Tuesday 18 September 2012

Ultimate Six Frock Coat -
the fabrics continue to arrive

I’ve been a bit quiet about my work on my Six Frock Coat of late, the reason for which I’ll touch on later, but things have been a-happeneing.

This week the final two custom-dyed wools fabrics arrived, and I thought I’d show them off with a couple of others I sourced a few months back.
Fabrics 7, 8, 10 and 11

So what I have to show you today are: the Yellow Lapel (fabric 7), Pink Lapel (Fabric 8), Cuffs (Fabric 10), and Pink Felt (Fabric 11).

Three of the colours here are for the least used fabrics on the entire coat, each only representing one panel apiece. It’s a bit annoying I have to place a minimum order for these – but needs must I guess.

The fabric for the cuffs is only used twice, but this is hardly setting the coat on fire!

All four of these fabrics are very different in their composition: the Pink Lapel is a cotton velvet, colour matched to the original coat; the Cuffs are classic pillow ticking dyed yellow, exactly the same as the Six Trousers; the Pink Felt is a medium-weight felt; and The Yellow Lapel is a quite thick, slightly fluffy woollen weave.

It’s funny – stacking these four fabrics together makes it look like the coat is made from an almost colour co-ordinated set of pastel shades, reminding me somehow of a Victorian ice cream seller!

This batch, together with the fabrics I showed you in April, now completes work on the coat’s solid colours.
I now have eight of the fourteen in-hand and ready to cut!

This leaves the Red Tartan (fabric one); Checked Collar (fabric six); Woven Back (fabric nine); Pocket Piping (fabric twelve); Appliqué Strip (fabric thirteen). A couple of those are merely trimmings, but I counted them with equal emphasis so I don’t overlook them.

As I mentioned earlier, my postings on this project have been a bit scarce of late. This is because I now have some undesired competition when it comes to making a Six Frock Coat.
Inevitably my research was plundered for their use, so I don’t plan to make the more complicated aspects of the coat available to a rival to be passed off as their own work.

This is a shame, as I have drafted a fascinating entry on my work on recreating the stunning lining fabric, as well as the red tartan – both of which are poised to be woven.
This effectively just leaves me the two hand-woven fabrics – both of which are already on looms as a write . . .

At this rate I’m gonna be done by Christmas!

2 comments:

  1. Another exciting (and long awaited) update. Keep up the awesome work, Steve!

    TF.

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  2. Is the rival attempting to sell them? If so that's depressing.

    I mean I'd see no problem in someone making a replica for themselves and crediting your blog for the assistance.

    But it's pretty crappy to lie about it and claim the work as entirely your own after all the work you put into it.

    That lining does indeed look very pretty!

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