Sewing a Coco Chanel-Style Suit

One of my goals for the year was to sew a jacket, and when I discovered that Austin School of Fashion Design had an 8-week course called the "Coco Chanel Suit," I knew I couldn't pass up the opportunity. It's been a dream, and I can hardly believe that I'm just about done making my own suit!

The pattern for the class is Vogue 8804, a Claire Shaeffer pattern. It has princess seams, side panels to provide extra shaping, and a three-piece sleeve. In the first class we talked a bit about the history of the Coco Chanel suit, which was originally designed to be made from a knit as a lightweight jacket. So it's a bit odd that I'm using it to learn tailoring, but it's fascinating to learn about all that goes into making these jackets nowadays.

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It turned out that I was the only student to sign up, and ASFD had the tremendous good nature to keep the course just for me. So I've been getting private lessons essentially from Karen, an amazing seamstress and professor at The University of Texas. We started out with a muslin in a straight size 14. There was a CRAZY amount of ease up at the top of that sleeve cap, and it was a little bit big at the waist and shoulders. My right side is pinned in, and the left is how it fit straight out of the envelope.

Muslin #2 went a little better. My left arm is the the second take on the sleeve, and the right is the third. Much better! We took out some ease at the top of the sleeve cap, and then cut into the armscye slightly. I had a bit of tightness there.  We also placed the sleeve about 1/4" off my shoulder, so it would be easier to wear sweaters and such underneath it.

It's about at this point that I started to get really excited. To be honest, I had never imagined myself wearing a Chanel-style suit. They are beautiful garments, but not something I really pictured in my wardrobe. By the time we finished with the second muslin, though, I realized it could totally work for me. It really is a lovely, classic piece, and we made adjustments in the muslin for it to be a little less boxy and more shapely so it would work well with my figure and personal taste. It also helped that I found great fabric, a black and cream polka dot wool from Mood. 

With the muslin finally fitting well, I got to cutting and sewing! I picked a fabric where I would need to match up the print, because I wanted to have a teacher walk me through what to do. I've matched up tons of prints, but I still struggled with getting that sleeve area right. The steps to do it are the same as the ones I mentioned in my plaid shirtwaist post from last winter, but it helped so much to have a teacher showing for me how to do it. I think it's finally stuck in my brain!  

When it came time for the pockets, I decided that I didn't really care for the patch pocket look. You can see my paper placeholder below, with the hem pinned up to get an idea. I'm so short-waisted, that I just didn't think it was going to look right on me. So I decided to do welt pockets instead, a superb tailoring technique. The back of the fabric has a very nice stripe that I wanted to use some place, and it turned out to be a great spot to show off the contrast. 

Below is a photo of the guts, midway through construction of the welt pockets. I went with a wider welt pocket, with 3/4" "lips" to really showcase the stripe from the back of the fabric. You can also see that the entire jacket is underlined in muslin, which I really liked doing. It gives the jacket a little bit of extra body, and a touch of warmth (at least enough for Texas). I still interfaced the facings, too. 

For the lining, I'm using fire engine red so it really pops. I'll also be making a matching pencil skirt to go with it. It's all so very exciting! My mom came over for dinner one evening, and I was showing her the suit in progress, and she said, "You're never going to buy another jacket or coat again." Yes, she's totally right! Why would I now?!