The Iron in Bespoke

What you always wanted to know about Elegance, but were afraid to ask!
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Guest

Thu Feb 12, 2009 12:37 pm

Can anyone discuss the role and purpose of ironing in shaping a coat? TIA
Guest

Sat Feb 14, 2009 8:46 pm

It used to be a lot easier to shape a coat with an iron. heavier fabrics make for better shaping. today's lightweight fabrics limit the amount a coat can be stretched and shrunk as it will simply tear.

Back in the "old days" when fabric was fabric, a tailor could shrink a waist here and stretch a chest there and create a beautiful form.

So, in answer to your direct question, the use of the iron was to enhance the finished product by manipulating the fabric, whether it be in the seam or dart area or around the back scyes, etc.

Leonard
Guest

Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:04 am

That makes sense. I'm beginning to see what they mean when they say heavier cloths "tailor" better.

Just an observation, I've seen people attach something like "-Bob" at the end of their replies to these questions. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of anonymity?
Guest

Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:16 am

Leonard's response above seems spot on.

Ironing as I understand it, gives 3 dimensional shape to flat cloth: shape that cutting and sewing alone cannot achieve.

I knew that ironing shrinks the cloth but I did not know that it could also stretch it where needed.

Also, Leonard's comment on the quality of cloth is important; it seems the higher count supers/lower weight cloth does not take well to ironing. I suppose that this refers to how a cloth 'makes up' in tailor-speak.
Guest

Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:55 am

Anonymous wrote:Just an observation, I've seen people attach something like "-Bob" at the end of their replies to these questions. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of anonymity?
The Anonymous section is for anonymous questions, not anonymous answers. It is for those questions one might be shy to ask for one reason or another, but why would one be shy about one's answers? Technically it is not possible to keep the anonimity of those who ask questions and automatically identify answer providers, so we do it "manually" by signing our replies. It also helps posters make sense of the sequence of replies and understand who says what.

Costi
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