In My Haven: French Jacket

This week in my haven I have a very special sewing project to share, one that I started eleven years ago. It began back in 2012, when Mad Men was one of the most popular shows and menswear styles were in fashion. I was a big fan of both the show and the classic look of these tailored styles, so I set about planning to make a Chanel-style tweed jacket. I downloaded a pattern from Burdastyle and bought some tweed fabric and navy blue velvet piping to use as the trim. I promptly cut out all the pattern pieces with great attention to detail. I used pinking shears to cut the tweed so that it wouldn't fray. I carefully lined up the pieces so that the vertical stripes in the tweed would be parallel on each side of the jacket. I started sewing the lining of the jacket, and then I…stopped. For eleven whole years, I just put away the pieces and let myself be too intimidated by the project to continue.

Like with so many things in life, it took encouragement and support from others to get me over this hurdle. For the past couple months Chicago Sews, a social group for sewing enthusiasts, has been having a French Jacket Sew-Along. Being able to share the journey of completing this sewing project that has a certain mystique surrounding it has made is possible for me to overcome my hesitation that my sewing skills wouldn't measure up. All the events where we got to talk about our pattern picks, share fitting and construction advice, and swoon over each other's fabrics and trims were a huge source of motivation.

In addition to the wonderful experience of sewing alongside others, I'm so pleased with the final result. There were a few sewing challenges along the way, but it mostly stemmed from the fact that I no longer had the written instructions that went along with the pattern. Let me share a little tour of my French jacket and a bit about what went into each part of sewing it.

Fabric and Trim

French jackets were made iconic by the Chanel design company and are usually made from bouclé or tweed fabrics. One of their defining features are the coordinating trims along the jacket front and pockets. For my jacket, I chose a tweed, which has a smoother texture than most bouclé fabrics. The dominant colors in this tweed are tan, navy blue, and black, but there are vertical red stripes that give it more interest, as well as subtle forest green horizontal stripes. I chose to emphasize the navy blue threads in the weave by using navy blue velvet piping as my trim. In comparison to many French jackets, my fabric and trim choices are on the understated end of the spectrum. This, however, will make the jacket much more wearable in my daily life than one that features more flashy materials.

Lining

A typical French jacket has a lining that is quilted to the outer fabric instead of hanging loose. The texture of the outer fabric hides the quilting stitches, and the quilted lining gives the jacket its soft structure. There is also a lot of hand stitching that goes into finishing the interior of a couture French jacket because of this quilted lining. My jacket doesn't have a quilted lining, mostly because that's not the construction method that my pattern included. I used this tutorial to help me figure out to bag my lining instead. Before even getting to this step though, I had to figure out how to add more structure to my jacket since my tweed fabric was fairly drapey and I wasn't quilting my lining. I followed the advice I found here and used fusible interfacing in certain sections of my jacket. I think it added just the right amount of support to the fabric to keep it from sagging.

Pockets

Pockets are another iconic detail of Chanel's designer jackets, and are another spot where the jacket can be personalized. The original jacket pattern I chose did not feature pockets at all, but I decided partway through the sewing process that I wanted mine to have pockets. I chose to add patch pockets, even though welt pockets would have looked great too. I fussy-cut the pockets so that they would blend in with the jacket front and then I carefully hand stitched the pockets. There's a band of velvet piping along the pocket's top edge to echo the jacket's front edges.

Fit and Comfort

Once I finished my jacket and put it on, the first thing that struck me was how comfortably it fit. Structured jackets are not the garment that usually comes to mind when I think of comfy clothes, but this jacket is genuinely comfortable. A couture French jacket is meant to feel like wearing a cardigan, and mine does. This fact will make me want to pull it out of my closet more often, I'm sure. I think this style will work equally well for wearing on a date night as it will for wearing in a professional work setting. I'm excited to wear it tomorrow with corduroys and a simple t-shirt to Chicago Sews’ celebration luncheon, and to see everyone else’s beautiful makes too.