For Halloween this year my 13 yo son wanted to be The Joker. I knew it would be very hard to find the fabrics to match Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight, so we decided to go with a more classic comic book look, and went with a regular purple suit and green vest. I chose Burda 8186 for the costume, figuring this was also going to be a test run on making a suit for his 8th grade promotion coming next June. I used a poly gabardine for the suit and a cotton twill for the vest. He liked the costume:
a very tired Joker
First I made the pants. According to my son's measurements, he fit into the 34, so that's what size I cut (on October 24, nothing like waiting until the last minute). My son is about 5'7", 140#, 34" chest. The pants have a single pleat in the front, pockets, a real fly, and a double welt pocket in the back. They went together very nicely. I did the pocket on the back, though I didn't do it the way the directions instruct, instead doing the double welt the way I like to (I tried finding a tutorial online, but couldn't. I'll try to put one up sometime). Here's the pocket, though don't look too closely, it's sloppy!
double welt back pant pocket
Caleb really likes how these pants fit. The fly front instructions in the pattern are very good, and it was easy to do. The only thing I would change for future pants would be to use lining for some of the pieces, as it seemed to be a bit bulky.
fly front
Next up I made the vest. While Caleb liked the fit of the pants and said they felt comfortable, I thought there were just barely ok, so I decided to cut both the vest and suit a size larger, a 36. The pattern calls for double welt pockets on the vest, but I think they looked weird, so I did single welt pockets (I didn't look at the instructions for these, as again, I have my own way I do these):
vest pockets
The vest is fully lined. I did not line the vest as per the instructions, which had you doing the shoulder seams last. I never am pleased with how that technique turns out. Instead, I sewed the shoulder seams on both the vest and lining, then sewed the neckline, armholes, and hemline RST, leaving the side seams unsewn. After trimming, clipping, and pressing, I sewed the side seams together, in a continuous loop for one seam, partial for the other, then edgestitched the opening in the one lining side seam closed. I hope that made sense. It's very much like what Summerset does here
Finally, on October 30 I start the jacket. Nothing like a little pressure! Again, I cut out a 36, the shorter version. The entire front of the jacket is fused with Texture Weft. There is a single welt upper breast pocket (I used lining for both sides of the pocket, the pattern calls for fashion fabric for one side). There are double welt pockets with flaps (again, I used lining to line the flaps, the pattern calls for self-lining).
I thought the collar was a bit strange, in that it had a collar stand, and the under collar was not cut on the bias. You can see what I mean here. The other side of the collar looks exactly like this. The jacket is fully lined and has a back vent. There was to be an inside pocket, but I didn't have time to do that. In fact, I ran out of time, and the sleeve hems were held up by safety pins! I also didn't get the shoulder pads in.
Overall, I am quite pleased with how this suit turned out, and I'd probably make the pants and vest again. I would definitely recommend this pattern for someone wanting a stylish suit for the man in their life. I'm just not crazy about the jacket collar, so I'm not quite sure if I'll be making this suit again for 8th grade promotion or if I'll chose a different pattern. This costume did remind me how much I do enjoy making menswear, so I do plan to make a graduation suit for my son. |
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