Could Be Any Number of Vest Puns or Rhymes

 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.

Basic Skirt and Ersatz Shirt

 and one of the waist cinchers

Shirt

Waist cincher

Skirt

A Basic Skirt

 Many years ago, I thrifted this Simplicity 2666 from 1948

And I made a skirt from it in 2013

Now...I did not have a 24" waist even back then, but the skirt pieces are cut so that only the centers are on the bias, so I added 1½" at each side seam to make a 30" waist. (Incidentally, I remember trying the skirt on right after I made it and being extremely disappointed with how it looked--then I tried a petticoat under it, and suddenly it was perfect.)

This skirt was one of the many things I gave away when I gained weight, and I finally tried making a new version

This time, I added 2" at each side seam.

Day of Quick Projects

 So, for reasons unknown, yesterday the small pile of odds'n'ends sewing projects and random fabrics flipped over from being an ignored part of the background clutter to being something I needed to deal with as fast as possible.

The Mixed Print Ersatz Gunne Sax Shirt

 I picked up Simplicity 5303 from the creative re-use store

It's from 1981--so incredibly from 1981, from that largely forgotten time when it was Trendy Youthful Fashion to wear ruffly shirts and knickers (American definition thereof), or ruffly shirts--with built-in neck bows--and A-line skirts for A Professional Look.

Which is, of course, not the kind of shirt I've made from this pattern.

But, my many deviations do lend a certain air of 'knock off Gunne Sax' to it.

Oh, another update

 Just over a year ago, I made this shirt, and the sleeve bands were incredibly tight, even after I let them out a bit.  The shirt was unwearable.  So!  Today I picked out the sleeve band stitching, cut slightly longer bands on the bias, and sewed 'em back on.  Much better!

For the record

 I have finished the bottom hems on two of the former dress bodices, to make them potentially usable as shirts.  One I might even try wearing myself, the other will make a good boxy very cropped layering piece for someone.  (The third will need me to fill a bobbin, so isn't happening right now.)

Haunted House Renovation

 So.

In 2015, I made a dress with a strip of Halloween print patchwork in the skirt.

And it was too small, so I didn't wear it.

In 2016, I made a shirt from a Halloween print.

And it was so roomy that I never wore it.

In 2020, I merged them into a single dress.

And I never wore that, either.

Finally*, yesterday, I picked things apart and converted the former dress's skirt into the standalone skirt I should have made to begin with

I used the same fabric and method as in the previous skirt restorations.

Unlike those, though, I did decide to salvage the shirt/bodice.

Skirt Restorations

So, when my body shape changed, I gave away a lot of the things I'd sewn, but I did keep a few skirts that I eventually attached to bodices

Strawberries / Spiderwebs / Forest eyes

And then today I converted them back to skirts 

Minor Dress Renovation

 I made a dress in early 2020, one of the many loose tunic dresses I was making a few years ago, that I liked enough to keep when I donated a lot of those dresses a while ago.

I recently realized that I could easily modify the bodice to have a (somewhat) closer fit and back zipper, and that's the first project I did once I got the bustier/waist cinchers out of my system

It's not a huge difference, but it does fit a bit better now (and works pretty well with a waist cincher...)

Ending the Bustier Odyssey

 So I altered the folds made in the previous waist cincher and traced around all of the pattern pieces, then got the original size 14 complete pattern and added the upper sections back on and jumped straight into sewing what I hoped would be the final version of the complete thing

It has issues, but, for something that goes together so fast, and that I probably won't ever seriously wear, it's good!

Ace Cinch

 I can't remember if I made any adjustments between the previous waist cincher and this one, but...this one ended up a bit small--not in a "help I can't wear this" way, but more in a "Oops All Drag Lines" way

 But it still has the fun built in pun of being able to say it's ace.

Misdirected Cinch

 So I reduced the depth of the folds I'd made to reduce the size of the previous cincher attempt and jumped right in to making the next one, using an odd thrifted rayon? cotton? nylon? blend brocade fabric that burned in a very interesting way that maybe someday I'll understand.

And I went ahead and got a tiny bit fancy, adding a loop of bias tape to hold a clip to hang shiny things

Too Much Cinch

 I do want to clarify, the making of the previous cincher--and all of the cinchers/bustiers made over the last week and a half--was, actually, a cinch.  Even if the previous one didn't actually cinch anything.

But I'm really not looking for heavy compression, not on something closed with a zipper.  So, when I folded out some width on the pattern pieces to make this one, I was too generous, and it ended up much smaller--in fact, as narrow as the first attempt.

However!  Since this one is not only front zip, but the top layer is a knit, so not really adding to the overall sturdiness, I am able to wear it

 

 Snugly.

It was not a Cinch

To address the fit issues of the previous project, I decided to make an underbust or waist cincher version.  This was partly because I felt like I'd be more likely to wear a waist cincher, as a sort of large belt that won't try to work its way up over my abdomen, and partly because I didn't have enough extra long cable ties to make many more full-length bustiers.

So I traced a combination of the size 14 pieces that I had overconfidently cut out of Simplicity 5006 before, and size 20, figuring things would average out.  I also decided to go with ¾" seam allowances instead of the normal 5/8"

and this time it ended up a bit large

 

 And that was good!  Because, due to the figure-skimming nature of this kind of garment, it doesn't look too large 

Beginning the Bustier Odyssey

This is zipped instead of laced, so I won't call it a corset.  Is it, then, a bustier?  Meh.

 But it's not a corset.

It's also too small.

Zip Fix

 So, when I made these shorts a few months ago

I had a bit of worry that maybe the zipper was too lightweight

And it was!

So the shorts had been sitting around for a while, waiting for me to get the gumption to replace that broken zipper with something sturdier