Dawn - It's coming along

I have not given up but my life has been buuuuusy with fall.

I decided to go with hook and eyes instead of a zipper. With all the colors in the boucle and trim, I didn't want another color for the zipper. I thought about black but didn't want a dark line cutting my jacket in half. This, I think, is better.

It has sleeves.

Here's the finished trim on the sleeves. The trim is applied with the sewing machine in two passes.

First I zigzagged on the gold using a matching thread. This is my test strip. I ended up using a narrower zigzag.

Then I used a straight stitch to apply the blue trim. You can see the manufacturer used a straight stitch to create the loops (look closely at the blue thread). My test version is with gold but look at the photo above of the finished sleeve and you can barely see the stitches.

This week I hope to get the rest of the trim on and quilt the lining.

Dawn - Trim Again

I agree with you on the black ribbon. It was no fantastic. I also tried a purple grosgrain ribbon I had in stash. . Meh. Too thick and boring.

Then I went to Seams Like Home. They have quite the selection and I think I found a winner. First we found this goldish-yellow ribbon. It matches the colors in the boucle.

Then we found this blue to go on it. Wow. Bright, but wow. I think it's great. Loud? Yes. But that's the way I like it.

Better?

Dawn - Trim

I have my fabric cut and am messing around with trim. I want something very low key like this black ribbon. I don't know where it came from because I inherited it from my husband's grandmother. This pattern does not have sleeve vents but you can add faux vents. If you need really sharp corners, how are you guys dealing with it? I can also see this being an issue on the pocket flaps.

You can see here that I pressed it down and created sharp edges. I would handstitch these down. What do you think? It must have polyester in it because it pressed well and made very sharp creases.

Here you can see it closer. I can't imagine how I would do this with something that isn't a ribbon. This one I did by mitering the corners and ironing them down.

I'll probably put this away for a few days anyway. I won't be able to go to my local fabric boutique until Saturday. I do want to see what they have available.

Dawn - Another Muslin Tweak

Again, this is copy/pasted from my personal blog.

I put a tuck in it on the front, sleeves, and back to raise the armscye. 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 down the same amount.

I think I'm about ready to cut into fabric. I am going to start with a cheapy boucle first as my second trial. I plan to finish that one fully but I want to work out the construction before I use my really nice wool boucle. I still haven't decided between the houndstooth and rust-colored boucle. I love them both!

Dawn - Jacket Muslin II - KwikSew 3258

I'm copy/pasting from my personal blog so don't read twice unless you really, really want to.

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.

Dawn - Jacket Muslin - KwikSew 3258

I using KwikSew 3258 for my Chanel jacket. I plan to do view A with the CF zipper and long sleeves.

This is an XS from shoulder to bust. Below the dart I gradually went out to a S for my hips. I drew the grainline and pockets on only one side. The seam allowances at the neck have not been cut off but the hem has been tucked up and pinned.

I'm not sure what to do about these lines. I posted this photo on my personal blog and people said to put in the arms first and see what happens. Duh. I'll do that tomorrow and see how the back looks. The shoulders look really good. Although we'll see what happens when I put the sleeves in. They are the bane of my existence. There is a CB seam but the piece is straight. If I don't alter the back seam I'll cut it out on the fold.

Overall, I think it's pretty good for a first muslin.

Whattcha think?

Things I am Learning

I picked up a few books a while back at my second-hand bookstore. I was flipping through one yesterday morning while eating breakfast and imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon an article by Claire Shaeffer about Coco Chanel. I won't scan the entire article for copyright reasons but it has some very nice techniques, diagrams, and tips. It's an older Threads article compilation. I would certainly recommend pick it up if you see it.

Here's an example of one of the diagrams. As I go through this Sew Along I'll explain the techniques I use that are from this book. This article focuses on the iconic Chanel jacket.

I have already learned a few things I didn't know before.

• Most Chanel jackets have extremely narrow-cut shoulders and small, high armholes. This gives the wearer a lot of range of movement.
• There's usually a narrow side panel which gives the jacket some shape around the waist.
• There is usually a very fitted three piece sleeve.
• The jackets traditional have only two layers: the shell (fashion fabric) and a blouse-weight lining.
• The shell is machine-quilted to the lining. This provides support to the often loosely woven shell fabric. The quilt pattern should depend on your shell fabric design. Horizontal stripes would be quilted with horizontal stitches. A large plaid could be quilted with boxes etc.
• Trim is important to a Chanel jacket. Jacket edges, pockets, and sleeve vents are trimmed.
• This book mentions four main ways to trim the jacket: topstitched trim, grosgrain and plaited-yarn trims, selvage strip with narrow woven band, and piping which is an extension of the lining.

I am be no means an expert on the Chanel jacket. I've seen them but only because Claire Shaeffer was recently in Anchorage. I'm just sharing what I have learned because I figured there would be others out there who didn't really know what it means to sew a Chanel jacket.

Introduction - Dawn

Hi there! Some of you you already know me from my blog: Two On Two Off. I wasn't going to join this sew along because I am a little in jacket-burn-out-mode right now. I started a Vogue jacket quite a while ago and still haven't finished it. I will finish it but just not right now. After seeing all the fun posts on this blog, I decided to join. My husband is in Houston shopping for me right now. He knows my tastes (often better than I do) and he likes to shop. Below are the two wool boucles he found and bought for me. I love, love, love them both. I haven't seen them in person yet; this is a photo he emailed to me. Once I see/feel them in person I will come up with a pattern. I'm also a Burda girl so I'll be looking at my editions of BWOF to see if I can find anything suitable. Anyway, just saying hello and I'll post more later once I think about this some more.

I'm excited to see everyone's progress and ideas!