Monday, August 24, 2009

Hello Everyone

Hi. My name is Ginger and I live in Northern California. I have made one Chanel jacket under the tutilage of Susan Khalje and have three more planned and one actually cut out and in the quilting process.

What I have learned for this next jacket is that when quilting, even the small pieces, stay at least 1 1/2 inches away from the seam line. I had my quilting too close and when I actually constructed the jacket, I had to remove lots of quilting so that I could hand sew the lining in and it left holes in my charmeuse.

I would strongly advise that for a first jacket, you not put in a collar. Nobody in our workshop used a collar. The trims add plenty of style around the neckline.

Count on 200+ hours on your jacket.

I have one under construction now that is a rusty color and the lining is a cream background print with turkish slippers in the print. I am hand quilting this going around the motifs. I don't know if this has been done before and I hope the hand quilting doesn't look funny so I am trying to keep the quilting even.

I really should finish a skirt to go with my initial jacket. It shouldn't take so long to make but I have been dwaddling over that. I don't really have anything to wear with my jacket and if I were to purchase clothes I could afford, they wouldn't be worthy of the work I put into the jacket. It requires a skirt made by the same method!

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for your candid "been there" tips. Great advice about the collars!

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  2. Thank you for the quilting tip; you've saved me from hours of "unsewing."

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  3. You may have already seen this article but in the Jan 1993 issue of Threads there is an article by Claire Shaeffer on making a Chanel-style skirt. I took Susan's class last year in St Louis and she is a wonderful teacher. And yes the hours do add up!

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  4. 200+ hours, huh. A true labor of love.

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  5. 200+ hours. Wow. I admire your ability to give that to one project. Not that I haven't done that with some of my textile paintings however - fashion wise - it's not for me so I'm glad I've decided to make something inspired by Chanel rather than just like a Chanel. I'm so intrigued with her softer garments and flapper styles. I'm having a lot of fun playing with ideas - AND... since I can't sew just now - I have LOTS of ideas jumbling around getting ready for their moment. - Myrna

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