Deckard Trench Coat

[superjedi]

For anyone who's interested, a member over on RPF, Pauleysolo, received his Deckard v.2 from Abbyshot and posted some nice pics and a review in their Costuming forum.

It looks great! I'm teetering on the brink of buying one.
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I find your lack of faith disturbing. . .

[Once-bitten]

Links are your friends! (and greatly appreciated)

[andy]

http://therpf.com/showthread.php?t=28328

[Once-bitten]

Thanks for the link Andy.

I'm not seeing any ribbing in that collar...

My costumer say's that the ribbing is very much needed in the collar to make it stand up the way that Deckard always wears it.

[superjedi]

Did you read page 3 of the thread?
That's where all the newer pics are.
_________________
I find your lack of faith disturbing. . .

[Once-bitten]

Thanks Supes...
I went and checked them out and maybe I'm just too picky but I now see why I thought there was no ribbing in that collar...it's top-stiched with no fill! Looks flat an unappealing to me...
My costumer intends to add individual cord-fill in each channel which will give the overall collar more body...It won't just LOOK kinda ribbed, it will BE ribbed...
It's all about attention to detail in my honest opinion.
Check out my hasty comparison pic below:
Left side is a close-up on the movie coat collar.
Right side is the abbeyshot.

This is why the abbey shot collar lay's so flat and has no "flare", no shape...Un-stuffed top-stitched seams.

[Once-bitten]

Dyed four yards of material last night for my Deckard Trench...on the left is the material as it was going into the vat, on the right is a sample swatch showing the new color.
As you can see, the dye job toned the bright rust color down quite a bit.
I plan on washing the whole a few times to distress the material even further before it's made into the overcoat.

[Once-bitten]

I took it a bit darker last night.
Now I'm getting the redish brown in the light, darker in the gloom and darker still when it gets wet.
What do you think?

[superjedi]

Hmm. . . unless there's a difference in color saturation between your last 2 pics, I'd say the newer one is too red in tone.
The shot where the fabric was lying in that container looked pretty dead on (to me.)
_________________
I find your lack of faith disturbing. . .

[Once-bitten]

Yeah...It does LOOK like that and it scared me a bit to compare the two. Believe it or not this one IS darker. It comes out looking different however if I use a flash as compared to none.
I'm beginnning to understand Abbey-Shot's dilemma with getting the color to a shade that pleases everyone!
Suffice it to say, I have hit upon a color that I like and think is pretty close so, thats what I'm going with...we'll see if the costumer agree's!

[superjedi]

Any more news/work/progress/updates on the coat?
_________________
I find your lack of faith disturbing. . .

[Rachael]

After drafting the pattern for my black suit, I took a brain break and got the rest of Decard's clothing done; get the easy stuff out of the way. I plan on finalizing the details and drafting the pattern this weekend, with plenty of updates to be found next week. Please let me know how much detail anyone is interested in; I am happy to post as much info as there is demand for. By suggestion, I am notating the whole project so that I can supply either tips or a pattern to any interested parties. Of course, it would be very helpful if said parties happened to be a size 42R. But I understand that not all models have the same specifications.
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Is this testing whether I'm a Replicant or a lesbian, Mr. Deckard?

[Once-bitten]

Believe me when I tell you...I'm VERY excited!

[superjedi]

Very cool that you're documenting the project!
In my opinion, this is one of the most iconic costume pieces from any sci-fi film, and sources for a good replica have been limited.
_________________
I find your lack of faith disturbing. . .

[Once-bitten]

I had to post this as a sort of teaser for the many picture's that are about to be posted by Rachael.
Here you see the FIRST CUT on the material for my Deckard Trench-Coat.

[Once-bitten]

I bought all the buttons for the coat MONTHS ago and then found, when compared with the final color of the material, they are too light in color and don't blend into the coat as Deckard's seem to.
Rachael and I went out and found darker ones this weekend.
Left one is the old, right one is the new.

[Rachael]

So we had a busy weekend, and I expect the trench coat to be finished by mid-week. As promised, I will be posting shots of the progress.

This pic shows the coat basted together for fit (it fits better on a person than on a shoulderless mannequin) with the collar pinned in place for fit. We decided at this point that it needed to come down a bit further, so it was back to the drafting. And that's why we drape before we finish.

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Is this testing whether I'm a Replicant or a lesbian, Mr. Deckard?

[Rachael]

Here is the finished collar and tab flat and after being basted to the coat. As you can see, it's a fairly standard cut along the neckline, just extended to give the width. Because of the bulk created by adding the ribs (86 of them!), I decided to bind the outer edge instead of hemming it. This shows better in the next pics. We played with the size of the tab a bit, and I'm very happy with the dimensions as they came out.

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Is this testing whether I'm a Replicant or a lesbian, Mr. Deckard?

[Rachael]

Just to be sure I got it right before forging ahead, I got a few shots of the collar turned up. As you can see, there is no gap at the neck to let in the rain or snow. This is why the collar would have those tabs, to make it a true all-weather coat. Here you can see the binding on the undercollar. It makes a neat finish and saved me a lot of burned fingers and colorful metaphors. With the collar design finished, time to take it all apart and put it together for real!

_________________
Is this testing whether I'm a Replicant or a lesbian, Mr. Deckard?

[Rachael]

Here is a close-up of the left breast pocket. This is a functioning pocket, about 6 inches deep. Because it appears to be unbuttoned most of the movie, that makes me think that this is where Deckard keeps his badge, so he leaves it open (and btw that means he's right handed).

_________________
Is this testing whether I'm a Replicant or a lesbian, Mr. Deckard?