In out last post, we detailed constructing the basic toille of the Eton jacket pattern that we drafted utilizing a pattern drafting system developed by Charles Hecklinger in The Keystone Jacket and Dress Cutter. Before we move on, just for some added detail, here’s the front pattern piece with some annotated details:
The one thing we want to note here is that as you can see from the multiple darts on the above pattern piece, the dart(s) have migrated quite a bit. Originally, per Hecklinger, there was one very large dart. Because of the size, we decided to break it into two smaller darts but that proved to be impractical from a construction perspective (there’s theory and there’s practice). So, we opted for the single dart BUT with half the width that was originally calculated using Hecklinger’s formula. Also, we opted for a straight dart rather than curves. Please note that part of the “take up” that the dart is meant to do is also accomplished by the side seams which have been curved. This seems to have given satisfactory results and worked well on our fit model.
Next, as previously noted, I was not happy with the first collar pattern piece (Collar Version #1) that I drafted and it just didn’t work well on the toille so I drafted a second one (Collar Version #2) as shown below:
By moving the front edge back, it doesn’t interfere with the lapel edge:
Finally, before we move on, we just want to reiterate that while Hecklinger provides fairly comprehensive details, you really have to parse some of his instructions because they ambiguous on first reading. Also, for the collar, I had to “fill in the blanks” with basic pattern drafting knowledge that’s not readily apparent in the book- this isn’t a complete cookbook for tailoring by any means but pre-supposes a lot of knowledge on specific details. You have been warned! 🙂
So now onto the next phase….
Aas part of the development process, we decided to treat to treat this as a semi- tailored jacket and as such, we decided to utilize a canvas combined with hair-cloth interlining on the lapels. The “canvas” that we utilized is actually medium-weight cotton muslin, the same fabric we use for toiles and it’s stitched to the fashion fabric with a basting stitch:
Below is a picture of the canvas fully stitched onto the fashion fabric and the roll line has been taped. The next phase will be to apply hair canvas to each lapel and then pad stitch it down.
(To be continued…)