Patchwork Vest finished!

The patchwork vest workshop I mentioned last week was so much fun! 

At the workshop!

There were 10 of us there, stitching together for 6 hours while chatting and enjoying. We mostly finished our vests. 

The pattern we were using has a feature panel on the left front side, and then I pulled the colours from that for the simple patchwork I made for the left front and back. Others in the group are much more accomplished quilters and they made fancier patchwork which was stunning. For mine, I used a simple block, using stitch and flip to attach the rows directly onto my precut batting and backing. 

Once I finished my patchwork (mostly done before I showed up at the workshop), I was able to cut it to size and then we sewed them together and made sizing tweaks. It was great to have an expert there to help us make small adjustments that made such a difference in fit! The main part of sewing that I did at the workshop was sewing the interior hidden seams by hand. It was a cool technique which makes the vest essentially reversible, if you so wish. 

I had the binding for the armholes and & edges ready, but ran out of time. So I sewed on my basic black binding at home, and decided to hand-stitch the interior down to get it as tidy as possible. It took a tiny bit of time and some punctured fingers, but it looks so much tidier at the end. 

Halfway along I was feeling pretty uncertain about it — there's always that point when you think your project is terrible. But once it was finished I loved it! Wore it to work and was able to share it with others and enjoy it all day long. I haven't really made quilted clothing before but I really like this one. So glad that I learned something new 🙂 

 

Patchwork Vest workshop prep!

This week I've been preparing some patchwork panels for a quilted vest workshop with my local quilt club. I haven't really made any quilted garments before so thought that this might be a good opportunity to give it a try. I don't have any quilt blocks laying around, since I don't really make quilts so decided to just do a simple patchwork block. 

It turned out to be a lot harder/more time-consuming than I'd anticipated! I am working on three panels so that we can cut the pattern to size, connect and bind it in the workshop. One front piece is a whole cloth panel, and I have tried to use the colours from that for the patchwork.

Not sure how I like it so far, but it has been a fun challenge. Maybe when it is complete I'll have a better sense of it. But at least I have tried something new -- that is one of my goals for this year! 

A Lined Jerkin from Sew Different

I had a sudden urge to make this quick layering piece this month. The Lined Jerkin by Sew Different is a pattern in their Layer Up Collection. It's the free pattern from the set, and so I thought I'd give it a try. 

I had a remnant of black and white wool blend in my stash, which I picked up at a thrift store ages ago. I'd always wondered what I could make of this small piece, which had one small hole in a white section of the print. This pattern fit onto my 1 m. piece easily, although I did have to mend the hole first as it was pretty much in the middle of the back pattern piece. But that was fairly easy. 

Mend: I took a matching section from the cutaway scraps and placed it underneath. Then I stitched over it with matching thread (by hand) to first secure it down, then tried to follow the weave to attach both pieces together. I then trimmed the inside piece so it wasn't too bulky. You really can't tell once you are more than a few inches from the fabric. Then I went ahead with construction.

Inside patch

 

Outside after mending

Making it was easy - it's a boxy layer to throw on over a tee or dress, with a lining to make it easy to get on and off. It's essentially the same piece but with a deeper neckline on the front piece. They're attached and then the lining sewn in at the neckline, the armholes edges turned under and hand-stitched, and the outer fabric encloses the lining at the hem. I did lengthen it by one inch but might remove that...haven't decided yet!

It's quite cute and I like it in this fabric. I think if I made it again, I would narrow the front piece by an inch at centre front just to suit me better. But I think it's a fun idea that will add some variety to plainer underlayers. And it was a quick make that allowed me to finally use this fabric! 

90s Revival: Black Mini Vest

Remember those vests I was talking about recently? Well, I finished one! It was a very quick and simple one, but I made a few adjustments to it. I made View C (the floral one) from McCalls 8940, a 1997 pattern. 

I chose this view because I liked the short cropped style of it. To get this look, I had to shorten it even more -- my torso is short like the rest of me, and I wanted this to end just at the waist like the image, which meant taking 1.5" out of the length. 

I made it out of some leftover linen; I had just enough for it with the length I chose to cut the vest and all the facings. This is an unlined vest so I did go the extra step of french seaming my shoulder and side seams to have a clean finish for this fray-prone linen.

There are front facings and also armhole facings. I followed the pattern but on completion I wish I'd used bias facings for the armholes, and will do so next time. I had to hand tack the armhole facings down so they wouldn't flap out, and some of the stitches are a bit puckery. I unpicked and redid the hand stitches on the front side a couple of times and now it's good enough, I'm not doing it again. 

This is a fun accent to an outfit, if I want to change up a dress or blouse a bit. I enjoyed making it but my next vest will be a lined one in a more traditional shape -- and I'll see which I like more! 

Waistcoats, Vests, and 90s style

I ran across a discussion of the revival of 90s style on PatternReview lately. Apparently the 90s are back! I don't remember 90s style very much, probably because I was in university in the first half and working 3 jobs for the rest of that decade. All I recall are the grungy student outfits we'd wear, including my floral dresses with chunky black shoes. I checked out an article about 90s style and only really remembered one thing!

So I thought, nope, I'm not a 90s fan. (Definitely more of an 80s girl!) But then I realized that I do love a good waistcoat, and while that look was hot in the late 80s it carried over strongly into the 90s. I looked through my stash and found a handful of vest patterns from the early 90s. I chose two to try out. 

McCalls 8940 is my favourite -- there are at least 3 of these views that I'd like to try! But I started with view C, the short over-vest. That's the silhouette I've been thinking about making for a while. I had a nice piece of leftover linen from my recent drapy vest project (also from the 90s!), just enough to cut this unlined vest and the facings. I started working on it (sewing the shoulder & side seams with french seams to keep it tidy) and attached the facings. But I haven't quite had the time to finish it, so perhaps I'll share it next week! The linen sews up nicely and I think the style adds a fun element to a dress or tunic. I'd like to try View G next, the one button brown view -- though not in brown for me.

The next one that caught my eye was this Simplicity 8621. It's handy having quite a large collection of thrifted patterns! That floral brocade is SO 90s, I'll be avoiding that, I think. But the leopard print view (#4) has a great shape. I'm going to try that in a suiting, not a leopard print. This one is a lined pattern so may be a little more flexible in wearing options. 

If I'm not sick of waistcoats by then, I may check out the options in these two new-to-me patterns that I just thrifted this week. The New Look 6113 has an interesting shawl collar version I haven't seen in any of my current patterns, and the McCalls is a great dress pattern with vest included. It's a classic style with faux welt pockets. I'll have to see how far this waistcoat obsession takes me. Maybe I'll even finish the Vogue 8987 I started for my husband last year ;)

Are you a fan of the waistcoat, traditional or not? Do you lean more toward the 80s or 90s in your retro pattern love?

A Linen In-vest-ment

This week I picked up some lovely linen on sale, and I immediately prepped it so that I could cut out McCalls 7600, a vest pattern from 1995 😉

I like vests, waistcoats & the like, but patterns for these kinds of things are often from the 90s, the last time they were really popular. Good thing I have so many old patterns in my stash!

I thought that this was an interesting version, with some different details. My linen-rayon blend isn't quite as drapey as the cover image for View A, but otherwise looks similar. I liked the high side split & the mix of rounded back and pointed front panels.

Despite the simplicity  of the design, this did take a bit of work. It has a front facing and that oddly shaped hem takes some effort to make smooth & even. Thankfully this fabric pressed wonderfully and made the hemming a little easier.

I have taken photos wearing it over my very bright Style Arc Adeline dress to best show off the lines of this basic black vest. But I will likely wear it in combos more like this one.

This was a relatively quick and enjoyable project, & I have already cut the rest of this fabric into another summer top that just needs to be sewn now. Linen rayon is such a nice fabric!

That 70s Thing

For some reason, a couple of weeks ago I had an overpowering urge to make a 70s style long vest. I was feeling nostalgic about a thrifted, long, knit vest that I had in the early 90s (long gone) which was pea green, cream and orange -- I wore the heck out of that thing. It was nicer than it sounds ;)

I had the perfect lightweight, stretchy sweater knit in my stash, picked up last year on sale at my local Fabricland, just enough for this vest. I'd bought it originally because I loved the colours and thought I could make a cardi or something like that at some point. This was the time to use it!

I had some difficulty figuring out which pattern to use, though. The shape of the vest was very specific in my mind, to reflect that old original piece. Which meant no modern waterfall or shawl collar, just unfussy finishing. I thought about using a cardigan pattern and lowering the armscye a little, or adapting something else, but finally I came across this wardrobe pattern in my pattern stash, Simplicity 1593.

This vest was essentially what I wanted, with only a narrow band finishing the front edges. So I went for it.

This was an easy sew, even with the soft and springy knit. I used a narrow zigzag (.5 wide, 2.5 long) in the perfect grey that just disappeared into the fabric. I cut it with no alterations -- even though I'm only 5'2" and usually shorten everything, I wanted a really long duster style vest. The only thing I did which was not in the instructions was to sew the shoulder seams with some seam binding to limit the stretch, and I also topstitched down all the seam allowances -- because you can't see the topstitching at all I thought this would be the best way to keep the inside looking neat, as it is quite visible when I move around.

I really love this piece -- it turned out exactly as I had pictured it, which doesn't happen too often! I also wore it exactly as I'd pictured it, with my favourite basic dress, Kwik Sew 3559 (which I only made just before Christmas but have worn many times since - it goes with everything). I added a fabulous thrifted necklace in the perfect colours, and also my favourite thrifted shoes. So all in all I was feeling quite fabulously 70s today, in the best possible way.