Encyclopedia Peacoatica

Welcome to the Encyclopedia Peacoatica!  This is a resource created for you by sewers and bloggers from all over the world in aims of helping you out with our Goldstream Peacoat sewing pattern.  The categories are alphabetical.  Topics that fit into more than one category are included in each section they pertain to.  If you have tips you would like to add to this encyclopedia, be them links, book titles, information on the history of peacoats or tales of your sewing experiences, please comment on this post and we will add them to our collection!

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this encyclopedia!  We can’t wait to see all the amazing pea coats you create with your wealth of tailoring knowledge!

Books

• Tailoring: A Step by Step Guide: It takes you through all the steps needed to make a coat or jacket. – starryfishathome
• Classic Tailoring Techniques: A Construction Guide for Men’s Wear: A step-by-step guide on sewing a suit.  Information on interfacing, sewing pockets, lapel facings and collars – Hayley P. and Renata
• Shirtmaking: Developing Skills for Fine Sewing (by David Page Coffin) – Jo and KathyS
• Gertie’s Book for Better Sewing: Gertie goes through a lot of tailoring techniques needed to make a jacket from setting sleeves to bound buttonholes. – Katie
• Tailoring, The Classic Guide to Sewing the Perfect Jacket: The steps are shown in great detail and care is made to highlight every construction technique. – Nikki H.

Button Holes

• Sewaholic’s tutorial for bound buttonholes – Jana
• Use a button hole cutter (a chisel) for perfect buttonholes – Martha
• When using a one-step buttonhole attachment, “Turn the placket with the shirt front fabric to the left of the needle and start sewing the buttonholes into the placket from the bottom. It’s a bit counter-intuitive at first, as you are stitching upside down and backwards, in a sense. Then when you get to that top buttonhole, the attachment won’t get stuck trying to back up over the collar stand–I almost always had to redo that buttonhole at least once before I happened on this technique. Same for that fiddly collar stand buttonhole with all the layers–do it backwards!” – Kathy S
• “A trick I love with putting in button holes, is when it’s all sewed in, insert the seam ripper but then make it come through halfway again. Quick tug, start from the other end to the middle again, tug, and you don’t cut into your button hole stitching!” –fenna

Collar and Lapel

• The collar section of the RTW Tailoring Sew-Along at Pattern Scissors Cloth (2nd sew-along in the list) – Angela (@sewnbyangela)
• “My tip is to sew the long continuous seam around front edge and collar from hem to centre back on both sides – never keep going all the way around as it inevitably results in the second side lapel going wavy.” – MrsC (Maryanne)
• “I’m a big fan of ‘turn of cloth’ which is very relevant to collars. Threads Magazine has a great article about it.” – Blogless Anna
• “Make collar points using the thread loop method. Since I’ve learned this time-honored technique, it’s made my sewn shirts look so much more professional. No more home -made looking collars that roll funny!” – Angie H.

Fit Adjustments (does anyone know of tutorials for these?)

• Adjusting for super wide shoulders and trapezius muscles – tworandomwords
• Fitting sloping shoulders. “I can suggest that you look for patterns or if possible, adapt the pattern to use the raglan shoulder style which will perhaps look and fit better. I know nothing about sewing, but I have known a couple of men with sloped shoulders and I noted that they compensated by wearing raglan style shoulders when possible and it did look and fit better.” – John Henry

General Sewing Tips

• “Use a new needle on every project! It amazes me how many sewists don’t follow that rule – your machine will thank you.” – CJ Morabito

Hem

• “I find it is worth the time to catch-stitch the hem by hand.” – Kathy

Interfacing

• “When cutting out jacket pieces, usually some will need interfacing. If you’re using iron-on interfacing, apply a piece big enough for the interfaced pieces on to your fabric then cut the interfacing and fabric as one (with it already ironed-on). This way you don’t have to try and match up the interfacing and fabric pieces after cutting – and no accidentally getting glue on your ironing board when they don’t match.” – The Sewphist

• “The number one thing I suggest is using horsehair instead of interfacing on the lapels and front pannels. Attaching these by hand gives the most beautiful result. You get all these little dots on the backside of the lapels, which give the garment a couture-feeling. In dutch it is called “pikkeren” wich resembles to a flannel stitch. It takes quite some time to do so, but it’s worth it!” – Hanne

Lore of the Peacoat

• “My husband was in the Navy and he loved his gov’t issue peacoat. If it hadn’t been destroyed in a plumbing disaster in his old apartment, he’d be wearing it to this day.  As for buttons, current Navy issue has plastic buttons, but decades ago when he was in it was gold colored buttons for officers, and silver buttons for enlisted men.” – Kathy

Mods

• “I hate how traditional jackets let a cold breeze blow up your arm. Even if you are wearing gloves, you still feel that chilliness! My tip is to modify the lining of the sleeve to include a elastic opening. This completely surrounds your arm in the lining, which stops (or at least slows) the cold breeze. You can find an example of the modification here.” – Anna Camacho

Online Resources

• Cutter and Tailor Forum: Packed with tailoring information – ThreadTime
• “Jeffery Diduch’s blog, is a great resource. He has a fantastic video/tutorial on sewing buttonholes. – Joe
• Fine Tailoring By Jim – turtleandi
• Colette Pattern’s Anise Sew-along – Joanne
• Pattern Scissors Cloth RTW Sew-along (the second sew-along listed) – Angela (@sewnbyangela) and lisa g
• Mainley Dad’s Winter Coat: “If there’s one thing I’ve learned about sewing menswear, it’s all about structure. So my number one suggestion would be to go out and get some real sew in hair canvas (hymo). If it’s not available in your area it can be found online. One source I particularly like is B Black and Sons. Making a tailored garment can be great fun, but it’s also time consuming. Using good tailoring supplies can make your results worth all the time and effort.” – Mainelydad
• Sewaholic’s Minoru Jacket Sew-Along – Rox Guillemette
• How to create facings for a jacket pattern that includes only a lining. – Tiffany
• Male Pattern Boldness (specifically the posts on his duffle coat) – deadlycraft
• Feather’s Flights – a series of posts on altering her husband’s suit – Heather Feather

Tailoring Tools

• “I’ve…been collecting tailoring supplies like a June Tailor board and a clapper. The clapper is actually great, I use it anytime I want a crisp, precise edge when pressing something.” – Nikki H.
• Use a button hole cutter (a chisel) for perfect buttonholes – Martha