Simplicity 4954. My Chanel Inspired Jacket

Sorry I didn't post this sooner. What with a houseful for Easter dinner and my continuing respiratory problem, I'm just getting the energy to write this.

So , Voici! My jacket is finished. Here is the pattern I used.




I'm very happy with it and am satisfied with the trims.In a way,I wish I had made it to button down the front, but I closed it with a heavier type hook and eye and that works too.

The lining is a silk /cotton blend and the blush colour is perfect for this boucle.I used a satin ribbon in a deeper pink to add a touch of class to the front facings.

I sewed a chain weight just below the hemline and under the fold of the lining and it makes the jacket hang nicely.




I used pad stitching to secure the front and back facings to the jacket front and upper back and this really makes the jacket feel professional.I was able o do this and make the stitches invisible because of the nature of the fabric.

This is what I had planned to wear it with for Easter mass but I couldn't go because the candle smoke really makes me sick and I haven't been able to attend mass for most of the winter.



I've posted this dress and it's matching beaded bolero on the A Few of my Favorite Things section on my sidebar at right.The bolero is self drafted and the dress is B4871.






I love my Chanel inspired jacket and I know it will stay in my wardrobe for many years to come.
More photos here.

More later from

Thank You for the Suggestions

I just want to say a quick Thank you to all who commented and gave advice. I really appreciate your honesty. I've decided to try the fringe coming out of the neck and center seams and to not use the ribbon. I'll baste the fringe first just in case it doesn't look good.If that doesn't work,I'll leave the trims out completely from the that area .

Thank you Vicki for telling me about Paco's jacket. I don't know how I missed it. I love Paco's work and I check it out regularly.

And a big Hello to Margaret.So nice to hear from you.I've lost your E-mail (computer crash) so I can't write to you personally.I wish we could have another week with Sandra. it was a highlight for sure!

Jacket Not Finished Yet, But...

I've been cleaning, so I haven't got a lot more done on my jacket.I'm actually reconsidering the trims as I'm not loving the trim along the center front as much as I do on the pockets. I've just got it pinned and I do think it needs something else to make it less pretty or precious or something.



I've braided yarns from the fabric together in various thicknesses and I may go in that direction.




However I did put this striped jacket/cardi together for my sewing group Thursday. I wanted to show them another version and in a lighter knit than the last one.





I must admit that I don't love it but my sewing friends seemed to like it. My husband got that look when I asked him what he thought ,so....

Anyway, my sewing group have named my sewing bag that I take along to class my "magic bag of goodies".One of the notions they are most impressed with is my Steam-a-Seam which I used to secure the facing of the cardi down.



I sometimes feel like Ron Collins, Sandra Betzina's partner in the Power Sewing web TV shows who uses S-a_S on everything he possibly can.I do love it a lot.A couple more of my favorite notions that I couldn't be without are my Fiskar spring loaded scissors ,which are so great for arthritic hands and my Clover Leaf chalk marker wheely thingy that I use so often for so many things.




Wow this is one all-over-the-place post! Sorry!

I do hope to have my jacket completed for Thursday as I'm giving a presentation about our trip to Paris to my Retired Teachers group and I think it would be such an appropriate thing to wear.

Have a great week, fellow sewers ! More later from

Chanel Jacket, Part 2

I meant to do this a few days ago, but my respiratory problems resurfaced with a vengeance.

What I want to talk about and show you are the first steps of the construction process.

My fabric is a wool/silk/cotton blend boucle and those of you who have worked with boucle know that it's a difficult fabric to deal with . Knowing this , I knew I had to interface as well as serge finish each piece as soon as I had finished the cutting out of my jacket.

I used a light,slightly stretchy interfacing and am really happy with the hand it gave the fabric, not too much, not too little.After fusing the interfacing to each piece, I layed the pattern over it to assure that nothing had stretched or shrunk.

I then serged each piece making sure to not cut off more than just the tiniest amount. I checked by placing each pattern piece another time and I transferred all markings to the interfacing.



For a lining I've decided to go with a silk cotton blend. I wanted silk something or other but could not find the right colour. Well I had just the right shade in my stash. I'm a little hesitant because I 'm not positive it's slippery enough but I had to make a decision and it's cut out now.



I'm considering quilting the lining to the jacket but since I want to have this finished for Easter,that may not happen.



After much deliberation, I settled on the fringe and velvet ribbon as my trims. I just could not find anything else that was just right and I think I'm happy with it, at least on the pockets which is the only place I've used it so far.



I applied the pockets by using Sandra Betzina and Ron Collin's tutorial on Power Sewing this week which explained how to apply patch pockets using invisible hand stitching. Talk about an opportune time for them to put this out. I'll give a few details about this method in my next post.

I'll leave you with a peek at what I've accomplished so far.

My Chanel Jacket...Part 1

For years ,I've been wanting to make another Chanel type jacket.I made the one below before I learned how to alter patterns for a full bust, and sloping and narrow shoulders which are my fitting issues.

I've always really liked this jacket and have worn it in spite of the way it didn't quite fit. The pattern is S4954 (OOP)



I bought this lovely fabric



from Julie at Timmel Fabrics in Halifax when I attended the Sandra Betzina Workshop and I always planned on using V8043(OOP).



which is a Today's Fit pattern. I got to try on a sample and Sandra determined I was a size B for this jacket. But, since I've already made S4794





and really like it's lines, I decided to use it instead,but this time with alterations.

Here are diagrams of my alterations. The blue broken lines represent the new cutting lines (or the alterations).
The first one shows my Full Bust Adjustment or FBA. I usually add 1" here.



A close-up shows where I narrowed the shoulders by 3/8" from both the center front (CF) and the side front (SF) pieces.



You can also see in this pic how I fix my sloping shoulder problem by starting at the neck at size 12 and sloping down to size 8 by the shoulder.This amounts to 1/2". I then have to lower the armhole by 1/2".



This diagram shows the corresponding changes to the back pattern pieces as well as my sway back fix. For this I just fold out 1/4 to 3/8" above the waistline. This tiny change makes the biggest difference in the way the back of my garments fit!



Finally these are my trims which I plan to use but I don't know in which order yet!.



I'll also chose from these chains to weight the hem of my somewhat-like-a-Chanel jacket.



More later from

This and That

I've been back from Ottawa, aka Nana Heaven, for a few days now.Of course, I can't resist showing you my favorite of the hundred or so pictures I took while I was there.




I don't have a new garment to show you but I have a Chanel type jacket in the works. The pattern is chosen and altered, the jacket is cut out but not the lining, and I'm trying to decide on trims. I'll have more on that in a couple of days.

I just thought I'd tell you about a sewing group I've helped to organize and that I'm mentoring.Our small community is near a large lake ( Grand Lake ) and has a much larger population in summer than the rest of the year.Among the permanent residents is a fairly large group of retired people like myself who have time on their hands. There is a well equipped community hall about a mile from my house and I thought I'd try to persuade people to come and sew with me on Thursday afternoons. We've been getting together for about two months now and I'm very happy with what is transpiring.

There are about 12 regular ladies who are taking advantage of the chance to sew with friends and neighbours and who really seem to appreciate any help that can be given. We will soon be joined by a former Home Economics teacher who will be very welcome to help with instructions or just give a helping hand.

This week we only had five sewers who all wanted to make the cardi that I showed you here. I copied a couple of sizes out of newspaper ahead of time and after measuring everyone, they were ready to go.



So far, many of the ladies have made the Fleece Tied Blanket that I showed here and they were thrilled with their results. They all made Hair towels like this one . That was a popular project.



Some weeks, each member has a project of their own or someone needs help with fitting issues or pattern alterations.

It really makes me happy to see how everyone seems to enjoy these afternoons.
And I have to admit that I love stepping back into my teacher shoes.

I hope you had time to sew this week.

More later from

Dress for Tamara S2247

It's been a long time since I've made DD anything so I guess it was high time. I'm going to Ottawa next week ( I just can't go any longer without hugging Angel Baby Riley) so I thought a garment for Tamara was a good thing.

She mentioned a while ago that she would like a gored dress with a cowl collar. I knew I just had to find a princess style dress and I could use my cowl collar technique with maybe a little tweaking. I found S2247




I used the body of the dress ,rounded the neckline,and drafted a cowl by measuring the neckline.I didn't use the sleeves from this pattern. I have a sleeve pattern that I know DD likes so I used that.

The fabric is a poly/rayon ponti knit. I used a small zigzag stitch for most of the seams with a universal size 12 needle. I machine stitched the hems on the skirt and sleeves after serge finishing.

The only problem that I encountered was the collar which proved to be too thick when I doubled it. After over an hour of taking out the zigzag stitches and twin needle stitches, I recut the collar as a single layer . I finished the seams joining the two parts of the collar with flat felled ( is that the correct term?) seams and the edge of the collar with a quarter inch hem and it looks fine I think.



I used an invisible zipper (for once I found one that matched perfectly) but closed the seam at the top just above the zipper so I wouldn't have to split the collar at the back since there are already two seams on my version of a cowl.The dress still goes on very easily this way.




That's pretty much all there is to say about Tamara's dress so here it is.
.


As for the pattern, it's one of Simplicity's Amazing Fit and I intend to use it for myself. I really like it. There are many opportunities to achieve a really good fit with these patterns!

And here is a photo of Tamara in the dress! It ended up a bit too big through the hip area but otherwise it looks good on her.

Wednesday is my BIG Sewing Day

I've probably mentioned the fact before that Wednesday is my guilt free sewing day and other than a quick tidy up of the house, sewing is all I do on that day.And do you know what else? I have popcorn ( a big bowl of it ) for dinner with a glass of wine. Isn't that decadent?

On Wednesdays, my husband goes to the city to do errands ,groceries,etc and to do chores for his sister who lives alone. So I'm left completely free!

I LOVE retirement!

Yesterday (being Wed.) I started early and using this pattern, McCall's 6164 View A which is the pink one



...and made this.



The fabric is rayon jersey. I usually avoid this knit because it is thin and readily shows all bumps and accentuates the bust too much. I really liked this swirly,tie-dyed print so I decided I would double the body of the top and that's just what I did.

How did I do this?

I should have left the shoulders open as in when lining a vest but I don't like the results of that method on knit fabric so I started out by sewing the shoulder seams of each layer and then joining the two backs and two fronts at the hemline.



As you see in the above illustration,I then joined the side seams of the two layers in one continuous seam.

The next step was to turn the whole thing right side out, and to pin the necklines together and to check that everything was smooth and it was so I took out the pins and from the armholes I reached in and re pinned the neckline from the wrong side.(This was easy to do) and sewed the two tops together at the neckline. After trimming the seam I pressed carefully,pinned the armholes together and top stitched the neckline.

The sleeves were then sewn as usual and serge finished.I ran a row of stitching at the bottom where the hem stitching would usually be. ( I sewed and stretched a little instead of using a twin needle as I didn't have much thread left).

Here is the top from the inside.



The shirring on the sleeves is formed by threading elastic through a casing in the seam allowance.

About my Full Bust Adjustment on this one. I spliced and spread the pattern an inch in the usual place about 4" below the underarm. But instead of adding a dart, I ran a row of stitching for about 4" and pulled in the threads to form a slight gather




I then sewed my side seams with the front down against the feed dogs and this is how it ended up.You can barely see the gathers!



I really love this top. It's fun and rather youthful but I think I'm OK with that.
Maybe my grand-daughter Jessica will like it and I'll make her one.






More picks here.

Hope you're having a nice weekend and that you got some nice relaxing sewing done!

Two Quickies

I'm definitely feeling like my old self again and my sewing mojo is back full force. I decided after working so long on my coat that I would make a couple of easy pieces. I've had this cardi pattern for a while and have been dying to try it.



I also bought this bright and fun argyle knit and I knew I'd have to choose carefully what it would become.



This is what I came up with. I used my favorite sleeveles sweater pattern S3634 for this and just added a cowl collar using the procedure I described here. the only problem is that I forgot to center the darker rows of the argyle but oh well,if I don't point it out to everyone,it might go unnoticed.



I think pairing it with a black topper was a good way to tone the brightness down and I'm happy with the two pieces together.



The cardi is made of black rayon/poly ponti knit. I think the pattern and fabric work well together.The faced front drapes well thanks to the weight of the fabric. I secured the facing by stitching in the ditch at the front and back shoulder/sleeve seams. I used Steam-a-Seam to close the facing along the front.



All hems were machine stitched. I ended up facing the sleeves because I found them too short even for 3/4 sleeves.
I took off about an inch from the back bottom because I found it a little too long. Although the back of this piece is loose ,from the front it looks semi fitted.

I'm very happy with this combo and will likely make it again.






More pics here.

I hope you found time to sew this weekend. Have a great week!