Gentlemen, show us what you've made!

[herringbonekid]

I'm actually studying bespoke tailoring at Newham College, currently working on trousers at the moment. Looking for a workplacement so let me know if anyone knows of a tailor in need of an apprentice

so you're learning the proper way... very sensible. we'll all be coming to you for advice in a couple more years.

So you taught yourself to sew by hand and sewing machine? Or did you get some basic training before taking the suits apart?

no formal training at all. just trial and error, a bit of online searching and the book 'Classic Tailoring Techniques' by Cabrera/Myers, which is very hard going in places but covers most correct ways of doing things. patterns came the obvious way; drawing around the pieces of disassembled suits.

[Mario]

i've never been a big believer in talent. i think you can learn to do almost anything if you persevere.
there are obvious exceptions such as people like Mozart who are born with a brain that seems pre-wired to pick something up effortlessly, and some autistic people who have extraordinary abilities to remember things. but for the rest of us, you just have to stick at it and practice like hell. most things that look easy really require a great deal of effort to get there.

Oh absolutely. It's just that talent can help you to learn things more easily and intuitively. I've seen this before with a few people who picked up an instrument and took to it as if they've never done anything else.

Well, I was born in the sign of taurus and are hence rather stubborn...

[Mario]

so you're learning the proper way... very sensible. we'll all be coming to you for advice in a couple more years.

Hepville has also just started his training as a bespoke tailor.

patterns came the obvious way; drawing around the pieces of disassembled suits.

Which is where the troubles start. I, for example, don't have a single vintage beltd back jacket that fits me to take measurements from. And if it fit me I wouldn't take it apart...

[Shangas]

The end is nearly in sight!

The last thing I have to do is to join the shoulders!

Well.

It took several weeks of measuring, re-measuring, cutting, checking, pinning, checking, trimming, folding and countless stitches, all done by hand. But I finished!





It's a snuggish, but comfortable fit. It's comfortable to move around in, sit down in, lie down in, move my arms around in, and most importantly, none of my seams have ripped!

Just to remind you what this thing looked like, when I started it:

[Swing Motorman]

Great work, Shangas! You've more than earned the right to wear that proudly.

I love the feeling of knowing you completely fixed up an otherwise useless/questionable item, don't you?


-Steven

[Shangas]

Hi S/M. Yes, I'm very proud of my efforts. But in retrospect, I need to take it apart again. It's a bit snug (and that's saying something - I've already lost five pounds!). So I'm going to stitch in another inch and a half of fabric on each side, to give myself a bit of breathing-space before I pass out trying to wear this thing for any extended period of time.

I've prepared the pieces which I'm going to add in and I've already figured out how they'll be attached. Now I just need to pick out the stitching.

Ho-hum. We live and learn.

At least now, I have my grandmother's Singer up and running (see the appropriate thread in The Display Case). I used it to fix up the pieces that I'm gonna add on. If I can, I'll use it to sew them onto the waistcoat and do this last little alteration with the machine. Doing it all over again by hand is not something I relish.

I'm still getting a hang of handling this old beast, though. It's an electric knee-lever Singer from the early 1950s. I say 'knee-lever' machine, but I actually work the machine with one hand on the lever and one hand on the fabric. I don't trust my legs to have the sensitivity to regulate the speed as much as I would like. Right now, my comfortable sewing-speed is somewhere between dead-slow and slow-enough.

[herringbonekid]

... I, for example, don't have a single vintage beltd back jacket that fits me to take measurements from.

i haven't taken apart a belted back jacket. there's no need; once you have a plain back that fits well it's easy to adapt it to various belted back treatments.
i've taken apart an English 1931 tux, an American 1933 suit (moth-damaged) and combined the best bits of each into my basic jacket shape. i've also taken apart an English 40s DB but haven't made the pattern into anything yet.

[Mario]

i haven't taken apart a belted back jacket. there's no need; once you have a plain back that fits well it's easy to adapt it to various belted back treatments.

I was thinking about the extra material you need for pleats or shoulder gussets.

[herringbonekid]

I was thinking about the extra material you need for pleats or shoulder gussets.

if you were taking the jacket into production you'd have to include those parts on the pattern, yes.
as i'm basically doing one-offs i just improvise the back pleats etc around the plain back pattern i have.

[Mario]

Did you have any existing patterns for jackets with shoulder gussets/bi-swing back? I think it's a rather elaborate construction.