Ultimate Tennant Suit - new calico test

Now before I start cutting any of the precious GAP fabric, I need to be 100% certain on the pattern I am using, therefore I an going to make a new calico test jacket.

I have previously done such a test (see left) but I do need to make some serious revisions due to one major restraint I am now faced with that I didn’t have to worry about back then.

The first thing I have to do is re-draft the basic block from which my pattern will be drawn (see below).

It is while I am tracing off my pattern pieces that something struck me, which means I need to stop and think carefully.

Although I have a good range of sizes of trousers to use, ranging from a couple of waist 33s up to the biggest at waist 36, I have realised that even these will not cover the pattern shape for the front panels – well not in the same way I cut them last time around.

Since I am following precisely the same path taken by Louise Page when she designed the jacket, there must be a way around this. I just need to work it out.

To show the problem I have got, I dug out the pattern for the front panel of my first jacket and laid it on top of the largest piece of GAP fabric I have (from the back of the size 36) (see left).

You can see that the lapel to shoulder fits okay at the top, but the lower body over-hangs by a good 2 inches.

The way round this is to re-balance how the body panels are split up from the block.
What I have done is give more to the side panel, thus narrowing the front.

In the comparison above you can see the older pattern with a very narrow side panel (see above, left), compared to the new pattern with a much wider side panel (see above, right).

When this revised front pattern is laid over the GAP fabric, you can see it now fits (see right).

So now I have sorted that out, I need to start cutting this in calico and quickly knock up a test garment.

I covered a lot of this a while back under Pattern Cutting and Jacket Pockets, so I won’t repeat myself here.

But I will show you how it came together! (see below).

Now, I should point out it has not been hemmed or seamed around the edges, so it looks a little long and large in the lapels. This will all sort itself out when I get to the next stage.

Check back real soon to see how things shape up.