Canvas Indy Jacket

[Deleted]

Prof.Wex,

Any updates on this one?

Cheers,
G-MANN

[Prof.Wex]

Hey G-Mann,


This project is still moving full steam ahead. I have been learning the trigonometry of sleeve caps and tailored sleeves. sleeves can be very difficult, probably the hardest part of the whole jacket. you see, my arm holes were adjusted to get rid of that squirrel-age factor so the sleeves had to be adjusted as well. I now have straight cut sleeve patterns and tailored sleeve patterns. I think I'm going to use both style sleeves. You can see the difference in the pics below, one is a straight cut sleeve and the other is a tailored sleeve. I like them both to be honest. I think the straight cut sleeve fits a little tighter and is less baggy. Ill be posting pics of a finished jacket real soon.


straight or barrel sleeves.


tailored sleeves.

So the sleeves did slow me down a little but it was well worth the time. I now know the difference between tailored and barrel sleeves. so now its back to assembling the jackets.

Sincerely, Prof.Wex

[GCR]

Wow Wex!!! You're really diggin' deep into all the details here! I have to give you a LOT of credit for all the time and effort on this one! Great work, man!

-GCR

[Prof.Wex]

Hey GCR,

Thanks for the encouragement, Ive been working very hard to get this jacket just right, and so far every thing is coming together nicely. Although I have a finished jacket Its still just the prototype. I'm working on a second jacket right now so I can use the tailored sleeves. heres a sneak peek of the prototype, Ill get a pic of me wearing it, I just need someone to take the pic for me.


I cant figure out why all my pics are yellowed. maybe I need to use the flash. the above pic was taken right before the collar was attached.

Sincerely, Prof.Wex

[Ragingblues]

Great work once again on such an intricate pattern!

The photos are coming out yellow because the camera needs to be white balanced for the lighting you are in at the time. If the camera knows what white is in a particular scene, the colors will look right (or close... depending on the kind fo camera).

You can either try using a preset lighting mode on the camera or use the flash (as you said), if your camera doesn't have the ability to set the white balance manually. Most do, so not knowing what kind of camera you have... I would imagine you can do it. The flash may light the scene with what the camera understands as a consistent source, though that doesn't always mean it gets the white levels right, and usually changes the way the scene looks drastically.

There are professional white balance cards and such that can be used, but for everyday purposes... a piece of plain white paper or poster board will do the trick. Assuming you camera has a manual white balance setting and you have selected it, just hold the paper or poster board in front of the lens so that it fills the entire scene and click the control that allows the camera to snap an exposure of it. This tells it what white is in that lighting situation, and would have to be redone whenever you change lighting, rooms, or turn off the camera. Outdoor shots need white balancing too, but most of the time the colors are close enough to get by without it unless it's a professional job. Your camera may vary a little with this, but it's pretty much the same on all of them.

Sorry for the mini novel... I had a few free minutes at work and just felt like trying to help out.

Nice work once again on this jacket project,

Ken

[Prof.Wex]

Hey RB,

Thanks for the advise with the camera, I'm still trying to get it right. still seeing yellow, must be the low lighting in my house. ;D anyway, I just got done trying an experiment, I sewed a tailored sleeve and a barrel cut or straight cut sleeve to the same body. I wanted to see just how different they really are. I can tell you this, the tailored sleeve seems to keep the back pleat closed much better than the straight cut sleeve. Unfortunately At the moment, I don't have anyone to take those back pics to illustrate what I'm talking about. So I used a mirror to take a few pics. I'm really attacking this project form all aspects. I know everyone must be anxious to see a complete jacket, but like my art I wont show it until its perfect. I thank everyone for being so patient with me. The finished jacket pics are coming soon, just a few more tweaks.

Sincerely, Prof.wex

[Prof.Wex]

Hey guys,

This is the same jacket as above, Just one more pic.



Sincerely, Prof.Wex

[Kt. Templar]

If you have photoshop, one down and dirty way to get something like a normal colour balance is to hit the IMAGE> ADJUSTMENTS>AUTO LEVELS. It doesn't always work but it's a start.

[Prof.Wex]

Hey KT,

Wow, thats a huge Improvement, thanks for the tip, I do have photo shop, so I'm going to go back and try this on some of the other pics.

Sincerely, Prof.wex

[GCR]

Wow Wex!!! You're making tons of progress with this project! Plus, you're giving a lot of folks (like me) a firsthand education into some of the finer aspects of the jacket's construction that I never would have even known about otherwise! Very cool, man!

I'm looking forward to the finished product!

-GCR

[Ragingblues]

Coming along nicely!

Like KT said, the "Auto Levels" button works sometimes... but definitely not on everything. Like the camera, it is only guessing what white really is in the photo. It tends to over contrast images and add too much in the opposite direction of the color correction as well. In other words, an image that is too red to start will turn out a little too cyan, one that is too yellow will often end up too blue, etc... For these purposes, it will help you pretty well with pictures you've already taken, but a properly white balanced shot produces the best results.

Okay... only if you're interested in going to the next level....

There is another step in Photoshop that produces much better results too.... The "Curve" function. In the "Image" drop menu, then "Adjust", you will find "Curves" below the "Auto Levels" filter. Select this and you will see a box with "RGB" and the curve tool. Go to the far right eye dropper at the bottom, which is the one for "White". (Left is black, middle is grey) Then use the white dropper tool to select a spot in the picture that is the purest white of anything in the scene. You will want to zoom in to atleast 50% of the images size in order to make a pure selection. Once you click on a white area, try the pixels just around it that are also white until the color balance has adjusted correctly according to your eye.... as the brightness levels and color will be affected by the smallest movement in any direction.

Assuming you actually have a pure white object in the shot and it have chosen the brightest area on that object (representing the purest white in the scene), this tool works really well. The contrast might need to be bumped down one notch or two, but that will be up to your tastes. This is why professional shots are often done using a Whi-Bal" or other white/grey balance card. By having a shot with one of those in the scene for every lighting change, the colors are much easier to control and the camera is able to find white much easier. Of course, this whole process is far better when shooting in "Raw" as opposed to Jpeg formats, but you have to have a DSLR or more expensive camera that uses that type as well.

Sorry for going so far off topic here, but I got on a roll.

Take your time with the jacket and we will all be waiting to see how it comes out.


Ken

[pagey]

Hmmmm.. very interesting indeed! I like the look of the straight sleeve best.

[indianadirk]

Yeah me too.
Will this jacket be brown or will it stay this color?

[Prof.Wex]

Dirk,

The finished jacket will be a dark brown distressed looking canvas. I'm using the light colored canvas for the prototypes only. these are just the trial and error jackets. I cant tell you guys how much fun this project has been. the plus side is once my patterns are set in stone Ill be able to make Indy jackets from any material I choose. I think Im leaning towards the straight cut sleeves as well.

this photo shop picture I made of my pocket flap, is in reality a scan of the actual dark brown canvas material Ill be using.



Sincerely, Prof.Wex

[Deleted]

Excellent

I'm really looking forward to the FINAL Jacket but it's really nice watching the whole project from start to finish.

Cheers,
G-MANN