Drafting A Bespoke Suit Jacket | Double Bespoke Commission with Kent & Haste London

We've taken all the measurements of Kirby so the next thing we've got to now put that onto paper. So we'll start by cutting the jacket pattern. We do everything literally by measurements here. We only use blocks just to do the shapes so we get the same shapes on everything. This is going to be the back and we start literally with the length. Put our mark there to start with. 16 half ways, 30 coat length. Put quarter of an inch on for a bit of shrinkage. You always get a little bit of shrinkage when you're doing this. Nine and a half down. That gives me the armhole depth so I know exactly where the depth of the armhole is. First two construction lines go on and you'll see it all start coming together quite quickly actually. This goes on. This one comes in so an inch and a quarter at the bottom. Goes right down and then we come across for the waist which as you can see they're different heights but that's all part of the construction. It does work. Then we start getting all the measurements on. We work to a scowl so that's what this stick tells you. Gives you all the scowls and everything. So we worked off the chest size. So I think half of the chest. So for instance we got here it's 38 and a half chest so we've got 1 6 of scowl which is 19 and there's 18 there's 20 so we've got 19 so we're 19 and a quarter which brings you to there and then bring that up. That goes up three quarters of an inch which will be to there. That'll bring me that will give you your back neck. So you see it's starting to come together. This is the back neck so that's your center back. This point here is the center back which is here and this goes right the way around to the top of the shoulder. Then we're working on a half back which is eight and a half plus a seam. Eight and three quarters. Then we start. We'll square up from that one. This is called the back side of the jacket and that's what gives you the back side. It gives you the shaping through the arm hole. Again back to the scowl again so we're 38 and a half so we're 1 8 of scowl 1 4 of scowl and then the 1 8 of scowl goes on there again plus an inch and a quarter. So then that one comes down to there. That's the shoulder. That's the back shoulder. So this part through here. We start the basics is the formula. So we start with the basic formula and then you start working different figurations off of the formula. So if you start with that and then when we come to the cutting stage you'll see I'll start probably not going to the lines. I'll probably go different places on the lines but and I'll alter this as we go along because I can already see now it's not exactly how I want it. I think I'm slightly too long there so I'm gonna raise the balance up. I'll give it a little bit more front balance because I think I'm going to have too much back balance the way it is at the moment which means when the jackets on if I left it like that it will sit like that. So I'm going to get rid of some of that. Now the back shoulder when the shoulder goes onto the jacket if you put the exact size back shoulder onto the front shoulder you will end up with two massive great pulls through the shoulders. So you have to put 3 quarters of an inch fullness into the shoulder. So it's five and three quarters shoulder we're starting with so it's going to be six and a half and then as the tailors putting it on that will push on in fullness and believe it or not three quarters of an inch will get pressed away and shrunk away. Now the waistline we're again back to the scales again. This one it's not half the chest it's literally half the the waist. So 35 and a half is a coat waist it's not the trouser waist. So that's 35 and a half plus three quarters of an inch and in the seat it's 40 and a half plus three quarters of an inch. I'm just going to put them in for the time being but I'm then going to play about with that because to me that's too that's too angled for my liking. So then I'm going to start playing about with the pattern. So the first thing I'm going to do is put a little round through the back bring that in nicely through there and then straighten that down to there because most people your backs if you look at your back your back's not dead straight you've always got a slight curve on your back so that's why except for Mr. Kent who's absolutely perfect. So what we're going to do is just put that little bit of curve on it just to bring in and then we go go back to that I'm going to make that 36 that's the three quarters that's going to bring that to there and then this again is half of the seat scale plus the three quarters again so I'm going to bring it to there. Side vents if it's side vents we put a little bit more flare on the side if it's no vents we'll just put a little bit around through here and bring it in a little bit through there. As you can now see well you will in a minute that looks a much better line now that's just too shaped in through the waist so we'll get rid of that work to that line. So this so then we start from here and then it's just put a little bit of round onto that that will come to there and that's give you the whole back pattern is now ready to chop out. Paper shears of course we have different shears for different things these are just literally for paper so we don't ruin our scissors or shears as they call them. So when I'm cutting it out I decided I want to put just a little bit more room through here just to give Kirby a little bit of movement. Then that's the back of the jacket that's finished now. Front of the jacket is worked off the back so again we start with a stick we go right across this is the probably the most important mark on the whole jacket. This is the balance that's where everything goes from. Right so again back to measurements we're half of the chest that's 19 and a quarter. Put your first mark on then two and two so it's two inches and two inches. Then we go quarter of the chest so we're nine so we'll be 19 and a quarter that's nine and five eighths and then three and a half. Now the last construction through the chest is this one so you go to the middle line there back to this one we just put in and that's half of that which is four. That will give my my armhole placing and the break placing. The break is the lapel on the jacket where it actually hits the neck point of the jacket. That's what we will be working through. Okay as you're working on the pattern you're thinking also of the client so in this case obviously I'm thinking of Kirby so I'm thinking of how Kirby stands what I'll be doing and like for instance he's got a hollow on his front shoulder so we'll come to that in a minute when we come around to that part. Yeah it's just an experience thing really it's just one of those things that come with many many years of experience. I mean the actual draft in the pattern is quite simple you can go through any pattern book and just draft the pattern but if you go by the old system of drafting patterns you end up with the armhole so tight you can't even move because everything was much much smaller across the shoulders and much smaller people in those days but and then you've got all different shoulders for instance some people are very square I'm very sloping so that's what that's what this line gives you that tells you the slope of the person's shoulder that gives you that. We'll come back to that in a minute we'll put this front marking I'm gonna go to just get these measurements in and then we'll start working on the shoulder but so we're back three and a half inches through the hip line and then it's literally take the hip measurement so you take your back measurement and then go straight on to this measurement here and you go half the seat I just push it through like that and it gives me my line there. It's just so well I know the measurement so when I turn the paper over I'll know exactly where where I want to be now I'm gonna start I know for a fact this literally is going to be wrong so I put it in for the time being but that's that's just far too angled that's probably going to finish somewhere there but we'll leave that for the time being and come back to that one so this this is the balance we were talking about earlier so this is your neck point so we'll be three eighths of an inch in front of that neck point now I'm gonna bring it back a bit because I like to do what's called a more of a crooked coat rather than a straight coat straight coats where the fronts are going more forward and give you a bigger chest I'm going to a slightly crooked coat which means we bring it back when you have a crooked coat you bring your you bring your neck point back this side of the line straight coat is when you're bringing the neck point past that line and literally just wang that in we got that so now we got the basis of we don't need this for the time being very unscientific this but it works perfectly well put that onto your neck point which is there spin it round back onto the neck point spin it round that'll give you a button position and your waist so waist goes to there and the bottom will go to there then we can shape that in a minute like to rub that out it's no use whatsoever it was just a guide for me now when I was talking about the neck point earlier I was talking about bringing it back so I'm just good before I actually put the neck button I'm just gonna see where my armhole shapes if I like the shape or not so five and three-quarter shoulders measure your five and three-quarters this is where one of the only reasons I use the block pattern for it it's just because this is my armhole shape and it tells me exactly how I like the armhole and we use it for the sleeves because actually cutting a sleeve from scratch is a long process and it takes a hell of a long time now what I decide I'm gonna I know I'm gonna need a bit more back balance for Kirby so what I'm gonna do is let's talk this bit here is telling me that I need really to bring that I'm gonna bring that up to there to shorten the front balance up just to give it a bit more back balance so again then I just use my block to come down to there yeah I'm quite happy with that I was looking I was thinking that was the front balance was just gonna be a bit too long for Kirby so I'm just really gonna shorten the front balance bit more give a bit more back balance now he hasn't got a huge chest I'm not gonna build up a huge chest on the jacket so really this this is the break I'm not gonna put a neck cut in this one I don't think he needs it I don't have a neck cut myself we start with three and a quarter lapel our gorge the gorge is the lapel which I'll show you on this actually this is called the gorge it's the height of the lapel I'm not gonna start really doesn't matter too much at this stage so I'm going to keep it keep it quite high and then that during the fittings that will change bring that round just to there and then again I just use a block pattern to get the lapel shape it's just to make my life easier more than anything else and then the front edge have we got having to look it's a one button front so we're gonna keep it nice and cut away which will bring that to there so that gives you the basis of the pattern now I'm going to start putting the darts in where we got all of the darts in the pockets the front cut goes off of the neck point that's really should come in line with the neck point you just check right okay there's probably a scientific way to get a pocket position but it's a way some very very old person taught me to do many years ago his name is mr. Kent and it's literally to get the pocket position is 11 inches up 12 inches down and in the middle of that that gives you virtually the perfect pocket position with Kirby's we're having slant pockets so keep it nice and slanting we go three quarters up three quarters down from the back that gives you your pocket position I'm gonna put this dart in then I'm then I'm gonna look just to see my measurements to see what I want to do where I want to change play about with it the front for measurement wise so again I literally taking all the seams off the back seam is actually sewn in the mark so there's no seam off of that so we start six and three quarters the front edge at this stage it will be sewn in the mark but it will finally finish up with a seam off jump all the darts this seam is sewn in the mark we put a seam on we'll allow this as we're cutting it we will allow a seam on I know if you saw John when John done it he's he has his is cut in the mark so his he will actually cut in those marks whereas when we're cutting it we would allow a seam on there just a way of different construction that's really all so it's 35 and a half 17 and three quarters plus an inch and a half for makeup you know it's because you don't want it obviously skin tight when you're wearing the jacket let's say 18 through 19 and a quarter there's a seam coming off that so I'm really I'm one centimeter or half an inch too big on that which I thought it would be because that to me it's just kicking out far far too much and it's a little bit net here as well so what I will do this will give me both just by moving that that tiny little bit so I'm taking all that flare off which we really don't want so if we'd have left that on this bit here when we're trying to jack it on in the base stage it would have been very very skirty and very flary and that's really not how we like it but the measurements dictate that but obviously measurements are only a guide when you're cutting and it's just giving me a little bit more through the back there which will just give Kirby a bit more room through the back putting it all together I'm gonna do some more cuts on it in a minute unfortunately I don't like total straight lines because when the tailor actually sews it together I like to have just little curves on the lines if they're too straight it tends to go hollow the other way and it can cause a little bump now that's the side body which is this part here on the jacket and this is the front we put the actual term for this is called a belly cut but that's not really totally correct and the real reason we do it in a true sense it's just just by opening closing this in and opening that out there what it does when the jackets being made actually gives makes it nice and clean through this part so you don't get bubbles through this part I know it sounds stupid but it actually does really work this is just the easiest way to do it you can do it in construction but it's just so much more simpler doing it this way well on the real jacket by opening or putting this little cut through here and opening it up through the pocket so when the tailor makes it that means he doesn't have to come out on this dart to a point so from this is the waistline so this will if you didn't have this dart here this will come out to a point there it can cause a bubble around the bottom of the pocket so that's one of the reasons then the other reason I'll just fold it and show you why what will actually happen that's the best way that gets sewn to there that will that will come to there that will get closed up obviously the pocket will get closed up that will come to there and what it does this part through here actually it makes it nice and short so it just shortens it a little bit it actually gives a little bit of tension through here and it makes it very clean it's a brilliant cut actually works so well I think if you go back to the systems as they were cut many years ago they didn't used to do it so it was called a Donlon wedge cut in them days and they used to this was left on and the whole thing was cut and it used to end up like that but you don't get so much shape when you're doing that you don't get so much style into the coat so this has been put into me much better and then not too much flare but just that little bit on the side seam on the side body sorry and then I can work on this chest going from experience I know and the tailor is going to be making this works up a bit of a chest so I'm gonna actually take quite a bit off there which looks ridiculous but when it's actually made I know full well that's going to come dead straight once it's actually tailored that will be dead straight and in front edge then we'll fill all the details onto the pattern but that bait that really is put the pattern together I'm also what I'm gonna do on it as well I'm actually gonna you know looking at the pattern that's where the button is that's the bottom I just think it looks too high so what I'm gonna do is just lower that button position so there that's just yep personal choice really that's it's just how I see it some people may like it higher I do you know we just prefer as a little bit lower I think proportions look better as well that way so that is the front of the jacket this will be the lapel so I'll fold it back just to show you just don't see when it goes back so that will be that part of the jacket that'll be the front going back this bit then goes onto the back around under the arm and it's all onto the back of the jacket that will all get sewn together that gives you that tells you I've just given it a slightly higher back balance than normal not a great deal it's just like three eighths of an inch that to me then it is a that's a lovely cut armhole shape as well so now this is finished the next stage of it we'll be going to Siomba to do the cutting and then the fabric will be cut the trouser pack will be cut the fabric will be cut and then it will all be folded up with all the trimmings the linings the canvas everything then going off to the tailor to be sewn together for the first fitting ready for when we cut the fabric out