A Coat in progress

I went to a talk with the head of historical costumes at the NB museum back in March. He was doing a slide show on women's clothes in New Brunswick from the 1700's to the 1800's and I was madly sketching the slides as he showed them.

One dress from the 1700's had a princess seam back, and was a floor length version of that everywhere but the center back, where it was all Cartridge pleated, and it was the coolest looking thing ever.  So, I decided I had to do it with my coat, plus it would make the bustle in the skirt cool.

This is a sample I did when I was an undergrad.  That is about 1/2 a meter of muslin pleated there.

And here is a meter (aprox) of the black velvet  hemmed and marked for cartridge  pleats.

I marked  three rows of 1cm apart dots.  You basically run a long basting stitch out of Coban or button hole thread (heavy duty thread) through the dots in each row (lengthwise, not width wise). ANd then gather the pleats in.

At this point, I wanted to make sure it was wide enough to go across the hole I'd left in the back without pulling, so I  hand sewed it to the CB and then pinned it in place to the sides.

Once I had everything sew in, I ran  3 rows of back stitching on the inside of the pleats/coat. This helps keep the pleats from moving and coming undone.

And here it is all sewn in place.

Now that that the body is together, its time to attach the collar, facing and sleeves!

Now with sleeves.

No Military style coat is complete without Epaulets on the shoulders.

 I had to put pockets on the inside.

And no tailor coat is complete without shoulder pads.  The picture below is with the shoulder pad (already attached to the coat). I am getting ready to attach the head roll.  A head roll is simply a strip of folded bias cut fabric (flannel in this case) that will fold out over the edge of the shoulder pad and its seam allowances in the sleeve cap to give it a more gentle and rounded curve to the shoulder  of the sleeve.

Next up.. attaching the lining and finishing touches.