This year after learning from Susan Khalje how to make a Classic French jacket I just had to make a sparkling pink jacket with this Chanel boucle from Minerva to share with you.

Susan toured Australia earlier this year and ran a few intensive technique workshops before travel was stopped because of the pandemic.

This isn’t a jacket style I thought I would ever do but since the workshop, I’ve learnt the techniques and this is my second classic French jacket.

This fabric sparkles and it comes in 3 colourways. The threads in this jacket are similar to gelato flavours.

The fun comes while planning the jacket with all the trims. You can get really creative when choosing trims for this jacket. I do try the jacket on for fit before the trims are sewn on and they jacket without the trims is not flattering on me.

Minerva has all the trims and notions you need to make a great jacket that suits you and your lifestyle.

The trim sets off the colours within the jacket. This jacket is exploding with texture.

You can choose trims that can change the ‘vibe’ of the jacket and I chose to make this jacket to look as soft looking as possible. I love it.

The fabric is woven with so many colours and this pink colour way is so joyful to wear. For me, the next choice was the trims. I stuck to using lighter colour trims. I found it easy to find trims and buttons for this jacket.

The buttons are a classic chanel-ish style and in the cream colour so choosing these buttons kept the French feel to it. Minerva has a huge range of trims and buttons on their website but you can literally choose any trim you want to take your jacket to the ‘next level’.

It really made a difference to me making this jacket during our current cold weather. It’s Winter in Australia and it’s cool enough to realise the beauty of making a classic French jacket. What you can see here are the 3 layers of fabric that make this jacket great to wear in the Winter.

You’ll also realise when the jacket is in this state, you need to take the time to press and clip the seams so you can eventually hand sew the seams closed. It’s not a race to finish.

I used a medium weight silk lining and cotton poplin as the Chanel fabric underlining. These 2 layers give the jacket structure and they breath easily. I need that factor as I’m enjoying wearing this jacket indoors right now. Now when I’m looking at finding fabrics online, I tend to checkout silks for a future jacket.

During the day, I was able to slowly work on this jacket. In an afternoon I cut out the fashion fabric. Another afternoon I would thread trace the stitching lines.

The handsewing on this jacket is done on every piece. There’s about 60 hours of work in this jacket. Yes, at least 60 hours.

That’s really extreme but I love the precision of sewing a French style jacket. This isn’t my everyday choice of sewing but the techniques are simple yet truly fascinating.

I’m working from home and I do wear this jacket for Zoom meetings. I know that sounds crazy but in all honesty, I still like to look presentable when I’m meeting with people. That includes when I’m meeting with people online and in person.

I have enough of this gorgeous fabric left to sew a matching handbag.