Chanel Style Jacket 3. (finished)

The time has come to set in the sleeves. This is the part I used to dread... I'm a perfectionist, just like my mother (who's a dressmaker for living for about 30 years and she would NEVER give the customer something that wouldn't be perfect), and without proper experience, the sleeves are easy to screw up. I couldn't quite put my finger on the easing and the sleeves usually looked a bit... withered. Limp. No energy there. No nice shoulders.

Luckily, I overcame that :)

There are two easing techniques I learned and use. There's the pin method. The part that has to be eased is pinned with many pins; the fabric of the sleeve cap is a bit bunched up between each two pins. Sculpted, one might say.

This is the desired effect: the sleeve cap is puffed up a bit, which creates more room for the shoulder.

The second easing technique is by machine basting and pulling the thread. Just like when you want to gather, but you don't quite gather. It's easier than the pin method, but less precise in my opinion. Or in my hands. My mom eases with thread and her sleeves are perfect.

After pinning the eased cap in I hand basted the sleeve to the jacket. There's a big mess of fabric, lining pieces, threads and wide seam allowances that's not easy to navigate under the machine foot, so I wanted to be sure nothings slips or skews.

I trimmed the seam allowances and finished the lining just like with the other seams.

Well, that's almost all... What was left was finishing all the hems, including the sleeves. There's no facing in chanel jackets, the edges get just turned and catchstitched:

The lining is then trimmed and fellstitched to the fabric.

The neckline needs to be clipped, of course, otherwise the lining would pull:

Done!

What's left are the embellishments. Because I don't look good in light powdery colors, the jacket needs some black trims, probably appliqué. But I'm gonna let that mature for some time. There are other projects waiting...