My trip to Paris last November was my third visit to this exciting and wonderful city of lights but in many ways last year was the trip of a lifetime for me. Oh, I'm sure I'll go back to Paris someday but no two things are ever the same- you can't recreate the past and would you want to if you could? Last year's trip will always be special because it focused on my passion for textiles, fashion and shopping and what better place than Paris to indulge this particular passion. One of my purchases was an exquisite piece of authentic Chanel wool boucle for a Chanel style jacket. An added benefit was that everyone else on the trip shared the same interests and I meet new friend, Kate. We have stayed in touch via email and she is the one that inspired me to start blogging and to blog about the culmination of the Paris adventure.
Next month I am going to St Louis for a week to take a class and make my jacket. The teacher is Susan Khalje, author, host of Sew Perfect and the creator and tour guide for the Paris trip. So at Kate's suggestion this is the story of my jacket.
The jacket fabric has a soft pink yarn and a black metallic silver thread running through the black wool. The lining fabric is ia a silk print and the yarns will possibly be the trim.
The first step in the process was to create a muslin according to Susan's very specific instructions. The muslin will become the pattern so it is important that the fit be established and perfect before the fabric is cut. Thanks to the flat pattern class I took with Debra McDowell I was able to draft my own pattern and have a much better fit than it possible with a commercial pattern. The finished muslin looks perfect from the front but the photo of the back reveals a problem I was not aware of until I saw this picture. The wrinkles across the back suggest that I need to straigthen out the lines of the jacket for a boxier cut. So it is back to the sewing room for one more alteration.
