A tailcoat tale

I was asked if I would like to make a tailcoat for a dance show.

So, never having made a jacket in my entire life - of course I said yes!

As it turned out, it was a challenge and a half.  I think there were about 16 pieces to the pattern, which made for some interesting times LOL! 

But I made it.

When the tailcoat was tried on it fit beautifully but the front of the coat met in the middle rather than there being an overlap for buttonholes.  So I added a velcro overlap

Here is the front of the tailcoat with the velcro in place.

I added the buttons for decoration.

The tailcoat was made in two distinct sections - the top half and the bottom peplum and tail.

When I initially made it I was sure I'd followed the pattern but it didn't look quite right.  After much humming and harring I realised that I had managed to sew the flap of the tail on the wrong way round!  I'm convinced that not many people would have noticed - but I would have known LOL!

So I unpicked it all and put it on the right way round. 

There's no point in having a tail if you can't flap it, is there?!

I can't say that making the tailcoat was the easiest thing in the world, but I was happy with the end result.

More importantly, so was the dancer who got to wear it :)