Self Drafted Linen Mens Blazer.

 This post is long overdue but better late than never, right? Riiiiiiiiiight???

Remember when I blogged about these Linen Dresspants and I mentioned that I would be making a matching blazer so that Mr.Suit would have an awesome suit? Well here's the blazer! Modeled for you by Mandy as his husband(fiance at the time) wasn't here yet. So please mind all the horrible fit issues as it's not really meant for Mandy. Oh yeah, Mandy got married to Randy, my new male dress form. We have a weird arrangement going on between me, Mr.Man, Mandy, Randy and Mini-Me. But it's all cool.

I drafted the pattern myself and it's a pretty classic style and shape. The only thing that did make me pull my hair out was the fact that Mr.Suit didn't want to have the classical horizontal pockets that mens blazers usually have and that's a bit of a problem. You see, for men the drafting process is a bit different and the pocket height is predetermined and drafted before fittings. It doubles as half of the breast dart and helps to shape the blazer. So it's cut right in the beginning. But now I didn't have the pocket. See my problem? After spending hours watching the pattern, and spending many hours at night thinking about what the heck I was going to do, I just decided to wing it, change the shape of the seam line a bit and hope for the best. And it worked! YAY!

Guess who forgot to take pictures of the whole back? THIS GIRL. Amateur.

The blazer has vertical pockets hidden in the side front seam, a single vent in the back, tiny vents in the bottom of the sleeves and one pocket on the inside of lining on both sides. To attach facing to the lining I used a method where the raw edge of the facing is finished with a bias tape and the whole thing is topstitched to the lining.

Look at that tiny sleeve vent! JUSTLOOKATIT! That pesky little thing is so annoying to make, but it sure does look nice.

Pocket on the inside of the lining sewn through the front facing and lining. This might just be my favorite kind of pockets. No joke.

I can already feel the confusion. Where are the inside shots? Where are the explanations on what really goes on in menswear blazers? I know, I know. I promised that I would try but here's the thing. Menswear blazers and coats have a lot of pesky little details and steps and weird things going on. Which take time. And photographing  them takes also a lot of time. And time isn't something I have a lot lying around when I'm on a deadline. Which is always when I'm working on customer projects. So I had an idea that started to brew when I was making this blazer and that keeps popping into my head when I'm working on a coat I'm making(if you are following me on instagram you have already seen a few sneak peaks).

I was thinking about making a series of posts on things and steps I do in mens blazers/coats. I mean everything from shaping, pressing and support to pockets. So if you guys would be interested in something like that, I could make that happen and without the pressure of getting a whole blazer done withing 50 hours, it seems an achievable goal. So let me know if you are interested in the series.