1830s-40s menswear suit project: part 4 -- The frock coat draft
- clockworkfaerie
- Feb 5
- 36 min read
Welcome to Part 4: The Frock-coat draft and fitting! You can find the earlier posts for Shirt, Waistcoat, and Trousers by clicking their links. We're making a romantic-era suit by following a draft from a period source! The Tailors' master-piece, written in 1840, which you can find here.
This series of blog posts could have been a book! But I really want to keep some basic information like this available for free, to help the penniless students and high schoolers like I once was. However if you are NOT penniless, I hope you will donate a few dollars to help me be able to keep doing projects like this.
Thank you! Now, on to the content.
Disclaimer 1: I am not a licensed tailor by trade. I have learned a lot by trial and error, and from working for a modern/retro menswear maker for 7 years, and so hope to share what I have learned that may be useful to you.
Disclaimer 2: An integral part of this article will be showing you how to modify menswear patterns or drafts for assigned-female-at-birth bodies. I’m using language that is appropriate to my knowledge but please correct me if there’s something out of place as far as gender inclusivity.
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This project started with the idea of a very realistic cosplay of a romantic era pianist. There were of course women performer pianists at the time, but those gowns didn’t feel quite right for me, and part of my reasoning for choosing menswear was that I wanted to try and get inside the headspace of some of my favorite male composers from this time.
I’m using a tailoring manual from 1840 to draft menswear patterns for my assigned-female-at-birth body. My shape goal is somewhat androgynous leaning toward feminine, as the ideal silhouette of this time is already so feminine with the nipped waist, circular skirt, and conical chest shape with high neck. I am not corseting as I feel it would make the shape too extreme on my hips. I’m wearing a bralette just to smooth everything out.
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As for the cut: I’m following the instructions in the drafting manual as closely as possible, with one exception: I love the little tailcoat-cut front and frock-coat skirt combination that was popular for a few years. It’s just the right amount of showing off the waistcoat while also managing to camouflage my wider hips.
You can absolutely follow my instructions and do a regular full frock-coat. Or a tailcoat!
Let’s get into some Inspiration images:
Here’s the front cut I was telling you about. One could argue this is a tailcoat, cut with very full tails. The line between styles is blurred, and that’s ok! This is also a great example of the contrast black velvet upper collar, which I’d love to do on my coat as it was quite popular for many years and adds a fun bit of drama.
A few more fashion plate examples of frock/tail hybrids:
So far I’ve made the shirt, a simple necktie, trousers, and a waistcoat.
I’m going to measure for the new frock coat over these layers.
Before I get into this draft with you, I also want to show you how to quickly alter a commercial men’s pattern for an assigned-female-at-birth body. I’m using modern flat-patterning techniques which I’ll do my best to explain as I go, but if you haven’t done this before, please check out a basic patternmaking textbook. The one I learned on (and still refer back to sometimes) is “Patternmaking for Fashion Design” by Helen Joseph-Armstrong.
Altering a Commercial Pattern
For illustration’s sake, let me show you this on a 20th century bodice shape first. This is what a pattern from a big company might look like. (Please don’t scale up any of these pieces and use them for a pattern as they are NOT to scale, I just drew them roughly to shape!)
We choose the size based on the bust/chest measurement. Then, draw the shoulder tip in and down ½”. Drop the underarm at the side-seam ½” as well. This is just a general amount that seems to work for the average body, feel free to do less or more if you have a different shoulder shape.
I’m not going to get into sleeve fitting here as that’s a whole article in itself, but generally I find that the sleeve works well as is, perhaps needing a bit of slimming or shortening.
On a pattern with a more historically appropriate cut, this correction will look instead like this:
Do this part first, bringing it in all around ½”. You could take the height out of the shoulder at that back dropped shoulder seam, but I find doing it that way takes too much out of the back width. So, I like to do it instead at the point where your actual shoulder would hit, usually about 1” to 2” forward of the pattern’s shoulder corner along the armscye. Draw a line from the neck to this point, cut, and rotate the two pieces over each other at the armscye. This will put more curve in the armscye and bring the measurement down to match the sleeve, yet still leave the length in the dropped back shoulder seam.
Blend the line at the armscye and neck.
We can also add length in the front body to make the coat hang correctly over the bust, and not pull up at the front waist. I find that I don’t usually need to do this unless the person is wearing a bra size of DD or above. Start with ¼” at DD, and add ¼” for each cup size above that. I’m using a measurement of ½” just for illustration’s sake, back to the modern bodice block.
Draw a line like so, from the side seam, out to the point where the nipple/apex is hitting, and down to the waist.
Cut along this line, and rotate the lower-right piece so that the side seam stays together but the bust point moves down ½” (or whatever your measurement will be). Lengthen the left side at the waist to match the length of this new dart.
Mark the top of this new dart about ½”-1” lower than the point where the two pieces meet and start to move apart. Blend side seam line and make each leg of the dart longer or shorter as needed to make the waist line up.
Of course, this results in a dart going down to the waistline that you’ll have to sew shut. Darts going to the waist like this aren’t really a thing until the early 20th century, so if you want to be ultra accurate, you can rotate the dart over to the armscye. If it’s a small amount (like 3/8” wide or less) and you’re working in a medium-to-thick wool, you may even be able to shrink out the amount instead of having to sew it shut.
We have talked about the shoulder and bust, but what about the hip?
For a frock coat skirt, which is circular, no alteration is needed (unless you’re doing a corseted shape and have a VERY large hip spring, like above 12”. In that case, I’d slash and spread the skirt pattern to accommodate the high hip.
However, I find that tailcoats often need a little more hip room for female bodies. Here’s what I usually do.
So a tails pattern usually looks something like this. Yours may or may not have that front strap to wrap around the waist all the way to the front edge, but it will have at least the back vent and back pleats, and probably a little dart at the side-back hip. If there’s no dart, you can totally make one using this method. Start with a length of 3”-4”.
Draw a line down from the dart point to the corner of the tail. (You may also draw this line through the curve to the left of that corner, just note that it will make that edge a little curvier when we split it open. Use your best judgement to keep the piece as on-grain as possible.)
Keeping the lower corner together, cut and split open the two pieces along this line. The amount you do this correction will depend on how much hip spring (the difference between waist and hip measurement) there is. I’d do any waist corrections first, then measure the high hip (about 3-4” below waist, where the front hipbone may be felt) and correct for that measurement. In my experience with this, it’s usually been about ½”-1”, depending on how much of the tail wraps around the hip. The goal is to have the tail follow the hip line out to the widest point, and fall gracefully towards the ground from there.
Let’s draw a new dart. I’m making mine longer and curving it to help the shape blend and not make a sharp point at the high hip.
And done! Now we have a shape that will be more friendly on a female body.
Now, if you’re up for an adventure into tiger-taming territory, I’ll show you how to use a drafting manual from 1840 to make a beautiful pattern. I’ll include any notes where I’ve changed it for an assigned-female-at-birth body, but you may use these instructions for an assigned-male-at-birth body just as well. Ready? Let’s go.
Measuring for the Frock Coat Draft
We continue with the same book as for the trousers and waistcoat: “The Tailors Master-piece”, by Scott & Wilson, published June 1840. See the waistcoat article for an explanation of how to make the proportional measuring rulers.
Measuring for the frock coat uses some of the same measurements as for the waistcoat, plus additional ones. The entire list is as follows:
I made a video to help!
You can do it yourself with the aid of a mirror or camera with self-timer, but it’s easier to have a friend help.
((music for the video is Skotta by Vaxla, courtesy of Epidemic Sound.))
1. -Chest/bust circumference, at fullest part of bust, over shirt and any undergarments, as usual
1a. Waist circumference (snug, at the level where you want the waist seam to sit)
2. Back Length measurements: From prominent bone at nape of neck to mid back at bottom of armhole level, and:
2a: from neck bone down to small of back at center
2b: from neck bone all the way down to hem, at knee crease or just above
3. Sleeve length: From point 2 on the diagram across the shoulder and down the length of the arm, all the way to the wrist (3a), and onto the hand to the first thumb joint (3b).
Also 3c, thumb joint to elbow point along outer edge of arm.
4. Arm circumference, at bicep and
4a. at the elbow
4b. at the wrist
4c. at the knuckles/hand
5. From neck bone around front and down to center front waist/where you want the tailcoat front to be
6. From neck bone, around front armscye, and down to side hip bone
6a. From Center back waist, across to side hip bone point
7. From neck bone, around front armscye, back to small of center back
8. From neck bone, around front armscye, then horizontally across the back to the center point
9. From neck bone, around front armscye, and back to the same point at base of neck
10. From point 2 between shoulder blades, around top of shoulder and front of armscye, back to the same point
If you are very busty (Like a US bra cup size E or above), go ahead and still measure everything this way, but also split your bust measurement into a “Front bust” and “back bust” to be able to correctly distribute the chest. ALSO, please measure your overbust (around your chest at the underarm level, over the chest above the breast tissue) and use that in place of the usual full “bust” measure for this draft. I’ll show you how to modify the pattern after we draft it first.
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The Draft
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Quick note: These drawings ARE to scale. You may use these as a pattern if you desire (They’ll be proportioned for me though and are only one size.)
Before we can do this draft, we will need to make some apportioning rulers. If you already made the waistcoat draft from this series with me, you can use those same rulers. If not, the directions to make the two apportioning rulers you will need are on the first page of the PDF book, on the title page (as well as in the waistcoat article).
If you are drafting using a digital method (as I am for these demonstration images, in Inkscape), it will be easiest to still make the paper apportioning rulers and just keep a ruler handy to measure lengths and input them as needed.
Quick note on fractions:
Fractions in this book are typed with a slash (e.g. ¼ ) OR they are delineated by a hyphen (e.g. 1-16). They both mean the same thing, but it’s a typesetting quirk (the printer might not have had these less common fractions in little single-symbols and had to instead spell them out with a hyphen).
We will use “Plate no. 6” (page 13 in the PDF), and the text on page 15 of the PDF “Explanation of Plate no 6.”.
As in the other drafts of this series, this draft starts with the right-hand edge of a piece of paper (or the side of the cloth closest to you if you are doing this old-school tailoring way and drawing right on the cloth). I’m making a paper version first.
We begin with the “back” piece.
“Line A represents the edge of the cloth. Apply waist measure from 1 to 7, and continue the same as length of coat. Draw lines from 11 to 12, and from 7 to 9, square with A.”
Use measurement 2b to draw the length of line A, naming the top of this line point 1 and the bottom of this line point 11. Then, use 2a to place point 7 on line A, measuring down from the top (point 1). Square across a rough guideline at point 7, and at 11 (what will become the center back hem of the frock coat).
“From 7 to 8 is 1/8. Draw line B from 1 to 8. Square with line B, draw line C [out from point 1]. From 1 to 2 is 1/8. From 1 to 10 is ½ and 1/16. “
Note that there’s no asterisk following these sentences, so we are still using the apportioning ruler made from our measurement 10. When he says “1/2 and 1/16”, he means only to add them together and use the combined length.
“Square with line C, draw line D. From 1 to 3 is ½ and ¼ less 1/32.* “
We square a guideline for the shoulder down from line C. For the next bit, switch to the asterisk apportioning ruler, add the ½ and ¼ lengths, then take away 1/32 from them. With this final number, measure down along line B from 1, and mark point 3.
“Sweep line E from 3 to 4 from point 1.”
Using point 1 as the stationary leg of a compass, draw an arc from 3 that meets guideline D. The point where it touches will be point 4.
“From 4 to 6 is 1/12.* Draw lines from 2 to 6, and from 8 to 4. “
Using the asterisk scale ruler, put point 6 up from 4 along line D. Draw the shoulder seam from 2 to 6. In the diagram they’ve put point 2 a tiny bit above line C, so I did the same, raising it by only a few mm to get a proportional shape.
The line from 8 to 4 is a guideline for the side-back seam.
“From 8 to 9 is 1/8 and 1/32. Form side-seam. “
Back to our other scale ruler now. We put point 9 on the line, left of 7. Connect 9 up to 4 with a smooth curve for the side-back seam. Once you cross the guideline (dotted blue line in my drawings), try to keep the curve close to the guideline as much as possible.
“From 11 to 12 is 1/3. Form the skirt as represented from 9 to 12.”
Scott and Wilson were not super clear about this, but here’s what I came up with based on the engraving. Place point 12 left of 11, as shown. It should definitely be left of point 9, if it isn’t go ahead and move it further left. (I moved mine ½” further left to make a better hip curve.) After you place point 12, square a tiny line (only ¼” or so) up from 12. Connect it with a smooth line to 11 to make the hem of the back piece. This will help shape the curve of the skirt and give more room in the hip.
From this slightly higher point 12, draw a guideline up from 12 through the waistline, an inch or so left of 9. It’s not quite squared from the original line 11, but it’s not quite squared from the new hem line either—somewhere between. I’m sorry I don’t have a more exact way. We are making a skirt shape that will pretty much fall straight down after it curves over the behind in back, so these lines are setting up the back portion of the hip curve for us. The curviest parts of the hip (at the side) will be covered by the circular frock skirt, so this back piece doesn’t need to be SUPER curvy. It just needs to go from the waist out to the fullest part of the hip, and down to the knee in a graceful manner. Think like a smooth pencil skirt type shape.
Add another guideline parallel, just to the left of 12, 1.5” away from 12 (or however wide you want to make your facing strip/pleat underlap). Connect the hem.
Now connect point 9 to the guideline from 12. You’re aiming to make a smooth hip curve here, so think about what shape your hip curve is in this almost center back position (for me it’s flattish) and mirror the shape here. 7-10” is about the length at which it should join up with the guideline, depending on your height and hip shape.
Make a parallel hip curve line 1.5” away (or your chosen width), and close up the top of this underlap in a triangle shape. The idea with this angle at the top of the underlap is to mirror the eventual waist seam. If you aren’t sure what general shape that might be, give yourself extra height in the top of the underlap. It’s easy to trim down a piece that’s too tall, but it’s hard to tack down the top of a piece that’s short of the seam it’s supposed to be attached to.
That’s the skirt! Now we go back to the upper back for a bit of fine-tuning.
“Square with line B, draw line F from 5 to 4. From 5 to 15 is 1/3 and 1/12. From 1 to 13 is 2 halves and ¼. Draw line by 13 and 15 to 33. Cut your back, and niche it at 33 and 13.”
Use point 4 as the guide to find where a line squared from B would meet it. Now we have point 5 on line B, and a new line F which crosses the upper back. Measure and mark point 15 along line F, out from 5, as instructed.
We place point 13 as instructed, along line B, from point 1. Then, draw a straight line from 13, through 15, and continue through the shoulder. The point where it crosses the shoulder seam will be the new point 33.
Here’s the finished back piece highlighted in green, how exciting! Make a copy, we’ll use parts and measurements from this for the forepart and skirt drafts. Don’t add seam allowance yet, in case something needs to be tweaked.
On to the forepart! This is the upper front part of the frock coat. If you are VERY busty, I will show you how you may wish to modify this piece after drafting—for those instructions, go to the end of the pattern-drafting section. For now, we’ll follow the draft as written. It worked well for me as-is. I wear a 34DDD/E bra most times, but wore a bralette for this project that did a bit of compression (not as much as a sports bra).
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Forepart draft
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“Line A represents the back edge, and H the bottom of the cloth. Place the back to line A, so that points 33 and 13 touch the line. Mark the side-seam by the back from 4 to 9.”
Begin with line A, down the left side of the paper.
Take your completed back piece, flip it over, and rotate it so that the 13-33 line is on top of line A. Trace an outline of the upper back piece in this position, as we’ll use it for a few guidelines coming up.
“Square with line A, draw line B from 29 to 18.” Use the position of point 4 on the back piece to place this line. Place point 29 as the part of this line that starts on line A. Point 18 won’t be defined for awhile yet, so just extend this line out past an imaginary front edge for now.
“From 29 to 0 is 1/8 less 1/32. Draw line C. From 0 to 31 is ½. From 31 to 10 is 1/6.”
“Square with line C, draw line D [up from point 10], and line from 31 up at front of scye. From 10 to 6 is two halves less 1/16.* “ Note this measurement is in the alternate scale ruler.
“From 0 to 32 is 2 halves and 1/8. Draw line E from 6 to 32.”
If you read ahead a bit, you’ll see we need to place point 12 on line B, 1/32 out from where point 4 currently rests. Do that before continuing on. (Just making sure you’re awake.) Not sure why that is out of order, but save yourself a bit of frustration by doing it before you move the back piece as follows…
“Place the back seam to E, as represented by diagram. From 4 to 12 is 1/32. Form scye as represented by diagram, and mark shoulder-seam.”
I placed the back so that the neck-shoulder point touched line D. Draw the armscye from point 12, down to touch line C, then the front edge to touch line D, then continuing on to meet the back shoulder corner. Again, just do your best to make smooth curves that flow together, and aim for a proportional shape with an eye to the engraving.
Notice that dotted line armscye on the engraving? It shows an armscye cut further into the chest, and a little smaller at the shoulder-tip. I suggest making your armscye that way, as I ended up making those same changes at the toile stage anyway. I moved the front mid-chest edge of the armhole in towards center front by about 5/8”, and I moved the shoulder tip down ¼”. The red dotted line is the new front armscye and shoulder shape.
“Apply the measure taken from 1 to 3, from point 6 by front of scye to 3 at back-tack, and bring the back in, until it agrees with the measure, and make a mark at 15. Keep points 9 and 15 together, and cast off the top of back until it agrees with the measure taken from 1 by front of scye to 3 on back-seam,--applied from 6 by front of scye to 2 on back. When the measure agrees, mark the side-seam by the back from 17 to 15. Then form side-seam from 12 to 17.”
Ok. So the first thing to do is have a look back at Plate no. 3 in the book, page 8 of the PDF. Remember those measurements we took that all wrapped around the shoulder in one fashion or another? We will use those now to check this pattern and draw the side-seam of the fore-part (the front piece that we’re working on right now).
This part is also far from clear so let me walk you through how I did it. I’ve tried it many different ways, and I believe there is an error in the printing here. The first measurement we’ll check, and use to place point 15, will actually be the back-neck to center-back waist (measurement 7). The second one will be the back-neck to point 3 (mid-back at scye level, measurement 8).
So we first take our measurement “from 1 to 4”, or measurement 7 on the list (my list is numbered the same as theirs for ease of reference), and apply it to the pattern like so. What I’ll do is make a purple dotted line from nape of neck to underarm, as a placeholder to show you that part of the measurement and get the point at the back of the neck set before I move the back…
Put the back piece with the line 13-33 on A, point 4 on line B, as it was before. Then rotate it towards the center front, keeping point 4 in place, until that measurement number 7 matches our purple line here, from back neck I’m simply moving the lower end of my purple line and using an extension called “visualize path” to measure along the path. I keep moving and re-measuring until the number is right, leaving point 4 where it is as my rotation-center, and measuring to that center back at waist level (point 3 on the back piece).
“Make a mark at 15”, see where the back point 9 is right now? Mark a little dot there for 15. Point 15 will be the bottom point of the side-seam on the fore-part.
“Keep points 9 and 15 together…” so now the rotation center of the back-piece will be point 9 instead of 4, “…cast off the top of the back until it agrees with the measure…”. Here’s where I believe there’s an error. Here’s where we now check 1-3 (measurement 8), back neck to mid-back at scye level. Once you have the right number, mark point 17 on the fore-part side seam, right at the level where you checked measurement 8. It’s ok if this makes your upper back overlap your armscye!
“Then form side-seam from 12 to 17.” Go ahead and connect those dots now, with smooth curves. It’s fine to move the back out of the way for now. You can see if I line up the top and bottom of the seam, the dart being shaped here:
Hooray! Can you see the dart being shaped? I have a pretty intense swayback and so this shape is perfect for me. You may not get such a dramatic shape with yours and that is TOTALLY FINE. If you have a very curvy lower back like me, it’s also fine to move point 17 out like ¼” or so to get a smoother, curvier line.
It’s so exciting in those little moments when you can see a glimpse of the final product. We have the side-seam of the forepart drawn, now moving on!
“Apply measure from 6 to 8. Square with line H, draw line from 15 to 7. Draw line from 7 by 8 to 23. From 7 to 8 is 1/3.”
Ok so “the measure from 6 to 8” is measurement 6, back neck to side hip bone. As before, measure on the pattern and mark the point. 6a will help you with the horizontal placement of this point 8—measure across the back piece at waist level, and subtract that number from measurement 6a to get the amount you’ll need horizontally to place this point 8 from 15.
They never told us to draw line H. But it’s squared out from A, level with point 15. After you draw line H, square a line up from H at point 15. Then, square a line from that line to meet point 8 and continue through it (we’ll set 23, the endpoint, in a minute). They then tell us “from 7 to 8 is 1/3.”, so check your scale ruler and move point 8 along the line if needed. Owners of assigned-female-at-birth bodies may find that their waist curves are much more dramatic than the engraving, this is fine. You may wish to place your point 8 somewhere between where your originally measured and the “correct” point 8, this is also fine. This will be the highest point of the waist curve, where it sits at the side hip.
“Apply the waist measure from 3 by 15 and 8 to 23. Apply the breast measure as represented by dotted line from back-seam under the scye to 20. From 20 to 18 is 1/6. Draw line from 23 by 18 at front of breast.”
Let’s check the waist measurement! Don’t forget the back piece’s tiny bit of waist. Draw a nice smooth curve from 15 to 8, and continue it close to line H. place point 23. If you want your frock coat to actually button closed, make this half your waist measurement plus overlap for button closure (about ½” extra). I wanted mine to be a little open like the fashion plates of tailcoat/frock coat hybrids, so I took 2” off from my half-waist measurement to place point 23. I also dropped point 23 about 3/8” below line H and made a curve that was as close to the engraving as possible.
Now we check the breast measure. This is shown by a smooth dotted-line arc on plate 6. It’s ok if this isn’t super precise, just make a nice arc from mid back at scye-level, to an inch or so below armscye, out to an endpoint between lines B and C. Use your own judgement—does your bust sit low? Go closer to line C. or higher? Closer to line B. Once you get it set, measure with your scale ruler another 1/6 out on this arc, and place point 18 (on line B or C, whichever is more appropriate for your level of bust measurement). I’m going more for line C as my bust is lower.
I think the typesetter got confused on this too, because there’s an 8 on line C, but that doesn’t make sense as there’s already an 8 down at the waist, and this other 8 is never referred to. Perhaps they meant to put 18, thought better, and put it a line up? The world will never know for sure.
You may now connect 23 and 18 with a nice smooth curve. Extend the line up to form the edge of the lower lapel. Don’t worry too much about the shape yet—let’s draw the gorge and neck first.
“From 0 to 3 is ½ and 1/3. From 10 to 2 is ½ and 1/8.* Draw line G from 3 by 2 to 4. Apply lapelle-measure from 6 to 23, and form breast according to fashion; and you are ready to cut.”
Remember point 0, over on line A? It’s been awhile! 3 is directly up, along line A. from 10 to 2 is up along line D, don’t forget to use the asterisk ruler for that one! And then draw straight line G through points 3 and 2, continuing on to 4 where this line crosses your front edge/lapel.
Put the back piece back along line E to check the front length (measurement 5), and draw the rest of the shoulder on the fore-part if you haven’t yet. When you check the front length, if you measured to the true center front waist, but decided to do a little cutaway front as I did, make sure you are measuring out to account for that discrepancy. I measured like so (next photo), and it came up a bit short, so I extended the center front waist point further down. This part can get annoying, checking it, checking the waist measurement, back and forth until it’s right, but trust me it’s worth it!
If you are VERY busty and are drafting instead with an overbust measurement, ignore this check for now. Wait till after you do any bust adjusting on the pattern to check this front length measurement.
Draw the front neck curve and gorge line with a smooth curve from the neck-edge shoulder point to meet line G.
When I made my toile, I had no idea where the lapel would roll, and where the break point (the area where the center front goes from buttons and buttonholes to turned lapel) would be on the center front. I simply made a shape as much like Plate no 6 as I could get, and tried it on. This is about where it landed on me, your break point might be higher or lower. You can fold the pattern back along this dotted line to check the shape, and re-draw the lapel point past the roll line “according to fashion”. The shape as is will serve beautifully for a single-breasted frock coat, which you can button the upper part of closed for a more riding-appropriate look if wanted.
Now, I’m looking at the shape and I think the break point happens at the point where the front circumference number rises higher than your body, where the shape is moving away from the chest rather than toward it. So, if you want to move the break point, draw the “button” section more sharply angled out as you move the break point down. To move it higher, make that point where it becomes almost a straight vertical line higher on the chest, further up along the curve of the body front (so the front hugs the body further up the coat).
About the lapel: Lapel notches rise and fall with fashion. Take a look at your inspiration images and see where it falls. You want a point not too high on the shoulder, but not all the way down at bust point either—somewhere in between, likely no higher than the collarbone. I definitely did mine a little too high. I think my pattern as is would have worked on someone who stands up straighter than me, but looking back I wish I had dropped the lapel a little, like this: (new line in electric blue)
You may be in the same situation as me and not really know what you want until after you see it. This is fine. Go for a shape like what you see in the book. Make your toile, see what you think, and come back and correct if needed.
We’re done with the fore-part draft! Whew! That part is by far the most complicated and longest, take a break and pat yourself on the back for a job well done. We have only the upper collar, sleeve, and front skirt to finish.
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Drafting the Collar
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There is no draft for an upper collar in Scott & Wilson’s manual. Traditionally it’s done after the first fitting, which is completed without any upper collar. I’ll show you how I made an upper collar, using a modern draft method from “Classic Tailoring Techniques”. You will likely have to pinch the back neck in a bit on the toile and make the collar wider as I did, because the roll is so much higher on the older frock coat shape, but it’s easier to pin out a shape that’s too big than to try to snip out a curve that’s too small.
A quick bit about collar shapes before we continue the draft:
A collar that is a simple rectangle will stand straight up from the neckline. We have this collar shape that we often call a “Mandarin” collar, or stand collar. It is a rectangle with a little bit of curve in the front, to accommodate the way that the human neck angles a little bit forward on the body. You could get this shape by cutting vertical lines into the front part of the collar and overlapping them a little at the top edge to take length out of the upper edge.
A collar that lays completely flat (sometimes called a “peter-pan” collar) will be the same shape as the body pattern connected at the shoulder and laid flat. By overlapping the bodice front and back at the shoulder tip before drawing our collar shape, we make the final collar shape smaller at the outer edge. The more the shoulder overlaps, the smaller the outer edge will be. A smaller outer edge will make the collar roll (or stand up in the back for a bit before it turns out to lay flat along the body).
If we think about a suit collar, it needs to be a little of both. It needs to stand straight up in the back and roll over to lay flat by the time it gets to the breast. As your draw your collar shape and start to modify it in the mockup stage, think about it in two ways. Does it need more or less room in that outer edge, and at what spot (back neck or front neck)? Does it need more or less width, to perhaps cover that back neck seam?
Once you understand these principles, you are the master of your pattern and can make whatever shapes you want!
Whatever changes you make, we do want to keep right angles and a straight line at the center back seam. This way you can cut it on the fold/cut the entire piece as one on the bias if desired. Feel free to take out or add width at the center back, but tweak the edges by lengthening or shortening to square up the shape afterwards.
Now, onto the basic draft.
This is a great shape to start with. Make a mockup (preferably out of extra collar felt or something equally stiff) and modify as needed at the muslin/prototype/toile stage.
Adapted from “Classic Tailoring Techniques” by R. Cabrerra.
Measure the back neck edge along the curve.
On the fore-piece, lay a new piece of paper underneath and extend along your proposed roll line (you can move it up or down along the center front edge, the upper collar will help hold it) and from the shoulder until the two lines meet. Call it point A.
Measure up from A along the extended roll line a distance equal to the back neck measurement. Label B.
Pick a point for your collar notch, out along the neckline near the front. Mine is about a 3rd of the way in from the corner. Look at the fashion plates and see what you like. Some have a very deep notch, but some are less so.
Square out from collar notch, ¼”. Label C. Square out from the center back [point B], ½”. Label D.
Label E, the point at which the neckline pinpricks meet the lapel. Draw a curved line E-F, following the pinpricks. Draw a straight line from C to E, and a curved line from A to D.
Draw a curved line, F to G, parallel to line A-D [and originating from the shoulder point].
On line F-G, square out going through D and beyond. Label a point on the line about 1.5” above point D (point I). This measurement D-I is the width of the collar at center back above the roll line. You may wish to make it a bit more (like 1.75” or 2”) if you want a really tall 1830s collar.
Draw out from point C a style line for the front of the collar (J). (I got fancy and went for the lark’s tongue shape but simple notch collars are also fine here.)
Draw a straight line from I to J, as a guide for the top of the collar, and then curve the line gracefully at the front. The undercollar pattern is now complete. The collar roll line is E-A-D.
Alright, we have a collar pattern now! On to the skirt of the frock-coat. Back to Scott & Wilson’s manual.
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Drafting the Skirt
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Note: If you want the little step at the waist like I do, you’ll need to shorten the skirt waist circumference. You can do this by working with a smaller waist number in the draft, or by drafting it as is and taking a strip out of the center front afterwards. I did the latter, but if I were to do it again I’d do the former so as to keep more circular flare in the skirt.
“Line A represents the edge of cloth, and B the front edge of skirt. Square with line B, draw line from 1 to 4. From 1 to 2 is half the waist measure less 1/6. Draw line from 2 to 3 is 1/6. From 2 to 4 is ¼. “
“Draw line from 3 by 4 to 5. [5 is the back hem corner, off the left edge of the original page.] From 3 to 5 is the distance from 9 to 12 on the back. Form the top of the skirt as represented by the diagram.“
For the waist curve, make a nice curve that is square with the center front edge. The side-back edge does not have to be square. The deeper this curve, the more dramatic the angle will be out from the waist. It may be easier to make it shallow to begin with and pin it up/cut more out as needed.
Form the length of the forepart skirt by length of the back skirt, all round except at front, from 8 or 9 inches it will be rounded off to point 6, where it will be ½ inch shorter than at the side and back. Form the plait as represented by dotted line; and you are ready to cut.”
So, we place point 6 directly down from point 1, the same measurement as the back seam length, minus ½”. Square a line out from 6 8 or 9 inches long, and connect with a smooth curve to point 5. This one should be squared with the back seam as well.
The back plait (or pleat) is curved. Look at the way the dotted line goes from 0 at the top, out to .75” or so at the hip, and again down to 0” at the hem. The original line 3-4-5 is not the final edge of the piece—that new dotted line is.
Draw the dotted line as shown, making the area of most curve at the same height you did for the back piece. Then, make the extension on your skirt piece the same width that you made it on the back piece’s skirt portion, and parallel to this dotted line.
That’s it, the skirt draft is done! If you’d like to add an optional pocket flap (and pocket), simply draw it on at the waist line as desired. We’ll make the pieces after the toile fitting.
Again, look at the fashion plates for placement and size. There are simple rectangles, and some 18th century style shapes with the slight points and buttonholes. I like this latter style so I’ll make some like that. They tend to be placed more towards the back of the skirt piece, visible more from the back and side than front. I suggest to make your pocket flap AT LEAST 6” long and 2” high. For the 18th century style go a little bigger, 7”x2.5” minimum (unless you are very small).
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Drafting the Sleeve
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The last section!
“Place point 5 on back at 2 on sleeve, letting the back-seam run parallel with line A of sleeve; and while in this position, from 4 on back to 3 on sleeve is ½ and 1/3 less 1/24.*”
A is horizontal in this section! So, draw the upper-right corner of a square to start, label the corner 2 and the horizontal line A. Place the back as directed. I’m drawing the sleeve in purple to help show which is which. 3 is measured down from point 4 ON THE BACK PIECE. After you place 3, we can put the back piece away.
“From 3 to 5 is ½ and 1/16. From 2 [up] to 1 is 1/16. From 1 to 6 is ¼ less 1/32.”
“Sweep from 2 to 6 by distance from 1 to 3, and from 6 to 5 by distance from 3 to 5.” The arcs weren’t perfect for me (dotted line represents the perfect arc), so use it as a guideline but don’t be afraid to slightly shift those curves to match up with the points.
“Form the sleeve as represented by Plate 2; and you are ready to cut.” Alrighty, let’s flip over to Plate 2.
We pick up on PDF page 7, “Explanation of plate No. 2”, partway through “sleeve diagram D”.
“From 7 to 10 is 1/3. Apply the measures from 4 to 14, 9 to 13, 8 to 12, and allow each 3 seams for room to distend the muscles of the arm, and the bend of elbow. Then apply the measure at wrist, which may be cut close, and make it large enough at the tacking to admit the hand. Form from 9 to 10, and from 5 to 11 according to fashion.”
Well, we still have missing directions, how do we know where to put point 7, and 9? We can use measurement 3b for the total length, and 3a to place the wrist curve. I added 3c to the list to be able to place the elbow. So, measure across your back piece from neck corner at center back to outer shoulder tip. Take this amount away from your Sleeve measure (3a), to get the sleeve length. For me that back width measurement is 9.25”. I take it away from the full sleeve measurement from CB (33”) to get 23.75”. Let’s draw from point 2 down to point 7, and let the length be 23.75 (or whatever your new number is). (the amount from 1 to 2 is there for sleevecap ease/ shoulder shaping and is not included.)
(I’m back to drawing in black now for ease of our eyes.)
Apply measure 3c (thumb joint to elbow point) from 7 up to the point where we’ll place point 9 along this line (let’s call it line C). Square a line out from 7. And now back to the book instructions, place point 10 1/3 out from 7 (use the scale ruler).
We’re going to skip ahead for a minute because it’ll make the circumference measuring here in a bit much easier. “Cast the top in from 2 to 15, 1/12. The distance from 5 to 15 should be half the size of the scye.” Go ahead and place point 15, 1/12 in from point 2 along line A. This will be the edge of the lower half (body-facing) side of the sleeve. Draw a smooth curve from 5 to 15 to make the underarm.
Afterwards, measure the whole scye on the fore-part and back, divide it in half, and see if it agrees. If not, move point 15 and redraw curve as needed to make the undersleeve scye-edge the right measurement.
Draw a straight line from 15 to 9.
Draw a nice curve from 10 to 9, representing the outer edge of the sleeve forearm and elbow.
I have very long forearms and palms, so my sleeve pattern may look different than yours.
Back to the book, now we can follow these directions:
“Apply the measures from 4 to 14, 9 to 13, 8 to 12, and allow each 3 seams for room to distend the muscles of the arm, and the bend of elbow. Then apply the measure at wrist, which may be cut close, and make it large enough at the tacking to admit the hand. Form from 9 to 10, and from 5 to 11 according to fashion.”
The way I had you measure these left the ease that’s they’re talking about, so don’t add any more—this is meant to be a snug sleeve.
We will start with the elbow. Take half your elbow circumference, and use it to place a point across from 9. It might not be a perfect square from line C, you may need to put it a little up or down to accommodate the bend in the sleeve.
We do the wrist and hand next. Roughly square a line out from your forearm curvy line’s end to make the wrist. I know! I wish it could be more formulaic. Look at my drawing and the engraving and just keep that general shape in mind. Make the length of this hem half the measurement around the knuckles/hand. This new line’s end we will call point 11.
Draw a nice curvy line from 11, to 13, up to 5. This is the inner arm seam. I found I needed more of the wrist curve on this side, and less on the outside seam. I also made a little notch on the outer arm seam, about 2” up from the wrist hem, to mark the length of a button-closed vent. If you want to make yours the same way, make sure your vent comes a little way past the wrist curve (so that you may open it, get your wrist through, then button it down).
Now we check all the circumference points.
See the dip I’ve made for the wrist curve? We can measure the wrist there, and the hand/knuckles at the hem. If the wrist curve is too close or too far from the hem, move it accordingly.
Scott & Wilson are advising you to check the bicep at a point about halfway between the scye and the elbow. Measure across the pattern, noting that the undersleeve is smaller than the over-sleeve now that we have placed point 15 and made that new line.
I have not many muscles in this area, so the sleeve draft for me was already bigger than my bicep. I opted to leave it as is, thinking it’s better to make a smooth line and let the shirt fill it out than try to slim it down to my actual arm and make an inelegant shape. I can’t see a situation where you’d want to make this bicep narrower. If you need to make it wider, however, move points 5 and 2 out as needed and re-draw the sleeve curve. This may make your sleeve curve more shallow, and that is fine.
If you do get into sleeve craziness, remember that the sleeve’s scye should be about the body's scye x 1.065. Wool is super friendly so if it’s more, that’s fine! It shouldn’t be much less however, or it won’t have the extra it needs to go over the shoulder curve.
Trace off a copy of the undersleeve and oversleeve.
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Party time! That’s the whole draft!
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For the toile, give absolutely every edge ½” seam allowance (or your preferred seam allowance). Sew it together and let’s try it on.
A few construction notes: The center back pleats will be sewn thusly. Sew the center back seam as usual but stop at the inside corner. Lay one center back extension flat over the other and sew through all layers along the top edge to secure. (It’s fine if you want to wait and pin this closed on a person or mannequin to get the angle right.)
The side pleats will lay towards the front, with the opening pointing towards the center back. DO sew these ones together at the top and along their long edge, and when you have it on a person or mannequin you may tack them to the waist seam at the appropriate angle.
Place the sleeve rotation by putting that long outer arm seam about halfway between the shoulder seam and side-back seam on the armscye. Once it’s on, you can rotate it more forward or back as needed, but this is a good place to start.
Let’s do the first fitting without the upper collar and sleeve. We will draw on a pocket flap, no need to sew a pocket yet.
I was naughty and didn’t do this in the other historical clothes for some reason. It didn’t affect the silhouette enough to make huge changes, but it IS helpful to see it all work together, so do as I say, not as I do.
Ok! Lots of good things here. It took me awhile to figure out what I wanted out of this shape, so I tried a lot of little things (like pinning out darts from the front edge) that in the end, it just didn’t need. This is really such a good draft. The changes I did make:
I dropped the shoulder and brought it in, just as I showed you in my commercial pattern alterations. See the way those big wrinkles fall along the sides, under the arm, on the back photo? Classic dropped shoulder. ½” was the amount. (Another option to correct that is to pad the shoulder out and up.)
I have a little bit of a hunched upper back and rolled forward shoulders, so I only took about 3/8” out of the back width and more like 5/8” out of the front chest width. You can see this best on the side photo, the way there are tension marks from the back neck to the shoulder point. The idea here is to center the armscye better around the arm.
Small change: I tried adding a little front length in the chest, via long slashes. One I did all the way to the side-back seam (left side of the photo), the other I did up to the armscye (right side of the photo). You can see them both in this photo. Definitely if you add front length this way, do it all the way to the side-back seam and curve the waist more as needed so that the side length isn’t too long. It works much better. Here's an updated toile.
You can also see the new shoulder shape on the left side of the photo, wearer's right side. Much better! It’s definitely still a tiny bit dropped compared to the modern suit sleeve, and closer to the shoulder (not padded up in height). This is all part of the plan for the Romantic era! It will give us amazing arm mobility combined with the high-lift sleeve. It is also a part of making the lovely super-sloped shoulder and long neck illusion.
I pinned a little out of the front length for the skirt, as it was making a little wave at the front edge. On the pattern, this looked like dropping the front waist of the skirt a little and adding back the lost length at the hem. Don’t go too overboard with this correction! It’s really tempting to just keep doing it more and more, but the weight of the fabric will help pull it straight too. You may not have this problem if your frock skirt goes all the way to the front edge—I think that it was mostly a balance problem for me because I wanted a more cutaway shape.
I put on a collar and sleeve, and tried this on over the appropriate clothes, let’s see what that does! Traditionally you would do collar and sleeve toiles ON the actual coat after the body seams and padding are done, but I wanted to make sure these shapes would at least be adequate before I continued on.
Alright! Not bad. The main things you’ll notice here are the back body length, and the shoulder. The front shoulder looks great, but the back shoulder has some wrinkles and looks still a little too wide. This is up to your discretion—do you want it absolutely smooth, or do you want to leave a little ease for perhaps riding a horse or something? I split the different between the two, and took it in a small amount.
As for the back body length: You can see where I pinned length out of the back, above the tails. I did this because the tails were hitting into my bum. This correction fixed that problem and made the tails sit correctly, but look at how short the back is above the shoulder! It could definitely have used that length put back in above the shoulder, in the neck. The collar would then have been sitting correctly. I didn’t figure this out until much later in the construction, so I write it here for your benefit. If you too have that modern computer-desk type back, you may want to add that length back in to the top of the center back, above the arm.
The last correction here is the sleeve hem. I made the curve too sharp at the inner (thumb-side) edge of the hand in the draft stage, so I’ve pinned it out here. However, I neglected to add that amount back in to the curve of the outer sleeve seam at the wrist and hand level to compensate. Again, do as I say –please do check your hand circumference and add extra room on the opposing seam if you have the same problem.
The shirt sleeve nicely fills out the coat sleeve, and so I didn’t feel any need to change the sleeve circumference.
I did try putting a few thin layers of padding in the chest hollow between collarbone and bust, as well as under the arm (exactly the shape of a dress-shield, only a little bigger). These are the areas I find padding consistently in antique garments. They will be quilted into the lining on the final coat. Padding is your friend in this project! Uneven shoulders? Pad ‘em up! Square shoulders? Pad that neck up. Narrow chest? Pad out under the arm and at the front chest to make that waist look smaller! (Yes, men’s coats from this time often had padding in the breast area!)
Later on as I was building the real coat, I also did about 3 more collar prototypes where I lengthened the point of the collar to match the lapel length, made the notch narrower, and widened the collar in back to cover the neck seam. It was also too flared, so I pinched it in at the side-back outer edge. It helped having the weight of the coat to hold everything down instead of flighty calico.
I will talk about the actual sewing construction of the final piece in next week's blog post, so that you won't have to scroll forever and ever if you're trying to reference the draft vs the construction later on! Thanks for reading!
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