My French Jacket

I think last year when Melanie posted about making her French Jacket the entire blogging community went a little French Jacket crazy. I promptly bought Vogue 8804, the Claire Shaeffer French Jacket pattern, and then put the pattern away. I bought fabric for it at Christmas, courtesy of my Mum.

The pattern and the fabric sat in my pattern drawer until just after Sewjourn last December, when I saw Leith's version as a work-in-progress. Seeing her's spurred me on and, nearly six months later, I have a French Jacket.

Let's start with my muslin.

This is a terrible photo, sorry! I started with a size 12, which is my standard size in a Vogue Pattern. Overall, the fit was okay, however, I made three adjustments to get a closer fit and the look I wanted:

1. Starting at the CB bottom, I took about 3cm in total out of the CB up until about half way up. 
2. In the jacket side front and starting at the shoulder seam, I took about 3cm out of the princess seam, until about 10cm down (ending just above my bust). 
3. I trimmed off the button placement allowances. I wanted it to close with hooks rather than buttons, so I just left a 1.5cm seam allowance on top of the CF.

I figured if it needed any other adjustments, I'd do them as I sewed the jacket. There were no glaring fit issues so I figured minute fitting could be done as I sewed. 

My muslin sat in a box for about two months. I just couldn't concentrate on it. Then, one day, about 2-3 months ago, WHAM! French Jacket sewing was all I could think of. 

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll have seen some progress shots. I'm going to start here with the finished shots and then show you some progress shots. I wore it for the first time to my sister's engagement party, which was last weekend. 

I wore it with a black ponte Vogue 1314 - I'll review this dress again in another post soon.

Can you tell I'm a bit pleased with it?

Those buttons. I love them. They're from Buttonmania and I want a million more.

The lining. Silk satin. Such beautiful stuff. So easy to sew for a silk.

The venue was actually so overheated that I wore the jacket for these pics and then took it off. I lovingly placed it on a table at the back of the venue and nearly had a heart attack when I went out there about an hour later to get my lippie and discovered it under about 20 jackets. I felt like doing a mother lion roar and yelling "this is my FRENCH JACKET, DON'T TOUCH IT"!!! Instead I secured it in a safer spot and went and got another champers. 

So... a few changes I made to the pattern:

1. I didn't quilt the lining and shell fabric together for two reasons. One, I did a practice quilt on some scraps of fabric and it showed way too much on the outer of the shell. I didn't like how it looked. Two, after consulting with Leith, we both thought that in the 'Making of a Chanel Jacket' video clip on YouTube that they do not quilt the jacket in the video. That made me think that Chanel jackets are not always quilted together. 
2. I interfaced the jacket pieces (not the sleeves) using a very soft and fine fusible interfacing. The difference to the tweed was amazing. 
3. I reinforced the sleeve head. The tweed I used was so soft and fine that the sleeve head was collapsing on itself. 
4. I put trim all around the bottom hem - V8804 doesn't call for that. 
5. I put very slim shoulder pads in. Again, I think the tweed really needed them. 

Here are some progress shots:

First bit of trim I sewed on. 

Pockets completed. You hand stitch the pocket lining on. 

This is my one regret - I wish I had attached the trim on the sleeves closer to the bottom of the sleeve hem. There is a little bit too much fabric showing under the trim. 

Getting there! At this stage there no machine stitching left to do. All hems are hand stitched, all the trim is hand stitched. I loved it. To me, this project signified hand stitching, and lots of it. I wanted such a project. I really love hand stitching. It is therapeutic to me and I think achieves greater accuracy in detailed projects like this.

Final stage here. Attaching the metal chain to weight the hem. I still cannot believe how much this little chain makes a difference to the way the jacket hangs. It is not a step to be missed.

I thought I'd also include where I sourced everything from:

1. Tweed fabric, silk-satin lining, interfacing and slim shoulder pads: Tessuti Fabrics. 
2. Mohair braid trim: M&J Trimmings in New York. 
3. Buttons and French Jacket hook and eyes: Buttonmania.
4. Chain trim for hem: Clegs. 
5. Fleece for sleeve heads: an old jumper of my daughter's. 

Finally, I used a few resources A LOT:

1. Every single post Poppykettle wrote about making hers.
2. Couture Sewing Techniques by Claire Shaeffer. 
3. Goodbye Valentino's posts about making her own.
4. A Threads article about sleeve heads that I now can't find anywhere.
5. A bucket load of internet resources, including blogs for inspiration and tips. I looked at other sewists' versions of the French Jacket constantly, and at images of Chanel Jackets. I also constantly looked at the white version Cate Blanchett wears in Blue Jasmine after I saw the film last year. I love that white Chanel Jacket. I cannot wear white like that until Little M has moved out of home. 

So there you have it! I made a French Jacket! And I love it. I'm slightly afraid of wearing it, but plan to tomorrow to work. 

I also really want to make another jacket now too. Bellatrix, I'm looking at you....

It's a Labour of Love: The Saga of the Silk Dress

Readers, how do you pre-wash your fabric? I usually wash mine in the machine and then hang it outside to dry. I've learnt that this has actually been a mistake.

You see, a while ago I bought some lovely navy silk with silvery-ivory polka dots. It was on sale for $14/m from The Fabric Store during one of their 50% off sales. I saw it and immediately saw myself in a Gabby dress, swanning around in the summer with cute sandals. 

I pre-washed my fabric, cut the pattern out and then sewed the entire dress, including lining the entire thing. While I was cutting out, I noticed a white-ish line going across the silk but thought it was just a bit of dust from the clothesline. 

Readers, it was a line sun-bleached into my fabric from being hung outside. I now hang all my fabric inside. 

I was more than mildly devastated as I had grown quite attached to this frock, so I unpicked the entire dress and sewed it back together with the marked side on the inside. Did I mention I did french seams on every seam? 

Anyway, I now have a lovely unmarked silk frock for spring and summer:

These pictures were taken outside our new house. The previous owner was an elderly woman and the gardens are just beautiful. Lovely backdrops for photographing my sewing projects! Plus Little M loves going around picking little bouquets which we put in vases, jam jars and jugs .... whatever is around!

Denim Clovers, Silk Sencha and Meet-Up Details Update

I recently went to the Tessuti sale and bought a very funky ribbed denim that is navy blue backed with a bright green. Pretty cool. I bought 1.5m and made another pair of Clover pants:

I really like this fabric, and they make a cool pair of Clover trousers. Unfortunately though, they are quite a soft denim, so after wearing them for morning tea at Leith's last sunday they were waaaay stretched out. I don't know what to do about that - I wouldn't want to make them too much tighter otherwise I won't get them on!

I also made this Sencha blouse ages ago with a remnant of this lovely silk from Rathdowne Fabrics and Remnants:

Can you see that I missed a button?

I like this blouse, but it is too short in length. It doesn't really do my figure any favours with these trousers, so I think it will be resigned to being tucked in. Ah well. I've learnt my lesson. Lengthen lengthen lengthen!! The little flower buttons were from the Camberwell markets while I was still pregnant. 

I feel like I've gotten a little of my sewing mojo back - I'm making a wearable muslin of the frock I am making for a wedding in New Zealand we are going to in September. Pictures of that soon. I'm enjoying making a flouncy, fitted frock. 

In other news, our sewing meet up now has interstate visitors! Christy and her mate are in Melbourne from Sydney for the weekend and are joining us! At the moment we have 20 people coming - there is no way the cafe I originally thought of will accommodate that many of us, so I booked Time Out Cafe in Federation Square for 3pm. The only catch is that because we're not booked in to eat lunch or dinner, they won't guarantee that we'll all sit together - we might have to have a few tables of 5-6. What do you think? If you can think of another cafe that can house 20 of us and isn't too far from Tessuti please do suggest!