Gee, this is a very slow make. I am taking my time with it. Some time again I decided to make myself a Chanel style jacket using the pattern I received when I bought The Iconic Tweed Jacket, instructor being Lorna Knight on Craftsy platform. As this type of jacket involves a lot of work so I decided that it’s a good idea to make a toile (I blogged about it here if you fancy a read).

Once I made the modifications on the pattern I cut my pieces in a wool mix fabric I bought at Abakan locally especially for this jacket. Also, I’ve been using Claire B Schaeffer Couture Sewing: The Couture Cardigan Jacket book to help me in my endeavour, mainly because I did not want to keep going back to the video class (sometimes I enjoy having the information in writing). So, I armed myself with a large cup of coffee (eventually I’ve gone through quite a few cups) and started by thread basting all the seams and notches in preparation.

As you could imagine this took a while. Luckily, I had a few series that I wanted to binge-watch so they were the perfect companion while I was doing this task, which took me quite some time. But I got there in the end.

The course, as well as the book, suggest you save up organza selvedges to use later as a stay in projects like this. Well, I don’t buy organza on a regular basis and I would not be so organised to keep the selvedges. So I bought myself a roll of organza ribbon to use in my project. Besides, although no one will ever see it, I like that both edges of the ribbon are finished. This step was another long one as I first had to pin the ribbon in place following the seam lines then catch one side into the garment and then sew flat the rest of the ribbon.

Then once this part was done, I decided to continue to follow the advice given and to use some organza to interface the front facings. I did not use anything on the rest of the jacket because the fabric has a layer that looks like paint which makes the fabric a lot more stable than similar fabric. More hand sewing! At this point I was thinking will I ever finish this jacket? So glad this was only for two pieces. This jacket better look great by the time I am done with it.

Once this was all over and done with, I cut my lining pieces, a little bigger than the right side to allow for the quilting later. Which reminds me, I’d better go buy some thread that matches my lining. Yeah, I started this project but I did not get all the supplies before. I sort of knew it might take me quite some time to actually go from muslin/toile to finished jacket.

Since my jacket is pretty ordinary on the right side, I felt the need to go with a bright colour for the lining, just because I can. Now, I might be talking a bit of a break from it. Although, I enjoy the process and love that I am using new to me techniques, I do need a quick project ever so often. Hopefully the rest of it will go a bit faster because it does not involve so much hand sewing and I get to use the machine for most of the construction.