Vogue 7975 - my lovely little French jacket

At one point I became a little (a lot) obsessed with owning a little French jacket. In an ideal world this jacket would be Chanel, in the real world - not very likely. But in my dreams it remained - black wool, slim, elegant. And it would go with everything, solving all my wardrobe woes - in short, my own personal Holy Grail. Realism told me, however, to just let it go.

Then I came upon the sewing internet phenomenon of making your own. A whole new world opened up for me - I could actually make my own couture clothing? Tell me more, I thought. Very, very interesting.

I searched blog upon blog upon blog for the experience experience of others, and decided that while it was a lot of work, it was probably within what I could manage, and it would also push me to challenge myself. I contemplated which pattern to choose. It seemed to be a tie between Vogue 7975 and Vogue 8804, the latter by sewing guru Claire Schaeffer.  Both are clean line shoulder princess seam jackets, but the 8804 has a three piece vented sleeve and of course Claire Schaeffer's couture instructions, including handsewn and bound buttonholes and detailed instructions for quilting the lining to the garment fabric.

 

In the end, I decided that 8804 was a little bit out of my league for now, and judging from the pattern envelope and internet pictures of the two jackets, I felt that 7975 was perhaps a bit more casual and less "suity". I had also read about Susan Khalje's little French jacket class and that she recommended 7975, so who was I to argue? (I have 8804 in my pattern stash, though, and some plans with a pretty fabulous blue Dior wool I happen to have in my posession.)

My little French jacket was a deliciously time consuming project. I say deliciously, because so often I am impatient, rushing through a project, being so focused on getting my dress/shirt/skirt ready that I forget to savour the process. This was something else. If I were to make an estimate, I´d say more than 150 hours.  In this I include the muslin process and the actual sewing of the final jacket. I do not, however, include the research and the two previous versions I made of this jacket before I got started on the real thing.

I like Vogue 7975, but I definitely feel that it needs modifications - I my case, pretty serious modifications. I sewedmy first version straight out of the envelope, size 14, in a fairly thick wool. It was shapeless and frumpy and didn't have much going for it. It was in fact so sad that I have no pictures of it, and since this was before I started blogging I didn't even take any pictures to document the sadness. And now it has passed to that great wardrobe in the sky.

So after getting my wits about me, I started on the first muslin. I learned a lot about muslins from Susan Khalje's Couture dress class on Craftsy. Another great resource was the thread on Chanel jackets (most people here used 8804) on Artisan´s Square. I was a little bit star struck when I saw that Claire Schaeffer herself pitched in with advice, and of course, the amazing Ann Rowley. Ann also made a Flickr set documenting the process step by step, which gave me the final confidence to 

I started by measuring the flat pattern and taking my own measurements. Based on this, I started with a size 12 in the shoulders/high bust, 14 bust, 12 waist and 14 hips. I also raised the armhole around 1 cm and took in the sleeve correspondingly. I decided to cut the undersleeve on the bias to have movement while being able to fit the sleeve really close.

I made the muslin and it became very clear that I needed a full bust adjustment (FBA). I split the princess seam open across the bust and spread it until I got I nice fit. I added the inch or so that I needed to the side front piece. I also took the side front piece in a bit in the high bust, as I wanted a close fit. This is what I ended up with:

Sorry about the poor pic quality, this was before I got a proper camera, and also sorry about the headlessness. By this point I was pretty pleased with the fit, but still apprehensive about cutting into my expensive wool. I had decided to go all out and buy a Linton wool, that I picked up in Misan Textiles in Berwick Street on a visit to London. It was (gulp...) 49 pounds per metre. For the lining I found a fairly heavy black silk crepe de chine in Oslo, which frankly was almost the same price as the Linton. In short, making a mistake was not an option. After much consternation I decided to do one more trial run, with a wearable muslin in cheaper, man made fabrics. Here is the result:

Wearable muslin, Vogue 7975

I thread traced all the pieces, then quilted the lining to the garment fabric before assembling, and then hand felled the lining along the seams. Here you can also see the bias cut undersleeve, which has been a complete revelation to me. I love a narrow sleeve, but would prefer to keep my circulation, and this really does the trick.

here you can see some of the quilting. The poly lining really did not want to press well:

At this point I felt ready to take on the real thing, and I am glad I got a practice run with my wearable muslin. I felt a lot more confident and even as if I knew what I was doing. And during one long Easter, I finalised what is now one of my best loved pieces in my wardrobe. Ta dah!

I struggled for a while to find a trim that I liked, until I found this thin strand of very textured, blossomy trim, that worked well with my textured wool.

At some point I calculated that I did around 12 metres of hand sewing for this jacket. Here are some shots of the quilting and hand felled seams in the inside. (I haven´t installed a chain along the hem yet, but am contemplating buying one from Susan Khalje´s online shop)

Summing up, this jacket for me is about confidence: I feel confident (and comfortable!) when I wear it, and having made in in the first place did wonders for my sewing confidence. It taught me that if I just take it one step at the time, I can learn almost anything. 

So - to anyone contemplating a little French jacket for the first time, I say, go for it! It is so worth it in every way!