The Last Toggle Post

Dear readers, a million thanks for yesterday's comments.  I think we're all going to enjoy wearing this coat and don't think I'm not serious -- I share.

 Today, as we prepare to bid good-bye to the toggle coat project, I want to spend a little time discussing a few construction techniques I learned -- or tried to learn -- in the process.

As you'll recall, I spent a lot of time binding seams.  I like binding seams.  I cut my bias tape myself from black cotton sateen.



I used my plastic triangle to determine the correct angle, then with my clear plastic ruler I measured out 1 1/2" -- the desired width of my tape, and cut strips, as many as I needed, with my rotary cutter.



This worked great and it wasn't hard to enclose the seams once I'd had a little practice.  I found stitching on one side, folding over and then ironing the strip helped keep things neat.  I topstitch the second side rather than stitching "in the ditch" on the first side.  This way I don't have to worry about the stitching missing the seam.  (Does that make sense?)





Below is the armhole binding.  It's a little thick.  I'm toying with the idea of taking the sleeves in an inch.  If I do that, I think I'm going to remove the bindings on both sleeve and armhole and just serge for a softer edge.  We'll see if I bother.  



Here is my hem.  This was easy because the hem is straight. 



Below is the finished hem.  I ended up taking out those hand stitches I mentioned yesterday that showed on the outside of the coat.  The hem stays up fine without them.  In retrospect I could have topstitched the hem (Duffle coats have a topstitched hem, they just do) a little higher, but as-is is OK, or I can hand stitch the top edge, stitching only through the underlining.



The toggles were hard to stitch on.  I had to get all the way around the toggle which meant passing the completed coat through the harp of my machine at times.  In retrospect I might have done this BEFORE I added the sleeves; live and learn.  I had never stitched leather before and I had bought just eight toggle sets, exactly the number I needed so I couldn't practice.



With leather, once you stitch it, that's it, the mark is permanent.  The leather is an awkward shape to topstitch around.  I did it by eye and I don't think I'd have done any better with an edge foot, not that I have any for my 15-91 anyway.  

BTW, the 15-91 was able to handle these layers beautifully.  Not sure if I could have done this on some of my other machines.



This shoulder could use pressing.



I can't really fit my ham up there -- what form should I use to press it?  I have a sleeve board but that won't work.  I thought about maybe just putting the coat on (Michael) and steaming it from the outside.  Could I do that without causing injury?  I just need to fill the shoulder space.  Suggestions?

Guys, I think I'm toggled out.  I hope you've found this post informative and if you have any specific questions, of course just ask.

Inclement weather down South has delayed the delivery of my 15-90 till Monday.  I'm still waiting for my dog coat pattern as well as Cathy's futuristic jump suit.  So we're kind of on hold here at MPB for the moment and trying to just BE.

A little more decluttering, perhaps? 

Happy Friday, everybody!

FINISHED! Peter models the Vogue toggle coat

Friends, the toggle coat is in the can!  Wait -- that sounds wrong.  It's done.

Just to recap, here's the pattern, which I bought on Etsy from a seller in Barcelona:



And here's my coat, which I should only get to wear in Barcelona.



This project gave me a few gray hairs, not to be confused with all the pet hair I had to remove with the sticky roller and, in the case of a few stragglers, by hand.  As I've said before, it's not so much that this coat is difficult per se as much as there's so much to do. I'll probably write more about the construction tomorrow but let me say now you haven't lived till you've topstitched on a toggle.  (Not for the easily stressed.)



Readers, I must ask you.  Let's say I finish a project and I know there's something not quite perfect about it.  Would you prefer I --

a) point it out to you up front;

b) let you find it yourselves (in which case you'll probably find something I didn't even notice and would rather not know about); or

c) pretend it's flawless; hero-worship is an important coping mechanism in troubled times.

I ask you because I did make an error in judgment with regard to the hem -- though one that's entirely fixable.  Here's the deal: I turned up the hem, about 2 1/2" wide, and stitched it by hand, having bound the seam first.  The pattern then calls for topstitching roughly 1" from the bottom -- no problem.  But I'm seeing the wider hem above the topstitching from the outside.  I can either a) cut the hand stitches from the top of the hem, trim the hem facing down a bit and re-bind; or b) remove the hand stitches and re-stitch as-is, making sure the stitches go only through the underlining and not the out fabric so they won't be visible.

You can see what I'm talking about here, I think.  Or not.



More toggle coat-related pre-dawn stream of consciousness:

The thing about toggle coats is that they close more loosely than zippered or buttoned coats and they shift a bit as one moves.  There are very clear horizontals that ideally should match (like the bottom edges of the yoke or the left and right toggles themselves) or the coat looks askew.

The toggles are as distant from each other as they can be; the coat can't close any tighter.  Should I a) live with it, nobody will notice; or b) put a button or two on the inside flap to secure the coat without the toggles?  Thoughts?

Here's my toggle fashion spread, nothing fancy:



Thank you for encouraging me to buy the real horn toggles -- I love them!  And of course, your constructive comments were a great help thoughout, as always.

Happy Thursday Toggle-Love Day, everybody!

Return to Toggle Land

Friends, we're getting close to finished on this toggle coat but we're not there yet.

Yesterday I attached the sleeves without too many headaches.  I still have to hem, shorten the sleeves, add the toggle closures, and finish the armhole seam bindings.  As I think I said earlier, this coat isn't so much difficult as it is labor intensive -- there's always something else to do.  Closer to the finish line the coat is going to require major pet hair removal with one of those sticky lint rollers.  Gray wool and white dogs are a bad mix!

And speaking of dogs, what fun I had reading yesterday's comments about doggy fashion.  I do try to keep this blog as frou-frou free as possible and I appreciate your support.

As you know, I've been making my own bias tape with cotton sateen (I think it's sateen; it has a dull side and a shinier side), cut at roughly 1 1/2", and then folded over seam allowances that are roughly 1/4 to 1/3".  Some of it looks great, some not so great.  I get lazy.
 







Sometimes I'd stitch the binding along the primary seam (the one holding the fashion fabric together), which means that when the binding is folded over and stitched on the other side, there's no stitch line visible.  But sometimes either the seam allowance was a teensy bit wider or the binding stitch line a little narrow so you see the binding stitch and the primary seam stitch.  Does that make sense?

Here's an example of what I mean, from the inside of the sleeve.  (Who's going to see it?)





I finger press the binding as I'm working; I never used an iron since the bias is stretchy and the seam of varying width depending on how many layers of wool I am binding.  In the hood area, for example, there are places where I'm binding six or eight layers (since every layer is underlined).  Sometimes I used pins but usually not; I just folded as I moved along.

Either way the seam is bound and that's the point, after all.  I try not to obsess about these things.  The next time I will do it better.

Readers, I must take the dogs to the vet for their annual checkup so I'm a little pressed for time.  I think I'll have this done by tomorrow.  I hope so: it's cold here (and it snowed a bit last night) and I could sure use a nice toggle coat to keep me warm -- and fashionable!

Have a great day everybody!

Seam bindings: love 'em or hate 'em?

Toggle Coat vs. Duffle Coat + ARRIVAL OF THE TOGGLES!

Refined readers, you'll be happy to know that for what I could have spent on dinner for two in a moderately priced Japanese restaurant, I bought four leather toggle sets yesterday, complete with genuine horn toggles and four matching buttons (for sleeves and detachable neck strap).

I love them: they're beautiful, heavy, each slightly different.  I can't wait to attach them.



But we're not there yet -- still much to do.

Yesterday I bound my shoulder seams.  Because of the addition of the front and back yokes, the shoulder seam is comprised of as many as six layers of wool (front and back sides underlined, and front and back yokes).  That's thick, but my Singer 15-91 sailed right through it.  I made my own double folded bias tape out of cotton sateen cut at approximately 1", trimming the seam allowances to 1/4".   Most of you know how this works...







There are many more seams to bind, including sides of torso (now stitched up) and hood (attached).



Thanks go out to reader Tory for suggesting I stabilize the plaid with a little weft-weight interfacing.  That helped a lot on the pockets and pocket flaps, pieces that needed to be turned and topstitched and where I didn't want the plaid stretching out beyond the edge.

Some pocket construction pics.  I was glad to have my wooden clapper.







Before attaching I drew an outline in chalk to make sure I was stitching them on straight.  White chalk is perfect for this fabric; it rubs right off.



Pocket flap (forgot to topstitch along the top -- oh well; it's covered by the flap).







Pockets, like a hood, are time consuming.  You must create a perfectly matched set and you're working with bulky material.  Tears may be shed.

Patient readers, do you know the difference between a toggle coat and duffle coat?  I do (now).  A toggle coat refers only to the closures -- toggles, generally made of plastic, wood, or horn (they no longer make them from walrus teeth and thank goodness).

A duffle coat refers to the fabric itself, a coarse wool originally woven in Duffel, a town in the province of Antwerp in Belgium.  It's all explained here.  Therefore my coat, made from a lighter, smoother wool, while styled like a traditional duffle coat (lined in plaid, two big outside pockets with flaps, etc.), is a toggle coat, not a true duffle coat.

Interesting, right?

Friends, I hope you're all busy stitching away.  Today will not be a productive sewing day for me as I have a family function, but rest assured my toggle coat won't be far from my mind.  I think I can have this coat done in a day or two and I know you won't want to miss the big reveal.  Monday or Tuesday?

Thanks again for all your support; I think of this as our coat, really.  Just tell me where to send the bill for the toggles.

Have a great day everybody.

Be lazy!



And the hilarious parody.

More Marlene...

Men's toggle coat + Boyz N the Hood

You saw that coming, I hope.

Friends, I'm not going to tell you how many hours I spent on this hood; let's just say a lot.  I decided to start with the hood because...well just because.  It's tricky, what with matching plaids on curved seams, clipping to dots (we all love that!), pivoting in mid-stitch line (as in a notched collar), etc.  I bound the seams with bias I cut myself out of black cotton sateen.  No commercial bias binding accessory used.









Next I attached my front yokes.



I topstitched at 1/4" with black  Gutermann topstitching thread I picked up at Sil Thread.  It doesn't make a huge difference to use real topstitching thread but it does look a little nicer upon close inspection.  The stitches sink deep into the wool either way. 



After adding the back yoke, I stitched the shoulders and draped the coat over me for the first time.  It's warmer than I thought it would be judging by the respective weight of the two layers of wool.





One challenge has been getting my two wools to line up perfectly flat and even.  Every time I run an iron over a section, the more loosely woven plaid wool stretches a bit.  I've machine basted a few times in the seam allowance and had to rip the seam out and restitch on account of this, all the while trying to keep vertical lines perfectly vertical.

It's important that the two layers hang evenly together, especially because this is an underlining, not a lining.  The plaid will not hang freely at the bottom but rather be hemmed up with my outer layer.    I'm trying to give the project time to hang so that any stretching that may occur can happen sooner rather than later.

Friends, that's it!  My life has been toggle coats.  No luggage, no vintage shaving rituals, no Craigslist sales or eBay purchases.  (I still have that Grasshopper, wouldn't you know.)

Thank you for your many informative comments and expressions of support.  Today I'll pick up my toggles, attach my hood, make my patch pockets, and maybe stitch the sides together.  The sleeves will be last, along with all that seam binding.

It's cold here and I'm looking forward to having a nice toggle coat to bundle up in.

How's the weather in your neck of the planet -- warming, cooling, ever-the-same to the point of madness?

Happy Friday, everybody!

Men's toggle coat - cutting fabric, purchasing notions, etc.

And off we go!

Friends, the toggle coat project is moving along.  Yesterday I made my pattern adjustments (basically just taking 4" width out of the whole thing -- 1" from each front pattern piece and 2" out of the back, and shortening 2".)  I kept the armhole, neck, and hood as-is, rather than cutting it down to the Extra-small.

I folded the pattern piece over 1/2" (for a total width adjustment of 1")...



And then I redrew the shoulder line.





I went to Sil thread to buy a Clover bias tape maker, but I wasn't sure which width to buy - 1/4", 1/2", 3/4" or 1".  The pattern says to use 1/4" double fold bias tape but won't that be too narrow to finish seams from underlined wool?  I'll have to go back tomorrow because I still haven't purchased my toggles from C&C.

I bought regular black thread as well as thicker black topstitching thread for the yokes, hood and patch pockets.  I did some test samples of topstitching on the wool and they look good.  (The thread appears gray in the photograph but it's black.)  I'll most likely use my Singer Spartan to topstitch, everything else on my 15-91.





First I cut my gray wool and then I cut my plaid.  It took a few hours but went smoothly.  There aren't that many pattern pieces when you consider this is a coat.





I still have to baste the plaid underlining to the gray wool and then I can start putting this baby together.

This is going to be different from a traditional toggle (also know as a duffle) coat in a few ways.  For one thing, the wool I'm using is less coarse and pillowy than what you usually find in a traditional toggle coat.  My wool, as you may have noticed, is smooth.  I'm also making the yokes out of separate front and back pieces, as per the pattern, rather than drafting a one piece yoke -- unless I change my mind.

(The pattern doesn't call for lining the yoke and I can only see doing that for additional thickness.  I'll experiment with those yokes today.  I don't want them to look too flat; then again the topstitching will be going through four layers: the folded edge of the yoke, the coat fabric and the underlining fabric.)

This Hugo Boss coat looks more like the wool I'm using -- flat with a dull sheen.



This is the coarser, more blanket-type wool. 



Mine is going to be less of a Survive-the-harsh-Maine-winter coat and more of a Barbie-dons-the-duffle fashion garment, if that makes sense. 

There are so many toggle coat variations!

We'll just have to see which of these my finished coat resembles most.

Friends, that's it!    Please keep your fingers crossed, and if you have any tips, especially regarding width of bias tape, that would be great.

Happy Thursday everybody!