditto.  We do need to remember, though, that each pattern piece needs to be labeled with its title, the name of our project (i.e. "pink coat"), the number of pieces to cut, the grainline, and the seam allowance. 

Whew! All done with that pattern!  Tomorrow we'll do the capelet pattern and talk about the layout, yardage estimate, and order of operations for sewing our lovely pink baby together. 

Deal? Deal.

Questions?  Comments?  Let me know.

~Erin~

pink coat::day 7

Now that we've adjusted our basic pattern to coat measurements, we'll just go through the seven step checklist to draft up our pattern.  Those steps again:

1) Waist

2) Armhole/Sleeve

3) Neckline

4) Closure

5) Style Lines

6) Skirt

7) Seam and Hem Allowance

Waist

Now, with a princess style, the checklist item "waist" tells us to get the princess lines completely done.  First we'll need to transfer the dart from the basic pattern to the coat pattern.  Because we've decided to move the side front seams over closer to the side seam, I'm going to match the patterns up at the side seam and the waist seam, like so:

And draw the dart on the coat pattern. 

 Now, how we go from basic coat pattern to princess-lines pattern is described in detail in the "Princess Styles" lesson on the lessons page.  Here I added 7" in length from the waist, because I want the final length of the coat to be 24", 6" of which will be ruffle, and the bodice was already 11" long.  I'm measuring from the shoulder/neckline point. 

I also added 1/2" width at each side of the side front and side back seams, and the side seams.  We don't want a bunch of flare, and we have 6 seams that we've added 1/2" width to each side of, so we've added 6" in width. 

 Sleeve

We went back and forth on adding puff at the top of the sleeve, but since we need the extra width because of our non-slippery lining, I think we'll go ahead and add a little.  I cut the sleeve pattern down the middle from top to hem and added 1" at the sleeve cap.  It tapers out to nothing at the hem. 

See how the hem now has a sharpish angle?  I'll either redraw that curve to smooth it out, or just smooth it out with my scissors as I cut. 

Usually, if we're adding a ruffle, we'd want to shorten the sleeve by the length of the ruffle.  I think I'll leave the sleeve wrist length, and allow the ruffle to extend over the hand a bit.  It's only going to be a 1" ruffle or so. 

 Neckline/Collar

There are many types of coat collars.  You can read about quite a few of them at this fascinating site.  We're going to go with a simple approach, and use a rolled Peter Pan collar for our coat. 

If you were with us when we drafted the Autumn A-line Collar, you'll remember that we made that collar completely flat.  This time we'd like it to roll quite a bit.  More about collars, of course, is available in the collars lesson on the lessons page.  I've overlapped the shoulder 2" to make the collar roll, then drafted a very wide collar in the shape I want. 

Next time we'll talk about the collar lining, and then we'll move on to the closure.  Questions?

~Erin~

pink coat::day 6

Now that we've got our design hammered out, we'll start drafting.

In case you missed this part of the Autumn A-line dress, here's a quick recap:

We're going to make our coat out of the basic bodice pattern, altered a little bit.  So first we'll need to choose which size of bodice pattern we need.  Measure around the chest, choose a basic pattern size, and print it out:

I suppose you could really use any pattern you wanted, if you were reasonably convinced that it was "basic".  By which I mean, it fits the child in question, with a minimal amount of ease (ours have 10% ease around the chest) and is free of any style lines that are going to confuse you.  Basic.  Bodice.  Pattern.  That's what we want to start with. 

If you do use the CFW basic pattern, you'll have to print it and slap it into shape:

That's better!  Now we can start to make a coat pattern. 

Bodice Adjustments

In order to make our basic bodice pattern into a coat pattern, we'll need to make a few adjustments.  We make these adjustments 1) because a coat has to be big enough to go over other (sometimes bulky) clothing, and 2) a coat is usually made out of a bulky fabric.

Now, the adjustments we're making today are average adjustments, which means if you're using thinner fabric, or want a more fitted coat, you can go less, and if you're using bulkier fabric, you'd use slightly larger measurements.  Ours is a heavyweight fleece, but still a more-or-less medium weight coating fabric, so we'll use these measurements.  These adjustments come almost straight from the book Childrenswear Design by Hilde Jaffe and Rosa Rosa.  (I'd hate for you to think I came up with all this.)

First we'll lay down our basic pattern and trace around it.  Then we'll make the adjustments shown in red. 

a) Lower the neckline 1/8"

b)  Draw a line from the new neckline extending out over the shoulder.  At the armhole edge of the shoulder, it should be 1/4" above the original shoulder. 

c)  The new shoulder line should extend 3/4" beyond the original armhole.

d)  Drop the bottom of the armhole 1".

e)  Add 1" in width at the side seam.

Now grab the bodice back and make the same adjustments. 

Sleeve Adjustments

After that, we'll need to adjust the sleeve pattern a bit.  I've shown a short sleeve here, just to save space, but you'd of course be using a long sleeve.

a) Cut the sleeve down the middle and add 1" in width. 

b)  Add 1" in height at the top of the sleeve cap.  Now redraw your sleeve cap curve from the underarm, up over the top, and down to the underarm again. 

After this, it's just a matter of going through our seven pattern-designing steps one by one until we're sure we've got the pattern we want.  Something we will, of course, do together.  Next time. 

Any questions?  Anything unclear?  Don't be afraid! Raise your hand and ask!

~Erin~

pink coat::day 5

I hope you all had a beautiful weekend.  Now let's get back to work!

Here are our final design drawings:

 I think that, in order to get that pocket in there without interfering with the buttons, we'll just move the princess seam a little closer to the side seam, and have it come from the armhole instead of the shoulder.  Also, we'll place most of the buttons higher than the pocket.  We'll fiddle with this more as we make the coat up and get it right in the end. 

I think that we'll use our lining fabric to trim the sleeves, buttons, and capelet ruffle.  We could also use it for the pocket stand.  Or not.  What do you think?  Also, although we won't see it, we'll use the lining fabric to line the underside of the collar and the capelet. 

Now, if there are no further objections, we'll go to drafting our pattern tomorrow.

Objections?

~Erin~