Page 8 Coat
Of course, the outer layer is the one most visible from both back and front. However, it was not the most complicated part of the costume. Of course, there were some challenging aspects, but compared to the douzens of hours of embroidering the silk, the coat had a rather simple structure. The main fabric is somehow similar to velvet, but not that thick and heavy. In addition, it was a little bit stretchy. Furthermore, there were only some leftover pieces available. As a result, I ended up having three pieces, each about two metres long, instead of a continuous piece of fabric. This meant that I had to lay out the patterns were carefully. I did already mention that the fabric is a little bit stretchy. This was not ideal form y project. I was afraid that the diagonal seams would gain length ore create some winkles. To prevent this, I added some satin ribbon.
For the original dress, the costume designer used some burned out velvet. Therefore, the flat areas appear lilac while the longer fiber is more of a blue-ish tone. Of course, I was not able to get this fabric, so I had to search for an alternate way to create this look. I decided to create a stencil and mixed some color that could be sprayed on the surface of the fabric with my airbrush. Everything was cut to shape and bound at this point.
Afterwards, the pieces could be sewn together by machine. You may have noticed the lilac pieces of fabric on the coat. They consist of cotton fabric and leftover pieces of the soutache used for embroidering the silk.
Bespoken pieces were put in between the (lined) main pieces. This meant I had to work very carefully. In addition, they were added to the sleeves and the hem, too.
You can see what I mean when looking at the two sides of the collar.
Where the coat does not have a lining, I added some Satin to make it look good in case the coat opens due to windy weather or something like that.
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