Painted Wool Herringbone Pieces ~ The Vest

I haven't sewn a vest for myself in years.  The last one I made was pre-blogging days, so definitely awhile ago.  I made loads of vests for my daughters when they were little girls.  Vests that took an hour, an hour and a half at most ~ yes back when I was production sewing ~ pushing as many garments out of my sewing machine as fast as I could since I was clothing so many people with it.  So of course I went into making this piece thinking quick & easy and I'd be moving onto the next piece shortly.

Pattern~

Well that couldn't be further from the truth.  Even choosing a pattern took a couple of hours because I had to go into deep pattern stash to find a pattern. Let's not mention that I also touched a lot of patterns, pulled them to look at further and now have a sewing/inspiration list that's doubled in size. 

Here is the OOP Burda pattern that I started with...

...something conventional and fitted...what you think of when you hear the word ~ vest.

Notions~
satin lining which was also used in the skirt
fusible interfacing
black piping
3 - 1" brown buttons

Cutting and Construction ~

Of course when I went to lay the fabric out, I needed to get creative with the layout to make the pattern pieces fit on the small amount of fabric I had left...

Then because I don't muslin, I basted all the pieces together to see if they fit. Amazingly, there were only a few minor tweeks that the vest needed but it basically fit out of the envelope. The most important change was made to the vest center fronts where I shaved some of the extra fabric off the bustline curve making it less pronounced and a little more fitted.  

I have no specific measurements for this because I winged it. I should have changed the pattern pieces for the vest fronts and the lining pieces too but I'm not even sure I will make this vest again. The lining pieces were cut from the fabric front and back pieces.  This too is not the correct way to do this but I'm going with the flow and hope you will forgive me!

Now here is where the extra time came in...I decided that I wanted the vest to emulate the skirt. This means that the fabric placement was the same as the skirt's placement and black piping was added to the center front vest seam.

Also because I had a limited amount of fabric, I used some black wool crepe scraps from the collection for the facings.  Since the pattern called for the facings to be interfaced, I block fused the scraps prior to cutting out the pattern pieces.  I wanted to make sure that I didn't shrink the facings by applying the interfacing to the already cut pieces.

The other really important aspect of making this vest is how much time I spent pressing it ~ an hour and a half. It was a slow process because I pressed a section then used the clapper to set the pressed area. I tried to give each section one to two minutes before I moved the clapper and pressed the next section ~ see slow.

The pattern instructions were easy to follow and I used them since I hadn't made a vest in awhile. The instructions were very clear on how to insert the lining which went together smoothly.

A few pics of the vest worn with the skirt and a RTW black turtleneck...

I really like this outfit. It's not something I've worn in quite some time and it's portable...meaning that I can wear the vest and turtleneck over my jeans to work. Then I duck into the Ladies Room and change into my skirt...it makes my daily commute more comfortable...yet I look professional at work. Honestly, even though I've made several new pairs of pants this season they're my cold weather fall back. So I'm always looking for ways to wear dresses and skirts during the winter season.

If you want to make a vest like this and don't own my OOP Burda pattern, try McCalls 2260. The size range is from XS - XXL...

or KwikSew 3185 in sizes XS-XL ~ both patterns are currently in the online catalogue and are on sale now through February 20th.

Next up is the dress from this painted wool herringbone fabric...

...as always more later!