Vest in Olive

When I was in college, Mom heard about a weird fabric store in a town we never otherwise visited, so of course she decided we should go.  If I remember correctly, the ground floor (big windows, lovely natural light) was proper bolts of fabric, and odds and ends of trim on spools, bulk zippers, random other craft items, and the second floor (no windows, all fluorescent light) held tables and tables of random lengths of fabric.  I don't remember if it was sold by the pound, but it seems likely.

Surprisingly, I was restrained, and got only a few pieces of fabric.  Not surprisingly, I still have two of them--or, at least, I had two, until I used one for this vest

I would have adored a vest made from this fabric when I got it 30 years ago, but any vest I might have tried making back then would not have been this one, so I'm glad I waited.

The first thing I'll address is the set of seams on either side of the buttons.

I used New Look 6514 for this vest, having made a few beloved vests with this pattern already (view B)...and one intensely disliked vest (view D.)  I got rid of the disliked vest a while ago, and apparently managed to so completely forget about it that I didn't even think about the possibility of grabbing the wrong set of pattern pieces.  Not until after I had cut the front, at least!

The thing I had disliked so much about view D is that it ties--no overlap, no buttons.  I want buttons on my vests.  This also meant that, once I realized the mistake I had made with this very irregular and limited and damaged yardage, the only way to salvage the project was to add some extension pieces.

View D also has a V neckline, and is longer than view B.  I used the view B center front pattern piece to shorten it and round the neckline.  (I also used view B's side piece to shorten the side; fortunately, the rest of the shape was exactly the same.)   I then cut a straight line from the bottom edge, just past where the curve straightened out, to the neckline.  I cut big rectangles of the remaining yardage (term used loosely) fabric, not being completely able to avoid some of the faded areas, and sewed those to the freshly cut center front edges.  I top stitched around those seams before using the view B center front pattern piece to cut them to the proper shape.  After that, the shell assembly went as usual.

I'm not at all sure what this fabric is--at first I thought, due to its floppy nature, that it could be rayon; the more I worked with it, the more I started thinking maybe acetate?  It doesn't have that acetate smell, though.  The more I ironed it, the more synthetic it started to feel, but I used high heat on it and it never even hinted at melting.

Whatever it is, it was very cooperative and easy to sew.  Look at how even the edge/top stitching turned out.

I will note here that I have never been able to figure out what the actual face of the fabric is, because both sides look equally smooth and finished.  I went with this side because it has the striping between motifs, which I thought added visual interest...while suspecting they may just be the carries for the different color yarns.  The decision has been made!

The fabric I used on the back has been used in vests before, but I didn't have enough left to also do the lining on this vest, so I used a lot of what was left of the taupe lining fabric from the previous project.

...which...wasn't quite enough...  One of the side front pieces is cut cross grain, and the other one has a patch to make up for a missing area

Now that I line so many things, I am more than willing to patch and piece it so I can use my assortment of second hand lining fabrics more efficiently.  No-one's gonna see any of it in normal use.

I didn't want to deal with making the back darts, which is where the back ties are supposed to go.  I know I had some vests in the 90s that had plain backs with the ties stitched on, and I did consider that, but I also didn't really want to deal with making the ties, either.  I honestly, with my current shape, could have omitted the back gathering completely, but I didn't want to, and ended up sewing through the back and lining to create a short channel for elastic.

I initially sewed that channel before sewing the side seams, and it ended up too high.  Once I thought I had the vest finished, I tried it on and marked a better place for the elastic.  I picked out the stitching closing up the lining, picked out the sides and top of the elastic channel stitching, and marked the new channel 2" below the bottom of the original stitching.  I sewed that before picking out the last of the original channel's stitching, because I didn't want to risk handling it so much, while picking out those stitches, that the chalk marks got rubbed off.  I inserted the elastic and sewed down the ends and re-sewed the lining opening and then the vest was finished.  Those other lines of stitching will ease out someday, it's fine.

I am so happy with this vest, and it coordinates, in my opinion, very well with the skirt I just made

I have a shirt planned to go with them, but I need to change my serger thread first, and I'm not ready to do that (as if I ever am...), so there will be other projects before this outfit is complete.