Chanel style jacket no.2: Progress

I finally started my Chanel style jacket :)
I used V7975 again and a wool blend boucle (40%wool, 40% polyester, 20% acrylic) from ebay and a silk satin for the lining from the clearance table at spotlight. The boucle does feel a bit acrylicky (is that a word, lol?), so next time I've promised myself I'll order some Linton tweed *drool*!

I thread traced again, using silk thread this time (which really is lovely to use). I used a polyester thread last time to quilt with but thought it felt a bit rough so this time I've used a hand quilting thread that's 100% cotton. I like the hand quilting thread - it does feel softer and its quite strong so you only need a single thread to hand stitch up the lining.


I added a back seam to give a bit more shaping, but its still a bit more shapeless at the back than I prefer. The boucle gave a bit more than I expected too and its on the verge of being too big, but I'm thinking about adding some hook and eyes or press snaps so I can close it if I want which will also give me a bit more waist definition.

The silk is just gorgeous, feels so divine! The colours are a lot richer and deeper in real life too.


Still have to finish the sleeves, add pockets and do the trim - probably going to be satin bias binding again! Its going together a lot quicker this time though!

Vogue 7975: Chanel style jacket - Finished!

All done! After so much hand sewing its finally done! Its funny, not long after I started I was thinking about giving up it just seemed like so much work but by the end I was really enjoying it. I've been doing the hand sewing inside watching tv each night which has been nice, gives me something to do with my hands.



Things to remember for next time;

Use a wool boucle - the silk tweed is lovely but I think the quilting would have felt a lot more luxurious with a bit more thickness behind it.

Make sure to stop at least an 1" before the stitching lines and a couple of inches before the hem lines, including when fell stitching the lining. I went too close in some spots which made it really awkward when cutting the seam excess off or trying to shorten the sleeves/hem.

Don't just double knot the thread ends, triple knot them as I found some had come undone when I was sewing the trim on.

I read somewhere that its meant to take 70hours to make a Chanel jacket, I didn't do 70 it was roughly around 45hrs, which seems like heaps of work but it was only a couple of hours here and there with a couple of full days.
I can understand now why you use the best quality possible fabric though, after all that work its kind of disappointing to have used a polyester lining, but in some ways this was a practise go at the different techniques and I know I'll make more...eventually!




So the pattern info;
Vogue 7975
Size; 12
Adjustments; I did minimal adjustments on this jacket - a 1" petite adjustment and a 1/2" narrow shoulder adjustment. I cut the under sleeve on the bias to help with arm movement.
Would you make it again: Yes, I have one planned for me next!
Would you recommend it: Yes! I really like how it has the princess seams in the front and back for that extra shaping. I do see however that one of the new Vogue patterns (8804) is a Claire Shaeffer Chanel style jacket so I want to get it to compare it to this pattern.


All in all, not as scary as I thought! All the techniques are very easy they just take so much time, but I am very happy with how it turned out and Mum loves it!

Vogue 7975: Chanel style jacket - trim

So far so good, I got to try it on Mum last weekend and noticed it had some excess in front of her arms. According to FFRP its from narrow shoulders so I unpicked the arms and moved them over as far as I could, which was only about 1/2". So fingers crossed it looks better.
I have one armhole lining stitched down. I see a lot of people have trouble with it but I found if I sewed the bodice lining over top of the sleeve lining it sat very smoothly compared to trying to sew the very curved sleeve lining over top of the bodice lining.


Trim wise, I went with plain satin bias binding. I would love to have used a wider binding, you can see the machine stitching around the inside which should have been covered up, but I'm on an enforced no fabric/trim buying diet at the moment so had to go with what I had. After moving all my fabric and bits and pieces into the new sewing room I still have piles of it sitting around that won't fit in my cupboards or the new shelves I bought! So next couple of months need to be stash busting sewing!

You can see the bias undersleeve in this photo.


So - I've got half the trim left to stitch on and the other sleeve left to unpick and resew in plus the pockets to go the front. Getting there!

Vogue 7975: The Chanel style jacket Progress

I've been a bit obsessed with Chanel style jackets ever since I read about the hidden luxury of them. Supposedly with the quilted lining and no interfacing they feel just like a sweater/cardigan to wear.

I decided to make one first for my Mum using this silk tweed from Fabric.com I got in my first international fabric order and ended up using a polyester satin for the lining as it was the nicest colour match in my stash.



I followed these tutorials for all the work - I made a muslin first, then used that as a pattern, thread traced the stitching line on the material and cut it all out with big seam allowances (about 2"). I used a walking foot to quilt it and what an amazing thing that is! Then I sewed the main fabric together, trimmed the seam allowances and ended up stitching down the seams to help them sit flat and have been stitching up the lining seams by hand...... It is the most amount of hand stitching I have done in ages (and to be honest I'm not sure if I would have started if I'd known!)

(Catch stitching)

So the progress so far: The body is nearly constructed, I have a couple more lining seams to sew down tonight then ready for another fitting on Saturday before I insert the sleeves.