There was a decent amount of fabric left over from the skirt I made a few days ago, and I decided I'd make it into a vest.
As someone who was a teen in the early 90s, I have a definite history with vests, although those were mostly unstructured, generously cut excuses to collect a variety of 'tapestry' jacquard fabrics. I wanted this one to be a bit more structured, if only because the fabric in question wouldn't make as notable a feature as the tapestry.
(It will surprise no-one to learn that I do currently have an assortment of tapestry jacquard fabrics in the fabric stash.)
I must have gotten rid of the early 90s Style pattern with a variety of vest options, including double breasted lapel collared view (and I tried looking for it again, but using the word 'style' in searches does not actually narrow anything down...and excluding all the other major pattern names just confuses the search algorithm.) But I do still have McCall's 5186, which does have a single breasted lapel option in view A
And it's definitely a vest.
The most unfamiliar-to-me part of this is where the bottom of the collar meets the lapel, then the lapel makes an angle up toward the neckline right where the collar and lapel roll over to the outside of the garment. It's not pretty, but it's also not easy to see.
You might also notice that I decided to Be Good and do no top stitching. Yeah, I know.
This meant I had to do a lot of pressing, and with some degree of care. The wool (blend?) shell fabric responded beautifully, and the lining fabric--which I had also used for the elven moto jacket--didn't give me any problems
until
I was pressing the very last seam of the lining construction
and it melted.
I have no idea why it hadn't melted anything until then, but that's how it went.
So, y'know, no problem, just rip that seam and re-cut that side piece and sew it again.
I did take a break for dinner before sewing the seam again, so I had turned the iron off. Got back, turned it on, pressed the new seam
melted the fabric panel on the other side of it.
So!
I ripped that other seam and set aside the previously re-cut piece, ripped the center back seam, and cut a replacement piece for that panel, sewed everything back together
set the iron on a lower temperature
pressed everything--no melting--and got back to assembling things
Did I follow the instructions? Eh, not really. It did call for sewing everything but all of the side seams, turning everything right side out, pulling one set of side seams through the other open side seams, sewing those seams as a tube, then pulling them out to where they belong. The other side seams were pinned and sewed as much as possible, then the remaining opening was slip stitched closed. I could have made it an ugly little machine edge-stitched seam closing, but I felt like a more subtle stitch would be more suitable, and I could handle that small (and relatively imprecise) amount of hand sewing. I'm pretty sure that's the side lining seam visible above.
Buttons were chosen by looking at the stash of gray buttons and picking whatever I had in the quantity of three that the pattern calls for. The buttonholer I use does not have a 3/4" cam, so the button holes for these 5/8" buttons are a bit generous. (I do have another buttonholer, but I never think about seeing if it has a 3/4" cam...)
The points are even, the camera just exaggerates.
The pattern calls for a slider for the back straps, but the sliders I have turned out to be a bit larger than the pattern wants, so I re-cut the straps to make them wide enough to work. In theory. The fabric is still slippery enough that the slider doesn't really grip anything, so I stitched all layers together with the stitches hidden under one side.
I will admit, when I was cutting out the fabric pieces, I was not sure why it didn't make the entire back from the lining fabric. But! When I was taking these pictures, I realized it makes a nice alternating fabric look with the shell fabric facings on the front
Which won't be visible when the vest is being worn, but it's still a nice touch.
So, there's a vest! The pattern sizes started at 14, which I figured would be fine with the bulk of a full shirt underneath, and the illustrations do show a bit of extra space around the sides and arm openings, but I think it could still be a bit more snug. And it doesn't do that 'hump away from the arm opening because there is just too much fabric there' thing that vests can so easily do. Still. Maybe I'll use larger seam allowances next time? (if I remember)
and I'm thinking I might, maybe, sometime, make a good ol' unstructured 1990s style tapestry vest--I do have an authentic vintage pattern for it.
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