So this piece is actually another attempt at a design I did a while ago, for my personal jacket. This is a women's tail coat, but heavily stylized.

The jacket itself is made from a heavier poly-something-or-other fabric that is surprisingly soft for being drapery fabric. It is all black, but there are stripes woven into it, where one is matte, and the other a shiny, dashed line. I figured it would be very Victorian mourning garb-like, and add a little something to make the jacket look a little more severe (which I personally like, it's one of those weird fascinations on why I like Victorian clothing sometimes~) The whole thing is lined in white faux-silk (shantung), and as usual, no top stitching is visible either on the inside or the outside, because I'm utterly insane like that (or, rather, I just like clean lines!)

The jacket is cut to have a keyhole-type opening in the front. It is all one piece, however, even though it looks like a crop and a corset. There is no boning in this, but the front bottom part is reinforced to keep it laying smoother. The top closes with snaps, hidden underneath the cameo button (you have no idea how difficult it is finding cameos at stores for some odd reason! This was a 2-hour hunt last night ). The lower part of the jacket closes with little faux pearl buttons through buttonholes.

My personal favorite accent on this whole piece is the fact that the back of the jacket not only chevrons downward (the lines make a "V" shape down the back seam, achieved by cutting the pieces differently), but by happy accident the angle that the back lines go at line it up perfectly with the stripes that go over the shoulder, onto the front (it totally wasn't planned, but I bet I'll have a hell of a time doing it again!).

The shoulder seams, again, are the dropped lines of the Victorian era. In the back, there are two pleats that are sewn up through the waist, but left to release, instead of forming darts, so that you have a wide range of movement in your arms - if they were just continued up, you wouldn't be able to do much with your body, or risk popping the seams

The tails, again, I can't help it! I love tails on things (anything, can't you tell?) I've finally gotten the hang of patterning them onto anything, I think! And, this time, I got the hang of mutton sleeves that aren't too full and huge, but aren't too small and wimpy, either - finally got it just right! The darts in the sleeves (you can't see them, but they're there) help to give it the elbow bend. They're finished off with some very wide cream lace at the bottom.

The shirt was just something I could find to throw on with the jacket, sorry it's a little weird (and causing the stupid front to pucker at the buttons - it doesn't do that without the shirt on underneath... I guess that's what I get for wedging a size 18 shirt under a size 6 bodice ). It's not exactly what I was looking for, but I couldn't find anything else that looked decent (considering it's one of my shirts, pinned up to fit under a size 6 jacket... yeah...).

Severe? Yes. Victorian? Yes. Do I like it? Yes!

If you would like to commission one, these are definitely up for grabs, and no, they don't have to be in such severe colors (although, if you like, I can do the same stripe effect with brown, green, gold, etc... they make that fabric in a lot of different colors!)

These are going to be in my Etsy shoppe for around $300 once I get a chance to do a major update (they take a good 15 hours to make, if I can avoid screwing up on them, and that's just the sewing part!), but if you're interested in one, I'll be doing my standard first commission or two off of dA at a discount! Note me if you're interested!

The patterns are made by hand by myself, not working off of a commercial pattern or anything like that. They're also made to your measurements. The pattern was designed by myself, developed by myself, and the garments are sewn by myself.

I think I only have a few more designs to get finished up and posted soon, and then it'll be back to sewing for other people XP I hope you guys have liked these so far, though!

2009 Taeliac Studio - BeAnime.com - Taeliac.Etsy.com