development and reflection of pattern drafting!

Having recieved James' decided design and comments that he liked it all as it was and did not have any objections to the fabrics or components (including decorational components such as the swarovski rhinestones I was considering), I decided to go ahead with drafting the basic pattern for the coat and shirt! From the historical reference material I collected earlier in the project, I established that it would be best to start off drafting a dress coat pattern and then adapting it, as this would be the closet shape to my design and would generally be style lines such as the centre front and lapel that I needed to adapt anyway. Therefore, this would not change the technical elements that required James set measurements that one of the other girls in the group had taken a few weeks in advance of the project commencing!

I used our library to source this pattern so as I was able to form a 19th century historical based pattern and was easy to access the patterns quickly to get drafting them asap, so that I could stick to my schedules day to day plans. From studing many of the books.. very few actually had full patterns in with fulld rafting instructions, therefore I had to make use of the ones that did have this in! i therefore decided to use a pattern from 'The art of the tailor' by Robert Doyle for a morning coat which looked to be a similar shape to a dress coat but a more historical pattern than the patterns i found for the dress coat which appreared very much more modern. I did not want to use a strikingly modern shape pattern as i discussed earlier in my blogs, the historicial 19th century style is within the shape of my coat and to some extent the colours; rather than through the material or decoration!

I began to draft this pattern which, despite having followed historical patterns several times previously, was proving quite tricky due to having use an educated guess at exactly what they pattern instructions were directing you to plot! My drafting for the coat; was halted when the pattern was telling me to plot point 13, but on the diagram, there was no point 13 to direct me! I therefore checked the books other coat patterns to see if i could make an educated decision based on them being very similar drafting patterns; as to where the point 13 was on these, however this did not answer my problem. query unfortunately. Therefore; I met with my tutor to discuss my problem and see if he could explain it to me or if he could direct me to where I could find out the answer! He explained to me that some historic patterns are more informative and better than others.. as tailors of this period which the books were, to some extent, written for by the tailor who found the original pattern, would have been making and creating constantly garments (all very similar ones too, as menwear style was not majorly indivually innovative yet) for about 10 years at least, before they would learn how to draft patterns and follow patterns. By which time they woulld have enough knowledge from making the garments that they would be able to assume and visualise where to plot points (where it would make sense to plot them! )
My tutor recommended to me to use the dress coat pattern from 'The modern tailor, clothier and outfitter' book by A.A Whife, as this was a reliable sourced book and had two other volumes that accompanied it which explained things of that days terms, that may not be used or the case today! These books were extremely helpful and I was able to complete my dress coat pattern from these books, although this book was published in the latter part of the 19th century, so therefore it was more of a modern pattern than I was hoping to create, but it could be adapted once the basic pattern had been drafted which was the key thing to remember!

Therefore, from this, I learnt that next time I use a historical pattern; read it through thoroughly first before decising on it due to it being the right 'look' to ensure it is explained from start to end in a way that you can follow as in many historic patterns; very little is explained in detail or any depth particularly. Unfortunely, this set me back a day on my pattern drafting and therefore a day back on my schedule! However, I had allowed time for minor set backs so therefore this was not a problem which would effect me getting my coat and shirt created for James' first fitting. However this did cause me a lot of fustration as time was limited if i was to come across any further problems when I was putting the coat and shirt together!

The shirt patter I got from................ book and was much more simple to draft! This is i feel to an extent because 19th century style shirts are more of a baggy, less stylised, fitted shape!!

For both the coat and the Jacket, the measurement of the length was down to you to decide based on the height measurement you had taken from the person that would be wearing the garment. I decided this by using a tape measure, setting a manequin to James' height, and from my design deciding where I wanted these to come to, however this was something I felt would have been much easier visalising and deciding upon, if I had of taken this measurement instead of my group member helping us out by doing all of the measurements she felt necessary when measuring James before the project!

To get around this, I decided to put one of my housemate's 21st century modern shirts on the manequin to see where this came to as a guide and then decide based on my historical research pictures and written information on the styles of this period!

I finished creating both the patterns and added the adaptations I wanted to make to the Jacket pattern such as the lapel, which I wanted to make quite large and pointed, and the centre front line with a slight gap when it closed!

The sleeves and the collar for the jacket and shirt I drafted separately; as these are much more straight forward standard patterns which are always down to the cutter(maker) to adapt and decide! I made my colour very pointed to follow the sharpness of the jacket and the sleeves I followed the 19th century pattern and enseure they were to james' measurements; these I did not adapt to keep historical factors and would simply fit at the first fitting!

I was pleased when I had finished drafting my patterns and felt a sense of much confidence in my abilites that I have developed. Despite the set back; I was pleased I had managed to create these patterns and could continue to the next step with no major problems or no problems overhanging!