Did you say "Chanel"?

There's nothing better than receiving a gift that you didn't expect to receive. Even better when it's sewing related.

At first my reaction was, "no, not another book".  The book is called "Famous Frocks.  The Little Black Dress" by Dolin Bliss O'Shea.  On further inspection it was a book with patterns included, and to boot there is an interpretation of a dress by Coco Chanel. Now you've got me interested. Having said that, I don't think I'II ever purchase a Chanel outfit, one, because of price and two, because of my size (I doubt that I am their target market).

However, I do appreciate the design style.

The book looks like the instructions are very clear and easy to follow, my criticism is that the sizing could have been extended up another two dress sizes.

The author interprets designs worn by Ava Gardner and Audrey Hepburn.  However, I look forward to making the interpretation of a dress by Coco Chanel!

Watch here to see my interpretation!

Happy sewing everyone.

Sandra

Decades of Style 1940s Claremont Coat (Part 2)

Sewing is the one constant in my life, I've been sewing for longer than I can remember.  Sometimes the simplest of things can give us the most difficulties.

This blog post continues on from my previous post https://sandralovessewing.blogspot.com.au/

This pattern is a beautiful coat to sew.  The pattern is not hard, until you decide to stray from the instructions.  I knew that I wasn't going to hand sew the lining in (as per the instructions), so, one of my challenges was to bag the lining.  However, unlike my previous attempt at this technique, I wanted it to be perfect.  Herein lies the problem, when you strive for some sort of perfection, this in itself can be a blocker.  I never used to be like this, yes, I always have strived for my sewing items to be top quality finish, I think I think about things too much these days.

I overcame my block with bagging the lining, and am happy with the finish.  Then another blocker was thrown in my path.  The buttonholes!  Of course I couldn't finish the buttonholes, the fabric was too thick for the automatic buttonhole to work efficiently.

Then it was suggested to me that I could make a bound buttonhole.  So, I thought about it for a while, did a bit of research, and decided that it would have been better to have planned to do this from the beginning.

Back to the drawing board.  I could:

1. get a business that specialises in button holes to do the button holes for me.
2. hand sew the button holes
3. investigate whether there was an attachment for my machine that would deal with bulky fabric

The third option began to grow legs after investigation on good old Google.

Phone call to my sewing machine centre, and low and behold, I have finally finished my @decades_of_style coat.  Set with vintage buttons:

So, lesson learnt:

1. Plan all aspects of your sewing from the beginning
2. Make sure you've got all the right equipment to do the job

I will make this coat again, it feels very nice on.

Happy sewing everyone, glad I got this one done before the end of winter!

Sandra

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