Advancement a la Chanel

Progress has been made! Hurray!

Pockets are on, so now I turn my attention to the trim and braid for the main body of the jacket - the fronts and around the neck.

I'm using a black polyester ribbon that has to be steamed into a curve for the neckline. Gathered on the inside edge with hand stitches to pull it into a curve and pinned out onto the ironing board using the template that comes with the pattern - no amount of stream, pressing, effort or swearing is going to make this ribbon shrink.

So I've ended up with bubbles and wrinkles but I'm hoping when the trim is sewn on it will hide them all.
This unshaped ribbon is then hand sewn 5/8" all the way around the neckline and fronts of the jacket.

There - trim added and hides the wonky grosgrain ribbon. Result!

More hand sewing still to be done and that's for the shaping of the jacket. It is a very boxy shape but there's a neat little trick with tiny hand sewn darts in the lining and then shrinking the shell fabric to fit. this technique makes the lining smaller than the jacket so the tweed is then shrunk to match.

Look at the difference it makes to the waistline.

 Six teeny-weaney darts, four at the back and two at the front, really no more than 3mm each, hours spent steaming and pressing and now there is a waist. Impressive.

Next, on to the sleeves.....but that may have to wait until after Christmas.


Preparations for Christmas are almost complete; there are a lot of services to go to in the next few days and I'm sure there will be choir robes to be hemmed and buttons to be replaced.

My newest scar is located between my shoulder blades and is healing nicely; the Superwoman scar on my leg still hurts but is also healed and quite spectacular to behold. Back to derm on 11th Jan for another review and then perhaps we can get on with life as we know it. Once again, thank you all for your good wishes for a speedy recovery - I really appreciate your kind thoughts.

Ruth