Two basic questions here. I know that the edge of the lapel should be with the grain of the cloth ideally.
Is this aesthetic? If short on cloth could one, if there was no pattern, just cut it at an angle?
For wide lapels, for me this seems to send the bottom part of the facing way off the grain so it's very much bias-cut. Is this correct? I don't see how you could avoid this as the lapel slants a lot more than below the button. If you swung it round to be straight you'd end up with way too much fullness.
Thanks!
Hiya,
Well - why not? After all, it's you who decides how the coat's going to look, isn't it?
No, it's dependent on the way you cut the facing (normally straight on the grain) and how you position it on the lapel - again straight in the grain - as you did with the cloth for the body parts.
The curve of the lapel isn't that steep, as you can see:
So, overall, the weft stays horizontally and there's hardly any bias-cut there. On the contrary - the lower half of the lapel is actually the part where most of the cloth will cross the edge at ~ 90°, it's on the upper half, where the curve tilts backwards, so you're having less than 90° there.
For reference - take a look at this young man sporting a rather daunty checked three piece suit 😉
I even think it might be possible to actually have the cloth align completely - depending on the cloth of course. With wool, you shouldn't have any issues with fullness. Other fabrics might be a bit trickier - there might need to revert to a combination of stretching and fullness.
Cheers,
JK