Do you want to sew a historical tailored wool jacket or coat? Learn how to sew a tailored jacket like in the Edwardian era.
Over the years, I’ve made various Victorian and Edwardian tailored wool jackets and coats. And I learned it the hard way that modern sewing instructions are often not very useful for historical tailored garments. 😉 If you want to sew a historical garments, it’s easier to follow historical sewing instructions from the start than to try to make an Edwardian tailored wool jacket using modern sewing instructions. 🙃
How To Cut The Pattern Pieces
‘Fitted coats, outlining the figure, require more care and attention in the making than fancy coats, though the latter, when finished, may look much more elaborate.
The first important step is to have the cloth thoroughly shrunken. […] When the cloth is ready, lay the pattern on it to the best advantage. […] In cloth the nap should always run toward the bottom of the garment. […] with the wrong side up, […] arrange the pattern upon it. Pin the pattern carefully to the material and cut it out with sharp scissors, following the outline most exactly. After you have cut the first half, lay it face down on your material, with the pattern still pinned to it, and cut the second half. Be sure that the nap runs the same way in both halves and that you do not cut two halves for the same side – a common mistake of the amateur.’ (The Dressmaker, 1916)
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How To Interline A Coat Or Jacket
‘The front of a cloth coat must be interlined with a soft, pliable canvas, cotton serge, or cambric, which should be shrunken before it is used. […] Baste the canvas to the wrong side of the coat. Then baste the seams of the coat and canvas together […]
To give the coat more body over the bust, an extra piece of thin canvas not quite as heavy as used in the fronts should be applied to each front […] Do not make a seam in the canvas to make it fit the bust, but slash it and lap the edges to make it fit smoothly in the coat. This canvas should be attached to the other canvas in the fronts by padding stitches. […] When the garment is an Eton or any other short jacket, the interlining in the front is cut to the waistline and to the extreme front edge, whether the jacket is single or double breasted.
Baste a piece of canvas or other interlining the shape of the neck and shoulders of the back, and about two inches deep, across the neck at the back, and similar pieces around the armholes of the back and underarm, to meet the interlining of the fronts […] This stays the coat and prevents the breaking around the armhole. […] Stitch all the seams of the coat. If they are to be finished with stitching or lapped seams, press them before completing the finish. […]
The front edges of the coat should lie close to the figure at the bust, and a well-fitted coat should hold itself in shape to the figure at this point, even when unbuttoned. […] Press the fronts carefully.’ (The Dressmaker, 1916)
Additional Interlining For Warmth
‘An additional interlining, if required for warmth, should be made of outing flannel or the regular silk-and-wool interlining that comes for the purpose. Cut it with the pattern of the coat as a guide, letting it extend an inch or two below the waistline. Slash the interlining at intervals along the bottom so that it will not bind the coat. Do not put the interlining together with ordinary seams, but tack it inside the coat, letting one seam edge of the interlining overlap the one next to it.’ (The Dressmaker, 1916)
Padding
‘If padding is needed, a few layers of sheet wadding decreasing toward the edges may be basted around the armhole from the front of the shoulder to the back, deepening under the arm, and made thick or thin as the figure may require.
If you wish to make the shoulders look more square, place a triangular piece of wadding on the shoulder with the point at about the middle of the shoulder seam and the wider part at the armhole, making the wadding thick enough to give the required squareness to the shoulders. If the shoulders are uneven, fit the upper one and pad the lower one with a triangular piece of wadding.’ (The Dressmaker, 1916)
Lead Weights
‘Flat lead weights about the size of a quarter are tacked in the bottom of the coat to weight it properly. They should be covered with the lining satin so that they will not wear through the lining.’ (The Dressmaker, 1916)
How To Interline A Tailored Collar
‘For the strictly tailored collar cut an interlining of tailor’s canvas. Use the collar pattern as a guide, but cut the canvas three-eighths of an inch smaller at all edges than the pattern. The canvas should be shrunken before it is used.
The “stand” of the collar – the part next the neck that stands up when the coat is worn – is marked by perforations. It is a crescent-shaped section which should be covered with parallel rows of machine stitching about a quarter of an inch apart.
The canvas cloth in the turnover part of the collar, and in the lapel or revers on the front, must be held firmly by many small stitches called “padding stitches.” These stitches are about half an inch long on the canvas side and just barely caught through on the right side. Hold the collar or lapel firmly over the hand, the canvas side uppermost, and, in stitching, roll and shape the section in the direction in which it is to lie. The stitch should be started at the line of the fold of the lapel or collar and worked in successive rows to the edge. The edges should be turned under, caught to the canvas and pressed.
Baste the collar, canvas side up, flat on the coat […] Stretch the neck edge of the collar between the notches so that it will set smoothly on the coat. […] try it on […] and see that the collar is the correct size and fits properly. If it does not, it may be shaped by shrinking, stretching and pressing. […]
Narrow linen tape, well shrunken, should be sewed to the canvas toward the inside of the coat at the crease of the lapel, drawing it taut to prevent stretching. The edges of the lapel and the front coat edges should also be taped, drawing the tape snug at these edges to give them a good shape. […]
From the cloth, cut facings for the collar and fronts. The front facings must be cut to the shape of the front after the edges have been altered and taped. Lay the cloth on the fronts and over the lapel corners; pin it carefully in place, holding the front and lape in to their proper shape; then cut it to the required width. It need extend only about three inches inside of the line that marks the center of the front. The collar facing, if of cloth, must be cut on the width or crosswise of the material and must not have a seam in the center of the back.’ (The Dressmaker, 1916)
Boning For Tailored Jackets & Coats
‘Use whalebone if you wish a soft, thin finish to the waist, but as it is expensive if good qualities are bought, many prefer to use featherbone, which is very satisfactory, its only disadvantage being its thickness. The great advantage of featherbone is the short time it takes to put it in, and its unbreakable qualities. Metal and composition stays are also used in place of whalebone.’ (Clothing For Women: Selection, Design, Construction, 1916)
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‘Round the ends of the bone and shave them for half an inch to make the ends thinner, using a dull knife or the blade of the scissors. […] The seams should then be boned. […] Procure a piece of single bone-casing or Prussian binding […] black or white is to be preferred.
Double over one end an inch and over-hand the edges together to make a little pocket. […] sew the casing on with a running stitch. Sew both edges, holding the casing somewhat full and keeping it over the middle of the seam.
Run the bone into the pocket at the bottom of each casing and fasten it at the top by sewing through both bone and casing. Sew through again three inches above the waistline. Then push the bone very tight, so it will stretch out the seam and give a curve at the waist, and sew again there. […] Do not spring the bones in the front so much as at the sides and back.’ (The Dressmaker, 1916)
How To Add Boning To A Jacket
‘First mark on the seams the height you wish the bones. This varies with different figures, an average being five to six inches in center back above the waist line; three-quarter inch lower on side and underarm seams; in the front, depends upon the height of the bust. Below waist, one to two inches, or so, end of bone does not show through dress.
Casings of Prussian binding for the bone must first be sewed to the seams of the waist. Turn the end of the casing over one inch and overhand both sides. Crease casing through center; lay this over center of seam; begin three-quarter inch from top of casing to sew to seam; hold quite easy, sew to seam with small running stitches, down one side, up the other, leaving bottom open; cut off here, allowing some for finishing. A casing for hook and eye is made in lining where waist fastens. Stitch one-eighth inch from turned edge of waist, and again, the width of the bone, allowing a thread or two, so the bone will slip in easily; stitch across top of casing.
Soak whalebone in cold water for an hour or two before using. Remove bones from water as you are ready to use them, cut bones length of casing, round off the corners, slip this end into casing, letting it stop one-half inch short of the top. Sew right through bone, and tack to casing. Tack again half way down seam, springing bone slightly. Trim off lower end to correct length, spring, cover with loose end of casing, not letting bone come to end of casing. Tack to seam, and overhand sides of casing. Place hook and eye bone in same way, tacking bone below top of casing to prevent its pushing through. Featherbone is sewed to the waist by machine; no casing is used, as the bone comes already covered.’ (Clothing For Women: Selection, Design, Construction, 1916)
How To Set In Sleeves
‘Baste the seams of the sleeves and try them on. […] A bias strip of canvas, or whatever is used in the fronts, three inches deep should be basted into the wrist just above the turning line of the hem part, and the cloth turned over and catch-stitched to it. […]
Cut a piece of cambric in the same outline as the top of the sleeve and about three inches deep, and baste it in position to the inside of the sleeve. Gage the top of the sleeve with two rows of gatherings, as shown in Fig. 312. This is done by taking up a short stitch on the upper side and a longer stitch on the under side. All the stitches of the second row should be directly underneath those of the first row.
Baste the sleeves into the armholes, try the coat on to see if the sleeve sets right, and then stitch it. In some sleeves the fulness at the top is taken out by small darts. These are marked with tailor’s tacks, as directed on the pattern, stitched, cut and pressed open. Often, if the fulness is slight, it can be shrunken out entirely. It is first gathered with one row of very fine gatherings and then placed over the small end of a tailor’s padded cushion. A damp cloth is laid over the sleeves and they are pressed with a hot iron until dry.’ (The Dressmaker, 1916)
How To Line A Coat
‘The lining is the final step of coat-making; the outside must be entirely finished, the pockets put in, and all the ornamental stitching done before beginning on the lining.
Silk or satin is unquestionably the only satisfactory lining for a coat. One of the several silk substitutes may be used for lining a gown, but only the greatest necessity for economy excuses its use as coat-lining. White satin of a good firm quality is attractive, but satin matching the shade of the cloth is more serviceable. Cut the lining from the same pattern as the cloth […] Cut the lining of the fronts to extend to the front facings only’ (The Dressmaker, 1916). Baste, then sew down the lining by hand.
How To Make A Lining For A Previously Unlined Coat
‘Occasionally one has to line a coat for which there is no pattern. […] If the coat has had no previous lining, place the garment wrong side out over the padded bust form, and fit a piece of silk to the front. The material for the back is creased down the center back and basted in one-half inch to form the plait previously described. Pin the lining straight across the back the entire length of the form. Crease the silk along the line of the seam, and cut, allowing three-eighths-inch seams. Pin on the side portion, keeping the same grain of the material. Fold back the material along the line of the sewing, and cut it away, allowing seams. Turn under the seam, baste and hem it to the back portion. The next portion is cut out in the same manner, the seams creased and hemmed.
Care must be taken to keep the grain of the lining the same as that of the garment, and also to baste the lining in very easy so that it will not draw the outer material and cause it to wrinkle.’ (The Dressmaker, 1916)
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