Chasing Coco

After sewing my jacket together I ironed and shaped the seams over a tailors ham. E said I should pound the wool seam down and I was like "what the what?" I have to say I was absolutely certain this would do nothing at all but I swear that it did look different have it was beaten! It was like tenderizing a steak. It looks like a mid-evil torture device...  Jacket fronts, it's coming together slowly. There was also a lengthy discussion of pockets. I was very annoyed to realize that the welt pocket in my pattern ( vogue 7975 ) is not an actual pocket! It is just a fake sewed on embellishment, I'm very disappointed in you vogue! Pieces for an applied pocket are included but I was really feeling it design-wise. I think I've was using a plaid pattern boucle I would have liked an applied pocket, it is after a very Channel look. Maybe on my next jacket. E launched into a very lengthy explanation of how to make a welt pocket, draft a pattern for the needed...

Apparently my last post was way too optimistic! I went to go see E for sewing class and we made a bunch of alterations to my muslin. See in the photo below the left side has been altered and the right side has only the first round of adjustments I made.  The front princess seams were tweaked several times, the upper part of the sleeve is being let out a little and a pretty major adjustment to the armhole. Armholes are tricky! If I was making this totally on my own I probably wouldn't have made so many changes, I think we be accustomed to buying semi-fitting commercial clothes that we don't really have any idea what really fits and looks good on us. If it fits around us and isn't 10 sizes too big we think it fits! E also helped me alter the pattern so I could have a button up cuff with a facing, rather than just turning up the end of the cuff. Much more Channel. To do this,  E measured up my arm how far I wanted the cuff to go and we have then added fabric that all...

At this point, I have been thinking about and planning on making this jacket for a few months.I started by looking at examples of French jackets by channel, home sewists, other designers. For some examples for your own jacket, you can look here, here, here and here. I haven't bought any fabric yet! Do you believe that? Normally I have fabric, patterns and projects piled up way in advance! I'm hoping to make a trip to NYC to go to Mood and maybe some of the local shops and pick something out in person. I often buy fabric online, which is sometimes a disaster so in this case  as I will be spending a lot more on the fabric (I'm budgeting $200...but let's see how that goes!) I feel I need to make an in-person trip and frankly I haven't seen anything calling my name from my online browsing! I asked at a chain store I stopped at last night (I happened to drive by and they were having a sale!) and they did not even have any wool boucle. Eye roll . I wasn't surprised,...