smoking jacket
Published: Sunday, October 1st 2006
The last smoking jacket I made was about 2 years ago and I was at that time a 'trade' maker making for other tailors.
The smoking jacket order came to me from an establishment with the royal warrant for clothing HRH The Queen and It was a beautiful wine velvet to be made with a shawl or roll collar lapel and satin gauntlet cuffs.
The firm that sent me the order dealt with the frogging themselves but it was a beauty when finished.
Here I have a smoking jacket that has come into me from a client for an alteration and a BIG alteration at that.
My client asked me if I could take this jacket in for him and as there needs to be around 4 inches taking out from the chest and waist sections these are BIG alterations for any jacket.
My client has not really had any kind of wear from this garment due to the bad fit.
The jacket I was very surprised to find from the inside label was made by a very well known tailoring firm in London.
The ill fitting finished garment came about as my client was unable to attend a fitting at the tailors due to work commitments and was told, incorectly in my humble opinion as he is not an easy figure to accommodate, that a 'straight to finish' would be fine.
This is the result, an unhappy client who will never use them again. "Fittings make the tailors way safe" say I.
After a short discussion we decided the velvet is a good quality and it would be a shame to not have a go at correcting it. This was an expensive garment in the first place and the frogging is not too bad a job so it is a shame it is not being worn and enjoyed.
I have stripped the sleeves out completely to enable me to get a good run at all the seams, the armholes needed reducing in diameter to have any chance so the sleeves had to come out.
I am also posting these pictures for you to be able to see the sleeve crown seam which has been cut on both sides and pressed open. This is quite a good method for velvet as it gives a nice flat crown.
I re cut the side seams and also reduced the centre back seam I had seen this on him before any attempt at the alterations to give the best results.
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