Santa costume - jacket - part 3

The jacket was made by cutting out the panels for the back, front panels, and sleeves as per the pattern developed in part 1.

The lay of the fabric was maintained based on the arrows in the patterns. Once sewn together, the lining was made from standard polycotton (as used in making applique quilts) using the same patterns, and then placing it inside the jacket with all seams facing inside the jacket.



Photo 1 - cutting fabric from pattern

The collar of the jacket needed to stand up so any clothes worn under the jacket will not show, I decided the jacket collar needed some stiffening. I designed a flat collar which resembles a mandarin collar from the back, but lays flat as it comes down the front panels.
The stiffener material I used is some seatbelt webbing I salvaged from some of the road-crash training cars.



Photo 2 -  Seatbelt and fur trim for collar and it's stiffening


I cut the seatbelt fabric to make the collar higher at the back, and tapering down as the collar crosses over at the front.

The liner was inserted inside the jacket outer, and pinned in place. This allowed for minor adjustments in fit, and the positioning of the internal pocket for the gloves which was sewn in place prior to joining the outer and inner together.


Photo 3 - Jacket outer and liner pinned together

I then stitched this into the fur trim and then stitched this into the layers between the jacket outer, and the liner. This was accomplished by turning the jacket (with it's liner) inside out, and stitching it all together, but leaving a turning area of about 300mm (12") unstitched at the back of the jacket.



Photo 4 - Fur trim pinned in place for sewing into jacket layers

Once the sewing was done, the jacket was turned "right side out" and the turning opening was closed by careful pinning and sewing. To reduce the appearance of the closed seam, I used a derivative of the bias tape method, where I sewed the fur trim to the outer, then reversed the lay so it sat properly and then over-sewed the seam with the liner held in place with pins, this concealed the stitching for the outer/trim seam, and allowed the seam for the liner/trim to be hidden in the seam of the first set of stitching - sorry no photos to simplify the description.


Photo 5 - the finished jacket showing the liner in place

The photo above (photo 5) is where I was trying to determine if a single width belt looked OK, compared to a double width belt.

The pants were made in a similar manner, but will be covered in another posting.