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This week I obtained a teak desk and filing cabinet from one of my neighbors through our Buy Nothing Facebook group. She had had it for twenty years and was tired of it. I was thrilled to have it. I replaced my door with sawhorses sewing table and one of my banker boxes of files.
In order to bring in this new to me furniture, I first had to finish cutting the muslin for my Chanel type jacket. Then declutter and reorganize two piles of fabric into see-through storage containers. One entire container is jacket and lining fabric for some of my planned six jackets. Another is an assortment of jean jackets and fixings for my jean embellishment project.
Next I removed the door and sawhorses sewing table (after removing everything on it). It will have a new life in the garden under the grapes. It's all wood, so I know it won't last long, but it will serve a purpose for now.
Then I vacuumed the floor and dusted. Once the new furniture was in the room (with the help of my daughter), I set it all up ready for me to sew.
The first thing I have to sew is my muslin/toile. This is the mock up I'll use to make the final pattern. I will sew it up with dark thread (one natural color muslin) so I can easily see the seams. I'll fit it to my body and make any needed adjustments in shoulder, sleeve, bust, waist, and jacket length. I'll first pin the adjustments, then sew them (again with dark thread), then take the muslin apart to use as the pattern for my final jacket fabric. Before I begin sewing, I may alter the two-piece sleeve pattern I have to be a three-piece sleeve like the real Chanel jackets. I have found a hack to do that.
This first muslin is crucial, because I'm planning six jackets in all. (Yes, all for me!!!) The first one will not be tweed, I'll make the first one in heavy cotton or gabardine. The next one will be my actual Chanel like jacket in tweed. Not all the jackets will be Chanel style. At least one of the jackets I make will be a blue satin bomber. Another will be a purple velvet sweatshirt like the one I made my sister.
For each jacket, I'll have to cut all the pieces for both the jacket and the lining. I will quilt the linings to the jackets, just like Chanel does. All the pockets will be sewn on by hand. Sleeves set in by hand. Only straight seams will be sewn on the machine, and even those may be hand-sewn on the boucle tweed because the fabric is bulky and tends to ravel.
What jackets do you like best? Do you have a favorite one you wear as often as possible? What is your dream jacket? Your comments make my day!
A light non-lined linen summer jacket I bought from a large clothing store range called Marks and Spencer twenty years ago, back when I weighed 270lb. It has been altered by my wife Susan a couple of times as the lbs have been lost (I now weigh 175lb). It protects my arms and neck from the sun and sees off summer chills. A truly wonderful massed produced jacket.🐰
My daughter would love you for a mum, she adores jackets! Sadly her old mum can't sew, only crochet, she has asked me for a poncho though.