The Ledger.

I still want the front and side panels lined in a second layer of melton. It'll create a second layer of air for warmth and if I reduce the gsm of the fabric, it should do it without weight. My pattern cutter calls it a coat upon a coat and I can tell she's dubious.

I need to see the idea through and if it doesn't work, I'll chalk it up to a lesson learned. I'm going to drop the melton layer off the back panel and replace that with a silk lining. I think that'll help with the drape and with getting it on and off.

I've found a new pattern cutter. She's spent years cutting coat patterns, and she's twenty minutes from the studio.

The sleeves crease up more than I'd expect. This is in part because of the storm cuff. The sleeve essentially has a hard stop at the shoulder and another at the wrist and so any excess creases up along the length of the sleeve.

There isn't enough ease across the shoulders but I'm starting to think that fully lining in melton isn't going to work. I love how substantial it makes the coat feel but in reality, it feels like armour. The melton is 650gsm, the roll is 155cm wide which makes it just over 1kg per liner metre and it takes 3.5 metres to create the outer and line it. 

That makes for a 3.5kg coat.  

Collected the first prototype from Agnes and drove it straight to Bolton for the buttonholes. I've marked where they go but it's still such a nerve wracking moment.

A huge amount of work has gone into getting the garment to this point and the buttonholes can immediately make or break it. If they're cut incorrectly, it means having to unstitch the front panels, recut and stitch them and try again.

Agnes mocked up an idea for the cuffs in calico so that we could see what they'd look like. Although they looked like they'd work in calico, there's no way they'll sit flat in wool.

I don't want to lose the angle on the cuffs, but they don't need to open. Rather than wrapping round like putties, it makes way more sense for them to take influence from the pointed Polish cuffs on a lancer's tunic.

Agnes has talked me out of topstitching where the cuff meets the sleeve. There are far too many layers.

The next jacket is a peacoat. I've sent Agnes in Leicester the first sketches. With sharp lapels, no vent at the back and a few ideas for the cuffs taking influence from WW1 putties. We'll start with a calico toile and the aim is a sample in wool by the middle of January.

The courier has just collected every Lawrence. Twelve weeks became twenty-three, and I'm grateful to every owner who waited. Tomorrow I fly to Italy, so the first jackets will land about the same time I do.

Every jacket is now whole. The buttons are stitched by hand, so there's no knot of thread behind them on the inside of the lapel. Quality checks start tomorrow.

Collected every jacket from Bolton today, my third five-hour round trip in two weeks. I'd started to wonder whether keyhole buttonholes were worth the anxiety. Next to an old prototype with standard buttonholes, they are.

Both London factories have turned me down. The buttonhole is the last thing done to a finished jacket, and nobody wants the risk. So I walked into the factory in Bolton today and said, "This is it guys, you're my last hope." Smooth, Mark. They have three Reece 101s, and they said yes.