Drumroll, please . . .

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the completed Chanel jacket?

Last night I sewed the last button on top of the last covered snap and did some final pressing. Earlier, I had thought that would be all, but it struck me that some kind of trim along the seam between the jacket and the lining would make it look really finished. So on Tuesday I had jury duty, and aferward I went down to 4th Street to the fabric stores to look for trim. Nada. Zip. Nothing. If I wanted to look like grandma's favorite chair, no problem. If I wanted to glitter, sparkle or walk down the aisle - they had it all. But a simple, narrow green braid? Pfffft.

Yesterday at lunch I walked down to my local store, knowing that they would have absolutely nothing, and while they pretty much met that expectation, they did at least have some satin rat-tail cord in the right shade of green, so I bougth a few yards of that, pressed it flat, and hand-stitched it along the seam last night while watching TV. (It's nice every once in a while to bring some sewing into the living room so that Mario knows I still live here).

That being done, I pressed some more, and here's the jacket, resting comfortably on Evelyn after all my labors. There will be photographs of the jacket on me, I promise, but not in my current, ratty-haired, thread-covered state. And preferably wearing something other than camo shorts and a tank top underneath. Though a nice jacket can make almost everything look better.

Maybe not that, though.

After having wrestled with covered button, covering the snaps wasn't hard to do, and the look was exactly what I wanted. I might not want to try this with little bitty snaps, my patience not always being what I think it is, but with these big babies, it was really ... a snap. Sorry. I had to.

I think my favorite part of this jacket, aside from the fabric, the lining fabric and the buttons, is the collar. It's the most vintage-looking part of the jacket to me, it's really flattering on, and it's just different from anything else I have.

All in all, I'm really happy with this. It's been a good few weeks of work, and there's nothing better than being happy with the result of work that has engaged you this much.

A friend asked me by email the other day, "How many jackets can you possibly need? Why would you ever want to make another one?" Funny, because it's not like she's not creative herself; she's a painter. I asked her if she'd never paint again if she ran out of wall space and she said, "Of course I would. It's my art."

There you go; one person's art goes on the wall, another person's art goes in her closet. Who's to say which one is better? I think for both of us it's really as much about the process as the result, she just doesn't see my finished product as valid in the same way as a painting or a piece of sculpture, whereas I think that if you put your efforts, thoughts, creativity, work and, occasionally, blood into a project, it's art if you want to call it that.

Can you tell she made me a little grumpy?

Finishing Touches

Since I last checked in, I finished bagging the lining and pressed everything. Have I mentioned how much I love pressing this fabric? It presses almost to a knife-edge, which you wouldn't expect from something bulky and fluffy. And yet it retains its bulky fluffiness while somehow looking neat and tailored. I love good fabric.

I pressed and steamed and rolled the collar and it's behaving just the way I want it to.

I've sewn on the pocket buttons. I love that the small buttons are full-size facing animals, while the large buttons are just animal heads.

I've marked where I want the snaps, and I've started to cover them. Once I've finished, I'll sew on the rest of the buttons. There’s a great tutorial on Patternreview for covering snaps - good thing, because my first attempts looked like a kindergarten project. These were a little more difficult anyway, because of the size - the tip of the snap can't just poke through the fabric because it's too big, so I put a tiny drop of fabric glue on the back of the lining fabric, let it dry partway and then cut a small X in the fabric so I could slip it over the snap. The tacky glue just makes it adhere better to the metal so there'll be no fraying.

It seems like I've been working on this forever, but I think that's because I was sewing it in my head for a week solid before I ever took scissors to fabric. Actually the project has gone along pretty smoothly, considering the number of extra steps I've added to a more or less straightforward jacket pattern.


And considering that I've never actually looked at the instructions for the pattern, either. When I laid out all the pieces and started working on the muslin, everything made sense without the instructions, so I decided I would look at them later. Later on nothing ever happened that made me need them, so I'm pretty happy about that. Once I'm done the jacket I'll read through them, if only for the sake of the pattern review. Interesting how sewing lots of BWOF and Patrones has made me less reliant on instructions.

Mini Wardrobe Contest

Like I don't have enough on my plate. But I'm closing in on the end of the jacket, and it really does need some friends . . .

Open Jacket, Insert Lining

Wow. That's all I have to say. Every time I look at that lining, I smile. Maybe the insertion could have been better - there are a few tiny puckers along the top that don't seem to want to press out - but the combination of fabrics just makes me happy.

I still have to attach the lining to the sleeve hems and finish the bottom, but the facing part and the neck seam are done.

Before I sewed in the lining, I dealt with the pocket issue. I've been flip-flopping between patch pockets and faux pocket flaps, and I finally went for the patch pockets, mainly because I had two scraps of boucle big enough to make pockets. They are lined in the silk as well, and since I have 6 buttons and only need for the jacket front, the last 2 will go on the pockets.

I am so loving this jacket.

Full Steam Ahead

And I do mean steam. I put in the sleeves last night, and I have to say, between removing the excess ease and the magic of steam on wool, they went in beautifully. I literally had to put in about 5 ease stitches, and I think I did that mostly for the joy of steaming it into shape.

While the sleeve was resting on the pressing ham, I played with the collar. I really like the shape of this collar, and I can see that I'll have more quality time with lots of hot steam getting it to stand and roll the way I want.

I debated about the collar - there was only enough boucle for one, and I thought that doing the under collar (for which there is a separate piece - I love thoughtful patterns!) in the boucle would make it bulky anyway. So I was torn. I probably should have done it in the solid sleeve lining fabric, but the pattern-loving part of me couldn't resist using the lining silk.

Speaking of the the lining silk, I constructed the lining tonight - patterned body, boucle facing, solid sleeves. I like it. A lot. I think I finally understand how women can forget the pain of childbirth, because when I was fighting tooth and claw with that slippery silk charmeuse, I didn't think I'd ever be able to sit back and admire my lining without remembering the pain. Guess what? Looking at the result, I can barely remember how much trouble it gave me.

I suppose that's how the human race has survived this long.

Moving Right Along

I've been busy, busy, busy with the Chanel jacket. It's been hard to drag myself out of the workroom to do anything else. Isn't it fabulous when a project takes over?

Oh, the picture. That's the back of the button. Not only are they from Paris, but they even say so. How cool is that?

The interfacing is done, and the batiste is hand-stitched to the boucle. I like underlining so much more than interfacing; it really adds to the texture of the fabric, where most of the time interfacing changes the nature of the fabric completely. I still needed some interfacing for the collar and facing, but without using a fusible, I got less stiffness than I expected – which was good.

Last night I stitched the body of the jacket together. I think it works. Because the front/facing pieces are cut shorter, it looks a little odd when I put it on. But all will be well in the end, or so I hope.

I've decided not to attempt buttonholes in this fabric – bound or traditional. Bound buttonholes would be really nice, but I haven't done them before and I don't know as this is the fabric I want to experiment on. Boucle just fuzzes everywhere – ask my sewing machine. I picked up some oversized snaps (almost penny-sized) and I'm going to cover them in leftover lining fabric. Yes, the urine sample lining fabric will be prominently displayed so that all those who turned up their noses at it will be staggered by how perfect it is.

Up next: setting in the sleeves. Otherwise known as spending lots and lots of quality time with the iron and the pressing ham.

Pattern Alterations

Last week I put together of a muslin of the jacket pattern out of some mismatched home dec fabric I had in the closet. The pattern fit pretty well right out of the envelope, but isn't there always room for improvement?

My main change to the the muslin was to take in the top between the front piece and the side front piece – it seemed a little roomy up there, and I could envision it getting worse once it had a big collar sitting on it.

And even though it's easier to ease a sleeve in wool than in just about any other fabrics, I still folded about 1 ½ inches out of the sleeve cap. Honestly, I don't know why pattern manufacturers think we need that much space in a sleeve. Most RTW doesnt require that kind of easing, and RTW manufacturers have all kinds of steam gadgets and pressing hams outside my wildest dreams. If it was necessary, I'd like to think they'd do it.

The third alteration was for my own satisfaction. The front of the jacket is princess-seamed, but the back just has a center seam. That seemed off-balance to me, so I redrafted the back pattern piece so that the seams mimic the front. Not that it will really be visible in the boucle, but I'll know it's there, and it'll fit better because of it.

So other than those 3 alterations, the pattern looks good as is. I like the length – even though it is a little short and boxy, not always a good look for me, the appeal of the pattern is its vintage style, and that's the length this jacket should be.

One Minute Past Midnight

And I started my jacket. I've been itching to get at this project ever since the stars aligned and I found the perfect lining fabric in NY for the Chanel boucle I bought in Baltimore. And when I realized that my animal head buttons from Paris would work with those fabrics - well, I've had to sit on my hands not to pick up the scissors before the official start of the contest.

So last night, after watching the end of the Knit Contest on Patternreview to make sure there were no problems, and having taken myself a nap earlier in the evening (I wasn't kidding about that 12:01 start), I laid out my pattern pieces very carefully on the boucle and started cutting. And there was almost enough. Actually, there was enough - the shortage was expected because I had laid out the pattern pieces on the boucle and altered the pattern to suit what fabric I had. The center front piece doubles as the inside facing, and when I came up the tiniest bit short, I decided that I didn't need a full-width facing, I just had to make sure there was enough facing to support the buttons and buttonholes (or covered snaps, I'm still torn at this point).

I'm also limited on silk for the lining - when will I ever learn to buy enough fabric? - but there was enough to compensate for the half-facing I'd cut. I went to my local fabric store last week with a scrap of the silk to try to find fabric for the sleeve linings and came away with an acidic green that matches the yellow-green of the silk almost perfectly. One of my co-workers refers to it as "urine sample green." Isn't that lovely?

The jacket fabric, the cotton batiste underlining and the lining fabrics are all cut out. I also cut interfacing for the collar and the jacket facing. I'm using a lighter weight woven interfacing. I decided to go with a sew-in rather than a fusible because even though the boucle irons beautifully, I don't trust most fusibles to stick properly, or forever. On a project that means this much, I'll suck it up and sew it in by hand.

Since nothing photogenic has happened yet in the workroom, I leave you with a shot of hazy, hot and humid Philadelphia, as seen from my train stop this morning.

Lined Jacket Contest

So, one of Patternreview's August contests is the Lined Jacket Contest. I've been looking forward to this one but until last night I wasn't sure what my entry was going to be.

When I bought that foliage-patterned silk in NY on Wednesday, I was hoping against hope that it would work with the green Chanel boucle that I bought on my trip to A Fabric Place in Baltimore. And it did! (Picture me dancing around the workroom last night).

Both the boucle and the silk were small amounts, about 1 1/4 yard and 1 yard, respectively. I had in mind what pattern I wanted to use, but I checked the pattern stash and not only was it still my first choice, it was about the most fabric-economical pattern I could come up with - McCall's 5007. It has several of my favorite jacket qualifications: a nice shape, high cuteness factor, and a good vintage feel. And 19 positive reviews on Patternreview. I'm going to make View A (the lime green one on the illustration), with the patch pockets but without the notches at at the bottom.

According to the pattern, it takes about 1/4 yard more fabric than I have, but I can make it stretch. And actually the front piece is also the facing piece, so if I'm running short on fabric I'll split the inside facing and make it half boucle, half silk. So long as the part of the facing where the buttons are is boucle on both sides, I'm fine.

And speaking of buttons, this is also giving me the opportunity to use the antique metal animal buttons I bought at the flea market in Paris. Every one of them is different, so I think they'll add a nice feel to the front of the jacket. It only requires 4 buttons, so I might use the other 2 on the pockets, or I might save them for something else.

Now all I have to do is wait until August 1st. That's one minute past midnight on Thursday, July 31st, right?