I was paging through some old posts on the
Gearing Up blog the other day and came across
this post on Soviet clothing for Dieselpunks, which I imagine would be good inspiration for certain more steam-oriented types as well with a bit of creativity but is definitely more in the diesel range. It talks about a Russian jacket pattern found in a book from 1956, which is described and depicted as quite similar to a 1930s jacket they link to an image of. The way it's cut seems to me like it could be either the suggested machine-operator's work jacket if made with heavy material or, if you cut the pieces from a lighter-weight cloth, a somewhat boxy-looking men's shirt.
The page it links to as a source of the sketches is from the Costumer's Manifesto site and talks a little bit about the pattern (noting that it's very simple but that the book as written is terrible and its approach to tailoring requires algebra for this jacket) but does not reproduce it. It cryptically notes that it is "a sort of cross between a good proletarian factory workers jacket on the front, and an English Norfolk jacket sort-of 'sporting coat' on the back" - which might be more helpful if I knew what an English Norfolk jacket was; as is, it calls my attention to how the back of the jacket is represented in the post only by one very small sketch.
BTB, it also gives sketches some simple (but potentially stylish if accessorized right) longer jackets for the ladies from the same source.
As you've probably guessed by this point in the post I'm thinking about trying to make one of the men's jackets. I may decide I want more than one garment cut that way, in different weights for different seasons, if I like how it looks on me; looking at the sketch I admire the way its appearance blends formality with a nose-to-the-grindstone functionality that puts purpose first and doesn't let the fashion side take over. But I'm actually very bad at going from sketches of a finished piece of clothing to a pattern; I even find working from footage of people wearing something, with plenty of close-ups, hard to turn into a pattern. (For instance, while I like the browncoat I made myself for Halloween with a pattern I drafted myself, it did not come out as accurate as I had hoped.) Would any of Brassgoggles' better tailors like to help me out with this project? My eye for translating between the geometry of a garment on the person and a garment in flat pattern pieces on the table is poor, so I'm going to need guidance if I want to attempt this.
