It finally fits: The finished jacket body

We we last left off, I was nearly finished remaking the lapels and collar of Tom's present. I'm making pretty good time and I think I'll have this done in time for Christmas. Then disaster struck: today Tom texted me and said that he'd just scored a used suit from a friend. Well shit, way to rain on my parade. Here is what he sent me:

Fortunately, the fit needs some tailoring and the lapels/styling are definitely dated (likely a similar vintage to the project suit). Unfortunately, the suit is a super cool brown/rust windowpane plaid and I'm more than a little jealous. In the end, this development changes nothing; he still needs a modern styled, well fitting suit. Back to the oars collar with me.

Reshaping the collar is basically the same as the lapels. Mark off the shape you want, open the stitches, fold, press, trim, restitch. It's a smaller piece, only one layer thick, and therefore much faster going. After the shape is good, pin, trim, and restitch the felt backing.

After it's all assembled, give everything a good press and marvel in your work. But not too long, because half the suit still needs work, and now things get tricky. The second half needs to match the first half perfectly. At first, I intended to make a cardboard pattern that would let me transfer the exact shape across:

The first step was to find a stable reference point that was equal on both sides. I chose the first body dart and the lapel's notch. Then pinned the cardboard in place to prevent it from moving. Next I flipped the assembly over and traced the lapel edge.

This strategy however, has a flaw: the new side has a different notch than the unaltered side. In order to keep things symmetrical I was going to need lots of careful measuring... something I really lack the patience for. Time for plan 'B'.

This jacket's lining is edged in with a thin red ribbon. It adds a nice bit of stying, but it also provides a fixed reference point for both jacket sides. I decided to match the ribbon lines up, pin everything together, and trace the new lapel onto the old one.

It worked great. If it hadn't, I'd still have been able to do lots of tedious measuring and get the same result (thank God I didn't have to). From here out, the process is exactly the same as before: Rip the seams, fold, press, double check that it looks right, baste, trim, and top-stitch. It really does go faster once you are not trying to figure out what shape you like or anything else of that sort. The end result was, in my humble opinion, awesome.

Lets take a closer look at how those lapels turned out, and why I chose the shape I did.

In the end, I decided that the lapel edge should be parallel to the torso edge (green lines), that the top notch edge should be parallel to the pocket (red lines), and that the lower notch edge should be parallel to the shoulder (blue lines). That one was a miss, but only because I can't change the angle of the original geometry. It's possible that all that would create a notch that is too shallow, but until I find a suit with sufficient geometry to play with, I'll never know.

Still to come: shortening (and possible narrowing) of the sleeves, hemming of the pants, and I need to find a way to cut almost four inches out of the waist! Given that time is running short, I think the next step should be the pants. I already know how to shorten the sleeves and hem the pant legs, but that waist is going to take some creative thinking to prevent it from looking like crap. Stay tuned for gratuitous shots of my ass, because next time we take on the trousers!