Vogue 7151 Jacket and skirt Chanel style

Reviewed by:	Ann Smith	About Ann Smith CA USA Member since: 8/24/02 Reviews written: 155 Sewing skills:Advanced Favored by: 186 people patterns reviewed: 152 Bio: I love to sew for fashion, especially unusual designs. I own way too many patterns and fabric! I hav...full profile
Posted on:	10/21/04 7:21 PM
Last Updated:	10/21/04 7:52 PM
Pattern Size:	Regular
Project Photo:
Pattern Photo:	Pattern Information provided by Ann Smith
This is a wonderful pattern for your Chanel style jacket. Unfortunately Vogue discontinued this. How strange for them to do that just when the style is sweeping the country in popularity. It may be available as it was just a year or so ago. The pattern includes a semi-fitted, partially interfaced, lined jacket either above or below the hip with shoulder pads and long sleeves. View A has a collar. There is also a semi-fitted, slightly tapered lined skirt with back zipper and a bias, flared skirt with a side zipper. The suit looks very much like the pattern as pictured. I originally made view C jacket with view F skirt. When I decided to sew up this wonderful boucle from Michael's I searched through my vast pattern collection plus all those available that I don't already own. I wanted a collar this time and lining as the boucle can be scratchy. After considering many possibilities I circled back and choose the view A of the pattern I had already used. I already had the fitting worked out, it had a collar, lining and used so little fabric I could also make the skirt. The instructions are very good and easy to follow. It is actually quite an easy project. Takes a bit of time because of hand sewing and lining, but no tricky techniques. Vogue rates it Average difficulty. I liked that it included interfacing of the jacket, an important step in working with boucle. It ravels easily and is soft so the fusible interfacing makes it a lot easier to handle. I also really liked the collar. It is very simple to sew and quite attractive I think. I made several changes. I relocated the pockets to be more flattering. On the breasts is not a good look for me. They are not real pockets, just decorative flaps, easy to put anywhere. In fact I didn't add them at all until the jacket was complete and I had a little bit of trim left over. I did not have enough to trim the hem of the skirt. I made the trim from the selvedge of the fabric. Surprisingly it was a black stripe. Surprising because there is no black in the weave of the fabric. I used the black stripe and the bit of yellow on the edge. I narrowed the black stripe some which gave me a bit of yellow fringe. Then I added some fringe made from a crosswise cut of the fabric as there was a lot more color in that fringe. I stitched this to the back of the selvedge edge. I got this idea to make a giant button out of the trim. I didn't want to make a button hole that big sew I sewed a large snap for the closure. The other change was to the waistline of the skirt. I don't understand why the instructions call for lining the skirt and then adding binding. Instead I used seam tape to stabilize the waist line and then stitched the lining, wrong sides together, turned right side out and top-stitched the edge. Nice clean finish. I did my usual FBA and lowered the fullness as well. I shortened the skirt also. I see that my dress form does not fill out the jacket quite like I do. I guess I need to pad it out a bit! I highly recommend this pattern. I hope you can find it.