Tailoring by machine

Hey all! Sorry I just dropped off the earth for a week there! It wasn't intentional, but I've been working on my coat, and making good progress, then the household was hit with the crud that's been going around, so the weekend was sort of shot. The coat should be done in a day or two, but before the big reveal, I wanted to talk a little about the tailoring I did on this one.

For this coat, I decided to try the machine method of tailoring. I've use the fusible method and the handsewn method, so this is my first attempt at tailoring by machine. I used my usual favorite tailoring resource, Tailoring: The Classic Guide to Sewing the Perfect Jacket. I have an older edition than the one in the link, but the material is the same. I really love this book, and if you are even remotely interested in tailored garments, you really should have it in your personal library.

Anyway, here is my undercollar. All of the padstitching is done via curved lines of machine stitching. This particular pattern had a separate partial collar band which really helped shape the collar as well. I padstitched it separately and then sewed the two together.

Here you can see the major down side to machine tailoring - all of the stitching is visible from the right side of the undercollar. I did increase the contrast on this photo to make it really stand out, but IRL it does show. Since this fabric is a thin, smooth poplin, hand padstitches would have shown as well, so I decided that it wasn't a dealbreaker for me, particularly as I don't wear my collar up.

For the chestpiece, I sort of did my own thing. My outer fabric is a stretch poplin, and I really wanted to preserve the stretchiness in the body of the coat, so instead of tailoring with rigid canvas, I decided instead to underline the entire coat with a beefy wool jersey (for warmth, too) and use fusible tricot in the upper half of the coat, above the waist. I also taped the roll line. I really think that of all of the many things we do when we tailor a coat or jacket, taping the roll line makes the biggest difference, particularly when you consider how easy it is to do.

Again, this was done using the machine method, so the lines of stitching show, but are hidden under the lapel when the coat is worn.

Here's a little preview of how it all came together. The structure of the collar is really nice and crisp, and the body of the coat feels nice and substantial thanks to the wool jersey underlining. I can't wait to get it all finished and show it to you!!