Sherlock Coat opinions/info?

What are people's thoughts on interlining? Should I go for something plush like mohair?

Where are you guys buying yours?

TheLark said:

What are people's thoughts on interlining? Should I go for something plush like mohair?

Where are you guys buying yours?

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I was just going to use black statin, and if I was still to cold even with the wool, add a removable fleece liner for the main body

TheLark said:

I like the look of it well enough, but I'm concerned about the way those cosplaysky coats hang (they seem to crinkle and slump more and lack that nice solid, sharpness at the front). I *think* it's a matter of interfacing, and if I made my own with better interfacing do you reckon I could get it to hang more like this one?

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Ah, my coat. I used a mohair interfacing on the front of my coat. You'd want that anyway for the collar and lapel front. I probably ought to have used it all around the hem, it tends to wrinkle a touch and if I feel ambitious I'll rip open the hem this fall and do that!

For lighter fabrics that are slumpy you'll want to use a light woven interfacing like broadcloth or muslin. It will give the fabric a better weight, though of course it makes it warmer. For other pieces when I've had to do complete interlining, I just lay the two fabric together and cut and pin and sew as though they were one piece. You still do a separate lining and all.

I have a poor track record with fusible interfacing, and when you are trying to apply that much, it compounds problems. No matter how I try to fuse it, I get bubbles. Ah, for industrial pressers!

If you can't afford mohair interfacing, try a heavy canvas that's washed and pre-shrunk and doesn't crease too easily. I gotta say, mohair was pricy but it is quality.

Incidentally, I used a book called Tailoring - The Classic Guide to Sewing the Perfect Jacket as my Bible of sewing the coat. Good pics, clear instructions on how to tackle the hateful welt pockets... I'd rec it if you have lots of questions about how to proceed, everything I could tell you about construction is covered in it anyways.

Hey, thanks for the reply jessamygriffin.

My friend is making it for me and has a certificate 4 in fashion & textiles (I hope that's good ). Your blog and notes are invaluable, and since I'm at the ordering stage, I wonder at the ratios I should be getting (eg, if I get 6 metres of wool then how much interlining/interfacing will I need? Will it go under all of the coat or just parts?)

Also, my friend is going to machine-pad stitch it. Does that mean I don't need fusable interfacing, or is that a seperate layer? I'm a tad confused.

I will definitely forward whatever else you have to say in regards to the making of it to my friend, since yours looks so damn good. Are there any other bits like the Back Stay that I should be aware of?

I think I'm going to go with the cosplaysky wool (no idea what their weight is), although I'm also curious to see how the magnoli one turns out and what it costs per metre. The swatch seems good.

Your friend has access to some insane equipment. I've heard pad-stitch machines can cost upwards of $20,000.

Either that, or she misunderstood what I meant when I asked her.

TheLark said:

Hey, thanks for the reply jessamygriffin.

My friend is making it for me and has a certificate 4 in fashion & textiles (I hope that's good ). Your blog and notes are invaluable, and since I'm at the ordering stage, I wonder at the ratios I should be getting (eg, if I get 6 metres of wool then how much interlining/interfacing will I need? Will it go under all of the coat or just parts?)

Also, my friend is going to machine-pad stitch it. Does that mean I don't need fusable interfacing, or is that a separate layer? I'm a tad confused.

I will definitely forward whatever else you have to say in regards to the making of it to my friend, since yours looks so damn good. Are there any other bits like the Back Stay that I should be aware of?

I think I'm going to go with the cosplaysky wool (no idea what their weight is), although I'm also curious to see how the magnoli one turns out and what it costs per metre. The swatch seems good.

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For such a rubbish posting I did on the coat, not to mention the pattern sketches, I am always happy and yet amazed that it's ended up being such a resource. Tell your friend to be aware I got the collar band wrong - wasn't aware until S2 and I found Ray's coat pics. Made me gnash my teeth. The post here hasn't been edited but a person did come back in the comments to discuss and also put up some pics of how it should look, which is awesome. Check the comments down a bit.

Here you can see the guts inside, including, yes, a backstay, and shoulder reinforcement. You can see that the interfacing doesn't mean the entire coat - the wool I used was about a med weight and draped heavy and smooth and didn't need a full interlining. You'll definitely need it in the front so it lays smooth, gives a crisp edge to the front and of course supports the lapels and collar. Apparently you can also add some to the hem as well to give it weight? So says the Tailoring book.

So unless you are using some really light weight wool, you wouldn't need a complete interlining? And NOT in the mohair throughout! That stuff is heavy and stiff - you'd feel armour-plated.

So taking into account the above, no you don't need 6 m of mohair interlining for sure. Just for the front and collar. If she's pad stitching it, you probably don't need much fusible. I used some on the patch pockets, the welt pockets, the inner front and the top collar. The under collar had mohair for stiffness and shaping. Check the third pic down here. I should have taken more pics, I guess, but...hey.sewing. In the guts link above, you can see I pad stitched mine, but had to do it ye olde way by hand. Machine pad stitch? Jealous!

I think I bought 6 m of wool originally. I didn't need it.... OR SO I THOUGHT. I decided the coat wasn't long enough and re-cut the back skirt. STILL had plenty. Oh and of course I mucked up the armscythe on the sleeves in SPITE of having made a test coat. So those got re-cut as well. And one path pocket ended up with the pattern of the houndstooth going the wrong way so that got recut. I am embarrassed to say there wasn't a meter of wool left by the end.

Oh and the back stay is just some light tight weave cotton broadcloth, nothing fancy.

**edit - Oh wait, just forgot - my journal is marked as adult content, not for the coat stuff unless you count swearing. But you probably have already seen that.

Tried making a pleat and belt on the back of a black wool coat i have, worked out fairly well, although the middle vent of the coat made the seam look a bit weird. I'll try posting some pictures later.

Have found some options for fabric I'd like your opinion on. I've taken these pictures both with and without flash so you can get a good sense of their real color. While option A is a bit more hounds-toothy than I'd ideally prefer, it's definitely the closest I've been able to find on my own.

Options A, B, and C, without flash:


With flash:


Options D, E, and F, without flash:


With flash:

Hmm, none of them really work for me, too grey/brown. A looks a LOT like the one from A Study in Coat, Although, if anything i'd say D or C, although they're quite inaccurate too.

Unfortunately since we're working off of pictures.... there's not a lick of brown in person... the flash turned on a lot of yellows, which just aren't true when I see them here... but did show the weft/weave a bit better so I shared them.

They are on a white sheet of paper, so you can definitely see the yellow tint that got added there.

I just ordered 8 metres of cosplaysky wool myself.

I wish I could get mine as well, I want to feel the stuff and see how it is. Any chance I could pay you postage for a small swatch of the stuff when you get it?

Btw, buttons are going to be happening sooner than expected. Thanks to another forum member with some great solidworks skills, we'll have a printable 3D button soon. The pictures he's sent me look great, flawless even. I'm going to order one through Shapeways, then mold and cast.

That should be fine. I doubt I'll need all 8 metres anyway.
I hope it's like what misswolverine's looks like, because I found a blog with what I believe looks quite like the photos cosplaysky advertises -

Rickman101's deviantART Gallery

You can see it's different. The pattern in the wool is smaller and less sherlock like. Ah well, it's cheap and I'm tired of searching.

Is her coat supposedly the same one? Because that's a completely different fabric altogether.

Well, I don't know for sure whether that blog coat is cosplaysky, but like I said it looks more like their advertisements. Maybe they've changed the wool since then, who knows. I'm about to find out.

When I originally asked them how much they charged for the fabric they sent me pictures, nothing that showed scale, but it was definitely the first fabric, not this other stuff that looks nothing like the Belstaff.

Hmm...
This could be an expensive exercise. I didn't think to ask for a swatch.
Maybe they'll do refunds.

Here's another blog I found with someone who's coat appears to be cosplaysky. This one is much more pleasing, again like misswolverine's.
So, I won't panic just yet.

http://www.therpf.com/members/misswolverine/http://songofages.tumblr.com/search/cosplay

Didn't cosplaysky have a linen version? Could that be what the other one was?