Back to costuming page

Chris's Fall 2002 Tailcoat Project

Here's my second attempt at making a dance tailcoat, which I ended up wearing at most of the collegiate comps during the fall.

I started by tracing a social tailcoat to make a pattern. Unfortunately that was an 8-panel design, wheras every dance tailcoat I've seen had six panels. So one of the things I need to do is convert the pattern so that the back of my next attempt will have the traditional seam curving towards the armscye.

The other problem is that my modiciations for dance position resulted in shoulders that are too narrow, while there is too much fabric in the area in front of and slightly below the arms. I pinned out the wrinkles visible in these pictures and made a new pattern reflecting that change. These refinements have been tested in the form of a Dance Tuxedo worn at MAC 2003, and now need to be reincorporated into the tailsuit pattern.

A few additional refinements include lowering the collar in back, shortening the front slightly, and rounding off the ends of the tails.

Back to costuming page