I've had the Michelle pattern by Republique du Chiffon in the stash for a while now but kept swerving it - put off by the whole 'jacket' thing. Agggghhh sounds far too complicated. HOWEVER, I did make Gerard and that was an absolute dream of a pattern so I'm not sure where the irrational fear came from.
We'd been having some pretty weird 'in-between' weather at the time I made this so it was ideal to fill the gap of too-hot-for-a-coat-too-cold-for-a-cardy climates.
I'd found some textured 'black stuff' from The Textile Centre on eBay - kind of like wool but really thin, and frays a lot, and bobbly. You should have seen the state of my sewing room after cutting this up - now that was scary.
I traced the pattern off according to the chart - in size 40 - I think its a size too big really and a 38 would do nicely - 'oversized' is fine though for this one.
There are only 15 pattern pieces involved in this which was a nice suprise, and 2 of those were an optional top pocket that I omitted.
The first hurdle was the instructions - the booklet is entirely in French - absolutely not a complaint its a French company and pattern so why wouldn't it be - however technical sewing terms is not a topic we covered at Uni. Merci to Google Translate I happily established that NO SEAM ALLOWANCE is included before cutting it out! Phew.
I then discovered THIS amazing step-by-step construction tutorial. Pure perfect. The construction on this site is completely different from the instruction booklet - however I found it far easier to follow and the order of steps were much more logical. It was quite easy to see everything come together and what needed to be done next.
The bits I feared were adding the shawl collar and lining together at inverted corner points - but this actually proved relatively trouble free. The only unpicking and restitching I had to do was sewing the sleeve lining to the sleeve, which had become twisted inside each other. Thankfully easily rectified.
I would highly recommend this pattern as the end result is part cardigan/part coat - Frankenstein's Jacket if you will. Also a great intro and confidence booster to try a more complicated jacket at a later date perhaps.
I think I have now adopted a new life approach now though - linings must always be glorious.
Having a week or two away from the blog now to catch up on life but in the meantime feel free to comment and come and say hello on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Bloglovin too :-) xx
Oh my -- this is so subtle and perfect. Great styling.
ReplyDeletethanks Annie - hope you are well :-)
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