Jacket - The Inside Story

As promised here are some photos showing the work on the inside of the jacket.  The Singer tailoring book I referred to is really well written, with 3 different options for tailoring a jacket;

• Custom tailoring (lots of hand padstitching etc.)
• Machine tailoring (using a machine to do padstitching)
• Speed (or fusible) tailoring (using fusible interfacings)

I'm sure it will come as no surprise that I used the method with the word "speed" in it!  In addition to the book and DVD I already mentioned in my last post some other great resources are;

Sherry's RTW tailoring sew along

Sewing tutorials site (a collection of tutorials from various bloggers helpfully put in one place by Sigrid)

Here is the front (fully fused) and side front (partially fused) with the fused chest piece below the shoulder.  I think next time I would fuse the whole side piece and make the chest piece a bit larger, particularly with the weight of this fabric & the pocket I just think both these areas could do with a bit more support.  

The back piece, upper back is interfaced and fusible bias stay tape applied to the neck and armscyes. 

Bound buttonhole (on the left) and the window in the front facing.

Inside view of the above, I used a bias piece of lining on the buttonhole window, organza would be better but lining works.  (There are some great tutorials for bound buttonholes in the sewing tutorials link above if you don't have the Singer Tailoring book).

Here is the whole inside jacket before the lining went in.  I finished the pockets and the collar before sewing the side seams and then setting in the sleeves - it is much easier to work in the flat and also you can fine tune the fit.  This jacket also had back darts and I left those pinned until I was ready to finish the side seams too for the same fitting reasons.

 Here is a closer look at the shoulder and sleeve.  Instead of a sleeve head I bind the top of the armscye with a strip of fleece, it serves the same purpose (I think) and gives a nice rounded finish.  I'm not sure if this is a standard method, it's something I picked up from the English Couture Company course and DVD.  At this stage the shoulder pad was just tacked at the shoulder seam, but I also tacked it about 2/3 of the way down each side.

I don't have photos, but the hem was also fused from the bottom of the jacket to just above the finished hem, which was handstitched, as were the sleeve hems.

I separately assembled the lining and then machined it to the front and back facings.  I then finished attaching it at the hems (jacket and sleeves) by hand, I never enjoy this part but I find I have a lot more control than when I try to do a fully bagged lining by machine.  Something to work on next time!