Chanel Style - Step by Step - Choosing the Right Fabric and Pattern

After I made the Sectioned Skater Skirt from last week's post, I decided I REALLY loved the boucle' on the top section. It was crying out  "Chanel....Chanel...make me Chanel...." A Chanel style jacket is a powerful piece, much like the lady who inspired its iconic, classic presence in the world's wardrobe. There are no age restrictions to its wearability. It goes equally well with jeans or pearls. A Chanel styled jacket walks from the office to dinner with ease (o.k. - it really doesn't walk - but you get the idea...) 

Vogue Ad Fall/Winter 2014

The good news is  ----  it's not a difficult jacket to make!  You can go with pockets...or not...with buttons....or not....with a collar....or not...with long sleeves....or 3/4 length...or no sleeves (Chanel had a sleeveless version in their Spring 2013 line).  It's a great jacket to sew for your "first" jacket, and in just a few blogposts I'll take you through the process of making this little wardrobe gem.  There are a lot of great techniques in its construction to apply to many of your sewing projects.

Step 1:  Choosing the right fabric and pattern.
What makes a jacket look "Chanel" is a great marriage between fabric and pattern.  Most Chanels are created with boucle' or tweed fabrics.  They're often soft and drapey (you can even use stable sweater knits), and they're often trimmed with fringey fun (I placed this phrase in my sewing vocabulary a long time ago - you won't find it in a real dictionary).  As you look for fabric, think about how you might like to trim it.  Can you use the same fabric?  Would a contrast trim make it PoP? 

There have been patterns for Chanel style jackets in the pattern books for decades.  As I was going through my stash, I found examples from the 70s (gleaned from my mom's collection - she'll never miss 'em), 80s and up till today.  The thing you want to look for when choosing a pattern is the seaming.  Don't pick a box.  What makes a jacket great is the fit.  Unless you're shaped like a box (and NONE of us are, regardless of our size) choose a pattern with curved or straight princess seams.  You'll be much happier with the resulting fit and it's just four more short seams to sew. I'm using Butterick 5719....because I had it in my stash....and it's ten o'clock at night and I want to get started...and I want to show you how to sew curved princess seams.  There are others that are just as good or better. 

One of the most important things to think about in the fit of a Chanel style jacket is the front shoulder/neck width.  It's a common pattern adjustment that many people don't think about until AFTER you've cut, sewn, and tried your garment on for fit.  Unfortunately, by then, for this adjustment, it's often too late! (Think - have you ever folded out the fullness on a neckline and sewn on a button because a opening was too big?  Yeah... I know you have...)

We show customers how to make this type of pattern adjustment several times a week, so I'm gonna put it on these pages  -- just in case you're sewing at ten o'clock at night and our shop is closed.  Often patterns are graded up in size and the neck openings are HUGE!  It doesn't even have to be a large-sized pattern for this to happen.  This adjustment, like any pattern alteration, begins with a good body measurement.  Measure across your front shoulder area from "ditch to ditch" (as our store founder, Lucille used to say), or measure a garment whose fit you like to see what the front shoulder width should be.  I'm large busted, but I have a narrow shoulder width.  I know for a fitted jacket, my front shoulder width should be about 12".  You can see this on my dress form.

By the way, if you buy a dress form from us you can come to a free class on adjusting it to customize it to your shape.  Check class information here.

The next thing to do is to compare the measurement  you need with the pattern measurement to see if you need to make a change.  In the pattern below, you'll notice that when I measure from center front to the sleeve seam allowance I need to remove fullness. (This pattern would be 13 1/2")

There is always more than one way to adjust a pattern.  I watched Lucille make a "pinch" in the shoulder area for many years to narrow a shoulder.  It's a quick adjustment, and it works....most of the time.  But what this super-quick adjustment does is alter the grainline of the front piece, skewing up the lower edge of the center front.  In a loose fitting blouse it wouldn't matter, but in a fitted jacket it does.  So, I'm going to show you how to make a modified pivot/slide adjustment.  I mark a line perpendicular to the grainline about 5 inches below the shoulder point all the way across the pattern piece.  I also make a line parallel to the grainline from this line up to the edge of the pattern piece.  Sometimes I make two lines (as I did in this pattern - see pic above).  I do this when I need to take out more than an inch or when I want both the shoulder width and the neck opening narrowed. Cut apart section 1 and section 2.

Keeping the lower line straight, slide section 1 and 2 over until your new seamline measures what you need.

Tape pieces together.  (I actually made this one a bit more narrow than 12" because I plan to add a fringey fun border.) :)  Now you'll notice you've got some jagged edges you've got to do something about.  You can take a lot more time and pivot and slide the whole piece, but I usually don't.  I take my handy-dandy Style design ruler and "true" (even-out) my curves.

O.K in this pic you see my broken handy-dandy ruler from when one kid bopped another kid over the head with it.  But for product info on a new (unbroken) Style Design ruler click here.  We use these for almost every garment we sew.  If you don't have one - come get one - it makes altering patterns so much easier (even when it's broken).  Notice that I am shortening the side front seam.  I know, for me, I need this (I'm 4'11").  You may need to make your curve match the original cutting line.  Use the Style Design ruler to align your curve.  True the shoulder line (see photo above) and neckline (see photo below - again use your Style Design curve).  Now look at the pattern on my dress form.  You can see the alterations and see that it now "fits" and keeps the original grainlines intact!

If you need help adjusting a particular pattern to fit your shape, we offer that service in a private sewing class. Next time we'll begin to sew by quilting the lining to the fashion fabric (a hallmark of Chanel jackets) and successfully sewing princess seams.

Happy Sewing!
Rebecca