Earlier this year I attended Susan Khalje’s Classic French jacket workshop. Susan toured Australia earlier this year before travel was stopped because of the pandemic.

This isn’t a jacket style I thought I would ever do but with the chance to learn from Susan again, making the Classic French jacket was one that had such mystery and history that I took the punt to do.

The fabric is Linton fabric. Love the flags on the fabric but it’s the best blue to wear with denim. The red trim, gold chain and buttons were sourced by Susan. When we paired these together they scream French.

Now when working from home is over, I’ll make the skirt from the remaining fabric. For now the fabric will sit in the stash until that day arrives.

I did have to use a white cotton poplin fabric to interline the Linton fabric. I had sourced the silk lining from a bridal fabric sale I went to in Brisbane a few years ago.

The workshop was full on and was held in February. It’s really too hot and humid at time of year so I was only able to finish the hand stitching in May. The weather finally cooled down so one night, in front of the telly, I finished the hand sewing.

Uhm. That‘ s not the end of my Classic French jacket journey. I’ve finished jacket #2 and I’m working my way through jacket #3. The weather in Sydney is cold so now is my time to plough through my fabrics to make a few versions because I now really love how this time consuming jacket is really comfy to wear.

While we’re living in the strange time, I’ve loved wearing this jacket to family dinners, when the isolation rules were less strict. Oh and this is so much fun to wear when on Zoom meetings. It can get cold in our home at Winter and I’ve loved the fact that I’ve got a couple of jackets that feel soft enough to wear like a Cardi. Crazy but this is a strange time that we live in.