Chanel Jacket Close to the End

Ninety percent of the jacket is done. I have to either stitch down the pockets or find some buttons that will work with all this color. I used sleeve heads but no shoulder pads to help the sleeves not collapse. I put in three hook and eyes along the CF to hold the jacket closed. I think a zipper would have been a better choice.

The bottom hem is a bit wonky. I'm not sure what to do there. I did not add a chain to the bottom but that might really help it hang better.

It looks extremely cropped but isn't really. My natural waist is at the bottom pocket line. However, these are my low-ish rise Jalie jeans and make my torso look very loooong. Hmmm, the jury is still out on the jacket. Do you know, readers, that I don't wear any of the jackets I have made? I feel like I would like jackets if I could ever get one to fit. I have never worn this one, this one, or this one. I thought that my couture jacket class would help out with fitting issues but I got so bogged down in the construction aspect, that I didn't do much fitting. Or maybe it's just that I'm just not a jacket kind of gal. I don't know. I just know I have several jackets that I have spent a lot of time on, that I never wear. Not even one time. The most I have worn them is to take pictures for you guys. I guess we'll see if it is the same with this one. I think it would look much better with pants that are at the waist. I'll finish up with buttons and then take a few more pictures for my final review.

Chanel Jacket Progress and Denim

Here's a picture to prove that I have not given up. The flaps are on and the lining is in. I still have to hand stitch the sleeves and hem. I will slipstitch down the flaps because they keep flipping up. As you can see, I ditched the zipper idea a while ago and decided to go with hook and eyes. Hopefully tomorrow you'll see the whole thing presses, hemmed, and done.

Looky, looky who just got eight yards of denim from the Fabric and Notions Coop. There's a beefy red, a shiny brown, and two blues. At first, I didn't think the brown and blues would work for jeans because they are a tad on the light side. But, after washing them, I think they might work. I think the brown would make a great faux-leather pair of pants.

I've been feeling a bit stomach flu-ish so I'm not going to attempt anymore sewing tonight. When I get tired, I start to make stupid mistakes.

Slow and not so steady

Man alive, can I go any slower on this jacket? I've hit the wall and just want to throw the whole damn thing away. The trim is completely on the jacket and the pockets. All I have left is the lining and the finishing stuff like hemming, understitching, etc.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can . . . .

Chanel Jacket 6 - Sleeves, trim, and other stuff

First off, I want to say thank you for all the support with the moose posts. I also want to apologize for the rant. I try to live my life by not getting involved with negative people. I really think they bring everyone around them down and I won't let myself get involved with it. Uck.

On with the sewing, shall we? I've been playing with the trim and figuring out how to apply it. I know the couture method is to hand sew it. There is no way I could handsew all of the trim. After my last couture jacket where I thought I was going to chuck it out the window, I am going to take shortcuts on this one. No it won't look like crap but there is no reason (unless you like to) to handsew it on. I just happened to have a matching gold in my thread stash so I tried zigzagging it. The blue trim already has matching stitching running down the length. I found a guiding foot that works to make my own stitches along their stitching line. And no, I won't use gold. I wanted to make sure I could see it and the gold was already in the machine.

Here you can see the original blue stitches with my gold ones on top.

Here's the finished trim on the sleeve.

The sleeves are on. Aren't these just great? I can never get jacket sleeves to set-in without puckering. I'm either awesome or this pattern is just drafted nicely with little ease. I'm leaning toward the later as the reason for these un-puckery sleeves.

I also ditched the zipper in the front. Instead I sewed in some hook and eyes. I love the zipper idea but with all the trim and crazy boucle I wanted something more discreet.

Hopefully today I'll get the pockets cut out, trim put on, do a final fitting, and, and, and. I'm a compulsive list maker and I often give myself too much to do. I think I'll end there. We'll see how much I get done.

Chanel Jacket 5 - Trim

This is part II of the Chanel jacket trim saga. Here' s the black ribbon that people didn't like. What I finally ended up with is soooo much better than the black. So, thank you very much for the honest feedback.

I also tried a thick purple grosgrain ribbon for trim. I didn't like that either. It was too thick and too bland.

Then, I decided to go to my local fabric boutique, Seams Like Home. They had this fun ribbon with glitter and ruffly edges. It matches the goldish-yellow in my boucle. I had Paulette helping me and we both thought that it was too bland by itself.

Then we started stacking trim on this ribbon and . . . DING, DING, DING. We have a winner. We tried it with gold and red (too christmas-y), gold and green (too dark), gold and pink (Paulette loved, me hated), gold and just-about-every-color. It does look very bright when the trims are apart but I think they look nice when overlapped. And, it will be easy to go around the corners because the blue can be manipulated pretty easily due to the open weave.

Well, what do you think about that trim?? It's pretty bright but I love it.

Chanel Jacket 4 - Trim

I am slowly working on my Chanel-style jacket. I have it cut out and partially put together. I want to add the trim before I sew the sleeves together. I think want something black like this because the fabric itself is so loud. There are two problems, maybe. One, how in the heck am I going to get nice sharp corners for the edges of this faux-sleeve vent and pocket flaps. Two, does this ribbon look cheap? I think it's polyester.

Here you can see that I've pressed it down. I would then hand-stitch the trim to the sleeve vents, pocket flaps, and around the jacket.

Here's a close-up. It's going to be very difficult to make sure these are perfectly symmetrical.

I plan to go to Seams Like Home, the local fabric boutique this weekend and check out what they have. I'm just concerned that it's going to be very hard to make corners with anything more substantial than ribbon.

Wardrobe Storyboard

You'll need to click on this to see the whole thing. I'm certainly going with a basic black and white theme aren't I? I really thought there was more color in this wardrobe. I'll have Jalie 2804 done tonight and should be able to do the review tomorrow. I think I'll hit the jeans next. I feel like I can whip this wardrobe up pretty fast because most of these are TNT patterns for me. The only new ones for me are the Burda skirt, Burda cuffed pants, and the Chanel-style jacket. I have made a muslin of that already though.

Wardrobe Contest Rough Draft and Tips

For those of you who have never done a Wardrobe Contest before, I thought I would show you how I organize my thoughts. First I make a pile of fabric. I always try to start from the fabric and choose a pattern that will work for it and not the other way around. If I choose a pattern first, I spend forever finding the perfect fabric and I usually never find it. I don't have that problem if I start with the fabric.Then, I flip through my Burda patterns notebook. I make copy of the model photo and line drawing for every pattern in my Burda magazines. I put them in a plastic envelope and stick them in a three ring binder. Voila, pattern euphoria. I usually put the fabric on my lap otherwise, I get distracted by all the eye candy and forget why I'm looking in the first place. Here's an example of one from May of last year.

After I've chosen the fabrics and patterns, I figure out if they will work together. I look at necklines very carefully. I always seem to have a jacket/vest/coat that doesn't work well with the necklines I've chosen. Then, I sketch out a list of each component just to make sure it all works together. My last step is to move to the computer and actually make the storyboard. I find it easier if I choose Burda patterns because they have nice line drawings. Some of the older Jalies don't have great line drawings and you have to fiddle with them to make them look nice on your storyboard. I think Angie over at Quality Time has some of the best photoshoppy/storyboard tutorials. Here are a few I use: Mac Storyboard Tutorial, Mixing Prints Tutorial, and Storyboard Tutorial using Paint.net.

And here, obviously, is my poorly drawn rough draft storyboard (click to see the whole width). I did this at the table this morning at breakfast. You can see that my kids also "helped" by scribbling on it. I was going to do a vest and a dress but not anymore. I think a chanel-style jacket fits better into this plan. That, and I want to make one anyhow.

Chanel Jacket 3 - Petite Alteration

Are you tired of these posts yet? I'll cut into fabric tomorrow. Not the good stuff, mind you, but boucle I want to make into a jacket.

So, let's see. I put a tuck in it on the front, sleeves, and back. I didn't take it apart to do these alterations. I did it while they were all sewn together so the intersections are a lot wonky. I took them up by about 1/2" and I have so much more range of motion. It's amazing how much difference a tighter armscye makes. Obviously, I'll have to move the dart down. It was pretty right on in the other photos but it's too high here.

Back wrinkle is still there. I'm going to tackle that on my next muslin. I think Debbie Cook is correct in that this is a boxy jacket and I'm not boxy. I want to keep the boxy feel so I'll play with the side seams until it falls correctly.

The bust area looks funny but I think most of that is from the dart being in the wrong spot.

You can see there is much less pulling across the front with my arms out.

Here are the alterations. I'll take the tuck in the chest and I'll move the dart. Here is where I need help. Is moving a dart really as simple as slicing the dart out and moving it down?? I read a couple reference books and they reference this technique.

I promise there won't be any more muslin photos in the next couple of days. I have some cute embroidery stuff to show you.

Chanel Jacket 2 - Cap'n, we have arms . . .

I used up all of my muslin fabric so I'm using this flowered khaki. It's not ideal because it is a stretch twill but it'll do. One thing you need to know if you decide to make this jacket is the arms are skinny. And that's coming from a person with skinny arms. They aren't tight but they ain't loose either. They are fine at the shoulder but they taper pretty steeply from the elbow to wrist.

That back fold is still there and it looks worse than before. I'll play with that tomorrow night.

I accidently cut the sleeve inside out. This is why I love muslins. I don't really have to pay attention. This was the easiest pair of sleeves ever to set.

The armholes are a little low but I'm not sure if I'll raise them. They aren't bad.

Back with my arms folded in front of me.

Boy, is that a smug face or what??!? I feel good about this jacket though because it has gone so smoothly and the fit is pretty good straight out of the envelope.

******

No bubble photos tonight (thank gawd). Twins went to bed without incident . . .

Chanel Jacket 1

I am sewing a Chanel jacket for the Chanel Sew Along blog. I decided to use Kwik Sew 3258. I have made up two muslins and now I need some opinions. First I made the S based on my waist measurement. I have a narrow back but wide-ish shoulders and I figured it would be easier to snug up the back. Wrong. Today I sewed up the XS. It fits much better.

This is an XS fronm the shoulder to just below the bust. Then it goes out to a S. Then, I took in 1/4" on the side seams on both sides. This style does not overlap in the front. I'm going to put a zipper in at CF. I only drew the grainlines and pockets on one side.

The armhole finishes about 2.5" below my armpit.

What do these back wrinkles mean? I'm thinking I need to take in the back just a little bit more below the armcyse. Overall, I'm thinking it's pretty dang good. If I can fix those back wrinkles, I think I'll be in bid-ness.

We had spaghetti and the girls were supposed to be washing their faces. I decided to check on them when I heard the words, "No, I not be Santa. You be Santa now. Ho, ho, ho!" There were making beards out of bubbles. Inventive little soap trouble-makers.

Retail Therapy?

I've been bad this summer about staying on my sewing budget. I'm sure my husband noticed but he would never say anything about it. The limit is self-imposed. I haven't gone crazy or anything but I certainly haven't kept track of what I was spending. It's August, school is starting, and it's time to get back into a routine. That includes the budget routine. Even though it's mid-August, this is the first official expenditure. Why? Because I decided, that's why. I'm not going to try to find receipts and tally up my total for the first 18 days of the month. So, there ya go. I follow the rules when it's convenient, I guess.

I'm part of the Chanel Sew Along but don't, as of yet, have a Chanel pattern. I was glancing through PatternReview's catalog and saw this Kwik Sew jacket. I think it's very nice and Kwik Sew fits me well.

Then I saw this Burda pattern. I was unable to decide between them and so I bought both. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that. I want to try out both patterns and figure out the main differences. I haven't for sure picked out my boucle fabric but I do have some options.

Then, I saw this pattern. I've wanted to try it since it came out and now, it seems, I will.

I'll keep you posted. I'm cutting out the lining on the Vogue jacket. Man, that thing has become the monkey around my neck. I will finish. I will finish. I can't handle something not getting done.