Costume Update - Indiana Jones Coat

So. Since I constantly hear Jack wandering around "singing" the Indiana Jones Theme Song, I decided to offer up to him the option of being Indy for Halloween. Of course, he jumped on it!

He already has an Indy-Like hat, plus a whip (Tom made out of a piece of rope to stop Jack from hitting things with his leather belt). Pants aren't a problem. I still need to find a plain button-up shirt. The "biggie" was the coat. I decided to find a leather coat at a thrift store and then to make a satchel out of some canvas/denim-type fabric. Here's the main reference picture I'm using for the project...


Here's the leather coat I found at a Goodwill in California.


I paid just $5 for the coat! As you can see... it's big enough to fit me (and I did think about keeping it for me, because it's a nice coat!) Instead, I found Jack's "Lumberjack" Fleece Coat.


Which is a little big for him (that's okay though, if I'm going to the work of making him a leather coat, it would be nice if it fit more than a year!)

Here's a reference of the Lumberjack coat that I made the pattern off of, and the Leather coat to be cut up. As you can see, it looks like there will be plenty of material!


Before cutting anything out, I removed the front placket, zipper, collar, cuffs, and waistband.

This should give you an idea of how the pattern pieces are cut out of the coat.


Then. I started cutting.

Foolish me, today, I started sewing but didn't take any pictures of the pieces pre-assembly!

Yesterday, I watched my friend's kids for something like 7 or 8 hours. Today, she took my boys for 5 so I could sew. She's also planning to watch them again tomorrow morning. Here's what I accomplished so far today...


Shoulder seams, collar, zipper, armhole seams, fake pocket flaps.

Indy's coat has patch pockets with flaps. The coat I'm using had side-seam entry to it's pockets. I cut the front pieces so that I could use the existing pockets. I had everything else done today and Tom came in. I ask his opinion on adding the fake pocket flaps. As you can see...


...we decided I should put them on.


The pocket flaps "only" took about 1 1/2 hours to design, sew, and attach (my one broken needle (so far) happened while attaching the first pocket flap).

I was going to modify the collar to a smaller, size, but decided to use the original, and just enlarge the neck-line. I've never seen it before, but the collar had an extra "facing?" piece on it... I'll have to get a better picture.

In any case, it made modifying the original collar shape a very challenging prospect, so, I just used it as it was. Which means it has a nicer patina and character and all the original stitching on the points... which I like.

Here's a snapshot of the inside of the coat. I've labeled some of the parts, to make it easier to see what's what.

I found several things about the original interesting, and I'm trying to recreate them. One thing was that they snipped the armhole seams to ease the leather before topstitching. I did that too, but whenever a seam intersected, I just let that area lay straight, instead of folding it back and creating a lot of bulk.

Tomorrow, I'll sew the side seams, finish the lining, attach the lining, waistband, turn it right-side-out, hand sew lining, topstitch zipper facing down.

I'm very pleased with how all of this is going! So much so, I think I'll ask Tom to make dinner and I'll head back up to My Studio! :D