Jacket and skirt pattern help please

By sakura_petals. 11/07/12, 05:55 am

So I'm thinking of making the costume from the Debut Single (Yume miru 15sai) from my fav. J-Pop group S/mileage. I have a few questions about the jacket and the skirt.

First off the pics:

Spoiler:

What I'd like help with is the jacket as a whole - anyone know a pattern that I can use as a base? And as a detail - how would I make the pleats at the back? Do jackets come with a middle back seam or something that I can easily add in the pleats?

And now the skirt. I know how to make a pleated skirt but to make it fit over a petticoat do I just make it bigger or what?

Any help would be wonderful.

Also as an aside - the buttons on the jacket and cuffs are crystal hearts - anyone know where I can source them from? Prefreably not ebay or the like.

By Pura. 11/07/12, 10:58 am

For the jacket pretty much any basic pattern would work. For the back pleats you can just cut in a back seam along the piece if there is none in the pattern and then just pleat the fabric and put it in (: If the sleeves are long on the pattern then just cut them down (:

As for the skirt it looks more like a circle skirt than a pleated skirt to me. Just cut out a circle and then a hole in the middle (for your waist) and voilà! Circle skirt! Very Happy

By Rolly. 11/07/12, 03:35 pm

The skirt also looks like it's a petticoat/has one underneath. Look at all that poof!
It looks like the top layer is actually 2, one sheer and one opaque, then the petticoat.

By Highlander. 11/07/12, 05:34 pm

Buttons, you maybe hard pressed to find those specific buttons, unless you make them. I seem to remember there is as large button store online. Fabric Vision, Spotlight, Art of Sewing, the bernina store in papanui, and Lincraft in the bush inn will all carry some craft buttons. Lincraft I think has a reasonably large range maybe. A search under buttons reveals http://www.trimz.co.nz/, http://www.twolyttelbuttons.co.nz/, http://www.arthurnrowe.co.nz/, http://www.thestitchery.co.nz/ just on page 1. So try google.

The second girl from the left in the last picture seem to show seams or something (hard to tell) at the 1/4, and 3/4 all the way down, and 1/2, waist and top? But you could always just put in a seam at the 1/4 and 3/4 to make it a panel. Inserting one seam is certainly easy enough. But then you have to allow for more material for the pleats. So I would do a 1/4 and 3/4 seam, and then a top part, including the welt, and a separate panel allowing for four pleats.

I can look at the kilt book sometime and try and and work out how the details of pleat tapers would apply to complete circles. However the pictures don't seem to show proper pleats, as Rolly and Pura say.

By sakura_petals. 12/07/12, 01:50 am

The skirt does have a petticoat underneath which is why I thought a pleated skirt would be difficult with it, but now that I have had a closer look (as I can) I realise that you're all right and that it's not pleated fully just at the top.

I've never made a blazer or really looked at the construction of one so thanks for the help on that score! :)

And as for the buttons - I'm just after largish heart shaped gems or something, so I'll have a look at the links you've provided and see what I find.

By 80486. 14/07/12, 02:55 pm

Concerning the jacket. The front, lapels, and collar are from a standard women's jacket pattern. For each of the front panels, fuse the entire panel with suitable interfacing; it'll give you the tailored look without the effort. You need interfacing in the front hem and collar too, to get a crisp edge.

As for the back, standard patterns will give you a centre back seam. It looks to me like these jackets also have back darts for extra shaping. You should be able to add the darts directly to a standard pattern, as these jackets have much more shaping than standard jackets. You could then cut horizontally from the dart to the centre back to get the pleated section. To construct the back you would stitch the centre back, prepare and attach the pleated section, then stitch the dart last.

For the sleeves you want to shorten them up, and add a whole lot more ease into the top of the sleeve cap. The standard jacket has a two part sleeve. I would combine the pieces to cut a one piece sleeve instead.

By Highlander. 15/07/12, 03:47 am

Looking in Lincraft (Bush Inn) yesterday they have coloured see through heart shaped buttons, similar to what you want. They will already have the rear button sewing lug on them. All you would have to do is put them inside a a clear resin/thermoplastic/etc. Maybe you could hot glue them and sand the hot glue? I don't know, I have never used hot glue that way. But it would be easy to try with a bit of hot glue and see if it works,

By Mischa. 15/07/12, 03:42 pm

I got some buttons like that from Spotlight last year Very Happy

- I used them on a white jacket too http://toydivision.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4ddib6

By sakura_petals. 18/07/12, 08:55 am

To be honest the buttons weren't a huge deal because I knew I could get them from an online NZ shop specialising in rhinestones/gems.

I've now decided that this might be a little too much for me - not to mention that white is not a good colour on me. But the help is still useful as I've decided on another costume the group wears that has a jacket that's slightly similar to the above. I'll change the first post to update the pics/costume help.

Thanks guys!! Very Happy

By Highlander. 19/07/12, 01:07 pm

I think you could do it.
Just get an easy pattern, and add minour modifications from there.
If you come over I can help you with it.

But then feel free to do whatever you want.

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