Installing the Front Band to the Fantasy Fur Jacket
Before installing the front band, I went ahead and joined most of the yoke to the body. This ensures stability, and there is less weight to deal with at this point, making the stitching easier.
After cutting out the band pieces, and punching the stitching holes, I cut away the hair from the body section that lies under the band. 
Next, I pinned the band to the body, using bobby pins. 
Thread basting was next, to secure everything. 
Lastly before stitching, I needed to cement the yoke to the band, and punch any holes needed to finish stitching later. 
Everything’s basted and ready for lacing! 
First, I laced the bands to the body with the double cordover (Download a pdf of the diagram). 
Then I laced the yoke to the body and band, the first row at the edge. 
And then the second row. 
Here we have all of the pieces of the body together. The next step is the facings!
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This is awesome Keneth. I love the level of creativity!!! Woah....
Wow - I love the selection for the yoke. Looking at the full image of the front of the jacket I couldn't help but think of it with the Fortuney (did I spell that correctly?) shirt.
I am not getting into this fantasy fur jacket project at all.
Sorry, I don't care for this except as a costume.
I love creating things that are a little different, and appreciate when other people come up with great ideas. But this coat is a miss for me. I do appreciate though the things learned that could be used in other ideas. And that is what's most important to me.
I love being able to see the construction details step by step, it's fascinating. To be a 'spectator' to the creative process is a wonderful opportunity for me and gives me ideas that I can use in my own work!
Hi Kenneth,
you are true to me, very special, the best artist in the fashion world!, you are a man of good heart, you show and teach us many of the techniques / what others will do without the benefits / you that you show all the people and for that you really value, and also thank you very much , I like to show different things with the technique of accessores fashion, embellisments, ......
, greetings,!!!
Kenneth, I salute your amazing creativity and courage - and while I cannot imagine anyone really wearing this jacket, (and even find it surpassingly if endearingly ugly) I LOVE that you are able to go out on this breathtaking limb and that you so generously take so much of your own valuable time and effort to share the step-by-step processes with all us dowdy strangers! YOU are the amazing part of this series, and I can't help but think you bump up everyone's (fan and naysayer alike) abilities a whole level by just showing us what happens in the brains of the masters of the profession. It's INSPIRING - thank you!!!
Kenneth, ditto sewdizzy and mami50 - your artistry, knowledge, skills, and generosity of spirit are awesome. Thank you. I just bought your beading book and am ready to begin embellishing another thrift store jacket.
Fascinating, Kenneth. Readers who are interested in creative embellishment would also be ravished by the current Jean Paul Gaultier show at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. I was dazzled by the use of fur, beads, bone, metallic thread, paillettes, lace, embroidery, appliqué, crochet. His sources of inspiration include mermaids and sailors, tattooed punks, and his grandmother's corsets. The exhibit is imaginatively staged, featuring mannequins that softly talk and sing, thanks to video projections of actual people, including JPG himself, onto their faces. If you can't come to Montreal this summer, look for the exhibit in a city near you, because it will travel to the U.S.
Why do people bother to bring others done by saying they are not interested? Then move along, there is something for everyone. How selfish do you have to be to think you just HAVE to tell everyone that YOU are interested.
Wow, my typing is atrocious,
correction to post
"bring others down" not done
And insert a "not" so that the final sentence reads "not interested"
Interesting comments, as always!
I appreciate the kind words of support and compliments, which communicates that these people understand the purpose of this particular series of posts. It was my intention to show process, and the different technical issues and solutions, in "real time" so to speak. So to those who have been following with interest, thank you!
As for aesthetics, I've posted earlier that fashion is a wonderful thing--one person's fabulous is another person's poison. When it's all said and done, though, I work to please myself and my customers. Though it may not be conventionally handsome, or stylish in a commercial sense, I look fabulous in this jacket, and have worn it a couple of times here in New York.
Inspirational. If an artist provokes a reaction, he has succeeded! I'm already mentally taking aspects of this piece to make my own, more wearable version. If it wasn't for tha avant garde, the rest of us designers wouldn't have any new material! Thanks. I'm off to look through your book titles now. x
Great Technique, I will learn, but that color and material combination belongs to Boosty Collins & the Funkadelics. PHEW-OO-WE!
I just took a design class at the Surface Design Association (SDA) Conference in Mpls/St Paul this June and on the first day the instructor had us bring pictures of clothes from a designer that we admire. You were my pick! Your creativity, imagination and the way you allow yourself to "think outside the box" are an inspiration to me! It doesn't mean I want to copy your style---I want to develop my own style, but that was the whole point of that exercise and the focus of the class. Your articles have helped me understand the importance of careful planning and execution of the design. No more skipping important steps in the sewing process! I used to think it was OK to skip the little stuff that took so long to do, but I now realize that those small things are what make a great professional looking garment. Thanks for all the articles you have written!
To The Thread Lady--
Thanks for posting this! I'm very pleased that you "got" what I'm trying to do here, showing process. It's important, when pushing forward in any endeavor, that you are willing to take some risks. Sometimes those risks get commented upon (pro and con, see below), but you can't let that stop you.
Also, when pushing forward, it helps to not be too fearful of "doing it wrong"--perfectionism, I say, is a disease--we should try for the illusion of perfection, not actual perfection.
Lastly, you are getting it, that the craft itself adds to the aesthetics of a piece. I had a jewelry teacher years ago in San Francisco, who used to say that if you make the process so seamless that it's invisible, people will have to accept or reject a piece on aesthetics alone. Part of that seamlessness, is not skipping the steps, because it will always tell on you.
And you understand--I feel good that I've helped contribute to that.
I ditto The Thread Lady...I was at the fashion show of the Surface Designers...(which was not long enough) and as you say...this showing how much detail and the process ...for me it is more the journey and not so much the destination. If I love where it has ended it is a bonus but I must admit if it was the destination then I would just buy it. Love the overcast stitching on this garment and look forward to seeing it on and the hairs moving in the breeze. I can see this on someone riding like the wind on a horse at sunset.
To Lauriediane:
Thanks for the comment about riding on a horse at sunset. I've worn this jacket a couple of times before the weather turned warm, and it does indeed look better in motion than on a form--there's something about the hair's movement that gives it life and doesn't make it look as ponderous as it may seem in photos.
Love the braiding to attach the yoke! I know exactly where I'm going to use that technique. Thanks so much. Awesome project. Keep us posted on your next one!