Welcome, and something fun and frivolous

Hi everyone, my name is Antoinette and I blog at clevergirl.org. A lot of new partners in our sew-along have joined since my last post so I wanted to offer a mini-introduction in case we haven't virtually met yet. Gail, Cindy, and I are the admins for this Chanel sew-along blog and a bit of the background story is here. Welcome again!

Several questions come up from time to time about how this sew-along is structured, and though we've handled them as they come up through private email, it seems like a good time to post a few notes:

• You do not need to have your own blog to join the sew-along. But if you do join, we'd like you to blog your project and progress here! We will add you as a blog author and you can write your blog posts and add pictures along the way.
• This is a very casual and informal sew-along. There are no incremental team goals, like everyone needing to finish a first muslin by a specific date. We are suggesting a completion date of Nov. 15 but the Chanel Police will not show up at your doorstep should you take longer to finish your jacket.
• This is not an expert-led sew-along. Gail, Cindy, and I have never tackled a project like this before -- we're just really excited to jump in and learn. We do have a few sewists participating who have sewn Chanel-style jackets using the specific couture methods many of us want to learn. There are also lots of resources -- books, DVD's, and classes -- to reference and we're keeping a running list in the sidebar. Feel free to ask questions in your blog posts. There's a very good chance that someone in the group knows the answer or has the resource to look up your question and offer a suggestion.
• Please do post! Don't be shy. At the moment, most of us are introducing ourselves, getting to know each other, and selecting fabric, trims and notions, and patterns. A couple of us overachievers (I'm looking at you, Mary Anna and Wendy) are on track to finish 2 months early. Work at whatever pace makes sense for you. We're here to support each other.
• If you feel pressure to sew your Chanel-inspired jacket a certain way, please don't feel that pressure because of this sew-along. We all have different styles and preferences, and we're all here for different reasons. Whatever your reason, do what makes you happy in your quest for a new Chanel-style jacket. 'Cause if momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy! ;)

Hope this helps. Don't hesitate to let us know if we can help you in any way. Speaking of happy, my husband happened upon a link to a listing in Detroit for a custom car that brought a smile to my face and I hope it does yours, too. I wasn't sure how long the link to the listing would work so I am pasting the photos in right here:

Happy sewing along!

New Header and Blog Badge

Hi fellow sew-along-ists, Cindy suggested we come up with a blog badge for participants to put on their personal blogs. I doodled a little Chanel jacket in Illustrator, and the result is in the new blog header up top and a blog badge in the sidebar for you to put on your blog if you want to.

You can right-click the blog badge and save it to your desktop, then add it to your own blog. (In case the image is too small for the width of your blog's sidebar, you can also click the blog badge in our sidebar. It should open the full-size image in a new window/ tab, which you can right-click and save to your desktop, etc. etc.)

Hope you're enjoying your weekend! Cheers!

Note from Claire Shaeffer

Claire Shaeffer, popular author of many books on couture sewing techniques and all-around sewing rock star, found our team blog and sent the following email last night:

"

Antoinette,

I just finished teaching a 2-day workshop in Anchorage on Chanel. Here are some resources you might find useful:

• Vogue 8259; the guide is based on techniques used on a couture Chanel in my collection.
• Vogue 8369--just a nice design
• Behind the Seams: Chanel --a cd with info and photos of 20 couture Chanels in my collection; some ready-to-wear, knock-offs, and inspirations. 800+ photos; Some of my suits are in poor condition and the linings have been removed.
• Couture Sewing Techniques--there is a section on Chanel jackets.
• Great Sewn Clothes from Threads --reprint of first article on Chanel construction. Most workshops are based on this article.
• I also wrote several articles for Australian Stitches
• Chanel and That Suit--workshop in Palm Springs, CA

Happy sewing,

Claire

"

I'll add these resources in a box in the sidebar shortly so you can access the links without having to dig for this post in the future. :)

Would you like to sew along?

If you want to join us, please send an email to me (Antoinette) at info [at] shopvocabulary [dot] com, or to Cindy at colourbynumber.cindy [at] gmail [dot] com. Once we get your email, we will send a blog author invitation to you at your email address and you can start posting right away.

If you've left a blog comment at Cindy's or my blog saying you want to participate but have not sent either of us a direct email, we may not be able to access your email address from your blog or blogger profile to send the blog author invitation. So please do send us a direct email if you want to sew along. And we hope you will!

Have a great week!