Ace Vest

 This is a very simple project that took me ages to cut and assemble and I wasn't even sure if I liked it until I tried it on when it was finished and then suddenly it was fantastic.

This is New Look 6514 view B again, the same pattern and view used for the patchwork vests. I'm pretty sure it took me less time, from start to finish, to sew both of those than it took me to sew this.

My enthusiasm for this was dampened by the fact that I was using fabric left over from the wool slip, so I had to work around angled edges and moth holes.  And then, after I had cut everything, I spotted a bleached...spot.

I got a good pattern match across the front opening, then keyed off a way wrong set of stripes for the sides, so that doesn't match at the seams, and, in some lights, there seems to be a difference of nap.  Does wool crepe even have a nap? If it does, then I flipped the sides, and their nap is running in a different direction from the centers, so, sometimes, the shades look markedly different.

But, hey, maybe the buttons will distract?

I had not initially planned to use mismatched buttons, but, since it's Pride month, I decided to do a nod to the ace flag colors.  That makes this the second year of making something in this range of colors in June.  It took a while of sorting through my unmatched buttons to find a group in the right colors, with similar size, but also with...hmm...how to say...equal weights of design (?)  I almost didn't use this particular white button, because I felt like it was Too Good for this project.

I did a lot of pressing, with a lot of steam, and no top stitching.  I'm getting closer to admitting I probably should have a clapper.

The back and lining fabric is a crinkled synthetic that I thrifted years ago.  It also pressed very nicely.

Again, I did not add the back ties, which are supposed to be set into the darts.  I also put the lowest button at waist level, because the other vests I've made from this...don't really fit over my lower abdomen, so I've been leaving the bottom button undone when wearing those--I thought I'd go ahead and make that a design feature.

I closed the inside side seam with machine stitching instead of hand stitching--then picked that open so I could even up the lower curves.  One was pointy, and the other was noticeably lower.  I hadn't wanted to deal with correcting either of hose issues until I tried the vest on and realized that, hey, I actually liked it.

...but not enough to hand stitch this closed again after I fixed those problems.

Now I'm getting closer to making the white buttoned shirt I've been thinking about for a while.