More on the Chanel jacket and some other stuff

OK, as promised, another progress report.

After all the problems encountered last week and a good lesson learned (make a muslin, you lazy idiot, even if patterns usually fit you out of the envelope!!!!) I'm finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

What I did:
1) took in another 5/8 at each center front opening, that was easy to do, because that seam is stitched by hand anyway.

2) redrew the armhole, as shown in the picture below (sorry for the poor quality of pictures, they're taken with the phone)




3) inserted a gusset to make the armhole higher, as advised by Dawn. Dawn, thank you very much for this great idea, it worked wonders plus as the fabric is indeed spongy, you don't notice it at all.



I've worked like a slave on this jacket, the entire last week, the weekend, yesterday too. It takes quite a lot of work (didn't count the hours and I wish I had) but not only it's worth it, but I discovered that hand sewing is very relaxing for me. I've been hand sewing for ages (four years of Home economics in school plus helping my grandmother with hand sewing - she was the seamstress of the village and she only had one of those ancient Singers, with a mechanical pedal and doing only a straight stitch. Therefore, even if I mainly taught myself to sew, I did have lots of practice on doing fell stitches, slip stitches, catch stitches and buttonholes in my childhood) and therefore am faster than I would have thought. The fake fur coat that you see below is done recently by Livia, my sister (including the hat) entirely by hand. No, I'm not kidding, they moved to Sweden in January this year and she cannot afford a sewing machine yet.







Back to the Chanel jacket: so far, the sleeves are inserted, the cuffs are there too, collar is inserted, the entire lining is closed everywhere with fell stitches. I attached the pearl trim to the collar and center fronts and I still have to attach it to the cuffs. I sewn the patch pockets by hand (it's sooooo good to have a spongy fabric), the hem is done too. I still have to attach the hooks and eyes, but I tried the jacket on and marked their position. I also have to attach the chain at the hem. And let me tell you: last night I tried the jacket on and I said to myself: why should I attach a chain? It fits very nice the way it is. Then, I pinned carefully the chain to the jacket's hem and tried it on again. Boy, what a difference. I can't even explain it, it is a different jacket! I'm so glad that I managed to get the right weight for the chain. I had no idea what kind of chain I should get but I just weighed several types in my hand and let my sewist gut decide for me :)

And now, about my recent addiction: lingerie. It's only Sigrid's fault! :) Sigrid, good luck with the blouse. Don't despair just yet, I'm sure it will turn out great. I had some elastic lace and some cotton/lycra in my stash, I took apart a pair of boyshorts and here you are:

Wide stretch lace




Cotton/lycra and symmetrical stretch lace cut in two lenghtwise and sewn to the fabric with a small zigzag (2.5 width, 2.5 mm length)



Cotton/lycra and scalloped stretch lace




Love these boyshorts, they are super comfy, they show no visible panty line and I think they're sexy too. It takes 30 minutes to make a pair and I cut 4 pairs at once. I now have to find the time and energy to take apart (with lots of care) an old and very well-fitting bra. Then, once I have a good pattern, sky is the limit as one of my friends likes to say.

And before I go ... a teaser :)



Let me tell you, when I bought this pearl trim, I didn't know there was pearl piping. Therefore my pearl trim is actually a string of pearls. I had to sew it by hand, little by little, catching each little knot between pearls in my sewing. I'll show some pics of how I did that in my final post showing the jacket.

Answers to your comments

First of all, thank you so much for your support!
I'm happy to report I've solved the problem and I'm working like crazy on the jacket. Dawn, the gusset was the answer, I hope I will post more about this tomorrow, I took 2 or 3 pics with my phone and I will tell you about my progress.
Carolyn, I know yours is not exactly a Chanel jacket, but I wanted to mention your blog because it was you that decided me to make this jacket in another fabric than boucle!
Johanna, thanks a million for the drawing, I didn't have any drawing of an actual Chanel jacket except the one provided by Claire Shaeffer in her article.
LMH, thank you, I'd like to have that quotation. I have the article mentioned and another one, also by Claire Shaeffer, on making Chanel skirts.
Donna, I've never worked with silk boucle, believe me this knit wool stretches sooooo much. Thank you for giving me the link to your blog, I'll check out the entire archive, your tips seem so very helpful.
Until tomorrow, happy sewing everyone!

Chanel-like jacket (2)

I worked on the jacket the entire evening and another hour and a half this morning (woke up earlier with the jacket in mind). I'm done quilting the entire jacket, stitching the side seams and shoulder seams in the fashion fabric - the lining seams are not hand sewn yet, because of the collar and cuffs that need to be attached first to the fashion fabric. I've pinned the lining seams in place and they will get sewn later.

I've also inserted one of the sleeves, only to discover that I pinned my sleeves wrong - the left sleeve to the right part of the jacket ouch ouch ouch. Never made this mistake before, why did I have to make it now of all times when the sleeve was inserted by hand? Lots of work to insert it and now I will have to take it out. That should teach me not to sew/pin when I'm tired!

Regarding quilting: my fabric being a tweedy wool knit, not a boucle, I've decided to space the quilting lines 1.5 inches apart instead of 1 inch. Let me tell you, working with a knit (one that is quite stretchy both lengthwise and crosswise) is a pain. The knit kept growing. Pinning the quilting lines helped, using a walking foot helped but the knit still grew a bit. I found that holding the fabric taut crosswise helped. Using lots of steam also helped, as the knit is wool and the steam shrank it back to its initial shape.

After quilting and pressing, I found that the quilting lines are almost inconspicuous. To hide them even more, I brushed the lines in both directions (from top to bottom and from bottom to top) with an old nail brush and then pressed again, holding the iron at about 1 inch from the fabric and using lots of steam. This fluffed the knit a little bit and the quilting lines are now buried in the fabric. Pictures later. So far I've tried to put "normal" batteries in my camera and they don't work, I really don't know why.

Another lesson learned: when working this much on a jacket, make a muslin!! I don't make muslins because a size 6 or 4 in Big 4 patterns fits me right out of the envelope. Now, I should have. First, when trying it on, the jacket was a bit too large and I will need to take out another 5/8" at the center front on both sides. No problem, this is easy to do since those seams are not finished yet, but that means that I will also have to shorten the collar which is already cut and interfaced. Second, I would have liked the armhole to be a bit higher - it fits very well, but I really love high armholes and I read so much about Chanel jackets having really high armholes that I'm probably picky without having much reason.

Third (and last), I think I would have liked a shorter shoulder but am not sure yet. One, the sleeve was inserted backwards when I tried it on. Second, I think that the neckline grew quite a bit. I will have to do some crowding on it, especially on the back neckline. That will make it hug my body closer and probably (hopefully) solve my problem.

UPDATE: Looking again at Marji's photoset, I see the the shoulder is a bit dropped, so I might not need to shorten the shoulder. Look at this picture to see what I mean. I just need to reinsert the sleeve correctly, press it in place and maybe crowd the neckline and see how I like it.

Progress on Chanel-like jacket

Ten days and one conference (I was the organiser, so it wasn't easy) later, here I am, back in business. I would have liked to take some pictures to show the progress (and the various stages) but my camera's rechargeable batteries seem to be dead so I'll have to get some new ones.

All the pieces of the jacket and the lining are cut, I used normal seam allowances (5/8) as my fabric is a tweedy wool knit and it doesn't fray a bit. All the pieces are thread traced and I started quilting last night. I'm using a new needle, silk thread and my walking foot. So far, so good. Tonight I'll keep on quilting and I will also interface the creamy white collar and cuffs.

My step sister in law brought me 3/8 clear elastic (can't find it here and I use it a lot for my knit tops necklines) and a mini-vacuum attachment kit so I'm really happy.

Another reason to be happy: Tany sent me the most wonderful midnight blue taffeta. I absolutely love this fabric, both the colour and the appearance (I don't like that shiny type of taffeta that much and this one is pretty matte). I'm thinking a trench coat for spring but I still cannot decide. A shirt woulde be nice too. Too bad I can't show you pictures, maybe later. Thank you, Tany!

Sigrid sent me some bra foam, together with a gorgeous stretch wide white lace, two types of elastic (for bra straps), bra sliders. I feel a lingerie-sewing addiction coming... bras, boyshorts... hmmm. Thank you so much, Sigrid!

I am also trying to organise my projects, decide what I want to sew in the coming months (I need a coat and some dark denim jeans and I've got the fabric for those) and make a storyboard for the Timmelfabrics SWAP 2008 - the board is here. My qualifying purchase for the SWAP is a gorgeous eyelet fabric, can't wait to get it.

Resources for sewing Chanel-type jackets:
Making that Classic collarless French Jacket thread on Artisan's Square
Marji's photo album and her PR review
Carolyn's Jackie O' jacket - read her posts here, here and here
Sewing Diva Phyllis's post
Chanel sew along on PR
Susan Khalje's article in Threads no 121 - see an online extra here
Claire Shaeffer's article in Threads no 23
Cherri Dowd's article in Threads no 128

Inspired by a Chanel jacket

Remember this post? Well, last evening I managed to cut the jacket (just the fabric, the lining not yet). The fabric is a very stretchy wool, a bit tweedy. The collar and the cuffs are cut from a creamy white wool. The pearl trim is there (bought it in Brussels six months ago, having this jacket in mind), I've got a very nice black silk lining pre-washed and pressed but still have to cut it. I've got silk embroidery thread, hooks, chain, everything is there.

I've used Vogue 7975, the shorter buttonless version (view A, B, C). I've used Burdastyle Eva 4102 for the shape of the neckline and the collar.

I won't be sewing however for the next 10 days, even though my fingers are itching for the sewing machine. Tomorrow Florin and I are celebrating four years of marriage (when did those go by?) and then my step sister in law is coming from the US to visit us. Step sister in law? Is there a such a word? I mean the daughter from the first marriage of my mother in law's second husband :))

Four knit tops

Two of them are part of my capsule wardrobe (the black and the gray one). They are Burda WOF 08/2007, top 105A, with some modifications:

• The black top is without the collar, just the V-neck and I've added the sleeves of Burdastyle (free downloadable patterns) Idit 6003

• The gray top has plain long sleeves (copied from my favorite knit pattern, Jalie 2449 and lengthened)

• The purple top has the collar and the sleeves of Idit 6003 (I really liked the gathered sleeves, they make the tops a little more special and more blouse-like, not just T-shirts). All three tops are made in cotton/lycra. The gathering of the sleeves is done by serger and I've used this tip, which made it really easy. And I stabilized the necklines with 3/8 clear elastic.
  

Read my PR review here

• And since I've tried the sleeves of Idit 6003, I wanted to make the entire top. And here it is, in a wool/poly interlock. Apologies for the camisole, it's not the best one for this top plus I had a black bra underneath, but the photos were taken after a very long and busy day at work and I really didn't have the energy to find another camisole and another bra.

I'm not sure I really like this Idit blouse on me... Read the PR review for Idit here.

I love sewing knit tops, they are so quick. I've cut the three first tops on Friday evening, I sewed them all Sunday. Sunday evening, I cut and sewn the Idit top. So one weekend, four new tops... not bad!

Sixth and seventh wardrobe items

The dress is Burda WOF 09/2007, dress 121. As I said some time ago on an Artisan Square board, I get these style crisis from time to time when I feel like my wardrobe is too conservative and I want funkier things. This dress is an example of a funkier garment for me - maybe it's pretty classic to you, I don't know :)





Dress lying flat




This was really easy and quick to make, I cut it and finished it in about one hour and a half and it is done entirely by serger, including the hem which is blindstitched with the same serger.



The fabric is a nice cotton knit with a texture (you can see it in the photo above) and the back of the cotton is a bit fluffy, you know like in bathrobes. I'm sure there is a name for this fabric but I don't know it or can't remember it.

The entire top part is lined with self-fabric and this is how I did it:

• Cut 4 fronts and 2 backs
• Sewn the shoulder seams on the garment part and the fabric part, pressed the shoulder seams of the two in opposite directions (for the garment part, they are pressed to the back and for the lining to the front), in order to reduce bulk, especially at crossing seams.
  
• Sewn the neckline of the garment part to the neckline of the lining part. I didn't want to understitch because too lazy and in a hurry (I did this the evening before I flew to Brussels and the plane was at 7.00 a. m.) so I took care in doing everything to avoid seams showing on the garment part. Turned the two pieces right side out, pressed the seam towards the lining part and then pressed the two of them together, making sure the seam is a bit on the underside.
  
• Turning the seam a bit to the underside made the lining part a bit bigger at side and armhole seams therefore I cut the part peaking outside the garment part.
  
• I then stitched the two armholes together, turned and pressed. Making the lining part smaller keeps all the seams on the underside and they don't show at all. Pressing carefully makes them lie flat even without understitching.

For hemming knits, I've been using this tip by Sewing Diva Gigi for quite some time now. Great tip, it definitely improved the appearance of my hems.

This was more of a wearable muslin (I'm not that crazy about this cotton knit and I think the colour will fade during washing) and I plan to do another one in a green interlock, but it looks very nice. I've worn it in Brussels (with a black turtleneck and my houndstooth jacket) for a visit to the European Parliament and it was perfect!

Read my PR review here

The pants are Hot Patterns Denim Diva Pipe Jeans, made in a stretch black denim.





I cut a size 6 and they ended up loser than I thought but I decided to keep them this way. I find that, especially for clothes that follow closer the body, I like them to be a bit loser - they make you seem slimmer and more ... I don't know, classy??

This time I used a twin needle (100, space between needles 6 mm) to do the topstitching.





Sorry for the wrinkles, the pictures are taken after wearing the pants in the office for an entire day.



Side seam, topstitched, and hem (wider, I like a wider hem in jeans)

Read my PR review here.