Design Development

After coming across this image of 2 Pac in a straitjacket, it made me think the way we get into jackets. Jackets usually have the opening at the front for convenience, but it would be interesting to put a jacket on in reverse, having the back at the front and the front at the back. It would be a lot harder to secure buttons on your back so you would have to accommodate for this, maybe using an easier alternative like a zip or velcro.

Week 2- Deconstructing the jacket

Last lesson we began process of deconstructing our jackets. We unpicked the lining to reveal the hidden structure withing the jacket, which turned out to be more interesting than what the outside appears. As I've never made a tailored jacket before, I was quite shocked to see the amount of work that is put into these jackets to make them appear as they do from the outside.

This is the back view. There doesn't seem to any interfacing on the back which i don't really understand. If there's no interfacing at the back, then wouldn't it be unbalanced compared to the front and crease and pucker when you move your arms? Yet perhaps there's no interfacing as you need to allow for movement for the arms and therefore the back cant be too stiff and rigid as it would be restrictive.

This where I kept the lining attached to the arms. The lining was hand stitched around the arms, therefore that must have been where it was bagged out.

From what I could see there were three distinct layers of interfacing. The first layer appears to be glued directly onto the jacket fabric and is soft, thin and flexible. It's so thin and transparent that I almost question why it's even there. The second layer is stiff, rigid and course, which would create a defined structured shape on the outside. Then the third layer is soft and fuzzy, almost like padding, which would most likely soften the shape of the jacket, in contrast with the second layer.

The layers of interfacing have been secured down with glue and have been stitched over for extra security.

This is the back seam and the hem. The hem has been blind stitched.

These are the shoulder pads. You cant see it in this picture but there was many layers to the shoulder pads which I thought was interesting. I thought that shoulder pads were just one piece of padding, but these ones were made with multiple layers of varying thicknesses of padding. I'm not quite sure why they are made in this way but maybe it's because the layers can help produce a more fluid shape and are easier to adjust.

This was the arm seam. On most of the seams there was about 2cm or more of extra fabric in case you wanted to alter the jacket in any way eg. make the arms or back wider etc.

This is the back of the arms. All the extra fabric on the seams have been secured with a few hand stitches to stop them rolled or bulking up.