Vogue 1266 - part 1, various workarounds

I've actually begun one of my MakeNine2022 projects! On the basis of starting with what I need most right now, I'm making my winter coat.

Vogue 1266, 2001*

First up, were the pattern adjustments. In the past, this would just have involved taking 5cm/2" out of the torso length above the waist, but now I also have to consider a full bust adjustment. Well, I say 'full', but the reality is that I only need to add 2.5cm/1" overall.

I've never done an FBA on a princess seamed garment, so went online, and found this tutorial. It's clear and comprehensive, but by its own admission it involves a lot of steps. So, as I was making a mere ½" change, I decided to cheat a bit. I was making a toile anyway, and worked on the basis that if it all went horribly wrong, I could try again with the correct method.

The four main coat pieces

I traced the centre and side backs (6 and 7) and the side front (2) off the originals, shortening by 2" as normal, and put back pieces aside. I had made sure to leave spare tissue to the front of piece 2, and didn't cut it out. I marked the seam line on the front edge, from the top to the waist notches. Next, I marked a point ½" out from the seam line at the apex of the bust and drew a new seam line freehand, again from the top to the waist notches. Finally, I added the seam allowance to this new line.

My bust adjustment

I measured the original and new seam lines, and calculated the difference. The new line was ⅜" longer, so I shortened the front (1) by 1⅝" instead of 2", and trued up the notches.

The toile needed to be made in something of a similar weight to the coating, so I used some old curtain fabric (wrong side out to avoid being distracted by the rather vibrant pattern). I only made one sleeve, just to check the length. It all looks a bit droopy here on Nancy but on me, with clothes underneath and shoulder pads pinned in, it fitted perfectly. I'm not sure I would recommend my method for a large bust adjustment, but if you're confident with pattern alterations and only making a small change, it worked a treat.

Completed toile

Toile done, it was time to start cutting out. My fabric is a wool mix, with a short pile. It is thick and heavy, so I decided to cut out from a single layer. Somehow, I managed to completely misread the cutting layout and only realised once I'd cut several pieces. I'm quite used to making up my own layouts, but it's normally from necessity, not stupidity! Fortunately, everything fitted into my freestyling version.

Making tailor tacks proved to be difficult, as it was impossible to make such a small stitch in a single movement and also go right through the fabric. If a pattern has tailor tack markings of different shapes (and most Vogue patterns do, including this one), I always sew them in different colours, so that I can tell them apart later on. So I put a pin of the appropriate colour through the pattern hole, lifted the tissue off, and used stab stitches to create the tailor tack around the pin.

Marking triangles (blue), large dots (red) and small dots (yellow)

I am going to cut the upper collar out of some black coating I have in my stash. As I mentioned above, the fabric has a pile. It's rather rough, and I think that having it pressing against the back of my neck, pile upwards, could quickly get uncomfortable. There are also some odd, really quite wiry, white strands in it, some of which I've removed. I'm considering making the back and sleeve facings out of the plain black as well, to avoid any other itchy bits.

Weird mystery fibres

The next step is to grapple with interfacing. Onward!

* - Well, I thought that this pattern dated from 2001, as that's the copyright date on the envelope. However, when I was checking the cutting layout (prior to totally ignoring it), I noticed that the copyright date on the instruction sheet was 1993. While writing this post I dug a bit deeper, and discovered this envelope illustration on the Vintage Pattern Wiki. Same figures, same accessories, not even a mirror image, just standing in the opposite order. I appear to be making a 'vintage' coat by accident!

1993 version - clearly a timeless design!