Patchwork Vest: This Time the Theme is Wool

In 2022, I made a patchwork vest from Halloween print cottons, and in 2023 I made the same pattern from a variety of not-exactly-Valentines-Day cottons.  When I was clearing out the bulky wool scraps and remnants from the small yardage drawer--much of which went into the skirt I made last week--I sorted some into a pile of black and white blends.  I knew there wasn't enough to make another skirt, of any length, but I figured there would be enough for the front of a vest.  I didn't want to use New Look 6514 again, though, because I didn't think the princess seams would be appropriate. Simplicity 9630 is a much simpler design, especially if I leave out the front darts.

The square size was determined by the largest size I could get out of the tweedy fabric.  If I had gone smaller, I probably could have used up more of the palest plaid, but, as it was, the size was already a bit smaller than I had hoped.  Not that I mind!  It just didn't let this be quite as lazy a project as I had hoped.

I laid out the right side first

 

And that's when I realized that I did not, actually, have enough fabric from the small yardage drawer to make the vest front--I did have to get into the large yardage to supplement the scraps.  The edges and angles are largely filled with incomplete squares, but that's what I expect when piecing things together to cut clothes from.

I assembled the right front, and then that's when I realized that the line marked SM on the pattern was not indicating Small/Medium, but just Small.  I had to pick out a lot of incomplete squares on the edges and angles and replace them with whole squares and larger incomplete squares.  Eventually I got it right

That allowed me to use the right half as reference for where things needed to be--and whether or not they needed to be complete--to lay out the other side.  After that was sewn (and pressed.  so much pressing in this project), I used the first side as the pattern to cut the second side, as well as to cut the front lining.  I cut the back, then had to piece the back lining to be long enough

Assembly was straightforward, especially since I also decided to omit the darts on the back and just put waist ties in the side seams.

I auditioned a lot of buttons before deciding to try out some hammer-on jeans buttons.  I don't (yet) have grommet press dies for jeans buttons, so I placed an old pair of socks on the porch and hammered there.  I hammered 3 of them a bit too much, and that's how I learned that the spike that gets hammered in can, if your fabric isn't too thick, poke the metal on the front.  I think I'll let it pass.

Since there's so much wool, the edges of this pressed wonderfully, and I decided to skip top stitching.

I also recently found a blank, unfinished wooden plaque that I'm trying out as a clapper.  It's pine, so not an optimum dense wood, and it smells like pencils when it gets warm, but it did seem to help the edges hold their shape.

So! It's another vest that I probably would have adored in high school, and it helped get some more fabric out of that crowded drawer. (I'm not done with projects that do that.)