butterick 5952: cry hallelujah, it is finished

one down, one to go.

a few weeks ago i finished the first of two couture cardigan jackets i began in susan khalje’s workshop in march of this year.

oh, a few weeks ago, you say? then why such a long time to post photos?

oh, i don’t know, why don’t you go ask oona? crazy woman has been on my case for the better part of a year to update my camera situation. she argued, dear friends and readers, on your behalf, using every opportunity we have ever met, like, ever, to encourage me to up the standards a little bit. and by “encourage,” i mean endless mocking and the occasional broken dish. so at last, friends, i offer you this upgrade.

i hope you are satisfied, friend oona. just please don’t break my camera when next we meet.

but back to the good stuff, my jacket of awesomesauce.

just to recap, the pattern originally started life as butterick 5952, a vintage sixties pattern from a stash gifted me by an elderly friend. i fell in love immediately with the pattern details, the length options, the armscye princess seams and the dior darts. i prepared a muslin for it over a year ago and perfected it in march with susan, where she vetoed my attempt at armscye princess seams (shoulder seams provide a better fit and shape in the heavy boucle) but let me keep the dior darts.

for this particular version of the pattern, i chose a chanel haute couture boucle from mendel goldberg fabrics in New York City. i love the vibrant blue and the metallic stripes, and it reminded me of a vintage chanel piece i spied in a consignment shop in paris and have never been able to forgive myself for not buying. what i didn’t realize at the time of purchase was that the weight of this boucle would make fitting a challenge, especially in places that typically require ease. the shoulders were a particular challenge in this lightweight fabric and, in fact, the shoulders do not quite fit properly.

but as i have been known to say, WHO CARES LOOK AT HOW AWESOME MY JACKET IS.

because of the unusual number of fitting changes i had to make to this garment, i regret to say that my stripes do not line up as well as i would like them to, especially along the bust and shoulder princess curves.

BUT WHO CARES LOOK AT HOW AWESOME MY JACKET IS.

i used a three-piece sleeve traced off of a chanel garmet. i borrowed this pattern from susan and have kept a muslin of it for this purpose. i prefer this sleeve instead of a pattern-hacked three-piece sleeve because it has a slight curve in the shape of the arm that i do not think i would be able to replicate. (for more detail on chanel sleeve modifications, make sure to check out the little french jacket sew-along hosted by leisa and inna) the one modification i made on my own was to make it a cropped three-quarter sleeve. i also prefer to leave the sleeve vent open. i think it adds an air of insouciance that i find extremely appealing.

and yes, i noticed that i accidentally used a black button.

BUT WHO CARES LOOK AT HOW AWESOME MY JACKET IS.

details:
pattern – butterick 5952
fabric – chanel haute couture boucle, lined with marc jacobs silk print from mood fabrics in NYC
trim: butterflies, buttons and sequins all courtesy of M&J Trimming in NYC

can i just say that finishing and trimming this took an entire day-long marathon of season two of person of interest? and of course i had help.

previous jacket work:

vogue 7975: seventy hours well spent
return to camp chanel: day two, day three; day four
forgive me, susan khalje, for i have sinned: “shortcut method” experiments