Bouclé, Charmeuse and Quilting à la Chanel | Part 3

This is the final and the easiest part, readers! Today I will show you how to quilt the lining and bouclé for your Chanel-inspired garment. All the prep work is behind us, can you believe it?!

This part will take you an hour or two depending on how complex is your pattern. It took me an hour to quilt my 8-piece cape, and another hour or slightly less to clean up the thread ends and make tiny corrections. 

In the previous part we prepared our garment pieces for quilting and the layers of lining fabric, organza interfacing and bouclé were pinned or tailored-basted together. We took a break, good for keeping up your mojo high in non-sewing class conditions.

What you'll need now is:

• Walking foot for your machine to make sure there is minimum shifting of fabric layers during quilting. (if you don't have a walking foot I would baste the layers together along quilting lines - this will cost extra time though)
• For stitching, preferably silk floss, mercerized cotton, or embroidery thread (but polyester thread would do as well, actually)
• Microtex needles. I am recommending a microtex needle for bouclés that have novelty threads, lurex etc inside - those are very nasty with a regular needle. If your boucle doesn't have those, you are fine with a Universal needle, but make sure the number is a compromise for bouclé and silk combination. I am sewing with #70 Microtex. 

STEP 1

Stitch along marked quilting lines! As easy as that! Leave your thread ends long, so you can tie them off comfortably (Step 2). 

A word of caution: do look where you start and finish - your quilted lines must start and end 1" (2.5cm) from the closest stitching line. We will need that space to accommodate seam allowances once your garment is assembled. 

Another word of caution: Don't backtack! I will show you a better and tidier method of securing your stitching lines in the next step

STEP 2

Remove pins or basting and give your quilted pieces a light steam press, using silk organza press cloth. Don't overpress it - just a light touch with a little steam would be enough - you don't want your bouclé look like pressed towel. 

loose thread ends

Fold back the edge portion of the lining to expose the end of the stitching line

Pull the thread ends between your fashion fabric and lining layers. 

I am not cutting it, just pulling the thread gently. You can also use a pin to help pull the thread.

both threads ends are between the layers

Tie off the thread ends and trim them. In her Thread's article "Inside a Chanel Jacket", Susan Khalje recommends using a stronger and more durable jeweler's knot to tie off the thread ends. To tie the know really close to the last stitch use a pin. 

First, make a knot loop using your fingers (as you would normally do it), but before you tie it off, place a pin inside the loop. 

Pull the thread with the pin inside the loop and move the pin as close to the last stitch as possible. Remove the pin, voilà. 

However, if this is too complicated, or if your thread ends are too short to make a jeweler's knot, use your regular double knot, just try to get it as close to the last/first stitch as possible. 

That's it! Finita la comedia! Farce is over, readers!

QUILTING AND SHRINKING

After I made my Chanel-inspired jacket, some of you asked me whether the garment pieces shrank after quilting. No. There was no shrinking. Shrinking is likely to happen if you quilt excessively, but with vertical lines every 1" or so, you should be fine. If you are not sure, however, do compare the quilted pieces to your muslin, or original paper pattern and adjust stitching lines, or any other markings accordingly.

NEXT STEPS

For my cape, I will be putting the pieces together as a next step. I am not sure how much interest this posts generate so I won't be making another tutorial for the assembly. But do let me know if you are interested. 

A new thing for me would be Chanel buttonholes. I must admit that I have never made hand-worked buttonholes, which scare  me a lot. And this cape does ask for some nice buttons, but that's a whole new story!..

If you missed previous parts of this tutorial, here are the links: {Part 1} {Part 2}. Also, check out my other tutorials and tips.

All the resources I used or referenced in this tutorial are listed in the Part 1. However, in my opinion, Threads Archive is the best resource for most of the techniques I use in my sewing, so if you can, do get a hold of it. Here is the link on Threads website. 

Now your turn, readers! Have you quilted bouclé before? Any tips, experiences you want to share? Do you think this technique is functional or just a gimmick?.. 

Bouclé, Charmeuse and Quilting à la Chanel / Part 2

Are you ready, readers? We are about to start with one of the most interesting sewing techniques, widely used by Chanel in her couture jackets.

Ok, I have told you before, I split this tutorial in several parts and this is Part 2 of 3, where we will cover cutting the lining and preparing it for quilting.

I have structured this tutorial so that each part needs to be finished in one session. Once you start this part you won't be able to remove your silk lining until it's pinned to the fashion fabric. So, depending on how fast you work, you will need two to three hours to complete this part. It's not difficult, really. 

BEFORE YOU START, make sure...

• your fashion fabric is cut with 1" to 2" seam allowance (2" seam allowance is only necessary if your fabric frays like crazy; 1" is good for more stable weaves)
• individual pieces are thread-traced
• lengthwise grain is marked on all cut pieces. (you can skip this for plaids and stripes, just make sure you know which lines follow the lengthwise grain, as opposed to cross grain)
• finally, have your (improvised) pattern weights, transparent ruler and silk pins ready! 
• and, you will also need appr. 1/2 yard (slightly less than 0.5m) of silk organza, or equivalent amount of organza remnants for interfacing (more detailed instructions are below)

ADDING INTERFACING

I suppose, you have your silk organza ready? Sorry, why silk organza? It doesn't add bulk, and it is great for stabilizing and interfacing. Actually, feel welcome to contribute your ideas on silk organza while I am getting on with the tutorial.

I am using this huge triangle of silk organza from the times when I thought that making 1 yard of bias tape requires cutting a yard of silk organza into two triangle pieces and using only the longer  strips. What a waste! I really learned it hard way. Luckily, I did not throw the 'useless' triangle away. 

Why interfacing?

On my cape, I need to interface the top sections from my shoulders to approximately breast and shoulder blades level. I am doing it on all, front and back pieces. On my Chanel-inspired jacket I interfaced only the front, but here, the cape is not fitted, and it has a lot of fabric hanging from shoulders, which will carry all this weight and stretch over time. So, to avoid any future distortion on the upper portion of the garment, I decided to interface all pieces. 

How much?

The height of the interfacing piece is approximately the distance from shoulder line to the bust. The width will depend on the pattern piece.

So, if you are using a pristine piece of silk organza, just tear off two stripes, the width of which will be equal to your shoulder-to-bust measurement plus 1" seam allowance.

please, press your stripes before attaching them to fashion fabric!

Inserting interfacing

Disclaimer: I initially forgot to add interfacing. So, this image was in fact taken after the lining was cut. But it is much easier to do this step as in the tutorial - before the lining is cut - saves extra 15 min of your time.

Now, take your thread-traced pieces and pin organza to the top portion aligning the crosswise grain. If you have a plaid bouclé, just align the torn edge of your organza strip with the crosswise line of the plaid. Pin to seam allowances. Cut excess fabric. Baste along the seamlines.

Voilà!

PREPARING and GRAINING LINING FABRIC

I use a larger table to cut lining. My silk charmeuse was torn at cross grain, which gave me a pretty accurate guide for aligning the fabric. 

Tearing fabric along cross grain saves time required for graining. But you may ask, whether your (woven) fabric will respond well to it. Well, try to make a test. Cut a small nick in the selvedge, just where you would want it to be cut, and rip the lining gently. If it works well than you are fine. Otherwise, especially with very fine fabrics, you will need to pull out a thread from one edge to the other and cut along the gap line. 

Lay out your lining on a rectangular table, face down, aligning the cut/torn edge and one selvedge along two adjacent table edges. Of course, a cutting mat is perfect for this task, but you can also do without it.

You may now discover that, when  you lay out your charmeuse, or other silk lining, the non aligned edge of the lining behaves weirdly: pulling fabric, or not forming a perfect straight line. In this case, the culprit is the selvedge. Try cutting off the selvedge on both edges very carefully (just for the portion that you need to cut your lining pieces from). This should solve the problem.

Align your lining fabric along table edges again. Secure it with small pattern weights. 

LAYING OUT PATTERN PIECES

The most important thing here is the Grain! This is probably the most time-consuming and boring step. I hate this step and get anxiety attack every time I have to do it. So have a chocolate and put on some cheesy music. Think that once you are over with it the rest is super easy, really. 

1. Lay out fashion fabric pieces on lining

So, your lining fabric is laid out face down on the cutting table. You will now lay your cut fashion fabric pieces - not pattern pieces - on the lining fabric, face up. The reason is, that, once the layers are aligned and grained, we will just pin seam allowances together, and cut. Pins will hold the two layers together until they are quilted and ready to be assembled. 

2. I Will Measure, Yeah, Measure

When laying out cut fashion fabric (face up!) on lining fabric, all you need to do is think about the Grain! It must be already marked/thread-traced on your fashion fabric. Take your 2"-wide transparent ruler, and measure the distance between the silk lining selvedge (or the silk edge) and the grain line. I usually measure at the bottom of the grain line, then in the middle, and finally, at the top. If the piece is short, measure the distance only at the top and at the bottom. The distance to the edge should be the same along the grain. 

Carefully pin along the grainline of the aligned fashion fabric piece to join it with the silk lining. Try not to move fabric.

If your next piece is further from the edge of the lining fabric, measure distance to the grainline of the closest piece that had been already aligned.

3. Pin

Once you laid out all pieces on the grained lining, pin seam allowances, and cut the lining along the cutting edges of the fashion fabric pieces. 

4. Cut

Carefully remove the cut layers and put them on a flat surface.

5. Répétez s'il vous plait!

If you were not able to accommodate all pieces at once, you may need to repeat this step for the remaining lining. 

PREPARING FOR QUILTING

You will need: chalk marker (white), ruler, pins (or basting needle and thread), walking foot.

If you googled Chanel quilting, you may have found out that you can quilt lines, squares, trapezoids, circles, animal shapes... basically anything, as long as it follows the pattern on bouclé.

Now, dear sewing nerds! I mean, sorry, you are sewing nerds if you didn't give up on this tutorial! Dear sewing nerds, be disappointed, quilting vertical lines is absolutely sufficient to fulfill the function of quilting. Unless, you do want to torture yourself!

If your boucle pattern has defined vertical lines, you will quilt along those lines every 1" (2.5 cm). It is ok if the distance between lines is slightly wider or narrower.

If you are sewing with solid bouclé fabric, you will need to mark on it vertical lines, 1" apart, using a chalk and a ruler.

The lines start and stop 1" (2.5 cm) from the closest seamline! Use a marker to mark the starting and the ending point of your quilting line.


Now, let's STABILIZE FABRIC LAYERS....

... (a) MASOCHISTIC WAY

... using tailor basting to secure layers between your future quilting lines. This is a great method to conclude a very stressful day - some monotonous hand sewing! Add incense sticks, esoteric music and wait for that portal to open... 

... or (b) SANE WAY

...just pin between the lines, but please straighten the lining underneath your fashion fabric before!

Lay your prepared fabric flat until you are ready to quilt!

MAJQA, readers! Which is 'well done' in Klingon. Please, forgive me for any infantile statements - I am still sick!

Questions?

Bouclé, Charmeuse and Quilting à la Chanel

Ok, my quilting tutorial is an epic. Again. 

I somehow manage to produce annals on simplest things. Give me a catchstitch and I will return it with a PhD-worthy manual.

The same is happening here. And before I overload you with details, check out this quick intro on what you will need to quilt your bouclé à la Chanel.

How did I learn these techniques? First by reading Claire Shaeffer articles, book and instructions for her highly-coveted Vogue#8259 Chanel Jacket, which I was very lucky to find. I also took a Classic French Jacket Class with Susan Khalje, and the techniques I learnt there were very similar to those I learnt myself, but nothing, of course, can replace face-to-face learning experience. 

I am now working on my Colette Fall Palette cape, which I decided to make from a nice black and white even plaid bouclé I bought at Mendel and Goldberg. The cape is lined with printed silk charmeuse from Mood Fabrics. It was only natural to make it following Chanel techniques, instead of following Burda instructions, because I wanted to have a piece that feels luxurious, soft and warm, and, at the same time, a piece that would last longer. 

Techniques you will find here are a mix and modification from classes, publications and pattern instructions, see the resources at the end of this post. At the end of the post, you will find links to resources that go into depth about quilting. 

Ready?

FABRICS? OR, WHY I AM QUILTING…

I bought relatively loosely-woven bouclé for the cape. I (now) know that, after a while, some portions of the cape will sag if I don’t stabilize it. This will happen mostly to the upper part of the garment, since it carries the most weight. Excess fabric will show at the bottom part which will look like a bubble... 

So, the action plan is: quilting lining to boucle, and adding a layer of silk organza on the upper portion of pattern pieces as an interfacing - to further stabilize the fabric and the seams without adding bulk.

Here is what I am using for my project:

• Wool bouclé 
• Silk Charmeuse Lining – silk charmeuse is a very good choice for warmer garments. However, there are more choices for silk linings - I discussed some of them in my Burda Style guest post.
• Silk Organza for interfacing. 

Got scrap organza? Never through away remnants of organza, or organza selvedge!!!! Never!!! You will need every square inch! Bigger pieces (5 to 10 sq. in.) are good for interfacing the area around armscye. Smaller, literally 1 sq. in. pieces, are great for interfacing buttonholes and button areas.

TOOLS & NOTIONS:

• 2"-wide transparent ruler – is a must, since makes life so much easier 
• WHITE chalk marker – pen-style Clover chalk liners are the best I have tried. Never use yellow! It will leave permanent marks on your fabric.
• Finest silk pins – you don’t want to leave marks on your precious silk
• Japanese hand basting needles – for thread-tracing and basting
• Silk thread in contrasting color for hand basting and thread tracing. Pulling out silk basting is much easier! 

QUILTING IS DONE BY MACHINE, and you will need…

• A walking foot – you will struggle without, but still can try if you want on a scrap.
• Silk floss, machine embroidery threador mercerized cotton for machine-quilting
• Microtex needle - I am using Microtex because it works best with both, silk and bouclé, which often contains some novelty threads (Universal needle just could not pierce through the latter without breaking thread). #70 works great

RESOURCES:

As promised, here are some resources you may want to explore in addition to the upcoming tutorial:

Claire Shaeffer. The Comfortable Side of Couture: Practical techniques of Coco Chanel. First published in Threads Magazine, June/July 1989, Issue 23. Republished in The Best of Threads: Designer Techniques, Spring/Summer 2011 (Thread Archives contain several Chanel-related tutorials and articles by both, Claire Shaeffer and Susan Khalje).

Claire Shaeffer. Couture Sewing Techniques:Revised & Updated. Chapter: Applying Couture Techniques: The Quilted Lining (p. 195)

Vogue Patterns # 8259. Chanel-inspired jacket. Custom Couture by Claire Shaeffer. Here, the quilting is slightly different then in the other sources, but the pattern has great step-by-step instructions and the highly-coveted three-piece sleeve.

For hands-on experience, join Susan Khalje’s class Classic French Jacket, usually in Baltimore, MA, or Claire Shaeffer class in Palm Springs, CA.

Part II of the Quilting à la Chanel will include: 

• Laying Out & Cutting Lining.
• Adding Interfacing.
• Preparing Layers for Machine-Quilting. 

I will post the second part on Wednesday - at the moment both, me and my 2-years old are still sick, so tomorrow a lighter treat:  trend report inspired by this week's Sew Weekly Challenge: Spanish Harlem.

That’s it for today, readers! Questions?

Back to Chanel... now with a skirt!

Remember my Chanel-inspired jacket?

Now it's time to finish this chapter by addressing the skirt, won't you agree, readers?
The thing is, I have almost two yards (got to check, actually) of the same boucle left... How could it happen? Well, I bought end of a bolt and got a good deal for this very generous amount of bouclé!

Ok, back to skirt! I must admit, I am tired of pencil skirts, and this is a welcome opportunity to do something different. Well, not VERY different... To be precise,.. look at this image from Chanel Fall 2011 RTW show...

Source

So, I do want to have a continuous line running at the center front through the jacket and the skirt. I have only couple of flowers left from the trim, so I would need to find a solution for a coherent look, but I think I can come up with something.

I am not in a rush, so this skirt will be going along other sewing projects, one step a week. Obviously, I will start with a muslin (I will need to match and I want to cut the fabric knowing that I won't need to make any alterations). Then, there will be quilting, shaped waist, lining clean-up etc. I will be posting the progress here.

If you have never worked with boucle using Chanel-inspired techniques - this is a great project to test your patience! And if you are up to it and want to have a sew-along, I will organize this accordingly. If not, it will be a loose progress report :-)

D'accord?