Marji's meanderings: browsing the web for a peek ahead

For anyone who does not have a tailoring reference, and wants a peek at what's to come, there are highly condensed directions for traditionally tailoring a coat or jacket on that Vintage Sewing Info site. However, if you're likely to get intimidated by having the whole thing outlined on one page, and it looks like a lot of work, don't look.

The order of construction is a little different than what I've done. I've never put a whole coat together before putting in the hair canvas and then shaping the collar, and they have you put the pockets in close to last, after your coat is constructed but just before the lining goes in. This step would assure you of perfect pocket placement, but requires handling the whole coat in the process of making a pocket.

For my own personal preference, I'd rather get my pocket placement down on my muslin (or toile if you're across the globe), then trust my markings and make the pockets when all I have to wrestle with are the full fronts.

For just plain fun on a sewing blog that I'll bet very few, if anyone participating here has ever read, is this called Sleevehead

AngelaO, and everyone else who's looking at their guidesheet that came with the pattern and are concerned that we're talking about things here that don't show up on your guidesheet, don't worry. We'll go through the whole construction process here, and you can merge these directions with those on your guidesheet to end up with a beautifully-made coat.

One of the reasons to do this all together is that today's guidesheets leave out a lot that should go into the construction of a coat. I blame it on the whole movement in the late 80s - 90s to make sewing "fast and easy."