Do you love cruise wear?
Chanel cruise ready to wear collection 2014-15
The magic of the fashion show. From the first time I saw the Chanel cruise ready to wear 2014-15 show, I knew I would be inspired by it to create a garment or two of my own, suitable to wear in my every day world. Lets face it even the glamorous ready to wear collections from the famous fashion houses would need a very special occasion to wear them at. Most of us can only dream of living the celebrity lifestyle but what’s wrong with wanting a bit of glamour and excitement to make the everyday more exciting.
I think every image from this 2014-15 show appealed to me, loved how all the models had their legs covered to keep out the cold, living in the northern hemisphere I can appreciate this. Oh, maybe it was for culturally sensitive reasons!! It was nice to see different the trousers/pants with tunics which women of all ages and sizes can comfortably wear, so easy to move about in but elegant and smart at the same time. I am defiantly going to make some trouser tunic sets this year for both work and leisure.
What could be more useful in your wardrobe though than a shirt? So I chose a couple of the Chanel official images as my starting point I’ve pinned them here & here .
And this is a picture of the fabric inspiration here….
I happened to have a piece of fabric in my own stash box left over from a previous project, just enough to use with the white cotton shirting, I’m sure the Chanel shirts are made from the finest silk.
I played around with a few ideas and made a quick sketch as usual, always useful for explaining what you are intending to make or reminding yourself where you are going with a garment, of course things can be changed, nothing is made until its finished. I used a tried and tested (tnt) shirt pattern, which I manipulated a bit for length and sleeve design.
The woven pink fabric, which is silk, kept wanting to fray at the edges and unravel itself so I decided to overclock/serge the edges and sewed it up using regular seams not flat felled seams, which I generally prefer on a shirt. When I’m sewing together a shirt I follow a set working order so regardless of the fabric or design changes I know where I am and what to do next.
Here a couple of photos of the finished shirt, I tried different ways of styling it but it was not quite right so I unpicked the collar and removed it. I’ve kept it though and looking back on the photos, I may be tempted to put it back on again.
What do you think?
Does it look better with or without the collar and how do you get on sewing your own shirts? If you don’t make your own shirts, why not?
