Making Your Own WaistCoat
The first garment Rory ever made himself was a waistcoat. Though not in fashion then as they are today, this didn’t deter Rory from wearing it at any given time. Making your own waistcoat is a great way of getting pride from one’s own work and marking the stepping stone from spectator to tailor. When compared to other garments like trousers and coats, the waistcoat is a much simpler garment to make. It holds all of the key skills needed to master to make both trousers and coats.
Like the coat, the waistcoat has bias tapes drawn off in its edges to create that three dimensional appearance. These tapes need to be carefully sewn on by hand. One of the tailor’s key skills is being able to sew through two layers without picking up the bottom third layer. Many examples of this can be found throughout the coat and trousers. As well as the tapes, the waistcoat shares another detail with the coat and that is the canvas that is used to stiffen the foreparts. Trimming merchants offer a stiff canvas special made for waistcoats simply called “waistcoat canvas”, though this isn't the material Rory uses in his waistcoats. Rory prefers a softer front and has swapped out this heavy stiff canvas for a softer lighter alternative. Linen holland is found in all of Rory’s waistcoats. The trick with linen holland is not to get it wet as the water causes it to stiffen giving it a board like feel.
Just like the linings, water is the enemy to linen holland.
Unlike the coat the waistcoat canvas isn't made of different layers, the idea is to keep it soft and malleable. Many old books on tailoring instruct the tailor to stretch the cloth over the canvas. This might have been true for tailors of old but cloths today are not what they use to be. Cloths have become finer and lighter than at any other point in history. Back when Rory's grandfather was a tailor a 17oz was considered a light weight. Now we would only use such a weight to make either an overcoat or a heavy winter coat.
Just as cloths and interfacings have evolved, so too must the practises of the tailor. Cloth is now carefully cleaned over the canvas it covers. The two must be in harmony with each other and making your own waistcoat is a great way to start perfecting those skills. Indeed in many ways canvassing off a waistcoat can be more difficult than a coat as the canvas is softer and only consists of one layer. However, like the coat, the dart placement is positioned on the canvas over the chest dart in the waistcoat. The canvas is the foundation of the waistcoat and the shape created in its foreparts should be matched in its canvas.
The welted pocket commonly found in a waistcoat is the same pocket used for the out-breast in a coat, but different to the welt found in the trousers. This is a difficult pocket to make as the pocket ends have to be sewn down on the inside of the pocket. Compared to the jetted flap pockets, the welted pocket is a lot trickier to get right. The welt is sewn on an angle and the two seams are sewn at different lengths so that the sides of the welt can be sewn to firm cloth and not over holes created for the pocket facing.
Matching checks and stripes is difficult enough but when you add in the angle of the pocket, careful consideration needs to be taken in order to get them to line up.
Rory always recommends his students start with plain wools in at least a 10oz weight for the first few projects. Like the expression goes: learn to walk before learning to run.
The same hand-stitches are used on both the trousers and coats are used on the waistcoat. True to Savile Row style, the forepart linings are felled to the facing and armhole. A pick stitch is added to the front edge, forepart hem and armhole to stop the edges from swelling. Often this stitch is thought to be decorative but nothing could be further from the truth. No decorative stitching is found in tailoring. It is all functional stitching. If the front edge was left unsewn it would swell, roll and distort over time.
Buttonholes are the bane of most tailors’ existence and Rory’s single breasted waistcoat utilises six of them. The bottom one remains unbuttoned and is there as a show button. It is recommended to put in this one last since you’ll have five chances to make this one the best looking. As Oscar Wilde once said, “A well made buttonhole is the closet link between art and nature”. It is little wonder then why badly made buttonholes are known as a ‘crushed beetle’.
While Rory was apprenticing at Henry Poole’s on Savile Row, he was busily making himself a waistcoat during his lunch break. Rory had learned to make waistcoats in Ireland where a more production style system of making was used. There were no canvasses, only fusing. No felling, only machine stitching. Since Rory had learned the skills of coat making, he applied the same details and techniques to his waistcoat. His old master had used a fusible tape on the edges and round the armholes which Rory substituted for the bias lining his new master drew off on the front edges of his coats.
While applying the armhole tape, one of the company tailors passing by stopped and declared “that’s not how we do that, on Savile Row!”. Before Rory knew what was happening, the tailor had lifted his work, taken him by the arm and led him around to the company’s waistcoat maker. He threw Rory’s waistcoat upon her board and said, “Show him the Savile Row way.” before sauntering off.
The waistcoat maker glowing red confessed she did not know how to make waistcoats as she had never been trained. She had trained as a coat maker’s apprentice, but was too slow to make a good living as a coat maker. The company’s out of house waistcoat maker had recently retired and she now found herself thrust into the position.
So began Rory’s first trainee learning to make a waistcoat using a combination of skills he had learned from his two previous masters. Together they examined the waistcoats made by the previous maker and Rory carefully picked apart the techniques applied to its creation. After a few long evenings spent with the waistcoat maker, Rory explained each step in detail. To his surprise during that winter’s Christmas party, Rory was thanked by not only the waistcoat maker but also the cutter who had prior to his involvement been working closely with his maker to resolve the many issues in both the making and fitting of these waistcoats.
The key turned out to be the very detail that the first tailor had protested to: the bias tape around the armhole. Though he may have thought this wasn't a Savile Row trait, it was the cure needed to get a closer armhole fit that had been lacking on all previous attempts.
Though the foreparts of the waistcoat are made almost entirely by hand, the back lining is added by ‘bagging out’ the waistcoat. The foreparts are sewn inside the back lining and then turned out through a small hole left in the inside side seam. Such a technique requires great skill, the same machine skills used in trouser making. That is why Rory tells all aspiring tailors to make your own waistcoats – to perfect these skills before attempting to make either the coat or trouser.Though the foreparts of the waistcoat are made almost entirely by hand, the back lining is added by ‘bagging out’ the waistcoat. The foreparts are sewn inside the back lining and then turned out through a small hole left in the inside side seam. Such a technique requires great skill, the same machine skills used in trouser making. That is why Rory tells all aspiring tailors to make your own waistcoats – to perfect these skills before attempting to make either the coat or trouser.