A French Jacket

2017
Susan Khalje toured Australia and I was lucky enough to do my second French Jacket class with her. I was absolutely enthralled throughout my first class, and have gone on to make a second jacket (A gift to my mother). There is just something about this garment that took me completely by surprise – I never thought I would wear such a thing.

My first jacket is not really an every-day wearable kind of garment – so this second one for myself will be a little less glitzy. You can read about this experience here:

A Third French Jacket in the Making

V7975: The Octopus’ Garden French Jacket

 

2013
In September 2013 I gave myself the very extravagant birthday present of doing a 6 Day Couture Sewing course with Susan Khalje – the ‘French Jacket’. All I can say is, I wish I turned 30 more often…

Coco Chanel made this style famous back in the 1940’s, and it’s hung around ever since. Considered to be its own sub set of couture sewing skills, the handmade version takes the professionals some 70-80 hours to complete – 17 hours of which are dedicated to the sleeves alone. You can pick up a RTW version in Chanel boutiques for $6,000, but the couture version is upwards of $25,000. Neither are feasible options to me… but I’m not phased in the slightest. I’d prefer to learn the skills to sew my own over the purchase option any day!

I was initially more interested in absorbing the skills and fitting knowledge than I was in owning a Chanel jacket. I considered the style to be…. matronly… and I was worried I’d end up looking shapeless (I usually prefer fitted and sharply tailored garments). But I couldn’t have been more wrong – it’s incredibly shaped, form fitting, and so finely-tuned to me that I now wonder how I ever got by without it. I’ve now got my sights on sewing another in a more everyday wearable fabric!

Here are the posts I wrote about my experience, plus the finished product being modelled, of course!

Homework

French Jacket Class – Day 1: Shopping! And meeting the other Jacketeers :)

French Jacket Class – Day 2: Fitting and fine-tuning our muslins, plus cutting and thread Tracing

French Jacket Class – Day 3: Quilting, basting together, the second fitting and sewing

French Jacket Class – Day 4: Shoulder seams, three piece sleeves, fell stitching, fell stitching and more fell stitching…

French Jacket Class – Day 5: Quilting the sleeves, sleeve lining and a little more fell stitching, of course.

French Jacket Class – Day 6: Setting in the sleeves, fell stitching and playing with Trim

V7975: Sherbert Bomb Chanel – The Finished Jacket!

**Update – My second French Jacket can be seen here :)