Can I sew a jacket as good as Chanel?
200 hours, 1 jacket, and a new sewing pattern for you
Presenting the third installment of the Anatomy of a Garment!
Over the past two months, I reached the limits of decision fatigue over tweed choices, learned the true meaning of FOMO when it comes to trim options, and generally exhausted my lifetime quota of the word "tweed."
I spent about a month hand-stitching stay tape, quilting lining, extracting threads from my fabric to create my own 5-strand braid embellishments, meticulously pattern-matching everything, and carefully hand-stitching that final weighted chain along the hem.
All that to create one deceptively simple jacket.
As someone who was never really compelled by the Chanel-style tweed jacket, I'm surprising myself when I say that this was one of the most grueling, yet gloriously enjoyable projects I've ever done, and a grand lesson in withholding judgments.
Unlike something as general as trousers or a button-up shirt, the Chanel tweed jacket exists in a vast web of interconnected sources and resources. Going down one narrow rabbit hole alone could result in an 8-part docuseries.
I admit, my FCPX timeline when I first started editing was about 8 hours long. It took me about a month to whittle things down to what I thought would be the most essential and hopefully interesting to you.
(Also if you happen to be an editor who gets my video style, please get in touch. I might just really need you in my life!!!!)
For construction nuances, I relied on the detailed tips of Claire Schaefer in Couture Tailoring, 1950s articles detailing the "Chanelisms" of the jacket, and Mary Funt's Cloning Couture blog—an incredible resource. Loic Prigent also makes some fun Chanel behind the scenes mini docs.
Selecting the tweed was perhaps the most agonizing part of this process. I've never experienced such decision fatigue in my entire sewing life. I ordered samples from Mahlia Kent, Linton Tweeds, Moessmer, and some local manufacturers, and had the hardest time deciding which candy to bite into first. I ultimately chose the Moessmer fabric as it felt the most "neutral" of all the colorways I ordered. By this point in my research, I'd also discovered the Chanel jacket's Austro-Hungarian roots (Moessmer is based in South Tyrol), which made the choice feel even more fitting.
The Pattern
As promised, here is the pattern if you want to give this jacket a go! You can download A4 for home printing or A0 if you have a print shop nearby.
If you have any questions, just shoot me a message here in the comments and I’ll try to get back to you. You can also follow along in my video above, where I’m using the same pattern.
Happy making, and happy weekend. Keep me posted on your progress if you do decide to make one for yourself!
Warmest,
Victoria
I appreciated the storyline of your content! 😀🦋!! Informative and creative!! Thank you!!🤗!!
thank you!