Sini Tuulia
#1890sCheckJacket update for the day: Have finished the linen tape on the canvas interfacing, had a moment of fast machine sewing with sewing the shoulder seams, and am now back in pad stitching land. Gotta love it when you read one step of the instructions like "pad stitch the collar" and you know that one sentence is going to be at least a straight hour of work. Or possibly multiple hours of not straight work, as I am not very straight nor as fast as I'd like to be.
Feb 23, 2025 at 1:58pmWeb
Show threadSini TuuliaFeb 23, 2025

Me checking one of the tomes (an old Victorian tailoring manual) to see which directions the pad stitching on the collar should go and why, and once again gazing at diagrams like this.
Damn. 😂 I am definitely not going to do it as dense as that...

#OldManuals #Tailoring

Show threadSini TuuliaFeb 23, 2025
And that's a light coat, too! No wool wadding, padding or quilted interfacing on there at all. Men's garments used to be so hecking intricate.
Show threadSini TuuliaFeb 23, 2025

Ran out of my nice grey thread and feeling a bit bored, I elected to use a nice variegated cotton to finish the pad stitching to keep my brain online. It won't be visible at all once the top collar goes on, but honestly kind of rad looking!

#Sewing #Tailoring #1890sCheckJacket

Show threadSini TuuliaFeb 23, 2025

Done. Note to self, edit in the photo later so you don't get distracted from taking a break!

Edit: There we go, colarsrde.jpeg in all its glory.
The variegated thread helped in the process so much, my brain enjoyed it, and there will be a secret rave going on inside my collar once it's covered, I guess.

Show threadCTGTFeb 23, 2025

@sinituulia

Looks wonderful!

Show threadSini TuuliaFeb 23, 2025
@CTGT Thank you! I certainly don't feel like doing pad stitching in normal matching colours again!
Show threadCTGTFeb 23, 2025

@sinituulia

I can see why!

Show threadMaaikeFeb 23, 2025
@sinituulia I'm intrigued by this pad stitching. Does it show up on the outer fabric?
Show threadSini TuuliaFeb 23, 2025
@Stratski If it's a thinner outer fabric, a little bit. Every stitch grabs a tiny bit of the outer, while most of it is on the canvas that gets hidden. My fabric is thick enough that if I was careful about it, it would be completely invisible. 😄 The collar itself will always live folded into that shape, so even if it's there it won't get seen unless you deliberately force it open, so it doesn't super matter either way.
Show threadMaaikeFeb 23, 2025
@sinituulia Ah, okay, thanks!
Show threadSindarina, Edge Case DetectiveFeb 23, 2025
@sinituulia Kewl 🙂
Show threadcuan_knaggsFeb 23, 2025
@sinituulia do you happen to know of any of these tomes that go into men's coats? 1890s to 1940s ish
Show threadSini TuuliaFeb 23, 2025

@mensrea Oh, god. So many. So many. This is from the Cutters' Practical Guide which has so many books in the series. (https://archive.org/details/texts?tab=collection&query=cutters+practical+guide&and%5B%5D=year%3A%5B1890+TO+1940%5D)

There's also ones for remaking and re-fitting existing garments and fixing fit issues, this one is nice: https://archive.org/details/practicalinstruc00lehm/page/14/mode/2up?view=theater

I know I've looked at one that went really hard and deep into applying padding and shaping, but I didn't save it into my bookmarks so who knows which one it was. 😆 Finding one you can look up others with similar tags and terms!

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

Show threadSini TuuliaFeb 23, 2025
@mensrea There are far more books about men's tailoring than there are women's, though there's far more women's "plain" sewing than men's tailoring.
Show threadcuan_knaggsFeb 23, 2025
@sinituulia ah. i think i may have been down the sewing path then
Show threadcuan_knaggsFeb 23, 2025
@sinituulia thank you, these look promising. in case you're curious, the plan is to design a coat somewhere in the range of K's coat from blade runner 2049, a pea coat, and an ulster coat
Show threadSini TuuliaFeb 23, 2025
@mensrea You're very welcome! I know I've seen multiple different drafting/cutting instructions for Ulster coats, but don't remember where. 🤔 A pea coat, if not immediately instructed somewhere, is probably pretty easy to fudge from any of the other styles... The Practical Guide To has multiple different coat and jacket books, so I'd imagine there's at least a starting point there.
I've not looked too hard at men's dress though, mostly it's just faster to find specific things like interfacing steps from the index, look at that and close the book!