Vintageの裏側に目をやると初めて観る光景。
1800年代頃のジーンズは生地端の処理という概念が無く生地の切りっぱなしの仕様に驚く事が有ります。
そして今、サンプリングしてるブラウスは何とアームホールが真っ直ぐでアームホールがセルビッチ仕様。
そしてなんと脇も耳が使われております。
耳を使えば使うほど、裁断の条件に縛りが発生し、生地の用尺が必要になる為、コストも上がってしまうのですが、今回のプロジェクトでは耳使いを決心。

但し一つ問題が発生します。
このブラウスはテーラーでの1点ものなのでしょうか？サイズ展開が有ったのでしょうか？
後ろ身頃の脇を耳使いにしようと前提にvintageの身頃の幅を測ると60cm代。　
と言う事は1880年代の生地幅は60cm ~なの？
という壁にぶつかりました。
もちろん耳を使えば後身頃の幅が固定になる為サイズ34-50の展開を予定してるのに不可能です。
現状岡山で織って頂いてるTCBの生地は織機によって生地幅のバラつきがあれど77-80cm幅が主流。
Levisの1920年代のバナーを測った事が有りますが生地幅は少し狭くて75cm
やはり1900年初頭より1880年代の方が生地幅が狭かった事が想像できます。
以上のことからTCBでは
耳使いは採用したい。
でもサイズ感は34-50でちゃんと展開したい。
という2点の理由から背中をT-backで分割して作ることと決めました。
この仕様は34-50の全サイズ共通となります。
耳使い過ぎて生地の値段が恐ろしいですが、完成が私も楽しみです。
PS 肩をさすりながら、『耳のアタリが出てきた！』って言いたい。

Too much selvedge!

I took a glance at every single detail of this jacket and one detail took my attention because it was the first time for me to see this detail: even the front/back body is made of the fabric with selvedge part, which means only the edge part of the fabric can be used on this jacket.

Having seen some vintage jeans and jackets from 1800s, it was common back then not to finish the edge of fabric by overstitching, which often surprises me. This jacket TCB has been working on even has the armholes made of the selvedge part of the fabric.　The more fabric with the selvedge part we use, the more fabric we need to make one jacket, meaning that it will lead to more cost. But as long as we have the vintage piece with the detail, we have no choice but to give it all to make as accurately as possible.

If we want to make the back body with the selvedge, the width of the jacket is limited to the width of the fabric itself. I measured the back body width of this jacket and it was about 60cm, which also means the fabric woven at that time was all 60cm width. It also occurred to me that the chest size of the jacket was all 60cm regardless of the size. But it is very plausible if you look at the gathers at the bottom. Maybe they use the 60cm width fabric for the back body and the gathers were there for the size adjustment.

Around 1920’s, the machines also evolved and the fabric width got wider to around 77cm~80cm. I have once seen in person a 20’s Levis banner with both ends being selvedge and its width was about 75cm. Maybe it can be said that the fabric width in 1870~80 was narrower than 1900’s.

Looking at all the denim history book, articles, etc, we can’t reach the answer as to how the bigger sized jacket of 1800’s used to be made but if you want to make the back body wider than 60cm, the only way possible is sew two fabric together either at the center, which is so-called T-back detail seen on type 1, or at the side, which is the iconic detail of type 2. Maybe the former was more reasonable to be adopted back then since it is easier to sew and it’s more simple.

Because we can’t use the mid part of the fabric on this model, the price will be a bit higher than usual but we can’t make a compromise on the quality!