Chanel jacket is finished

Vogue 7975, sizes 6-22. I made size 6, view B.

Not only I wanted to make a Chanel-like jacket for quite some time (since I saw Marji's jacket - read her review here) but I was absolutely fascinated with this jacket) - it is from the Threads online extra to Susan Khalje's article about making a Chanel jacket. This particular jacket is not quilted, but mine is, because I tried as we say in my country "to shoot two rabbits with one bullet) - make this jacket and try the Chanel techniques as well.

I chose this pattern because it was recommended by many (including Susan Khalje) as a pattern adequate for a Chanel-like jacket.

Fabric: Wool spongy very stretchy knit, silk serge for the lining, white wool/poly for collar and cuffs, chain for the hem, silk thread and beeswax.

First of all, I should have made a muslin. I know I should have but patterns do fit me out of the envelope most of the times and I was so obsessed with this jacket that I wanted to start working on it right then. After quilting the entire jacket, I discovered that the jacket was a bit too large and the armhole was not as high as I would have wanted, plus the shoulder was 5/8 too long. See this post about the problems that I had.

See this about how I solved the problems:

1) I took in another 5/8 at each center front
2) I took in the shoulder with about 5/8
3) Dawn gave me great advice about inserting a gusset that would solve my too large armhole problem. She later published a great post about raising armholes and inserting sleeve gussets - read it here. My fabric being very spongy, you cannot see that gusset even if I raise my arm and you're really close :)

My fabric is not exactly the fabric you would use for a Chanel jacket. It's not boucle, but a spongy wool knit - it is very stretchy so quilting it to the lining was a challenge even with my walking foot, because the knit kept growing. What helped was pinning and holding the fabric taut crosswise. Steaming the knit also helped to make it go back into shape.

I would have never thought about making a Chanel quilted jacket out of something else than boucle, but I was inspired by Carolyn who used the Chanel-like quilting on a Jackie O inspired jacket that turned out absolutely gorgeous - see her jacket and read her posts about it here, here and here.

Therefore I used this spongy knit, I sewed the quilting lines with silk thread and afterwards brushed all the sewing lines with an old nail brush, to stimulate the "sponginess" of the fabric and make it cover the sewing. The quilting is quite inconspicuous as a result, as you can see below



The quilting was done 1.5 inches apart (it is usually done at 1 inch apart but I didn't want too many quilting lines on this wool).


I've used Burdastyle Eva 4102 pattern for the collar and the cuffs.

The pockets are not quilted, but lined and attached by hand, with very small fell stitches



Attaching the collar and the cuffs: I left both the neckline and the sleeve ends not quilted for about 2 inches. I interfaced with a soft knit fusible both pieces of the collar and both pieces of the cuff, sewed them together, turned, understitched and then attached them (together) to the fabric part of the jacket, keeping the lining away. The lining was then attached to the cuffs/collar with small fell stitches (see below).



At the time that I bought the pearl trim (more than 6 months ago in Brussels) I didn't know there was such a thing as pearl piping and therefore bought a string of pearls. I sewed them by hand, one by one, to the collar and the cuffs. See how I did that in this post.





I've tried the jacket on before pinning the chain to the hem and it fitted really good, which made me wonder if I need a chain at all. I pinned the chain and tried the jacket on again. A revelation! The jacket hangs so much better with the chain. I was lucky and got both the right chain weight and the right pinning (not too tight, as to gather the jacket and not too large, as to make it flare). Each chain link is sewn by hand to the hem, attaching both the upper part and the lower part of the link with fell stitches, securing the chain perfectly to the jacket.



I'm really very happy with my new jacket and can't wait to wear it. I leave tomorrow for a very important and official meeting outside my town and it will come in handy.

Too bad, but the photos don't show the tiny white dots on my skirt and the little pearl earrings that I wear.

Read my PR review here.